Tamis Café
374 Bank St., 613-567-7550,
tamiscafe.ca
or
facebook.com/tamisottawa/
Open:
Tuesday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Monday
Prices:
brunch dishes up to $15, mains up to $17
Access:
one step to front door
Three years ago, I learned that the word for “sweet” in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines, was “tamis.”
I owed my education to several enjoyable visits to the Tamis Café, a tiny place in the Glebe that opened in early 2016 and featured unique Filipino baked goods in its showcase.
That eatery, operated by the Sare family, was tucked away on Fourth Avenue east of Bank Street. It moved late last year to Centretown, into the Bank Street space that had been The Buzz for more than 15 years. With the move has come an expanded menu with more savoury choices, and also a liquor licence that supports the array of Filipino San Miguel beers that serve as the backdrop for Tamis’s bar, as well as some exotic cocktails and a more ordinary and perfunctory wine list.
So, I’ve tried the new Tamis Café — a long, narrow, brick-walled spot that seats 40 or so in black banquettes and seats — a few times this summer to sample some of its savoury moves and investigate Filipino cuisine, which in Ottawa is in short supply. (I know only of Ka Familia in Barrhaven, the Meryenda food truck, plus a handful of grocery stores and bakery that dedicate themselves to the intriguing east-meets-west fare of the Philippines.)
New to me at the relocated, larger Tamis was its brunch menu, which is available daily and melds Western staples with Filipino items.
The most visually striking plate at brunch paired hefty buttermilk pancakes ($12) — coloured a Seussian bright green by a syrup flavoured by pandan, the Southeast Asian plant — with thick, stubby, skinless longanisa sausages, which appealed with their porky goodness perked by garlic and pineapple.
Those delectable sausages also showed up with home fries or garlicky rice, both equally good, plus eggs, cooked as we liked, and toast ($15).
We were also able to order from the regular menu during that brunch visit. That meant we could sample Tamis’s embutido ($13), a cold pork meatloaf that was mellow in flavour and slightly crumbly, served with a simple, cucumber-heavy salad, and lumpia ($13), a thin, soft, freshly made, neutral-tasting crepe stuffed with sautéed green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, lettuce, and served with peanut sauce. Both items were humble and homey.
During two dinner visits, my friends and I tried four of Tamis’s appetizers.
Most accessible was a heaping platter ($20) of deep-fried spring rolls, wontons and chips, all served with a sweet and sour sauce that we thought needed more punchiness.
More daunting, and more oily, was the fried whole squid ($20), which was tender enough of tentacle but not as crisp as we might have liked. Overall, the squid amounted to a heavy offering that we could not polish off.
We did finish off our sizzling sisig ($16), a dish in which bits of grilled and sautéed pork belly mingled with pigs ears and a smattering of chilli peppers and red onions. While I recall having some meatier sisig during a trip to the Cayman Islands this year, the chewiness and fattiness of this dish dominated this time out.
The dish is designated as mild on Tamis’s menu, which I take as a reference to the amount of chilli peppers at play. I would have welcomed more heat on this and other dishes, but in general, Tamis’s kitchen skews to the milder side of things, even as it proffers the sour, sweet and salty aspects of Filipino cuisine.
Another revelation at Tamis Café was that cheese pimento dip is beloved by many Filipinos. A hunk of the dense, house-made stuff is available as an appetizer, and a mound of it figured as the crowning garnish on the café’s plump longanisa burger. My friend (who is not Filipino, it should perhaps be said) liked everything about that juicy burger except the cheese dip, which he found overpowering.
Among other mains, the mechado ($17), a braise of sirloin, was not as tender as I recall having had when Tamis was in the Glebe. Pancit Bihon ($12), the rice noodle stir-fry, was simple and filling.
The grilled pork chop ($17) and grilled chicken leg ($17, called chicken inasal on the specials card on our table) were appealing tangy, but also at least a little dry. But the garlicky rice and the spicy mango salad together brought the dishes up in our estimation.
The savoury items that I would happily take home from Tamis Café for later enjoyment would be the hefty empanadas, well-stuffed with chicken or beef.
In addition to those empanadas, the showcase at the cash showed off many cakes that were thick with buttery frosting. While some were North American faves such as red velvet and mocha cakes, curiosity led us to the ube cake ($7.99), made with purple yam and a dulce de leche filling, which was moist and distinctive.
In the Philippines, turon is a deep-fried dessert that wraps bananas and jackfruit in a crisp wrapper. At Tamis Cafe, a moist, sticky cupcake big enough to satisfy the three of us transported turon’s flavours into a baked good.
While the food at Tamis Cafe struck us as a little uneven, it’s nonetheless not surprising that it seems to draw Filipino expats craving back-home tastes. The eatery has unpretentiousness and kind service going for it, and the best dishes would lure us back for a casual and even unique meal.
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews
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