SEN Asian Cuisine
Unit 100-200 Marché Way
613-232-0111
facebook.com/senlansdowne
Open: Monday to Wednesday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight
Prices: $14 to $25 for main dishes
Access: No steps to front door, washrooms
At Lansdowne, the outlier, and arguably even the underdog, is SEN Asian Cuisine.
All around the smallest of eateries in the Bank Street urban park you’ll find some franchise operations that are familiar to Ottawans — Jack Astor’s, Milestones — and others that are somewhat less so — South St. Burger, Sunset Grill and more. They’re large-footprint and corporate, while SEN is just a few dozen seats and family-run.
SEN’s roots are in Chinatown. Its owners, the Nguyen family, who officially opened SEN in early October, previously ran Pho’licious on Booth Street. However, SEN downplays its heritage with a stark lounge ambiance that’s more in line with the contemporary and even generic feel at Lansdowne. The Buddha statue keeps a low profile at SEN’s entrance, while guests look up at pillowy light fixtures or perhaps the TV behind the small bar where cocktails are made with lemongrass or even Sriracha.
SEN’s straightforward menu promises many dishes that we’ve come to expect of Ottawa’s pan-Asian restaurants, whether they’re in Centretown or the suburbs. Its selection is basically Vietnamese with a bit of Thai and Chinese thrown in.
Fortunately, during my three lunch-time visits, there’s been nary a disappointment, prompting me to speak kindly of SEN, not just because it’s the little guy of Lansdowne’s restaurant district.
To start, we’ve liked the crunchy-spongy texture of rice-paper-wrapped spring rolls (two for $5.50), along with their generous fillings of crab, shrimp and pork. Chicken-filled dumplings (six for $7), lightly gingered inside and given a nice sear on the bottom, were a lighter way to begin, as was the small bowl of cleanly flavoured wonton soup ($4.)
Spring rolls at Sen Asian Cuisine
Chicken dumplings at Sen Asian Cuisine
Best of SEN’s appetizers was an excellent papaya salad ($14). Its complex dressing provided a good sour-spicy sting and on top of the julienned papaya were scraps of of sweet-savoury and almost jerky-like beef.
Papaya Salad at Sen Asian Cuisine
The second page of SEN’s menu offers many main dishes that swap a selected protein into variously sauced stir-fries or on top of bowls of vermicelli or plates of crispy noodles. However, we tended to sample the more intriguing items from a boxed quadrant of the page that is dedicated to “classic Vietnamese” dishes.
One highlight was the cha ca la vong ($22), which consisted of pieces of tilapia, yellowed from their turmeric-lemongrass marinade, sizzling on a hot plate with shreds of cabbage that quickly blackened. “It’s supposed to be crispy,” our server said of the tilapia. To our relief, the fish was still moist too. Served wrap-style, in lettuce with pickled vegetables, basil and more, the dish was like a small feast.
Cha ca la vong at Sen Asian Cuisine
Banh hoi ($18) was a deluxe vermicelli bowl, with premium proteins (two batons of grilled shrimp paste on sugar cane and some mini patties of pork) on a platter with more lettuce, veg and herbs, plus a stack of rice paper to bundle everything in. Our server kindly talked the rice-wrap newbie at our table through the DIY process.
The bo luc lac beef ($21) stir-fry was salty, sweet and tender, but more ordinary that other options. Ban xeo ($14), a savoury crepe with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts among its fillings, was a touch burnt.
Bo luc lac at Sen Asian Cuisine
Banx xeo at Sen Asian Cuisine
More generically Asian and not so Vietnamese, a peanut chicken ($15) stir-fry nonetheless had good depth of flavour, tender chicken, and a ring of spinach that had emerged from the deep-fryer crisp and un-greasy.
Peanut chicken stir-fry at SEN Asian Cuisine
The restaurant’s beef pho came in one size only, a large bowlful that was more than sufficient at lunch. The soup was well-stocked with lean and fattier morsels of beef, and its broth has some bone-based goodness along with a salty edge.
Beef pho at SEN Asian Cuisine
Our server told us that new desserts were still in the works at SEN. But for now, its one out-sourced option is a likeable, locally made pick. Three of us split some Moo Shu Ice Cream truffles, enjoying the variety of dark chocolate-wrapped ice cream truffles that left us split as to which of the three flavours — sesame, ginger-vanilla or passion fruit — was the best.
In the end at SEN, we notched up a few real treats that stood out from a pack of better-than-average dishes. There were no significant disappointments and service was delivered with a genuine human touch. Other restaurants at Lansdowne should perform so well and offer as much value for money.
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