Karuna Cafe
820 Somerset St. W., 613-230-1830, karunacafe.ca
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: main dishes $10.95 to $17.95
Access: steps to front door
For primal dining experiences in Ottawa, it’s very hard to beat getting to the meat of the matter in Karuna Cafe’s crab curry.
When an intoxicatingly scented bowl of the stuff landed on our table, my dining companion asked whether the new Sri Lankan/South Indian restaurant on Somerset Street West had some tools we could use to help crack the tasty animal’s shell, or some little picks to help separate edible bits from inedible ones.
“We just use our fingers,” our server said. We shrugged, and did so too.
The effort was more than worth it. Tearing apart that lustily sauced, delicious animal, only to gnaw and suck at it to wring out morsels and juices put dining on twee little crab cakes to shame. Yes, the cafe is BYOB (bring your own bib) and, yes, you might have to ask for extra napkins. Still, order the crab curry and get your hands dirty. Just perhaps not on a first date.
But while the tiny café, which opened in mid-February, is no-frills, there’s no shortage here of well-made and vibrantly flavoured food. Or of friendly, eager-to-please service from owner Edward Fernando, who years ago was a server at Daly’s in the Westin Ottawa hotel, his wife Anne, who is also the chef, or their two daughters.
If you are perturbed by the slightly distressed tables or overly distracted by the Bollywood videos on the café’s TV, consider the mitigating detail of the freshly made, in-the-moment nature of the café’s cooking. Order a mango lassi and you’ll hear the blender whirring in the kitchen. Order a chicken cashew curry and you’ll hear the chopping.
For appetizers, I’ve had the meaty mutton rolls and two vegetarian fritters, the bonda (made with mashed potato and chickpea flour) and parippu vada (which featured lentils). All were properly deep-fried to order, crisp and not oily, and they popped with lucid seasoning.
Let me say now that Anne Fernando will make her food as mild, medium or as spicy as she eats it, and I’d suggest that to have it less than medium-spicy misses the point. The most spicy dishes were sweat-inducing but never truly debilitating, in keeping with Edward Fernando’s comment that making food that fiery would “kill” its other flavours.
Those who like it hot should opt for the so-called “Chicken 65,” a dish of assertively spiced, intimidatingly red meat amplified by a brash, mouth-jangling sauce. That dish, as well as the devilled meat preparations, which add the tanginess of tomato, meaningfully dial up the heat.
But even starchier items, such as a plate of stir-fried noodles, or rice with shrimp, or kothu roti, a street-food dish of chopped flatbread with egg and onions, were made with some lip-tingling sizzle.
We’ve eaten across the cafe’s spectrum of curries. Much less daunting than the epic crab curry, and most pleasing to my spice-averse friends, were the smooth, turmeric-yellow okra and eggplant and coconut curries. After the latter was deemed out loud to be a little too salty, one of the Fernando daughters whisked it back to the kitchen where its sauce was quickly improved.
A chicken-and-cashew curry was notable not just for its savoury, spicy gravy and tender meat but also for the bite of its coarsely chopped, barely softened onions.
South Indian dosas, the massive rice-batter crêpes that encase fillings such as omelette or spiced potato, were well made and accompanied with bowls of invigorating sambar (a chunky, bracing vegetable soup) and chutney.
Payasam, a warm, rice-pudding-like slurry studded with nuts and cardamom, was a mouth-cooling way to end a meal.
The Fernandos are in the process of applying for a liquor license. There’s a small steam table waiting to be hooked up so that lunch buffets can be served. A take-out menu is in the works, Edward Fernando says.
But we can be patient with Karuna Cafe to reach its full potential, especially when Ottawa’s alternatives for Sri Lankan and South Indian food are limited. Best to wish the Fernandos and their personable place well, and to look forward to washing down some Chicken 65 with a beer.
