Ottawa thread

I had it shortly after they opened. Meh!

I’ve been in Ottawa over 50 years, so I’ve seen a lot of closures. There was a period a while ago when a few French restaurants closed as a result of bureaucrats overdoing it on the government’s dime: two lunches on one day, and two hotels in one night, etc. The auditors caught up with them and clamped down, so the restaurants lost a lot of business and closed. One was my favorite French restaurant: warm spinach salad with sweetbreads, filet of beef with morels, cheeseless lobster thermidor, delice au cassis (which was truly delicious). I once saw a Roux Brothers book on sale for $5, and in it was the cassis recipe. I’ve made it, but only a few times, as it’s a lot of work.

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I had 24 hours in Ottawa a few weeks ago. Dinner the first night was at Jumak, a family-run Korean restaurant selected by my friends. Their daughter suggested the corn and cheese, which was as simple as described and very enjoyable. The seafood pancake had a nice crispy batter, but the squid was fairly overcooked. Japchae was good, but not distinctively so. Boneless fried chicken was well executed, crispy and not particularly oily. The spicy, sweet sauce was not spicy and bit bland.




I got to sample the ice cream at Moo Shu twice. The lime leaf and mint was exceptional. The brûléed peach custard was also very fine.


Breakfast was at Little Victories, suggested by a colleague. The house-roasted coffee was fragrant and had a nice sour tang. The breakfast cookie had lots of nuts and dried fruit and thus gave some vague semblance of nutrition.

Lunch was at the conference. For an early dinner, I selected the Elgin St. location of The Whalesbone, based on recs above. The back patio was lovely and the service very friendly. For a beverage I had a Calabogie K&P amber ale. I sampled 2x6 different east coast oysters, which had various accompaniments including the fabulous mango hot sauce. They actually only brought out 10 until I pointed out the deficiency. I also had a mussels special, steamed with miso, ginger, white wine, scallions, and cherry tomatoes. The mussels were plump and sweet and the broth was delicious and not oversalted (so I drank up the rest of it).





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Many years ago I bought a turkey breast from Albert’s Meat Market (long closed) on the Byward Market, and as the cashier was ringing it up, she said under her breath, “You bought the whole turkey!” . But I liked shopping there as they always had good stuff. I worked in the area for four years, and it was a frequent stop on my walk home from work.

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I remember Alberts! It closed just after I moved to Ottawa and I was so disappointed since I heard it was a favourite place to shop among Ottawans. We still had Sasloves though although it closed recently. We could use a nice butcher in centretown…

Edit: Apparently Alberts closed in 1975 and I moved to Ottawa in 1988. I am clearly getting it mixed up with another butcher and I can’t remember the name now. Now it’s going to bother me :slight_smile:

Are you thinking of Slipacoff’s (also in the market)?

I’ve been in Ottawa since 1971.

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I think so. It was in the little mall between where Pure Kitchen and the Scotiabank are now located.

Wow you must have seen a lot come and go since you’ve been in Ottawa.

That was Albert’s.

Yes, I’ve seen a lot come and go, and have lamented the closure of a lot of much-liked restaurants in the downtown core. In any case, I don’t go downtown much these days, having retired and my health taking a nosedive soon after.

MODS: You may want to move this to the Ottawa thread.

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@BarneyGrubble
I’m adding a few leads for Indian sweets
https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/15p5gxg/indian_sweets_in_ottawa/

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Thanks. I’m surprised Rangoli was considered excellent. I used to live in Orleans, and considered their selection limited. Rangoli was the Indian restaurant I used to go to for dinner, but it was super frustrating; there were two chefs there, one who had an idea of what was “mild”, whereas the other hadn’t a clue. Depending upon who was in the kitchen I either got something I could enjoyed, or something not even raita could tame; my digestive system cannot handle heat.

I have asked a number of places about Bombay halva, but my description has always been met with a blank look. Now that I have a name, thanks to Saregama, I’ll ask about that, or, failing that, make it myself.

I usually shop at NASA foods. Diwali is coming, and they usually boost their selection for that, but the queue to get in is crazy. I’ll call first, to not waste my time.

There’s no accounting for taste!

I just had some restaurant owner lash out on Toronto Food Reddit because of a review of a bad meal here on Hungry Onion last December and a subsequent mention on Reddit in Sept. Literally everything else online says that particular restaurant is amazing and this fella is lashing out at me.

I am close to not reviewing anything online anymore.

Oh like a certain politician. Couldnt help this

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