CapitalDining.ca

First, a bit of background: Last June, the restaurant we knew since 2001 as "Signatures" (professionally staffed) and the lunch room we knew as "Bistro Cordon Bleu" (run by students of the culinary school) shut down to reorganize. In November, it reopened as a joint venture, staffed by both students and certified chefs, with Yannick Anton remaining as its executive chef.

So let's start with a before-and-after comparison.

Gone from the dinner experience are the little cushioned stools for ladies' handbags, the silver domes over monogrammed plates, the many pages of à la carte, high-priced, luxurious French food and the four table d'hôtes that accompanied.

What remains are the stately building, the elegant dining room and the very civilized service.

You can still dine in complete comfort here, but Signatures (sorry, Le Cordon Bleu Bistro @ Signatures) now feeds you more simply, with less fanfare, and at a price several affordable rungs below what it used to be. (The most costly dish on the new winter menu is $27. That dish used to be $47.)

They still greet you at the door, remove your coat, hold out your chair, and fill your water glass instantly and often. The staff continues to dispense dependable wine advice with considerable charm. And no one ever asks you to keep your fork.

The dinner menu is now a concise one-pager. On a January menu, there were six starters and seven mains, a seasonal roll call of Frenchy things I want to eat -- oysters, beef tartare, onion soup, snails in garlic butter, roasted lamb shank, duck with green beans, gnocchi with mushrooms and bacon.

For the most part, it was the starters that caught our fancy. That onion soup boasted a much reduced duck consommé, rich and only slightly too salty, capped with Gruyèred toast. The salad of mixed lettuces, with radish and carrot, was unfussy, dressed as only the French can dress greens. A green spiral of parsley oil and a long loose line of black olive tapenade were the adornments for an assertively garlicky brandade of salt cod, a mashed-potato-looking purée of fish, cream and oil.

They make a fine steak tartare here. The raw, maroon-coloured mound of hand-chopped beef, mixed with shallots, capers, parsley and pepper, and sandwiched with wafers of gaufrette potatoes, rested next to a soft-boiled quail egg, wrapped in crumbs and deep-fried. Moved on top of the mound, it spilled its golden yolk over all. The dish was finished with piquant polkadots of mustard sauce sweetened with apple. This was a lovely plate.

The one starter that failed to impress was the snails in pesto, served in a hollow bun. The escargots were lukewarm and the bread basket felt gimmicky.

There were problems with some of the main dishes. A duck breast was terribly tough. I took three 50-chew bites and left the rest. The artichoke and green olive ravioli that accompanied the scallops arrived curling up, the pouches dried at the edges and chewy, as though they'd been languishing beneath the heat lamps too long, while the smoked tomato sauce overpowered the scallops.

Better was the gnocchi of spinach and ricotta, scattered with meaty King Eryngii mushrooms, thin slices of braised fennel, and thick chunks of prosciutto. And best of all was the lamb shank, the meat perfectly tumbling-off the bone, arranged as a raft on a gritty sea of Puy lentils with pearls of roasted garlic and one lean, well-flavoured lamb sausage.

With what else to end a French bistro meal but profiteroles au chocolat? Three school-made ice creams in very fresh choux puffs, slathered with a divine chocolate sauce.

Dinner here was not without some disappointment. The absolute confidence I had in this restaurant has been slightly rattled by my last two meals here. But still, I am dining in fine comfort in an educational facility where culinary students are part of my plate, where the price point is very reasonable, and in a dining room in which I feel utterly cared for. And these are rare and precious things.

Cuisine: French
Cost: $$$: Starters, $7 to $14; main dishes, $19 to $27 description

Hours: Open for lunch, Tuesday to Friday; dinner, Thursday to Saturday

Features: Wine list worth noting.
Accessibility: Steps to front door, though a ramp is available. C.

453 Laurier Ave. E., Ottawa, ON
613-236-2499
website

Sitting as it is at the corner of Bank and Catherine streets, with MacEwen gas across the street and the Queensway overpass looming overhead, we are not expecting much in the looks department from this new Thai restaurant.

But Talay Thai, now six months old, is actually quite pretty. Its comely look has much to do with colour -- mango-orange walls and vibrant paintings -- and with the fact that things match -- the smart leather-covered chairs, the dozen dark wood tables set with funky cutlery, flowers, bamboo mats. And though your jaw doesn't exactly drop as you enter, the feel of the place pleasantly surprises.

Our server -- whom I recognize from a number of Thai restaurants around town (Anna, Sweet Basil, Bangkok Noodle House) -- tells us that Pookie's (another good Thai restaurant in another tricky location) and Talay share the same decorator. If you know Pookie, this restaurant will feel familiar.

And, like Pookie, the food is a cut above.

While Talay is hardly taking Ottawa's brand of Thai restaurant in any fabulous new direction -- we're still waiting on that to happen -- its execution of the what-you'd-expects (the classic soups, dough-wrapped starters, salads, curries, stir-fries and pad dishes) -- is very sound.

What's more, they're fairly priced, generously portioned, beautifully presented and kindly served.

My first taste of Talay was a quick, late lunch -- $13.95 bought me the daily special: a small cup of clear soup (no rousing flavour but a gentle, clean beginning) and four small dishes, served with rice. A curry, a stir-fry, a deep fried won ton thing (stuffed with chicken and drizzled with a sweet chili sauce) and a refreshingly tart mango salad with wonderful spicy-sour, crunchy-soft balance.

This was no dumbed-down version of yum.

Our order of saté and four skewers of chicken arrives and though the meat is a bit salty, a bit squeaky, it is moist enough and comes with a deliciously gritty peanut sauce. That same good peanut sauce appears in a shrimp dish we enjoy.

If you like noodles, there is a small selection of pad dishes, and if you tire of the ubiquitous pad thai, particularly good is the spicier pad kee mao, more savoury than sweet, anchored with slippery noodles and with a mix of shrimp, sprouts, ground peanuts, egg, green onion and tofu. The pepper level is pronounced, but not outrageous. If you're a chilihead and want outrageous, ask for the heat to be turned up. Or order what's called the "jungle curry."

We don't. But can suggest other curries -- the green, the red. Not brow-moppers, but deeply flavourful.

Stir-fries tend to be on the sweet side, but vegetables are bright and crisp, meats are tender and sauces are fragrant. Fish dishes feature frozen tilapia, so we took a miss. (Talay, we are told, means ocean. Perhaps it could work on strengthening its seafood dishes.)

Desserts arrive dressed with pretty puddles of patterned sauce. The mango ice cream is made in-house, and there's a pleasant crème brûlée made with coconut cream.

Talay has a decent wine list, though only the Chilean house comes by the glass. The beer list checks all the usual popular Asian bottles -- Singha, Tsingtao, Tiger, Asahi.

All in all, a nice night out in a pretty little restaurant by the Queensway.

Cuisine: Thai
Cost: $$: Starters, $5 to $8; main dishes, $11 to $15 description

Hours: Open for lunch, Monday to Friday; dinner daily.

Accessibility: Two steps to front door.

511 Bank St., Ottawa, ON
613-238-2529
website

Things are changing in Little Italy at a remarkable rate.

The opening of a Korean restaurant where Angelina's used to be is one of the more obvious signs. You might say that the shifting gastronomy of Preston Street is one of the more exciting transformations of the '00s. But curious too is the rise in number of Korean restaurants dotting the city.

Seems to me 10 years ago we had two. We now can boast - by my rough calculation - 13, if you include those that serve a mix of Japanese and Korean dishes.

More homesick South Koreans in Ottawa? More interest from the general public in the strong flavours of Korean food? Tasty, affordable dining now competing with Vietnamese noodle houses?

Don't know. Plan to find out, but for now, I will say, with as much authority as I can muster, that the one-year-old Le Kim Chi is a delight.

The food is fresh and flavourful, the service is charming and the ambience - if you can struggle through the mall music - is perfectly pleasant.

It's run by the Jang family - sisters Kelly and Jennifer, and chef brother Young Koh - and they are a lovely bunch, very keen and very kind.

Le Kim Chi is not the type of place where you cook the food yourself, a style of tabletop grilling, featured at other Korean restaurants. (Stay tuned for that.)

You might start with a Korean Hite beer. Or with Bek Se Ju, a traditional Korean rice wine. Translated it means "100-year wine" because it's said to have those live-forever properties such as ginseng, ginger and cinnamon. I prefer the beer. Or the roasted barley tea. But you can give it a go.

Other things to give a go include mandoo gook - a soup, rich and fragrant, the brown broth filled in with crunchy scallions and soft pork and chive dumplings. You may have those excellent dumplings as pot stickers too (goon mandoo) fried and served with a citrus soy sauce.

I love the pancakes, studded with chunky bits of seafood and scallion, or just with vegetables. Jap chae is a sticky jumble of glass noodles (yam) with onion, carrot, zucchini, spinach and peppers in a garlic-sesame-soy dressing that's balanced and nicely ungreasy.

There are pot dishes to recommend. A stone pot is heated to sizzling, a layer of cooked rice (bap) is added, then meat and an array of colourful vegetables are placed on top in a petal formation, with a single raw egg yolk at its head.

Once delivered to the table, our server Kelly demolishes the pretty symmetry by squashing the egg and vigorously mixing the mounds together into a tasty mess called bibimbap. It's a simple peasant dish wherein the rice becomes somewhat crunchy from its encounter with the sizzling pot and the soft meat, sweetly grilled vegetables, and the gochujang (red chili pepper paste served on the side) add the layers of flavour.

Korean dishes come with many small sides, called panchan. With our main dishes we receive sweet potato chunks, fiery chili paste, a bowl of seaweed and, of course, the central panchan - kimchi, or fermented Napa cabbage layered with red chili paste.

Jjim is a sweetly soupy dish of braised beef shank and vegetables.

There's bulgogi (grilled marinated sirloin), which is tender and deliciously unctuous, and there's kalbi (grilled short ribs). For something spicier, try the silky tofu dishes, or a pork stir-fry called dulucheegee. For adventurous palates, there's eel "nicely and well broiled" served with vegetables and ginger, and pork belly with soybean paste.

For vegetarians - for whom Korean food is traditionally tricky - there are veg-versions of silky tofu stews (most tofu dishes come with meat or fish) and vegetable bibimbaps.

Sesame pinwheel cookies are made in-house and are delicious.

Prices are more Preston Street than Somerset, with main dishes creeping up to $20, though most plates fall into the teens.

If you aren't conversant with Korean food, Le Kim Chi is a tasty introduction.

Cuisine: Korean
Cost: $$: Starters, $3.45 to $13; main dishes, $13 to $21

Hours: Open Monday to Saturday for lunch, daily for dinner.

Accessibility: Steps to entrance; washrooms downstairs.

420 Preston St., Ottawa, ON
613-233-2433
website