CapitalDining.ca

Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that the hottest restaurant to open in the past 12 months wasn’t some million-dollar ByWard Market behemoth but rather a petite venture with hefty ambition, found, if you’re crafty (there is no sign), on the edges of Little Italy.

Marc Lepine, formerly of the Courtyard Restaurant, took over the small house vacated by the Thai restaurant Chaba, and just before Christmas ’08 opened his 22-seat Atelier. From a stove-less kitchen that has the austere look of an operating theatre, Lepine and his sous chefs prepare 12-course tasting-menu-only dinners, based on the Barcelona model of chef as both craftsman and chemist.

Granted, there were many tasty bites in 2009 (and I’m about to tell you a bit about them), but none wowed me quite as much my sixth course at Atelier. Or was it my seventh? Bother.

Read on. But take note: I have not returned to any of these restaurants listed below since the month in which these reviews appeared. And these bites were not necessarily enjoyed in eateries I can recommend without equivocation. It’s the dishes I greedily rechew by memory, not necessarily the entire meal.

JANUARY

Next to a dejected parking lot, inside an unmarked building of no particular curb appeal, is what enRoute magazine considers the fourth best new restaurant in Canada. You won’t hear any argument from me.

Although the soup course — a spicy butternut squash with “noodles” of crab apple suspended in liquid nitrogen (complete with a test tube of roasted pine nuts and bacon) — was inspired and delicious, it was the crisp chunk of sous vide venison with its eye-popping plate-mates of vegetables, powders and purées, precision-lined on a crimson swath of beet, that was outstanding. Best bite of the year.

FEBRUARY

From new age food back to the century-old Nantua sauce. (Haven’t had one of those in decades.) But there it was, its gentle sea flavour and pale peach colour mined from crushed and simmered crayfish shells. Poured over two snowy white, soft-edged pike quenelles, it was a nap-inducing starter, prepared and sweetly served by the students of Le Cordon Bleu at their Ottawa teaching restaurant, Le Bistro Cordon Bleu.

What a treat to have chef Steve Vardy move back to Ottawa from Newfoundland, and helm the kitchen at the 30-year-old Black Cat Bistro, also recently relocated to Preston Street. The fit is quite fine. My favourite dish from a Vardy meal at the Cat was perfect triangles of lightly seared B.C. Albacore tuna, dressed with a disciplined garnish of halved grapes sporting jalapeno hats and scattered with crispy bits of shallot.

MARCH

At the Urban Pear (poised to enter its ninth year in the Glebe), the king of the starters was soup.A thick purée of roasted parsnip was sweetened with apple and refreshed with pretty swirls of apple-green oil on its surface. Floating on a slowly sinking garlicked crostini was a warmed chop of walnuts, blue cheese and apricots.

APRIL

Play Food and Wine fed me a small plate (as is its habit) of splendid pickerel. A thick chunk of the freshwater fish, snowy white but with bronzed surface crunch, was served playfully with carrot chips. Beneath the fish, spinach provided the green refreshment, and on top, a brightening mix of mushrooms and a confit of lemon.

Farm-made pickled onions cut the luscious fat of the duck foie gras served at the start of my Mariposa Farms Sunday lunch, and homemade fennel bread warm from the wood stove brought it happily to my mouth.

MAY

It’s a ways to go for exceptional crème brulée, but if you plan to be within 100 kilometres of Messines, I suggest you book a table well in advance at Maison La Cremaillere for Andrée Dompierre’s classic French cuisine, saving a shred of appetite for her berry-stained custard with its pretty toupée of spun sugar.

JUNE

What pleasure is a well-made French onion soup! At Arôme in the Hilton Lac Leamy, it was given a citrus kick with Blanche de Chambly beer. The Art-is-in toast and Gruyere cheese were in fine balance with the rich, sweet broth.

Still in June, Molto is what became of Euro Bistro, a popular lunch spot on busy Promenade du Portage, though my plate of gnocchi bathed in a Marinara sauce that sparkled with fresh basil, was a dinnertime pleasure.

The Moonroom calls itself a lounge, and yes, its drink list is five times longer than its food menu. If there’s steak tartare on that flexible blackboard list, snag it. Hand-chopped filet, well seasoned and sharpened with capers and onion, it comes with Art-is-in toasties, gherkins and such. Delicious stuff.

JULY

Local asparagus, oiled, grilled and topped with a perfectly timed poached egg, was tarted up with bacon and shaved black truffles and made a lovely lunch on the patio of the Courtyard Restaurant.

Lamb carpaccio, fanned on a plate with many elements — among them, a green olive tapenade, a pile of feta cheese, a tzatziki sauce sharpened with preserved lemon — was my favourite starter at Canvas Resto-Bar.

AUGUST

With its base of a thyme-scented duxelle topped with mixed mushrooms and patchy brown topping of buffalo milk mozzarella, the funghi pizza at the Grand had a lovely woodsy flavour, its thin-ish crust gently blistered from the wood-fired oven.

SEPTEMBER

Tough to pick just one dish from the new ZenKitchen, but chef and co-owner Caroline Ishii had the most spectacular chanterelle mushrooms on her September menu, which she coated in a tempura-style batter fashioned with brown rice and gram flours, tossed with black sesame seeds and served the fragrant pile with a duo of sparkling sauces.

OCTOBER

If you think of a fish restaurant chef’s chowder as a barometer for her overall accomplishments, Charlotte Langley’s version measures highly. At the Whalesbone Oyster House, in her bowl are the usual suspects — fish and seafood, potatoes and leeks in a lightweight tomato bouillon, heady with basil — but the whole is perfectly sublime.

NOVEMBER

The best of the starters at the relocated-to-Springfield-Road Fraser Café was a late fall beet salad — perfectly cooked heirloom beets, teamed with thin slices of radish, toasted pecans, a pile of wild rice, a mound of herbed cottage cheese and for a smoky, crunchy finish, bacon.

DECEMBER

Savana Café’s new chef Michael Radford aced a reinvented dish of the Caribbean classic salt fish and ackee. The cod, perfectly milked of its saltiness, was fashioned into panko-crusted croquettes. Once pierced, their molten centres leaked into a yolk-coloured ackee purée, while the saucy sides — a tomato sofrito and a limey aioli — brought some clever balance.

THE RESTAURANTS

Atelier, 540 Rochester St., 613-321-3537, atelierrestaurant.ca

Bistro Cordon Bleu (which recently reopened as Le Cordon Bleu Bistro @Signatures) 453 Laurier Ave. E., 613-236-2499, restaurantsignatures.com

Black Cat Bistro, 428 Preston St., 613-569-9998, blackcatbistro.ca

The Urban Pear, 151 Second Ave., 613-569-9305, theurbanpear.com

Play Food and Wine, 1 York St., 613-667-9207, playfood.ca

Mariposa Farms, 6488 County Rd. 17, Plantagenet, ON, 613-673-5881, mariposa-duck.on.ca

Maison la Cremaillere, 24 Chemin de la Montagne, Messines, QC, 819-465-2202, lacremaillere.qc.ca

Arôme, Hilton Lac Leamy, 3 boul. Du Casino, Gatineau, 819-790-6410

Molto, 131 Promenade du Portage, Gatineau, 819-777-9344

The Moonroom. 442 Preston St., 613-231-2525

The Courtyard Restaurant, 21 George St., 613-241-1516, courtyardrestaurant.com

Canvas Resto-Bar, 65 Holland Ave., 613-729-1991, canvasrestobar.ca

The Grand, 74 George St., 613-244-9995, thegrandpizzeria.com

ZenKitchen, 634 Somerset St. W., 613-233-6404, zenkitchen.ca

The Whalesbone Oyster House, 430 Bank St., 613-231-8569, thewhalesbone.com

Fraser Café, 7 Springfield Rd., 613-749-1444, frasercafe.ca

Savana Café, 431 Gilmour St., 613-233-9159, savanacafe.com

Filed under: Dining Culture, Review by Anne - No Comments →

Ottawa is not a pace-setter. Beg your pardon if that offends, but in terms of innovation in the restaurant landscape we tend to be forever a few steps behind the usual suspects — Toronto, Vancouver, New York. They’re bigger, they’re more ethnically diverse and they have a deeper culinary past. 

Which is not to suggest we don’t have superb restaurants in this city. We do. We just don’t have buckets of them. And we don’t typically create the fashions that give birth to them. So it did seem forced to look deeply upon the decade of dining in Ottawa in search of new trends.

Of course “regional-seasonal-organic” is big here, as everywhere, and yes we are uniquely situated in this region, blessed with a bountiful backyard, easily accessed without spending hours in traffic jams! (In this, at least, there are others who lag far behind.)

And yes, I could talk about small plates dining, bar menus, bare-table dining, open-kitchen restaurants, and meat still mattering. But what I would like to do instead is to speak of three Ottawa restaurants, all born during the past 10 years, that I would suggest are worthy of looking at more closely. Not because they’re the best we’ve got — although all three are terrific — but because each is, for now, unique.

The Wellington Gastropub Since 2006

1325 Wellington St. 613-729-1315

Much was made of the name when it first opened. It stuck in people’s craws, its phonetics made the tummy squiggle, its definition defied the mind (what the heck is a gastropub anyway?). Blah, blah, blah. But anyone who is familiar with the restaurant scene across the pond knows that gastropubs are a strong and plenteous category in any U.K. restaurant index.

And anyone who knows Ottawa knows we are not short on English/Irish-style pubs. What we are short on is English/Irish-style pubs that cook well. What the Wellington Gastropub has done is combine a pub — good drinking options in a convivial atmosphere — with destination dining. You go as much for the food as the drink, and you can shuffle over in your slippers if you care to. And the place is packed. I predict (here we go … ) more of these. Because they make such good sense.

Atelier, since 2008

540 Rochester St. 613-321-3537

I think it more likely there will be a gastropub on every neighbourhood corner a decade from now than a molecular gastronomy restaurant. It’s not that I think it’s a flash in the pan (or, say, a ripple in the thermostated water bath) but it requires money to outfit a space-age kitchen, and demands chefs who have the time to spend, an abiding fascination with, and talent for, the science and art of manipulating ingredients to produce flavours, textures and looks that fascinate, provoke and delight.

But here we have Atelier, unique not just in Ottawa, but — I’d suggest — in the country. A sign-less restaurant that delivers the double whammy of food prepared using unconventional methods and presented without a menu.

It takes courage to offer no options. Thirteen courses, served blind (I can hear Atelier chef Marc Lepine shouting that allergies and food “particulars” can be handled with sufficient notice), but the fact remains that Atelier is not for the finicky or the timid.

Hard to say if we’ll see more gastronauts the likes of Lepine, but I’d sure like to see more tasting-menu-only restaurants in this city, molecularly prepared or otherwise. Atelier just takes a worthy idea to extremes, and deserves our admiration.

ZenKitchen Since 2009

634 Somerset St. W., 613-233-6404

That Caroline Ishii’s new restaurant serves exclusively vegan food is largely forgotten as you work your way through dinner at ZenKitchen. And that’s what makes this new restaurant extraordinary. ZenKitchen has taken what you might consider peripheral dining to a prominent level. Yes, this is a vegetarian restaurant. No, there are no buffet lines, no weigh scales, and no banquet tables. And sure, it’s early days yet, but if its opening moves are to be trusted, I would happily slot ZenKitchen in Ottawa’s top 10 dining rooms a year from now.

So will ZenKitchen pave the way for other so-called fringe eateries to smarten up? If a vegan dining room can polish up its act, can’t we hope for the same from our city’s ethnic dining rooms? We are desperately due for inventive, sophisticated, ethnic dining in this city. Not just “quality” or “authentic” but ethnic food that is truly innovative. 

Can such a thing happen in this city? To paraphrase one of this decade’s great newsmakers, “Yes it can.” Let the word go forth that within the next 10 years one of Ottawa’s finest restaurants will be Cantonese or Goan. Some might say that Ottawa doesn’t have the ethnic population to support such a thing. But what percentage of our population is vegan? If Ottawa has a yen for ZenKitchen, can molecular mutton vindaloo be far behind?

Filed under: Dining Culture by Anne - No Comments →

It’s only natural to pay attention to new restaurants. I suppose that’s because novelty is such good fun — unless, of course, yours is the kind of novelty that doesn’t quite catch on. As I flip through thick binders of reviews of the past 18 years, it seems every other flip reveals a once new restaurant, now dead. But what of those restaurants that were quietly doing things right way back in 1999? Already established, going strong, giving us pleasure. With the new decade now upon us, it seemed to me good fun to cherry-pick some senior restaurants whose days of newness are long gone but have gone on to perform an even neater trick in the brutal restaurant business. They’ve survived. More than that, they’ve given us consistent satisfaction. Some came into their own during the last decade, some had managed that before the decade had begun. But all, thankfully, are still going at it, day after day, year after year, decade to decade. So cheers to them!

Bella’s Bistro, 1445 Wellington St. W., 613-724-6439, bellas.ca

There are restaurants you look to for cutting-edge cuisine. And then there’s Bella’s. More a restaurant that sustains and satisfies, Bella’s Italian mainstays have been going strong for 15 years. Classic pasta-pollo-pesce cuisine, romantic ambience, friendly service, a solid selection of Italian wines, and winning desserts tend to keep Bella’s seats filled.

Black Cat Bistro, 428 Preston St., 613-569-9998, blackcatbistro.ca

If you walked into this restaurant 10 years ago, the sign would have read ‘Black Cat Wine and Noodle Bar,’ and you have found it on Murray Street. Candice Butler — now resident chef at The Urban Element — would have been in the kitchen. In 1999, the Cat food was mostly Asian noodle dishes and mostly came in shallow bowls. Ever more changes — new chefs, new directions, a few tweaks to the surname, and after 10 years in the Byward Market (and more before that on Echo Drive) now in its third home. In 2010, we find the Black Cat Bistro on Preston Street. Steve Vardy is in its kitchen. It was good then. It’s better now.

Domus Café, 87 Murray St., 613-241-6007, domuscafe.ca

Years before eco-eating turned mainstream, Domus Café introduced us to the goodness of local ingredients on a restaurant menu, gave credit to farms and foragers and producers from the region, and with their product in hand, crafted masterful dishes. A decade on Murray Street and the cooking is as accomplished as it’s ever been.

El Meson, 94 Beechwood Ave., 613-744-8484, elmeson.ca

Change swirls in New Edinburgh — Zingaro, Geraldo’s, Baco, Ambiente, Fratelli, The Works have all come and gone. For 22 years, the Alves family has been serving the nostalgic dishes of Spain and Portugal, washed down with Iberian wines from a bountiful cellar, still in a turn-of-the-last-century house on Beechwood Avenue.

Juniper, 245 Richmond Rd., 613-728-0220, juniperdining.ca

In 2000, the then four-year-old Juniper was at 1293 Wellington St. Three years ago, it moved further west into a car dealership’s showroom, and it’s been tweaking and improving the unusual space ever since. Ten years ago, founding chef Richard Nigro was cooking with co-owner Michael Sobcov. Today, he’s partnered with Norm Aitken, and the team has taken the food to new heights, while reaching out to the neighbourhood through clever ideas like duelling chefs on traditionally slow nights, with proceeds going to local charities.

Le Baccara, 1 Casino Blvd., 819-772-6210, casino-du-lac-leamy.com

Can it possibly be 10 years since I first ventured down the glittering driveway of lights, walked the corridor above the sea of slot machines, and spilled into this grand temple of French gastronomy? Le Baccara, in Le Casino du Lac Leamy, was the place for subdued celebrations in 1999. A decade later, it remains a go-to restaurant for an utterly civilized meal.

Les Fougères, 783 Route 105, Chelsea, 819-827-8942, fougeres.ca

It has been a good decade for the Parts of Les Fougères. Their pine walls boast a bounty of new awards — for the cooking, the wine list, the sommelier, the chef, their 2008 cookbook — and the new store does brisk business, particularly around tourtière time. Charles Part and Jennifer Warren-Part created a gem in a rural setting over a decade ago, and Les Fougères seems to me better every year.

L’Orée du Bois, 15 Kingsmere Rd., Chelsea, 819-827-0332, oreeduboisrestaurant.com

For something crazy — like 32 years if I’ve got it right — L’Orée du Bois’ black-and-white frocked wait-staff has been serving chef Guy Blain’s old-school French classics (escargots, duck confit, pot-au-feu, mousse au chocolat) from its 100-year-old bunker-style farmhouse in Chelsea, a dozen minutes from downtown Ottawa.

Savana Café, 431 Gilmour St., 613-233-9159

Now in its third decade, the Savana Café has never seemed better. With new chef Michael Radford shaking things up, a menu that takes Caribbean cuisine to a new level, and prices still within easy reach, Savana sizzles.

The Manx, 370 Elgin St., 613-231-2070

You could argue this was Ottawa’s first gastropub. The food at the underground Manx has always been considered more than just a sop for the excellent brews. It was my favourite pub a decade ago and it remains right up there today.

A moment of silence, please, for the decade’s dearly departed.

Like people, all restaurants must leave us sometime and all leave us for their own reasons. These departed during the last 10 years, and whether they were part of the landscape for generations, or just a year or two, I liked them and I miss them.

RIP: L’Agaric, Ambiente, Baco Restaurant and Wine Bar, Belair sur la Rivière, Bistro 115, Café Henry Burger, Clair de Lune, Echo Café, Laurier sur Montcalm, Le Jardin, Le Verlan, Luna Bar and Kitchen, The Ironwood Café, Trattoria Zingaro, Zibbibo. (No doubt I’ve missed some worthy of mourning. Share your list with me .)

Filed under: Dining Culture by Anne - 3 Comments →