Just named #4 in the Top 10 “Canada’s Best New Restaurants” by Air Canada’s enRoute Magazine! Well deserved. Hearty congratulations to the Walls and their team.
“It’s not supposed to be this easy for a first-timer… you notice all the little things that rookies Steve and Jennifer Wall are getting so right…” writes enRoute food writer/ restaurant critic Andrew Braithwaite.
Thought I’d republish my review of the new Supply and Demand, from March, 2013 issue of Ottawa Magazine
We demand oysters. They are supplied! Beached beauties on crushed ice, fat and creamy, muscular and minerally, all glistening on their half shells. Oysters are the clear way to begin blunting hunger at the new Supply and Demand, West Wellington’s latest hot spot. But there are other raw pleasures here: Albacore tuna crudo with puffed rice and truffle oil, duck tartare with purple mustard, capers and corn nuts – thoughtfully crafted assemblies of textures and flavours. This is the first independent project for chef Steve Wall. He comes to the job via Luxe Bistro, and previously from Town and Whalesbone. Together with his wife Jennifer, floor manager Phil Kelsey, and a team of servers who know their stuff, this new place runs like a sophisticated neighbourhood fixture. If the ceiling were only four feet taller, it would feel like a European brasserie, with its gilded mirrors, schoolhouse lights, subway tiles and classic penny-floor. The seahorse wallpaper injects the whimsy, the open kitchen makes it personal, the bar is long and inviting. Wall’s menu is filled with things we want to eat, packaged on one page to fit the modern way of dining out. Raw starters, warm decadent treats, a section of humble vegetables your mother has always wanted you to eat, but here transformed with the bounties of brown butter, salt, vinegar, capers, anchovy oil, sharp cheeses. The squid ink spaghetti with octopus and sea urchin is a marvellous dish. So is the gemelli with duck bolognese. And the roast chicken with cured lemon and wheatberries is a stunner. A few mini quibbles: an exuberance of red chili rings overwhelms the delicacy of a marinated shrimp dish; the ling cod en papillotte is correct but too subtle; and we find the stuffed squid paddling in a tomato-cranberry bean ragout reads better than it eats. Desserts – bread pud, lemon pound cake, chocolate brownie – are simple pleasures with refined turns. When S&D is filled, as it often is, there is a din. But its more merry than uncomfy and nothing that should put off your appetite for this terrific newcomer. Mains, $21 to $35. Open daily, 5pm to 10pm. Fully accessible.
1315 Wellington Street West, 613-680-2949, www.supplyanddemandfoods.ca
Leave a Reply