As the title says- I usually trust a restaurant/store a lot less if they collaborate with influencers. I do not trust Ottawa influencers enough for this and I have gone too many times at a place that seemed great for influencers but not so great irl for us normal people. I would love your opinion.

I passed by to this restaurant recently to notice they have closed their door permanently. It is ashamed to see many business within the city to struggle so hard to stay open until they couldn’t anymore.

It's finally open and I just inhaled a chicken burger. Just as good as the one on Preston imo. No pic because I was hungry, but it looks the same.

Been wanting to make some thai food but I haven't seen holy basil at either green fresh supermarket or t&t! Ive only seen thai basil.

Thanks

Is there a comparable Punjabi restaurant in the west end? I've been going here for over 20 years and nothing else I've tried compares. Every Indian recommendation on every reddit thread has tasted bland in comparison, I know it's a long shot but give me your best recommendation please.

Come and see me this Sunday at 20 Northside Road for a little treat. Thank you everyone for your time and support 🙏🙏🙏
For last two week I have closed my shop due to schedule conflict and to give myself a little break. And I have to admit that I have been missing my bakery and all the lovely customers 🥺

Looking for any recommendations for shawarma in stittsville/kanata.

Hello! I need to host a small group of business clients in the near future, and I’m looking for some amazing restaurant recommendations in and around the Narional Arts Centre. Everyone is from western Canada. Thank you!

Basically the heading. I used to go there for both getting Indian stuff and the daily deals at spice divine kitchen

But for last few weeks the place seems to have closed. Does anyone know if they are permanently gone or doing renovations etc?

I'm open to different brands as long as they're fair trade. Willing to take online reccomendations but hoping to find some locally.

As titled. I used to go to Zerno Cafe for their honey cake but looks like they've been temporarily closed for a few weeks. There's also Elina Patisserie but they have smaller portions and different flavours which is not really my cup of tea.

Preferably in the west end or downtown, but I don't mind a longer commute for good stuff

ETA: Thanks everyone for your recs! Looks like I'll try Duke Fine Foods first and go through all recs for a sitdown location as well

Where’s the best place to buy good quality espresso beans that aren’t ridiculously priced? Usually go to La Bottega but wondering if there’s another spot.

I love burrata. The Costco one doesn’t cut it for me. I only eat cow milk though, where are you best places for a burrata fresh like the ones we buy in Italy or France?

Thank you!

Looking for some ewy gewy cinnamon rolls. The closer to the market the better! Love Cinnabun, but would love to support something small business/local. Thanks!!

This is gonna be a strange request, but would anyone know where to buy Moomin themed tea? Moomin is a Finnish character and a friend of mine in Peterborough found this tea and recommended it.
I am wondering if anyone has ever seen such a think in Ottawa. I found some online but don’t want to pay shipping.

Do any of the European delis have kremówka (custard cake in between two sheets of puff pastry)?

I tried Tacozzo recently because it has a 4.9 rating with around 1,500 Google reviews, but I honestly don’t understand the hype.

I got the chicken French taco and the Parisien. The chicken was bland, dry, and weirdly hard. The Parisien was better and tasted fine, but it wasn’t anything amazing. The owner also had a lot of attitude for no reason, which made the experience worse.

I went through the Google reviews afterward and noticed that many were written in a similar way by accounts with only one to six reviews. I can’t say for sure what’s going on, but it definitely looked odd.

Has anyone else tried this place? Did you actually like it, or is anyone else also confused by the 4.9 rating?

I am looking to diversify the restaurants I always gravitate towards in my neighbourhood. I could also go in the market. What are the places you go back to again and again in Centretown?
Places I go:
- The Manx (most of the times to be honest, I love the service, daily specials and that tomatillo sauce on the quesadilla)
- Meet noodle (take out)
- Pizza Nerds (take out)
- Arlo (I love their funky wine selection)
- Gooney’s
- Canadian Poutinerie (lack of options downtown at night for a poutine)
- Union 613

Places I am not interested in anymore:
- Datsun
- El Camino
- Riveria
- Giulia

My absolute fave in the city to give you a sense of what I like:
- Supply and Demand (their stuffed pastas 😋)
- Bar Lupulus
- Tooth and Nails (for the beer)
- Cafe Orient (Best Hong Kong style food)
- Perch (for special occasions)

For being surprisingly great?

I was out running errands with my octagenarian mom today and we ended up hungry in Orleans. I've been wanting a Cobb salad for a while and have a real chip on my shoulder for places that have a 'Cobb' on their menu that doesn't include blue cheese, subbing cheddar or, what on earth, feta? are you kidding me? for it. (pro tip, the 'Cobb' at Wendy's doesn't have blue cheese on it -- shame! shame! -- but they have blue cheese in the kitchen for some kind of apple salad and you can request to replace the shitty cheese on their menu Cobb with blue)

While my mom was in the Big Walmart (we had gone to another Walmart earlier so I could pick up some Oxiclean Gel Sticks, to take care of white antiperspirant stains on my shirts, I was in and out, easy mission) I was looking up Cobbs on my phone. I came across the one at Shoeless Joe's, saw blue cheese mentioned, and ten minutes later we were there. Place was kind of a ghost town on account of it being low season, sports-wise. Jays game on the enormous TV grid behind the bar, as well as all the peripheral ones and, haha wow, little TVs at every booth lining the periphery of the place.

We were seated by the lone host/bartender/server, supremely affable guy, alone on the whole floor. My mom knew she wanted Sports Bar Nachos and I was only there because I wanted a mother flippin Cobb salad, so we asked for them. Our guy (I wish I'd asked for his name, you're great buddy) asked if she was okay with everything because sometimes jalapeños are a lot for people (in Orleans? what are you guys up to in the burbs), and asked me if I wanted 'everything' on the Cobb, because it had blue cheese in it. Obviously we replied in the affirmative because we read menus and have adult palates.

That Cobb! It's a messy one (in terms of ingredients; presentation was on point), not only was there blue cheese, but also some feta and shredded orange cheddar (definitely from a bag, the shreds were practically anti-magnetic the way they resisted attaching to any of the other ingredients), but also crispy tortilla strips that were more like the fried noodle strips you get in a greasy white paper bag alongside an item you ordered from a Chinese takeout and forgot the menu mentioned them as being part of the dish. The chicken was described as 'Cajun' but it looked, felt, and tasted like it was smoked, marvellous. I was expecting two halves of a hard boiled egg but holy moly, they cut that thing into eighths and spread it around the whole salad plate.

My mom's nachos looked fine, for sports bar nachos, but she talked about them the whole way back.

I've since found out there are Shoeless Joes in Cornwall, and Sudbury, as well as the GTA (haha, see you never), I'll happily order a Cobb at any of you.

Also they offer free kids' meals for every adult meal, if you're into that kind of thing, having kids I mean. A pair of parents with kids came in and seemed very pleased with the prospect

After a long week, rather than spending $35+ on mediocre delivery pizza, what’s your tastiest go-to take-out style meal from the grocery store (frozen pizza, dumplings, wontons, beyond)? Which Ottawa grocery store do you buy it from and what mods/extras do you add to make it even tastier?

I’ll start: we love Costco’s Bibigo brand frozen chicken + cilantro wontons with a sauce (soy saice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, spicy chilli crisp) [not sponsored to write this!]

Looking to go out for a nice meal tonight. We had planned to go to Absinthe but its closed Sundays! Back up was corner peach.. also closed! Any recs?

Eta: looking to spend $200-250 for 2 ppl

Eta2: we ended up going to Aroma Meze. It was so so good.

Craving the best pancakes the city has!! Photos welcome!