CheapEats Ottawa restaurant guide blog

Caribbean Flavours Back In Business

Great news! Caribbean Flavours's new location is now open at 1659 Carling Ave.

Open Monday-Friday 11:30am-10pm, Saturday & Sunday noon-10pm.

Most of the updated menu is out of the CheapEats price range, however, the Roti ($8.95-11.95) fit into the dinner prices. And the Patty Lunch special ($5.50) on the board below looks like a great deal for lunch.

Has anyone had a chance to swing by yet?  We'd love to hear what you think

[Photo from the Caribbean Flavours website]
Open Monday-Friday 11:30am-10pm, Saturday & Sunday noon-10pm.

Technorati Tags: caribbean flavours, ottawa, restaurant, new location, carling avenue

Facebook Takes Ottawa Restaurant Fandom to a new level

The biggest fan group is for: DiRienzo's = Best Sandwiches in Ottawa (1,772 members). But even with 1,772 fans, some still want to change things up: De Rienzo's rocks my socks!...but could use an outdoor eating area. (39 members)
photo by MyUtopian

Though they certainly aren't the only Italian Sandwich spot with fans showing their facebook love:  Bottega Boys [2.0] (57 members)

Another big hit: Maroush Int'l Shawarma (577 members), seems to have a few customers happy to admit they are on the naughty list: Marroush International Shawarma - NO SHAWARMA FOR YOU!!! (79 members)

Kettleman's, another spot with a vocal fan base, shows some solid numbers: Kettleman's Bagel (382 members)

Then there's the ESD.  I'm not surprised to find a fan group for them, but I'm a little surprised by the numbers: Elgin Street Diner (13 years iof success)  (71 members).  Perhaps this is staff-only like their sister group for The Diner (19 members).  (Which, btw, includes a great description of The Diner "The Elgin Street Diner's younger, more attractive, less slutty, sister restaurant.")

Rendez-Vouz des Saveurs - Sept 28-30, 2007

Rendez-Vouz des Saveurs Press Conference

I stumbled upon a press conference at the Marche Vieux Hull  announcing the 11th annual Rendez-Vouz des Saveurs September 28-30, 2007 at Maison du Citoyen de Gatineau.

Here's a little piece from their press release:

Regional cuisine will be proudly presented by professional chefs and acclaimed chef owners of regional restaurants… all under one roof and in a most relaxed atmosphere.

The show will also highlight roughly twenty small local enterprises through  l'Association Outaouaise des Professionnels des Métiers de Bouche to profile their products. They will be regrouped at the "MARCHÉ DE L'ÉPICERIE".

Local beers and selected wines will be available to accompany the many delicacies.

Tasting tickets will be sold at the show for 50 cents/ticket. You should count on about 2 to 8 coupons per tasting.  Cash only though ATM machines are available near the site of the show.

It looks like a great event, sadly I didn't have any credentials along... so no free wine for me. Maybe next year.

[If you're organising a public food, wine or restaurant event, please let us know about it by sending info to events [at] cheapeatsottawa [dot] com]

 

Technorati Tags: rendez-vou des saveurs, gatineau, food festival, marche vieux hull, maison du citoyen, l'association outaouaise des professionnels des metiers de bouche, restaurant

Ottawa Magazine's Eat Cheap Edition

written in part by our very own Andrea Tomkins, Ottawa Magazine's September Edition - Eat Cheap focuses on finding good and interesting food on the cheap.  A topic close to my own heart.

The main article, Big Bites for Small Change (pg 47), breaks down 40 great deals across the city, sampling tastes from the Lamb Lollipops ($4) at Petit Bill's Bisto to my own current favourite Shafali Bazaar's Chicken Tikka Wrap. (Yes, I even took a video of it being made.)

A couple of other Must-Try items on the list:

• Yre's Quarter Chicken & Fried Plantain ($7)
• The Breakfast Special ($4.35) at John's Quick Lunch
• La Cabana's Pupusas ($2)
• and of course the Meatball Sub & Salad ($7.49) from Parma Ravioli

Andrea's article on All You Can Eat spots around town (Fill'er up - pg 54), lead us to last night's celebratory dinner at Sushi Kan (where we finished off 32 of their 145 item menu, urp!)

Poutine or Pizza & Gravy?

My friends have been talking about it, but none of us had tried it, so Friday after just enough beer to bolster our courage and cleanse our taste buds... we headed over to House of Georgie to try their "Gravy Pizza".

Now, I've heard that there's a debate about where this new late-night food fad originated. Some say House of Georgie & Sorento's, and it was written up that way in Trendz magazine. But others say it really originated around the corner at Colonnade.

Either way, Gravy Pizza, Pizza & Gravy or just simply P&G was inspired by poutine. And if you are willing to stretch your imagination, you can see similarities - gravy, cheese, and some starchy substance to carry it to your mouth.

So, on Friday night we tried the House of Georgie's version.  I was surprised at how much better it was than I expected. The gravy and cheese was certainly reminiscent of poutine. The gravy and bready-dough was reminiscent of a hot chicken sandwich.

I'd love to try a Beckta version with each flavour refined to perfection, I think it could be outstanding.  But for now I'm sticking to poutine.

What about you? Fess up!
Have you tried it? Where'd you get it? What did you think?

Technorati tags: pizza and gravy, gravy pizza, house of georgie, colonnade pizza, sorento's, beckta, poutine, late night snacks, elgin street, cheapeats ottawa, ceot, cheapeats

May 27th - Free Burger Day

Okay, okay, it's not officially a CheapEat because it's a huge national chain, but you can't get cheaper than free.

At all participating Harvey's in Ontario
FREE Original Hamburger
Sunday May 27, 2007
10am-3pm

More details

(Thanks for the heads up to Mike K.)

 

Technorati tags: Harvey's, hamburger, burgers, free food, food and drink, food, ontario

Natalie MacLean's Red, White and Drunk All Over

CheapEats Ottawa celeb Natalie MacLean, of Nat Decants fame, just announced the launch of her first book - Red, White and Drunk All Over.

Natalie reports that "Red, White, and Drunk All Over will be in all major book stores in Canada August 29 and in the United States September 19. You can pre-order your copies online" 

Natalie is smart, knowledgeable and even more importantly, funny.  The book should be great, I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Tags: natalie maclean, cheapeats ottawa, red white and drunk all over, celebrity

Write a review and Win

Review any item on chapters.indigo.ca -- say, for example, CheapEats Toronto or CheapEats Ottawa, and you'll be automatically entered to win a $1,000 gift card from Chapters/Indigo!

That's equivalent to 200 CheapEats breakfasts, 100 CheapEats lunches, or 66 CheapEats Dinners with a bonus lunch.

Here's what they say about it on chapters.indigo.ca: "It's easy: when you're on a product page, simply look for the logo pictured here, then click on the link labeled 'Write a Review'. After you sign in on our Welcome page, you'll go straight to our Review Page, where you can rate the item and submit your review. It's that simple.  See contest rules and regulations."

Hey, if you do decide to post a review of CheapEats on chapters.indigo.ca or anywhere else, feel free to post it or trackback here too.  We'd love to know what you think!

Tags: cheap eats toronto, cheap eats ottawa, indigo, chapters, contest, book review, review