CheapEats Ottawa restaurant guide blog

You Are Invited!

Finally, the books are here and we're having a party! 

Join us at East African Restaurant on Wed. Feb. 13th and help us celebrate the latest edition of CheapEats Ottawa.  Talk about restaurants, food and Ottawa while you sample some of East African's great appetizers and sip Beau's with our contributors, celebrities, friends and restaurateurs. 

It's going to be a blast, and you're invited. So come!

 

Shawarma Debate - Chicken or Beef?

In What's on Your Must Try List? a little back and forth has started on the topic of this city's sandwich of choice, the shawarma.

Vovici Online Survey Software

Dave said: It may be a bit of an Ottawa cliche, but a beef sandwich from Shawarma Palace is unmatched in this city, if you ask me.

And

David Reevely countered: Never tried the beef, but Shawarma Palace's chicken sandwich is the best I've had in three cities. If this were my list, I'd add it.

Sounds like there is a taste-off in the making.

What do you think - Chicken or Beef?

What's on Your Must Try List?

As part of the next edition of Cheap Eats Ottawa**, and for the blog, we are compiling a list of the 100 Must Try Dishes in Ottawa, (all Cheap Eats of course) and we have reserved 20 spots on the list for your recommendations. 

Ottawa - Tower O Rings
AnneCottingham.

We've already built the list to 80 dishes - from things every Ottawan should have tried (like The Work's Tower or Rings) to more exotic dishes that prove you are a serious culinary adventurer (like fried Quay Teow from Chahaya Malaysia). 

But to make sure we aren't missing a thing, we wanted to invite you to have your voice heard on what you think the Must Try dishes in Ottawa are. 

What do you think should be on the list? 

What things do you think visitors to Ottawa should not miss?

Do you think you are only a real Ottawan if you have had hot beaver tail while skating on the canal?

Is there something you order just to see if your friends will try it, and if they don't, you'll eat it because it's so damned good?

We'd love to hear about it!  Add your "Must Try" dishes to the comments below or email them to lex [at] cheapeatsottawa [dot] com.

Mello's -- Ian David Blüm.

Some other items already on the list include a Mello's breakfast special (preferably at 4am), Laksa from Singapore Restaurant, dim sum at Mandarin Ogilvie,  gravy pizza, and Escargot Forestière from Pizza’za. 

 

   

** BTW - We're down to the short strokes for getting the next edition of Cheap Eats Ottawa finished and to the printers and it looks like it'll be in bookstores in January.  More on that soon!

Photos thanks to AnneCottingham & Ian David Blüm via the CEOT flickr group.

Three Bakers & a Bike

by andrea*

I have lost track of the number of people who have told me that Three Bakers & A Bike (1281 Wellington) was a place worth checking out. I had filed in away in a mental to-do list and left it at that.

But those recommendations kept coming, especially as it pertained to their cupcakes. The thought of an afternoon of cupcake eating was enough to keep re-reminding me that I wanted to check it out. Well, I found myself in West Wellington today around lunchtime and decided to give it a try.

Three Bakers is primarily a bakery, but lunchtime offerings include a soup du jour and various sandwiches. The menu is taped to the counter and lists the usual suspects: roast beef, CLT, veggie wraps etc. I chose the BLT. (I have mentioned my bacon thing before, right?)

The BLT is one of my secret measures of Good Places to Eat. If the place can't pull off a decent BLT (or a Caesar salads for that matter - that's my second measure) they risk losing me as a customer. Excellent bread, good bacon, tomatoes that smell like tomatoes and a light touch with the mayo… that's what makes a good BLT. Not everyone knows this yet.

But I digress.

The Patty Debate

by andrea*

I'm a carnivore. There, I said it. In recent years my tastes have leaned towards the vegetarian side of things, but I still remain a meat eater. Bacon is the culprit! If it wasn't for bacon I might very well be a vegetarian.

When I go to The Works (the Richmond Road location is the one we frequent) I usually order a burger with a beef patty. There are many many burger varieties on the menu (40? 50?), and customers have their choice of patty: beef (organic or non-), chicken breast, ground turkey, portabello mushroom cap, or veggie.

On our last visit I decided I didn't need a ½ pound of beef forming a giant lump in my gut, so I took a leap of faith and ordered the "B.A.B" burger ($10.83 – and comes with tomato, raw onion and garlic sauce) avec le veggie patty and sweet potato fries. I had a long inner debate about the veggie patty. I knew that the beef would taste good, so should I risk it? Some veggie patties are made of a lentil/grain mixture and have the mouthfeel of a damp facecloth. Did I really want to eat a damp facecloth?

Well I was pleasantly surprised. The burger tasted great. And more importantly, I didn't walk away feeling heavy and bloated. The sweet potato fries were delicious. And I admit it - I did feel a tiny bit virtuous too. Next time I go back, I know what I'm going to order. Pssst. Did you know The Works does takeout too?

* [This post was written by Andrea Tomkins, a regular contributor to CheapEats Ottawa (where she is known as AT.) Andrea is an Ottawa-based writer, blogger and photographer. You can peek into her journal at  www.quietfish.com/notebook or read her other CheapEat posts here.]

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