Food trucks, restaurants and coffee shops

Photo of Play food & wine, 1 York Street,
by Lazy Artist courtesy of Flickr
(Creative Commons)

Looking for a new place to eat out? Fear not, as the list below reveals what local foodie bloggers are writing about area eating establishments.

Food Trucks

Ottawa has recently seen several food trucks take to the streets of our lovely city. To help decide which trucks to eat from, Gastronomy and Life's Other Pleasures has a couple of reviews worth reading.  The first is of Bonita’s Cantina, one of the new food trucks that recently hit the streets of Ottawa.  (The truck is based at 250 City Centre Ave.). Based on the review, it sounds like the Mexican-flavoured stand still has some things to work out:

Overall, I was not as impressed as I wanted to be.  I had ordered soft tacos but got hard tacos .... The fish (a white fish) was good, but it just wasn’t great.  Same for the beef, which, resembled chili and wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.... [Nevertheless], I will be back .... The truck has only been open a short while, so there is always some kinks that have to be worked out while getting an operation organized and ready to run at its best."

The second review described what is was like to eat from the Stone Soup Foodworks. According to the review:

Their menu was very small ... consisting of only 3 kinds of tacos, one soup (which was organic dahl that day) and a home made iced green tea drink. I opted for two tacos as this is their signature menu item that I had heard so much about.

The first was the adobo chicken taco with organic slaw, jalapeños and cilantro, which was delicious! It had such a great flavour but was not too spicy. The second was the Korean beef taco with local and organic kimchi, daikon and black sesame seeds. Wow! This taco blew me away: it packed a huge punch of flavour and a kick of spice, and it was fantastic....

I am definitely going to try and track down this delightful food truck again to try some more of their fantastic tacos!

Restaurants

For those looking for a sit down eatery, Peter Hum, the food critic at the Ottawa Citizen, gives a positive review of The Albion Room inside the Novotel hotel at 33 Nicholas.  "If more hotel restaurants were like the Albion Rooms, which opened in April in the Novotel Ottawa Hotel, I would not have such a dim view of them," he writes.

In a second post, Hum gave a mixed review to the Lost Canadian Smokehouse & Grill at 1675 Tenth Line Rd. in Orléans.  "As uneven as the eating was at the Lost Canadian was, I’m glad to have found it," writes Hum. "I’ll hope for improvements on some dishes, and sporadically crave a biscuit and gravy and some deep-fried candy, even if they will require a week of raw food to offset them.

Food Gypsy, meanwhile, has a good post on Le Bostaurus at 61 Rue Principale in Aylmer.  Initially the restaurant was so-so, suffering from a bad case of Opening-itus. (Read the review to learn about this annoying "disease" that afflicts many new food establishments).  Fortunately, the restaurant got better with time and now is well worth the visit.

Coffee Houses

For coffee drinkers, the local blogosphere has some tips on where to grab a cup of java and have something to eat. Capital Dining gives a good review of Morning Owl at 583 Rochester St., stating that their panini is a, "sandwich to brighten a rainy day, enjoyed fully and thoroughly in a great little place with a very fine fridge.

For its part, the great foodie blog If Music be the Food of Love, Play On gives a positive review to The Ministry of Coffee at 279 Elgin Street, which opened up on June 8, right across the street from the Boko Bakery.  "I have another coffee shop to add to my list of top shops in Ottawa," reads the post.

A second review by If Music be the Food recommends the coffee shop Café qui pense, located at 204 Main Street.