Ottawa, What’s Your Restaurant Personality?

We spend a lot of time arguing about where to eat. Downtown vs. suburbs. Fine dining vs. shawarma. Every choice feels like it says something about you. But what if the real question isn’t where do you want to eat? — it’s who are you when you eat? We

The Allergy Arms Race

It started with peanuts. One request, one substitution, one careful note scribbled in the corner of a ticket. Fair enough. Life or death, no one’s arguing. Then came gluten. Dairy. Shellfish. Eggs. The kitchen bent and adapted, swapping sauces, steaming instead of searing, improvising with starches. A little clumsy

The Last Table of the Night

There’s a strange intimacy in being the final diners left in a restaurant. The music is softer now, or maybe it just feels that way because the room is empty. Candles gutter. Glasses echo louder when they touch. The staff start to fold the day back into itself. Napkins

Why We Can’t Stop Ranking Things

Ottawa loves a list. Top 10 patios. Best brunches. “Can’t-miss” burgers. Our feeds drip with them, each one promising authority, clarity, order in a messy dining world. But lists aren’t about truth — they’re about comfort. A number on a page feels definitive, like someone has done the

The Review Section is Broken, Part Two

The loudest reviews aren’t the best ones. They’re the ones the algorithm likes — short, sharp, and usually negative. A two-paragraph essay on texture and technique sinks. A snide one-liner about “too salty” floats to the top. Platforms reward outrage, not insight. And the people writing them? They don’

What Counts as a Food City?

Every city with a few decent restaurants wants the title. You can hear it whispered in Ottawa, shouted in Montreal, flaunted in Toronto. “We’re a food city.” But what does that actually mean? A food city isn’t just a place with good food. That bar is too low.

The City of Reservations

Ottawa books tables. That much is true. But the real reservations aren’t on OpenTable — they’re in the way the city approaches food itself. This is a place where diners hesitate. A new restaurant opens and the first question isn’t what’s it like? but who else has

The Tyranny of Stars

TripAdvisor and Yelp taught the world that every restaurant experience could be reduced to a star rating. Five stars if the water glasses stayed full, one star if the soup arrived lukewarm. A tidal wave of amateur criticism, flattened into a number. The problem isn’t the data—it’s

The Real Cost of a Free Meal

Ottawa’s restaurant scene has no shortage of people asking for free food. They dress it up in soft language—“collaboration,” “exposure,” “content exchange”—but at its core, it’s the same thing: a hand outstretched, palm up, waiting for a comp. The economics don’t work. The cost of

The Cult of Good Enough

Ottawa has made a religion out of “good enough.” The city doesn’t just tolerate mediocrity—it rewards it. A restaurant that manages to be merely competent can thrive here for decades, buoyed by loyal regulars who confuse consistency with quality, and critics who don’t exist. Menus lean toward

The Small Acts That Matter

It isn’t always the foie gras or the $200 bottle that makes the night. It’s the water glass refilled before you noticed it was empty. It’s a dish split onto two plates without a word. It’s being remembered, not as “two for seven o’clock,” but

The Redditor Problem

There’s a peculiar kind of diner that Ottawa restaurants have come to know too well: the Redditor. They’re not after a meal, they’re after material. Their first bite is less about flavour and more about framing — how they’ll spin it into a comment, a complaint, or

The Influencer Tab

Every restaurant in Ottawa knows the message. The email subject line, the DM in “requests,” the polite but confident opener: “We’d love to collaborate.” Sometimes it’s couched in friendly language, sometimes it’s blunt. The ask is always the same — free food, in exchange for “exposure.” Influencers have

In Ottawa, the Chef is Actually Here

In the major dining capitals, it’s almost a given: the chef whose name is on the door isn’t the one behind the stove. Toronto, New York, Montreal—these cities run on the cult of personality. The chef is a brand, the restaurant a satellite orbiting that brand. Diners

The Price of a Cocktail Seat

Ottawa used to be a place where a cocktail bar was just that — a place for drinks. You’d slip onto a stool, order something stiff, and maybe get a bowl of spiced nuts if you were lucky. Dinner was elsewhere. Now, bars are asking for something more. The lines

A Love Letter to Mello’s

It is often said that the sting of an untimely loss will soften over time. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. This one still hurts. The restaurant had eras. Early years were shaped by the 24/7 opening hours and the ebb and flow of clients overlapping from post-bar

The Cult of Sharp: Inside Knifewear Ottawa

If you've ever stepped into Knifewear on Bank Street, you know it isn’t just a store—it’s a shrine. The walls are lined with steel that gleams under warm lights, each blade a sculpture, each handle carved with the quiet precision of centuries-old craft. This isn’

Service Without a Smile

There was a time when dining out meant walking into a room and being met with a smile — a small acknowledgment that you were welcome, expected, maybe even wanted. Now, in some of Ottawa’s busiest dining rooms, that warmth has been replaced by something cooler, more deliberate. The host

The Menu’s Emotional Support Ingredient

Every restaurant has one. That garnish or seasoning that sneaks into half the dishes on the menu, whether it’s the star or not. It’s there for comfort, colour, or to whisper “yes, this dish belongs here.” Sometimes it’s pickled. Sometimes it’s sprinkled. Sometimes it’s a

The Ottawa Cocktail Arms Race

There was a time when ordering a cocktail meant a bartender quietly stirring or shaking, then setting a drink in front of you that was meant to be… well, drunk. These days, in certain Ottawa bars, you might get a tableside pyrotechnics show, a fog bank that rivals the Rideau

Nice Room, Shame About the Food

Some restaurants feel like they were built in reverse. You walk in and everything’s just right. The lighting glows like a candle through honey. The playlist hums with perfectly curated cool. The wine list has skin contact. The chairs are just expensive enough to make you sit taller. And

The Ottawa Foodie Starter Pack

Every city has one—the unspoken starter kit that says, “I’m in the know.” In Ottawa, it’s a select lineup of dishes, drinks, and dining rooms that you post once, and voilà—you’re officially on the scene. The usual suspects: A kale salad at Supply & Demand,

The ByWard Market Masquerade

Step into the ByWard Market and you could be anywhere in the marketing brochure version of Ottawa. A crush of patios spilling into cobblestones. Buskers strumming the same three songs. Neat rows of peaches and corn arranged for a lens rather than a saucepan. It’s the postcard image: bright,

The Open Kitchen Stare

They told you it was for transparency. A peek behind the curtain. “Guests love seeing the action,” the architect says, while sketching a pass that’s more catwalk than kitchen. The truth? It’s branding. It’s theatre without the union breaks. The sizzle, the flames, the brushed steel—it

The Pre-Meal Lecture

Before the first bite, there is the briefing. Tonight’s bread is not to be touched until the sommelier completes their pairing description. The kitchen requests you consume course three in one bite—but not before they explain the three-day koji cure, the ethical provenance of the duck, and the