Fancy Pants Eats

Fraser Restaurant

Address: 7 Springfield Rd, Ottawa
Hours: 5 – 9pm (Tue); 11:30am – 2pm, 5 – 9pm (W – F); 10am – 2pm, 5 – 9pm (Sat – Sun); closed Mon
Website: https://fraserrestaurant.ca/

 

After over five years of living in Ottawa, I’d eaten at many, many restaurants. Dare I say more places than most people who have lived their whole lives here. However, one glaring omission was a restaurant that has been a fixture in New Edinburgh for over a decade – Fraser.

Tucked away just off Beechwood on Springfield, the space at Fraser has a mix of vibes; from bright window seats to their well-appointed bar, things felt cozy without being cramped.

Fruits 'n' 'Sciut - layers of thinly-cut prosciutto on a white plate, topped with bits of pistachio and dribbles of honey and pesto - Fraser Restaurant

The menu is all quite shareable, and my wife and I took full advantage of it.

Our meal started out with the cutely-named Fruits ‘n’ ‘Sciut. Delicate folds of whisper-thin prosciutto were layered on top of slices of juicy, local peaches, and all topped off with pistachios, pesto and honey. This wasn’t French-royal-court level of complexity, but damn was it good. Sweet, salty and savoury, it was an excellent first bite to whet our appetites.

It wouldn’t be a summer menu without a crudité, and we jumped right on board this bandwagon. Pieces of local cucumber, carrots, radishes, zucchini and more were there for the dipping in a very tasty cashew hummus.

Crudite - cashew hummus with a assortment of fresh veg for dipping, on a white plate and lightly coloured wood table - Fraser Restaurant

For our mains, I went with a dish that was a very “me” thing, although I did share – the pork belly pogo. Pogos are a common sight at the many chip wagons and casse-croûtes in the region, but I guarantee you won’t be getting ones as good as Fraser’s. Hunks of melt-in-your-mouth-tender pork belly were ensconced in a fluffy-on-the-inside, crisp-on-the-outside batter. Paired up with slices of seasonal peach and a green tomato sauce, the dirty shame of roadside pogos is miles away from this dish.

A close up shot of the pork belly pogo - the pogo is colourfully topped with cilantro, fresh jalapeno and peach, and cute little edible flowers, while sitting in a green tomato salsa - Fraser Restaurant

My wife’s main of BBQ hen was another winner, with the fowl legs getting a nice char and smokiness from their charcoal grilling, while a salad of green mango and crisp bits of shredded kohlrabi balanced out the plate.

BBQ hen - Fraser Restaurant A grilled half hen has a pleasant amount of char from its grilling, while resting on top a salad of shredded kohlrabi and green mango, while topped with cilantro and a vibrantly pink-purple edible flower

Dessert options were limited to three, but with how good they sounded, it was still hard to choose! In the end, we went with the PB&J doughnut, and the ginger and peach crisp.

The doughnut was the definition of a decadent delight, with a peanut butter cream filling, torched marshmallow topping and a raspberry sauce to pour over it all. Somehow, it was even better than it sounded!

PB&J doughnut - Fraser Restaurant A doughtnut is topped with a mount of torched marshmallow, with gives it a golden brown colour, with a sprinkling of chopped peanuts sit around it on the small black plate. A tiny pitcher of raspberry sauce for pouring over the doughnut sits just to the back right of the plate.

Our second dessert had a hard act to follow, but the mix of textures and flavours was fantastic. A shatteringly crisp shell, airy whipped cream, and fresh peaches completing a trifecta for us, plus a lightly savoury, toasted crumble – what more could you want?!

Ginger and peach crisp - Fraser Restaurant A directly overhead view of the dessert. Candied slices of yellow peaches are topped with a crumble, fresh blueberries and red flower petals, with all of that sitting on a crisp shell and smooth whipped cream.

Service was impressively thorough in their knowledge of all the menus and seeing to our meal.

On a long weekend of staycation indulgence, our dinner at Fraser was the culinary highlight.