Address: 853 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa Hours: 4:30 – 9:30pm (Wed – Sun) Website: https://coconutlagoon.ca/ Before I moved back to Nova Scotia, I made certain restaurants a priority to visit, and Coconut Lagoon was on top of that list. I’d never made it to this east-end restaurant before, and I was all the more glad to come by once […]
Address: 55 Montréal Rd, Vanier Hours: 7am – 2pm (daily) Website: https://fontenellerestaurant.ca/ It took a while for me to make it to this Vanier institution, but I figured that since it’s been open since 1960 (!!), it probably wasn’t leaving any time soon. My first time there came on a pre-holiday morning in December, just after the morning […]
Address: 1563 Bank St, Ottawa Hours: 12 – 8pm (Tue – Thu), 12 – 9pm (Fri), 12:30 – 9pm (Sat), closed Sun – Mon Website: https://www.margorestaurant.com/ This takeout-only spot in Ottawa South is Margo’s second location, along with the mothership up in Lowertown. It had only opened weeks before I tried it out last year, but with the […]
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 […]
Address: 1365 Wellington St. W, Ottawa Hours: 6am – 2pm (M – F); closed Sat & Sun Website: https://www.johnsdiner.ca/ Maybe you’ve never been to John’s Family Diner, but if you’ve ever been through Wellington Village, you’ve seen the mural of the founder and namesake of this old school diner that’s been in the neighbourhood for nearly 50 years. On […]
Address: 319 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa Hours: 11am – 8:30pm (Wed – Sun) Website: https://idrissmediterranean.com/ My first (and only) time at Idriss came about when our original target for dinner was full, and we were able to snag one of the few remaining tables in this small Algerian restaurant. We ended up ordering enough food that our two-person […]
Address: 261 Centrepoint Dr, Ottawa Hours: 12 – 8pm (M – Th), 12 -8:30pm (F – Sat), 12:30 – 7:30pm (Sun) Website: https://www.lilnegril.com/ For a traditional post-blood donation meal, I headed further west to Lil Negril in the heart of Centrepoint, where the Jamaican restaurant is located in a strip mall with legendary dumpling maker, Dumpling? Dumpling! The interior […]
Address: 2560 Bank St (food truck); brick and mortars: 714 Gladstone Ave and 585 Montreal Road Hours: varies between locations Website: https://alloutburger.com/ Green factor (food truck): garbage can on site, no recycling; paper and foil wrapper for burgers Back in 2021, All Out Burger took over the food trailer that had been successfully run by No Forks Given. They […]
Address: 1696 Carling Ave, Ottawa Hours: 12 – 9:30pm (Sun – Tue, Thu), closed Wed, 12 – 10pm (Fri – Sat) Website: https://pitabellkabab.com/ After seeing rave reviews of Pita Bell Kabab for years, I finally got to try them out as part of my birthday weekend back in the fall. I have to admit that a big part of the […]
Address: 96 Preston St, Ottawa Hours: 4pm – midnight (Tue); 11am – midnight (Wed – Sun); closed Monday Website: https://www.pubwells.com/ When trying to decide on an easy-going, post-dinner locale for a drink and a snack, my wife and I ended up at neighbourhood pub, Pubwells. The bar underwent renovations in recent years and while I’m not aware of the […]