r/OttawaFood

Looking for a place that sells good tourtieres (meat pie) in Ottawa! Could be fresh or frozen!

I found this portuguese dish quite interesting. Me being a grilled cheese amateur, I wanted to know if anyone knew of a place in or near Ottawa that makes Francesinha's. Toronto has them but I'm not planing on making that trip for food anytime soon. Thanks in advance!

I was visiting last night and the young lady who was serving us told us that tip in the machine does not end up in their pocket .

About a week ago I posted a 1 star review for the Chai Churi Indian restaurant on Carling avenue. My review was removed/reported by them so I figured I repost it here word for word. I’ll let y’all be the judge.

So I went with my sister and friend. We just wanted to get some drinks and maybe a bite to share. We ordered 2 mango lassies, 1 elaichi chai, and their signature in house churi. The mango lassies were beyond mediocre. They tasted like store bought lassi from the bottle.

The churi was more of a halwa texture. Traditional churi should be buttery crumbs that loosely clump together when pressed. The individual roti crumbs should still be noticeable. It’s one thing to use leftover roti or paratha. Another thing to give stale food.

Moving onto the elaichi chai. We saw traditional clay matkas (pots/glasses) and were excited to experience chai with the cup. We’ve had lots in Toronto and even bring back the matkas to collect. While we expect the matkas to have an earthy smell when doused with hot liquid, we did not anticipate a pungent sour scent. We were being gaslit into believing this is how it usually is. A normal properly fired mitti/clay kulhad can give chai a noticeable earthy smell/taste, but it should be more like warm clay/terracotta/petrichor, not foul, manure-like, sour, or rotten.

Additionally, staff were not wearing gloves. Not one person. That’s actually a health code violation.

Initially when we informed them, their reaction was not apologetic - they did however offer a partial refund. We received quite a few looks from their staff who had huddled up after this all occurred. The smell that came from the matka was truly revolting and ruined the rest of our experience.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend. I do appreciate the full refund eventually. And one person did say sorry at the end.

(*edit for Reddit they responded to my friend and sister saying that their reviews were dramatic and fake - and that they deliberately trying to harm a small business. After seeing their comments on the reviews, I edited my original review to include more context and clarity)

Below is the continuation.

Additionally, in their response to my sister and friend, they state that we left a “dramatic fake review” - we’re simply sharing our experiences. The man behind the counter himself admitted that the kulhad/matka smell is strong but tried to justify and gaslight saying that’s how it’s supposed to be. Unfortunately, we happened to know what we’re talking about when it comes to this. It’s not about hurting a small business, you guys could have simply acknowledged that something didn’t go right and tried to move on and make the experience better for the next person, however you decided to respond by accusing your customers of being dramatic and leaving fake reviews. You may not have felt that you were rude but that’s what it came across when 4 staff members were huddled giving us looks from behind the counter.

I’ve described the food and drinks as I felt reasonable - which as previously mentioned above, we did taste. We each took a sip of our drinks. And each had a small bite of the churi. It was only the chai we could not stomach to touch due to the pungent odour. So we did in fact taste it - and therefore reserve the right to pass judgement on the flavour and experience.

Additionally, we asked for a refund because our food looked as if it were untouched - as in it’s not like we ate and enjoyed and then proceeded to ask for money back. We simply asked for our money back that we wasted on food/service that we did not use.

Again, as previously stated above, I acknowledged that a refund was provided. You however, in your eagerness to respond you seem to have forgotten that you did not return our money without delay - you only wanted to do a partial refund. Nevertheless, I did appreciate the resolve we came to at the end.

It’s not about getting our money back and hurting a small business, it’s about sharing our experiences and allowing others to make informed decisions before they spend their hard earned money on mediocre products or food or service. That is the whole point of reviews - asking for my money was my right, as is my leaving a review.

Also regarding your comment about dishonesty in the other post, I’d say it’s borderline robbery to sell Maggie noodles, which is 44 cents btw, for over $10 per dish.

EDIT AFTER I WAS CORRECTED: Fair, I’ll take the L on the glove part, I genuinely thought gloves were required when handling ready-to-eat food, so that was my mistake and I’ll correct it. But that was honestly more of a side note.

I’ve had soooo many matka chais and this one was just gross. Their signature churi tasted stale, and several other people have had similar complaints about the food. They’re also selling a 44¢ pack of Maggi for $10 😭

Being wrong about the glove rule doesn’t suddenly make everything else I experienced untrue.

What are some good and quick lunch spots in Bell’s Corners? I’ve only ever been to Smash Daddy in this area, looking for some decent regular options during the work day.

UPDATE: Power Ranking based on thread comments. Thanks, everyone!

Restaurant / Spot	Cuisine / Style
Vera’s Burger Shack	Burgers
Mexigo Cabana	Mexican
Ad Mare Seafood Truck	Seafood / Fish & Chips
Nouna’s Bakery & Cafe	Deli / Sandwiches
Duke Fine Foods	European Deli
Mama Mai Vietnamese Kitchen	Vietnamese
Sukhothai	Thai
Thai Flame	Thai
Desi Tadka	Indian
Welcome Back Chinese Restaurant	Chinese
Whiprsnapr Brewing Co.	Brewery / Pizza
Fat Sisters Falafels	Middle Eastern / Falafel
Al-Rayiss Bakery	Lebanese Bakery
Maria’s Food House	Filipino
Mort’s Pub & Pizza	Pub / Pizza
Brew Table	Pub / American
T&T Chip Truck	Chip Truck / Fast Food
iCook Pho You	Vietnamese / Pho
K Fresh	Afro-Caribbean
Mongolian Express	Mongolian / Stir-Fry
Edo Japan	Japanese / Teriyaki
Scotty’s Corner Diner	Diner

Any recommendations for good Indian restaurants in Ottawa. I love Sundari kitchen but want to try something else.

I have heard generally speaking that you can just ask a butcher for bones, frozen or refrigerated, language to ask for is “soup bones”? Does anyone have any experience with this with our Ottawa butchers?

I frequent Dumouchel’s and Lavergne’s, but willing to travel, if relevant. Bones intended for homemade stocks and broths.

Also curious if anyone’s ever asked Costco or Farmboy meat section.

I know I can contact these places myself, and I will. Just looking for any personal experiences first. Thank you!

Edit: To be clear, 100% going to be paying for them! Not looking for free.

https://preview.redd.it/d5959tcbecth1.png?width=1536&format=png&auto=webp&s=6775d4a3b7c444c5db084534ba27a819b6751e46

I was excited to see a late night coffee shop open, especially with the closure of Every Person, but my god this place is terrible. I went twice, once about a week after it opened, and the barista was clueless about what they had in stock for breakfast. I tried to order 3 different pre-made items (like chia seed pudding and overnight oats), which they did not have. She also put my vanilla syrup on the top of my iced latte, which I didn't realize, so all the syrup was gone in a few sips. I excused this because they'd only been open for a few days. Last night my friend and I went and the barista had zero idea of what she was doing. My friend asked how much milk was in the latte, she didn't know. I asked if the iced tea was made in house, she didn't know what that meant. I asked again with a different phrasing and the barista said "we boil the water here". I asked what tea options there were and what she'd recommend. She said she'd never had any of the teas, I said "is there any you'd like to try?", she responded that she wanted to try the blue delta, so I said "I'll try the blue delta on your behalf". She also didn't understand what that meant. She goes off to make the tea and my friend's latte, only to tell my friend they don't have enough lactose free milk for the latte. My friend reluctantly accepts the latte being topped off with regular milk (a conversation the barista also had a hard time understanding). When she brings me my iced tea I asked if she has simple syrup. She doesn't know what simple syrup is. I ask if she has liquid sweetener. She turns to her coworker who points to their flavoured syrups, so she turns back to me and says "we have flavoured syrups". I go "okay, so you don't have simple syrup?". She responds "we have flavoured syrups?" . Then I ask again but I instead say liquid sugar and she goes "oh you want sugar?". At that point I knew she was going to get me a packet of sugar, which famously does not dissolve in cold water, so I asked if they had any fruity syrups. They had 4 flavours, none of them fruity. I give up and ask for honey, which the other barista puts in my drink. When I saw him pick up the honey I immediately noticed it was already crystallized. Eventually I get home and try my tea. The honey is all at the bottom in chunks, because it's crystallized and couldn't dissolve.

I am generally a patient person when it comes to food services especially when the cashier/barista is obviously a student learning the ropes. But this place has been open a month now. The barista spoke otherwise fluent English so this was not a language barrier issue, either. The google reviews are misleading, they're either 5 stars or 1 star and the 1 star reviews have responses from the owner saying "we are recently opened, the baristas are learning day by day".

All in all....does anyone know who owns this place? Who trained these baristas? There's so many great coffee shops in the area but none that are open later in the day or on weekends, so I was excited to see this place open but now they've just pissed me off. I gave them a few weeks to work out their kinks but it somehow seems to have only gotten worse.

Has anyone had an actual positive experience there?? I feel like I'm crazy!! I've literally never made a reddit post before so that's how upset I am about this.

Where in Ottawa (preferably the east) can you buy very large uncooked turkey breasts?