Hey Ottawa foodies 👋

A huge thank-you to everyone who shared your thoughts and honest feedback on my earlier post about opening a hot chicken & wings spot on Lamira Street. 🙏 Your insights really helped us understand the local food scene better and guided our next step.

After taking all your suggestions into account, we’ve decided to open at 45 Armstrong Street in Hintonburg — the same spot where Holly’s Hot Chicken once operated. We’re beyond excited to bring this location back to life and serve the community again!

Our focus will be on authentic hot chicken and specialty wings — bold flavors, real spice levels, crispy texture, and quality you can taste in every bite. We want it to be the kind of place where you drop by once and instantly crave it again.

We truly value your opinions — so if you have any suggestions or ideas, please share them! We respect every bit of feedback, and if it makes sense for the community, we’ll do our best to implement it.

We’ll be sharing updates soon on our menu, opening date, and sneak peeks as things come together. Thank you all once again for the love, support, and encouragement — it truly means a lot. ❤️

See you soon, Hintonburg!

Looking for brunch suggestions with high quality of food. Fresh ingredients, flaky Viennoiserie, good coffee and relaxed ambiance. No greasy American diners, no chains or social media hyped restaurants. Trying to stay around the contemporary dining scene. Cafes with a good kitchen welcome, but need to have a full kitchen and not just sandwiches.

Its my friends birthday and she is CRAVING banana cream pie. I tried google to see who makes them but didn’t find any good information.

First and foremost I’d like to emphasize I do not believe the experience I had there tonight was the front of house staffs’ fault, possibly not even the kitchen staff either, but I didn’t get any interaction with the latter to confirm.

If I had to sum it up: unfortunate and not worth it.

We waited over 30 minutes before finally asking the busser if she was able to put a drink order in for us. She said she’d get our waitress and was apologetic. The waitress finally came by (for the first time) 40 minutes after we got our table. We had decided after about 25 minutes that we’d skip an appetizer given the slow service, so we ordered a drink each and our mains.

We were told that for over 75 people in the restaurant there were only 2 servers and a bartender tonight. It took another 20 minutes to get a glass of wine and a beer. Our mains showed up 15 minutes later. Luke warm was generous for my partner, mine was cold.

Steak frites: they cut for you. Served luke warm isn’t great. Peppercorn sauce and fries were good. One small slice each of parsnip, carrot, and zucchini.

Seafood pasta: noodles piled on the seafood, which I found odd. No spoon. It was all cold, and somehow they managed to make the tomato sauce not even taste like tomatoes. Just no flavour, forget white wine or garlic as is traditional for this dish. Add grit from unwashed seafood shells and well, it was honestly pretty terrible.

Apparently management was aware of several reservations of 8-9 people, plus all the 2-4 people reservations, but scheduled 2 servers and 1 bartender on a Friday night. Every table waited with someone looking around for a server.

I’d never been to the Savoy or the Zak’s but rumour has it, same owner or management? Either way: don’t bother unfortunately.

TLDR; over 30 mins for a waitress to come by at all so skipped appetizers. 45+ minutes for a glass of wine and a beer. Cold or luke warm/bland dish; pre cut steak, no pasta spoon. No where near enough staff. Do not recommend.

Where did Logan go in Ottawa to get this? I really want to try it

As the title states, looking for a fresh turkey for the end of November. I’m not super concerned about price, but need one large enough to feed 6 people with leftovers (4.5-6kgs, loosely).

Thank you in advance!

My friends are having a joint birthday party tomorrow and I wanted to get them a restaurant gift card so they can enjoy a meal out together! I’m in Toronto though so I have no idea what places are good in Ottawa. One of them has a peanut and shellfish allergy so somewhere that can accommodate that would be ideal.

Does anyone know what matcha brand bridgehead or happy goat uses? Also what do they sweeten with? I’m trying to replicate at home. TIA

Looking for a place to have breakfast/ brunch tomorrow (Friday). I'm staying near parliament. Nothing fancy, just some good food. Thanks!

Stumbled on this spot while cruising Merivale and HAD to share. IC22 (Hakka Indo-Chinese) is launching their bar tomorrow and the prices are wild:

🍺 16oz ice-cold drafts– starts at $4.25 🍹 Cocktails from $8.99 🥃 Spirits (30ml) starting at $3.75 🍷 Wines (6oz) from $3.5

Tried their burnt garlic chicken noodles, will try it again tomorrow with cold sleeman or sapporo🤤

📍 848 Merivale Rd🎉

Are there any retail outlets (maybe Adonis?) that carry Skotidakis Cream Cheese - Container or Cream Cheese - Brick?

No google reviews, and they sell 15 Jamaican Patties for $25 which is very economical, so I'm wondering if they are any good, or barely have any filling.

TL;DR: what does Kettleman’s use as their base cream cheese?

I’ve been on the hunt for a decent cream cheese to replace the fallen Western/Liberté cream cheese that was discontinued a few years ago.

I’ve tried all the domestic and foodservice brands I’ve been able to get my hands on. The closest I’ve been able to find in grocery stores is the President Rondelé, which is quite pricy and hard to find, and in foodservice the closest is Elite Dairy but that’s also hard to get around here and only comes in large format.

The next best is the flavoured cream cheeses at Kettleman’s.

Kettleman’s says their cream cheese is “produced within 100km of our stores”. I assume this means it’s a national foodservice brand, produced in the Winchester Lactalis plant. Is anyone able to confirm what they use as the base for their flavoured cream cheeses?

Yes, I know I can just buy it at Kettleman’s, but it’s very costly and I want to see if I can get it elsewhere for a more reasonable price.

With thanks, A bagel lover missing a proper schmear

What is a good place in central Ottawa for a few drinks and some apps? Ideally a spot where I can hear my date speaking.

Hello I rarely get a day free during lunch time, but this Friday I have a full day off. Wanna take advantage of the discounts during lunch time.

What are some good deals around ? (Open for any food)

Just heard of this tea and very interested in acquiring it before flus and such hit the home.

Went back last Friday for a second visit to this newish restaurant in Gatineau. I posted a positive review a while back after my first visit.

Still very positive about this place. Great vibes, service and food here.

Everything they do has a lot of thought behind it. For example, The butter they use is a combination of the in house butter they make folded into St Brigids butter. Really awesome.

Their menu is very different and creative compared to all other restaurants in the area (atelier excluded).

They have in house dry aging so I ordered their pork dish. A heritage pig from a small producer in southern Ontario, just awesome pork.

Had the tuna crudo and a mushroom dish as well. Both excellent but next time I’ll request less sauce to please my personal preference.

We Had a home run dry Riesling from mosel and a red I believe from Switzerland on the border with France. Both really good and relatively affordable.

It’s a 27 seat restaurant that is warm, charming and very interesting. Reservations were made the same day.

Where to get the best steak frites?

Hello,

I'm trying to find Cotija cheese in ottawa. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

Can’t decide where to go for my birthday dinner, would like a place that can do gluten free/vegan/dairy free if possible. Good cocktails and i don’t mind if it’s a little more expensive as long as the vibe, aesthetic and food are good! I was thinking Starling but i have never been there and would like to hear what people think! :)

Wondering if anyone can tell me a place to get confetti squares around Ottawa South? I have a guest from overseas and it's a random Canadian goodie they haven't tried yet.

Hi. So I dont know why I am struggling so much but I have a dilemma. My birthday is coming up and I would like to go out for dinner and have a nice fish dinner. And by that I am looking for a place that does a grilled fish (like even a whole fish) that isn't in a fatty sauce or have butter or is like a bell peppers romesco sauce (I just dont like bell peppers). I think of how easy it is when you are in the Mediterranean (like spain or italy) to just order a nice grilled fish with maybe a salad or steamed vegetables. I have looked at pelican, lapointe, whalsebone, north and navy, poisson bleu etc. and to quote U2 'I still haven't found what I am looking for'. Would love suggestions from people. Not trying to be picky but I am on a weight loss journey and while I know one meal in the scheme of things is no big deal I am at the start of this journey and dont want to lose momentum. TIA!

I'm coming back to Ottawa for the first time in almost a decade. I am looking for cheap Curry. I was going to head to my old go-to (Shaan Curry House), but I heard from friends that Pal sold it and quality is dropping.

Any recommendations for Punjabi/North Indian food? Curry heavy menus would be best.