Articles Tagged ‘Best Restaurants’
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011: The Best Restaurants Issue
THE BEST RESTAURANTS ISSUE
Food editor Shawna Wagman’s Top 10 Restaurants List
* The Theme: Ideas on the Plate
* The Premise: Dining has moved into a new era where respect for culinary tradition and home cooking collides with vanguard ideas. This seaon, the best meals are coming out of kitchens where the chefs excel at experimenting while keeping it real
* Bon appétit!
Top Ten Restaurants 2010
Is fine dining dead? The city’s most buzzed-about restaurants are serving up a convivial atmosphere and refined dishes that take local and seasonal cooking to new heights.
In 2007, Frenchman Yannick Anton took over the reins as executive chef of Le Cordon Bleu’s restaurant, Signatures. That same year the CAA/AAA recognized it as a five-diamond restaurant — the highest and most coveted symbol of excellence for fine dining in North America. Just one year later the Sandy Hill crown jewel shut down for what was billed as a mini-facelift. And, like the secretive French woman who returns from her weekend getaway looking decades younger, the acclaimed culinary classroom emerged with little fanfare in November 2009 with new radiance, a new attitude and, judging by the new clientele, fewer wrinkles. It had a newfangled name as well: Le Cordon Bleu Bistro @ Signatures. With its sunny yellow walls, contemporary tableware sans tablecloth, and servers empowered to make wine suggestions as well as small talk, Signatures bid adieu to its seven-course marathon meal; its dark, sombre dining room; its sommelier and 40-page wine list; and the decadent white-glove and silver-bell service. Gone is the $45 main course, and in its place, there’s a three-course prix fixe lunch menu for $25.
Best Restaurants 2009
The top 10 places to eat right now. Plus an insider’s guide to 16 additional must-try eateries.
Scientists will tell you that which separates us from all the other beasties is the opposable thumb and conceptual thought. I think that what really makes us different from your average bear is that we cook our food. I braise, therefore I am.
I sweet potato, therefore I yam (sorry, couldn’t help myself). There is a direct anthropological link between when we began to char and when our brains got bigger and our jaws got smaller (easier to chew and digest a sabre-toothed bunny rabbit once it was spit-roasted and served up with a side of frog). The other big whoop on the evolutionary timeline was when we stopped chasing migratory animals and settled down to grow stuff. Give up your nomadic ways, and suddenly you’re building huts to last, latrines, Pilates studios, row housing and suburbs and eventually adding condos with fees. Apparently, maize was all the rage back then: easy to grow, easy to store, lots of serving options. See where I’m going? It’s all about the food, baby. Moses might have spoken to a burning bush, but what he really said was “Who wants theirs medium-rare?” Read the rest of this entry »
Best New Restaurants 2009: The Ones to Watch
FARBS: Prosciutto-wrapped rabbit loin stuffed with five-spiced mushrooms and corn. Fingerling potatoes, baby carrots, yellow and green beans, and star anise jus (Photograph by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde)
Black Cat Bistro
Back from temporary exile on The Rock, chef Steve “The Illustrated Man” Vardy slam-dunks the nosh at Richard Urquhart’s reincarnation of his long-standing uber brand. Ask for a banquette.
428 Preston St., 613-569-9998, blackcatbistro.ca
Le Café
In possibly the best resto location in Ottawa, Le Café has long suffered from the malaise of government-run, unionized, how-do-you-spell-average indifference. In comes innovative, ball-busting super-chef Michael Blackie, who must reconcile tired, bored, and indifferent service staff with his smart, innovative cuisine. When you and I go to the NAC and not to a show, Blackie will have succeeded. Read the rest of this entry »
53 Elgin St., 613-594-5127, nac-cna.ca/en/lecafe
Top Three Places to go for Steak
A 16-ounce New York steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables from Sterling (Photograph by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde)
Mmmmm… steak…red meat. Like fish, a good hunk of beef deserves to be served almost naked — no spices other than salt and pepper, no sauces (or on the side). Great meat and great heat mean carnivore red light at night. It continues to amaze how an elegant and sweet rib steak can be reduced to shoe leather by a wanker grill boy.
Here are the three places you should go for mooo: Read the rest of this entry »
Best Four Eateries that Defy Classification
The dining-out biz in Ottawa has grown to the wonderful point that not every place fits the standard definition/structure we usually assign to restaurants. Here’s a bunch of places that don’t fit the strict ligature of restaurant classification, but that you really should check out.
LE CAFÉ: Chioggia and golden beet root (Photograph by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde)
107 Fourth Avenue Wine Bar
Situated in the middle of the tame and predictable Glebe, bursting with mediocre pubs and Indian restaurants, Fourth Ave. is a great place to go for a cocktail or an exceptional glass of wine in a chill environment. Food? Go for lunch; go for a light dinner. The small steak frites is the best deal in town, and the daily specials are imaginative. 107 Fourth Ave., 613-236-0040, 107, 107fourthavenue.com
Murray Street Kitchen Charcuterie Wine
The best charcuterie in town awaits, paired with smash cheeses and excellent pickled sides. Awesome patio and crazy mojitos. 110 Murray St., 613-562-7244, murraystreet.ca Read the rest of this entry »
Best Restaurants 2008
The top 10 places to eat right now. Plus, an insider’s look at all the up-and-comers poised to knock them down a peg or two next year
Welcome to the top 10 restaurant list for 2008. Dinner for you and yours at any one of these places will be money well spent and an evening well enjoyed. A recent national poll found that 72 per cent of Canadians feel we’re in for tougher times in ’09. That means we’re all hunkering down and your dining-out dollar is going to get stretched even tighter — you deserve quality when you step out for the night. Next to tantric sex and a rousing game of charades (preferably not at the same time), dinner in a great restaurant remains one of life’s most pleasurable and satisfying ways to do something nice for yourself. Read the rest of this entry »
