In this feature, Apt613 asks blog contributors and local food lovers about their recent Ottawa area restaurant highlights to help you find new tasty treats to discover or revisit when someone inevitably asks, “Where do you want to eat?” We want to hear about something that you ate and loved! Leave comments below, and if you’d like to contribute to a future edition of Best Bites, email <editors@apt613.ca>.
Best Bites this week:
- Café Deluxe (200 Kent St)
- Natural History ( 835 Somerset W)
- Second Wife (511 Bank St)
If you’re in Centretown and looking for a tasty lunch at a good price, look no further than Café Deluxe. Tucked inside an office tower at 200 Kent Street (you can enter off of Laurier Avenue West), Café Deluxe is one of my favourite places to grab a sandwich or afternoon treat. Everything is made fresh in-house and the quality shines through. Daily hot specials, grab and go items, and freshly grilled paninis cost around $8-14.
Breakfast sandwiches are between $5-$7. Specialty coffee drinks as well as drip coffee and tea are available along with cold beverages in a self-serve cooler. On recent visits, I’ve picked up a smoked meat sandwich as well as a turkey cheddar sandwich: both were grilled to order on a panini press and served warm. The sandwiches are nicely filled and made with delicious ingredients. There are also vegetarian and vegan options including a fully loaded veggie and feta sandwich and vegan wraps.
Café Deluxe cookies. Photo Hannah Manning
While the breakfast and lunch options are worth a visit, the real star of Café Deluxe is their cookies. According to their website, they bake hundreds of cookies fresh each morning. Coming for lunch? Add a cookie! Need an afternoon pick me up? Cookie! Office potluck you forgot to cook for? Cookies!
In addition to a bustling restaurant, you may have seen their catering deliveries being delivered around town by bike. Café Deluxe is open Monday to Thursday from 7am-3pm and from 7am-2pm on Fridays. They’re closed over the weekend. There is seating inside as well as seasonal outdoor picnic benches.
-Hannah Manning
For the last year-(ish) I’ve been monitoring the construction progress of a mysterious new hotspot in Chinatown, and this spring, Natural History finally opened up and I knew I had to check it out. The vibes in the natural history museum inspired hangout are immaculate, with fun taxidermy, books, maps, ships in bottles crammed everywhere you look, funky low lighting and eclectic furniture.
The menu is small, but has a great selection of smaller snacks, sandwiches, and sharing dishes. Everything comes out on a school cafeteria tray, in plastic baskets bringing back major concession stand/cafeteria nostalgia. The cocktail list is interesting, with funky signature cocktails, a great wine list, and a wide selection of beers both local, and imported. The non-alcoholic selection is also creative, which is great to see.
Natural History. Latkes, Smoked salmon, olives. Photo Kiersten Vuorimaki
The potato latkes are dense, and flavourful. Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, they come with heaps of both sour cream and apple sauce, for $9 they are a nicely filling snack. I also ordered the smoked salmon, which came with Ritz crackers, beet horseradish, dill, capers and cream cheese, perfect for sharing. The diner-style basket of crackers and fish was only $12, and was a bright, salty treat to go with the wine and cocktails we were having.
For snackers on a budget, you can get a whole little bowl of about 20 fresh olives for only $1. The menu definitely has Eastern European vibes, but I do know they keep testing new dishes, so who knows what else they will be trying. The food was fresh, and service was quick, friendly and relaxed. They don’t take reservations, but it’s worth waiting around for a table. They are open Tuesday-Saturday 6pm-2am.
-Kiersten Vuorimaki
Second Wife Indian Restaurant boasts a feature so special in Centretown that they list it prominently on their website: their own parking lot. Amazing. This makes it really easy to plan a night out, or order ahead, pick up your hot meal, and get it home with no Bank Street parallel parking drama. Their menu is extensive, hitting all the expected Indian classics, and you can order online from their website.
Recently a friend and I decided to try them out, and it was such a fantastic experience that I have to tell all of you about it. The garlic naan was enormous, and absolutely slathered with fresh green garlic for only $3.75 it was a good size for sharing. The larger curry dishes for sharing were all around $18.50 with generous huge pieces of meat. The chicken Kadahi was rich, with fresh vegetables and a dense flavourful sauce, while the Coconut chicken was fresh and light, and only a little bit sweet. We got extra hot chilies on the side and making the Coconut spicy was the right move. I’ve rarely met a Tikka Masala that I don’t love, and this one was bright, and creamy.
Second Wife Indian Restautant. Photo from website
As someone blessed with lactose intolerance, Indian food is always a bit of a challenge. I called the restaurant with questions about ingredients in the dishes, and how to make them mostly dairy free but not vegan, without being limited in my order (I hate doing this. I hate being that person). The very friendly staff member talked me through each dish I was interested in, and assured me they could easily make the changes, and make each dish authentic and delicious. I was impressed with his patience, and in depth knowledge about their cooking methods. We discussed spice levels, and flavour profiles, and I never felt like an inconvenience (I have made many of these awkward calls over the years). I picked up our meal, and each dish was luscious, flavourful, distinct and just as we had discussed. The food was exactly what we expected, and the customer experience was top notch.
-Kiersten Vuorimaki
We want to hear about something that you ate and loved! Leave comments below, and if you’d like to contribute to a future edition of Best Bites, email <editors@apt613.ca>.
