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:
- East India Company (210 Somerset West, 1993 Robertson Rd)
- Dukes (40 Adeline St)
- Art-Is-In ( 250 City Centre)
The Centretown location of East India Company is one of three in Canada (the others are in Bells Corners and Winnipeg) and one of my favourite spots in town to enjoy delicious curries, fresh naan, and mouth-watering vegetable dishes. We always order the Chicken 65 (an East India Company dish featuring a house blend of tandoori marinade, curry leaves, and green chilies) and pick up a veggie dish or two: chana masala (chickpea curry) and gobhi aloo (cauliflower and potatoes) are amongst our most ordered dishes. The fresh naan is excellent for soaking up any sauce on our plates!
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East India Company is known for its lunch and dinner buffets, but their food travels well for takeout (and is delicious as leftovers the next day). Over the years, we’ve tried a number of their bottled sauces when cooking at home: butter chicken is always a hit! If you like something sweet to end your meal, I recommend trying the gulab jaman: round, soft cake pieces soaked in rosewater cardamom syrup.
-Hannah Manning
When we heard that the brilliant minds at Corner Peach were opening a chill, brunch-kinda-diner space in Little Italy last summer, we knew it would be a hit. I’ve gone to Dukes a few times now, and everything is fresh, fun, perfection. The highlight for me is the breakfast sandwich because I like what I like. And this girl would kill for a breakfast sandwich at any point in the day, every day. Dukes’ is a fun balance of classic and innovative. Bacon, scrambled eggs and processed cheese are lovingly tucked into a super soft potato bun, with a sweet, creamy secret special sauce and tangy pickles. I’ve never had pickles on my breakfast, but now I’m hooked.
Sandwiches can be ordered alone, or with salad, or fries. Naturally, I get salad and fries, for $19. The fries are hand-cut and thick. The salad is a refreshing burst of mixed greens in a salty, savoury, tangy dressing as the perfect balance for the rich sandwich and starchy fries. In the photos, my two friends also got (enormous) sandwiches with fries and salad and we agreed that the dressing was a delicious surprise. The chocolate fridge cake comes right from Corner Peach and is the perfect way to end the meal.
Dukes. Photo:Kiersten Vuorimaki
The drink menu is extensive, with beers, cocktails and wine on top of a great coffee and soda list. The Crodino spritz is a non-alcoholic Italian aperitif spritz, which was greatly enjoyed at our table as an alternative to the classic Aperol spritz. Dukes is open seven days a week now, 9am-3pm, so it’s perfect for your weekday brunch/lunching needs.
-Kiersten Vuorimaki
Art-Is-In Bakery has been one of the best places to get great bread and baked goods in town for quite a while now. When they expanded to offer sourdough pizzas a few years ago, they made themselves unstoppable. What started as a limited-time-only offering, pizzas are now available nearly every day, for lunch and/or dinner. The sourdough crust has the perfect amount of flavour and chewiness with occasional big air bubbles and sprinkled sesame seeds for extra crunch. The sauce is fresh and a bit sweet, and the pizza is so thin and crispy on the bottom, but chewy along the edges. The toppings are creative and generous. My favourite regular menu pizza is the Hipster Pepperoni with small crispy pepperoni, Pecorino Romano cheese and fresh basil.
Some of the best specials have included the carmelized peach and prosciutto pie, and the meat lovers with hot ham, maple fennel sausage, capers and chives. Their meatball spaghetti pizza is also a huge crowd-pleaser. Pizzas come in two sizes, starting around $25 for a small (12 inches) and $40 for a large (18 inches). On Thursday nights they offer Detroit deep-dish pizza, which sounds fantastic and will be the next thing I try there. They have veggie and vegan options on the menu with cashew cheese and roasted veggies, if meat or dairy isn’t your thing. The caesar salad is huge, fresh and delicious, and goes perfectly with the pizzas.
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Pizzas are available to order for take out or enjoy on Tuesday and Wednesday 11am-3pm and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday after 12pm. Thursday from 6-8pm is “Pizza Night” with specials and live music, if you’re looking for a fun night out. The vibes are casual, and there is ample seating and parking, which is rare downtown. Take a delicious pastry home for dessert! You can also order online through Uber Eats to make it even easier to get it to your door.
-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>.
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