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:
- Lapointe Street Food (46a Byward Market Square)
- Headquarters ( 113 Clarence)
- All Out Burger ( 3091 Strandherd, 585 Montreal, 714 Gladstone, 2560 Bank, 951 Notre-Dame St Embrun)
This summer, if you’ve been wandering around the market you might have noticed that classic Ottawa fishmongers Lapointe Seafood have added a new small takeout counter next door to their shop. I took myself out for a picnic in the park recently and decided to give it a shot.
The small, bright location has a few stools to eat inside if that catches your fancy. Lapointe Street Food‘s menu is small, with burgers, chicken fingers and poutines in addition to their fish and chips. For $16 I got the choice of cod or halibut, with a very generous serving of crunchy fries and coleslaw. The single piece of fish is enormous, with a lovely flaky batter, fried to juicy perfection. I also ordered the calamari on a whim and was delighted at the thick cut, crispy rings of fresh calamari.
The service was friendly and efficient, and it only took 10 minutes for my order to be all packed up and ready to go. I took it to Major’s Hill Park to enjoy on a bench with the sunset. They offer milkshakes and have a fridge full of cold drinks to take away as well.
Lapointe’s Street food. Photo: Kiersten Vuorimaki
If the burgers and poutine are half as good as the fish, this place is a gold mine. This little hole in the wall doesn’t have its own online presence, so I’ve linked their Uber Eats menu, which doesn’t reflect the in-store prices, but would easily get these fish and chips to your house!
One of the most satisfying foods out there is the breakfast sandwich. Hands down one of my favourite things to order for brunch, I am always looking for the next great sammy. On the hunt for brunch and good coffee on a patio recently, the girls and I ended up at Head Quarters on Clarence.
I ordered the breakfast sandwich with the burnt honey latté, which was a very interesting surprise. The honey was brûléed, giving it a fun sweet crust, making for a very delicious and unconventional coffee. The breakfast sandwich was classic, with 2 fried eggs, huge strips of maple bacon, sharp cheddar, ketchup and topped with fresh chives and pea shoots which was a lovely, light touch.
HQ Breakfast Sandwich and burnt honey latte. Photo: Kiersten Vuorimaki
The brunch menu at HQ is impressive and gourmet, but they really nail this $12 sandwich with lots of flavour. The bread choices were sublime, with challah, marble rye, white sourdough, focaccia and gluten free bread as options. I went with challah, and it was the perfect sweet, fluffy base for the rich sandwich. The fried egg was perfectly done, and the creamy yolk and melty cheese made it a messy and satisfying meal. Next time I’m going to have to try the fried chicken & croffles.
Local burger franchise All Out Burger seems to be taking over the city, and with good reason. I’ve lived around the corner from one for a few years now and it’s the perfect place to grab a classic chip truck style burger on the way home for dinner. They started as a chip truck, so the pedigree is legit.
The menu is extensive with all kinds of beef burgers (all halal) and fried chicken sandwiches, as well as hot dogs, fried appetizers and poutines. The halloumi fries are a stand out specialty, as a delicious cross between fried curds and mozzarella sticks. The burgers are all excellent, what can I say? I’m old school and always go for the Bacon Burger, which is cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup and mayo on a juicy 6 0z beef patty.
The combo includes hand-cut fries and a pop for $17.95. It’s a lot of food for one person, so I recommend having a friend nearby who likes to steal your fries. The burgers are consistent across the city, and the locations are all clean and bright. You can eat-in at most of them, place your order online to pick up, or just roll in and out quickly. The mozzarella burger with a fried mozza patty looks like the next one I’m going to try—unless I go all in on the Heat Burger with queso, jalapeños and guac.
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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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