The biggest (and best) Ottawa food surprises in 2022

Welcome to the year-end round-up. What follows is not a “Best of” list as I find such absolutist wording inaccurate and such a compilation is almost impossible to achieve in any case.

Instead, I will give you the biggest surprises of 2022. There are no categories and the list is in no particular order. Sometimes it may be an individual such as a chef, sometimes it was a pizza I was fully expecting to dislike or a destination that left a lasting impression.

Enjoy!

Sans Facon

Located at 253 Blvd. St. Joseph in Gatineau, Sans Facon impresses in a number of ways. Chefs Laurent Chabot and Stephanie Saumur offer beautifully imagined fusion dishes with inspirations from Peru, Mexico and Japan with a foundation of French technique. Both are highly talented individuals and it’s worth traveling there to take a tour of their creations.

The elk tartare at Sans Facon was one of the finest things I’ve enjoyed this year. Luckily this dish is also available as a main course and I certainly stand behind the idea.

The food is first rate but you will also be impressed by both the wine selection and fair pricing. If you’re a cocktail enthusiast you will find plenty to enjoy with drinks that are unique and priced better than lesser Ottawa counterparts.

Belle Verte and Moringa

It’s a tragedy that Moringa is no longer with us. It was the revelation I needed to show me that vegan cuisine needn’t lack for flavour or inspiration. It was based on Sri Lankan ingredients and tradition and I fell in love with what chef Lushyan was putting into the world and it remains one of the most memorable food experiences of the year.

On the heels of Moringa closing its doors I stumbled into Belle Verte at 166 Eddy St. in Old Hull. Chef and owner Maxine Phillips and her team are creating memorably flavourful and fresh vegan/vegetarian dishes. Their endless stream of customers tells the story and everything is very good.

Get a jar of their house made kimchi to take home but do not leave without trying their lemon/raspberry/chocolate layer torte. It’s entirely dairy free and raw but you wouldn’t know it. It stands amongst the finest desserts this year.

Coconut Lagoon

Fire took this beloved destination from us but it returned this year in a newly invigorated and gorgeous incarnation at 853 St. Laurent Blvd. They no longer offer a lunch service but the menu is newly imagined and the wine list is both stellar and fairly priced.

As you would expect, the menu is superb but the highlight for me was the baked yogurt dessert that Chef Thottungal created. I recall at the time writing “You’ll read it here first: Panna cotta is over” or something to that effect. It was a gastronomic highlight this year.

If you’ve not yet been, why are you torturing yourself?

Pearson St. Smash Burger

This was a reader recommendation and she was spot on in her assessment. It's located at 10 Blais St. in Embrun.

What makes the burgers here stand out is the quality of the beef that they source from local Embrun farmers Gillette Farms. The flavours are big heading in the direction of gamey without being challenging for the average consumer. These burgers get dropped on a luscious potato roll that sumptuously envelops the seared meat (what flavour) as you poise to take your first bite.

Too many places attempt to over-dress a burger trying to re-invent the wheel. A burger may be a humble meal to many folks but leave the darn thing alone by dressing it simply and you get a memorable experience.

Kitchen Maroo

I happened to come across Kitchen Maroo at 710 Gladstone Ave. quite by accident and it's become one of my go-to destinations. There are many reasons why Korean food has won the hearts of Ottawans and you'll get a good lesson in why when you visit Maroo.

As soon as you get that first spoon or forkful into your mouth, you know that chef and owner Yuchang Kim has professional training and decades of experience.

Everything is made from scratch and it shows in his exceptional galbi tang beef broth. His pork cutlets are always moist and tender and his shrimp spring rolls still reign as the finest shrimp rolls I've had in Ottawa.

For clean, deliciously prepared food at a terrific price Kitchen Maroo sets the standard.

Chez Lam

Located in a strip mall at 484 Hazeldean Rd. Chez Lam defies your expectations with Vietnamese food that is a cut above many other Vietnamese eateries throughout the Ottawa region. In fact I went back five times in a two week period just to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

From their various spring rolls to vermicelli bowls and stir-fried dishes, everything was prepared with care and involved the freshest ingredients. Their Pho was very good, contained much less MSG than I expected and the portions were more than fair for the money.

They also took an unusual degree of care in cleanliness. On each visit I found the nozzles on the sriracha and hoisin bottles had been wiped clean. On one occasion I was early enough in the day to find that the bottles at my table were still cold from the refrigerator. That's as it should be.

Maison Oddo

At Quebec's gastronomy awards in 2021, Benjamin Oddo won the top award for best Boulangerie-Patisserie. Someone knows what they are doing because the award is well-deserved.

Located at 260 Bd. Saint Raymond It stands as one of my favourite finds of the year because their sourdough breads are so thoroughly world class and reminded me of the great breads I enjoyed when back in Germany.

Since my article first ran, many of you have discovered this gem and are enjoying not just the breads, but the astonishingly artful pastries such as the lemon tart or the carmelo. I've not found a nicer, more flaky and buttery croissant anywhere in the region and you'll not do better than one of their fine baguette sandwiches if you need a bite for the road home.

The County Bounty

From my meeting with her, Dodie Ellenbogen (founder and chief recipe maverick) struck me as a woman with a refined palate. It was confirmed when I tried a range of her natural sodas. Not only were the combinations delicious, most of her sodas had at least fifty percent less sugar than commercial brands. None of her products suffered in profile for the loss of that sugar.

County Bounty sodas are now more widely available in Ottawa than just nine months ago and they stand out for their quality and their unique flavours.

Havens Creamery

Seemingly out of nowhere this fall, Havens Creamery popped up at 755 Bank St. The space is minimalist in design but the products simply sing. Their cereal milk ice cream would be gulpable if it weren't so supremely dense.

With so many terrific ice cream and gelato places in Ottawa, it's remarkable that Havens was able to impress to this level and it managed, for me, to take a top spot on Ottawa's ice cream map.

Tuk Tuk Thai Cuisine

Far along Bank st. and approximately two kilometres past Findlay Creek, you'll arrive at 5031 Bank St. Here in this remote location you will find Thai food that rivals the best that Ottawa has on offer. In large part because, unlike other Thai restaurants, they don't cater to Canadian palates.

It's an informal Thai street food eatery that wowed me with dish after dish. As manager Phil Soommahavon told me, everything, including sauces, is made from scratch. Little wonder that there is this level of care in representing the culture, chef Sor Wongkow started cooking at his uncle's side at the age of 15.

The flavours here are bigger and bolder and professional technique is apparent in the perfectly cooked noodles and the colorfully crisp vegetables.

That this should hit my radar at the end of the year was a bit like a Christmas miracle to a Thai food fan and it comes up as one of my top highlights of the year. It's not a formal dining room but the food here is as good as it gets in Ottawa.

Bistro Ristoro

Bistro Ristoro was another surprising revelation this year. It certainly stood out as one of the better dining destinations in the ByWard Market.

Former Macedonian UN ambassador Vlado Ristovski is both owner and chef and he is more than a little adept in the kitchen.

In November we at the Ottawa Lookout hosted our first members wine dinner at Bistro Ristoro, featuring the world-class wines of Croatia. It was a wonderful evening and our readers who attended were pleased to have discovered the wines and the food at this cozy restaurant.

Vlado certainly knows his way around Mediterranean cuisine but his pizzaiolo is no slouch and the Ristoro pizzas can easily be contenders for the ByWards best.

Being a fan of Croatian wine I would be remiss if I didn't direct you to Croatia Unpacked, the Ottawa based importer from whom you can purchase wines online. There is a concentration of great wines on this site and it's worth a visit.

Tiffany's Pizza

In this business of food and drink tasting and trying, there are few things I enjoy more than having my prejudices challenged. After all, it's how we learn.

Certainly few things make the hair on my neck stand on end than the idea of eating a classic Ottawa-style pizza with all the toppings smothered beneath a bubbling blanket of cheese. Whether Sicilian, Neapolitan or Roman, I'm an Italian pizza fan through and through.

What a pleasant surprise then to discover Tiffany's Pizza at 968 Rue Notre Dame in Embrun.

I first looked at the pie with the degree of dread reserved for drinking cod liver oil. Here was a pizza that you can get almost anywhere in Ottawa, except that at Tiffanys they laid thick rashers of bacon on top of the cheese. That was different.

Also different was the effect of the whole. I actually enjoyed this pie. The ingredients were better somehow: the cheese richer, the bacon naturally smoked and the crust appeared to have been brushed with oil around the perimeter. The overall combination of the Tiffany's Special was impressive.

Done and dusted. Tiffanys is officially a guilty pleasure and I have decided that, if I’m going to indulge in this style, I will wait until I am next in Embrun. Well done.

Pine Lodge

At 6 Pine Lodge Rd by the Ottawa River in Bristol Que. you'll find yourself falling into the gorgeous environs of Pine Lodge. To me there was something magical about my stay here.

It has a storied history being kept alive by the Thompson family as they continue to write new chapters of their own. It's a year-round destination with activities for all ages.

Just an hour from Ottawa, the Pontiac region of Quebec is rich with beautiful scenery and food and drink artisans and it's a destination to which I've returned because one visit won't do.

Chez In

In the largely English speaking town of Shawville you will also want to take in the superb Thai food available at Chez In. It was another of those surprises you don't see coming. I would never have guessed that in this tiny burg of approximately 1,600 people you would eat Thai food so serious and deliciously made.