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The Capital Eats guide to the best restaurants in Orléans

Here are some of the best spots we’ve reviewed in the community.

Author

Ralf Joneikies
April 22, 2025

If you thought all of the best restaurants were within a few kilometres of downtown, you’d be sorely mistaken. From Mexican food to Thai, the community is becoming a mecca for high-quality, authentic food.

Here are some of the best spots we’ve reviewed in the community.

Jamaican Homestyle Cuisine

Ox tail

Jamaican Homestyle Oxtail. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

It’s somehow poetically appropriate that a modest Jamaican cuisine be served out of a modest, retrofitted house. The pleasant surprise is that the food is a very fine example of Island cooking.

I’ve enjoyed Jamaican cooking in cities throughout Canada and Maxine Dwyer is doing right by her patrons, sharing her delicious recipes.

Tortilla Maker

I recently hosted a small dinner party using several Tortilla Maker products. For those who are well-travelled, this is the only source for the most authentic of Mexican flavours.

They added tamales to their line-up last year and if you’re a fan, you’ll understand that these are first-rate and the best examples in Ottawa.

Nagi Sushi

Nagi sashimi

Nagi sashimi. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

Moriyuki Hiroha spent 30 years doling out some of Ottawa’s finest sushi at C’est Japon a Suisha. Now he recreates this fine Japanese dining at his own restaurant Nagi Sushi.

Chopp Chop

Chopp Chop Hat Yai wings

Chopp Chop Hat Yai wings. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

  • Name + address: Chopp Chop, 5929 Jeanne D’Arc Blvd S.

  • Website:www.choppchop.ca

Chopp Chop opened late last year and hearing about a new Thai restaurant, I made my way to Orléans the next day.

While the flavours were still a little too mild for my palate, they go out of their way to keep things real and not offer some North Americanized fast food version of Thai cuisine.

They do a very credible Pad Thai and the Hat Yai chicken wings are a tender and well-marinated delight.

Divisoria

Divisoria Pancit Bihon

Divisoria Pancit Bihon. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

  • Name + address: Divisoria, 3621 Innes Rd.

  • Website: Facebook

This is a restaurant where you definitely want to bring the family. Comforting Filipino home cooking that offers dishes for meat eaters and vegetarians alike. The portions are very generous and the prices are modest. 

The service here is also just so attentive and they are very keen to help the uninitiated navigate the menu. It’s casual dining, but the people are lovely.

Caravela

Caravela grilled calamari

Caravela grilled calamari. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

There are precisely two Portuguese restaurants in Ottawa and Caravela is a standout. 

No matter when I’ve gone, I found the seafood to be very fresh and the cooking accomplished. It’s a very popular restaurant and I learned the hard way that even at lunch you may want to make a reservation.

Occo Kitchen

OCCO cod cakes

OCCO cod cakes. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

Occo is another very popular spot for all ages dining. The menu is broad in what it offers and they make an effort to be a little creative with some standards. It doesn’t always work.

Then there are items that are just wonderful. The salad for example, is not just artful but something that you want to eat and the cod cakes are a winner any day of the week. Fluffy, fresh and well crafted, these rank among the best fish cakes I’ve eaten.

Bite Burger House

Bite Burger Bite Me burger

Bite Burger Bite Me burger. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

Bite Burger House proudly uses only AAA Canadian Angus beef for their 18 burgers. The Bite Me burger ranked as one of the best of 2024 and the accompanying fries make this one of the great combos available in Ottawa.

Hà Nội Phố

Hà Nội Phố pork/whelk dumpling

Hà Nội Phố pork/whelk dumpling. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

For those who enjoy Thai or Vietnamese food, it’s always refreshing to find menu items that are a little out of the ordinary.

Hà Nội Phố has a few items you may want to explore: spiced honey roasted quail, shrimp galettes, shaking beef and minced pork and whelks steamed in banana leaves.

While on my visit, the Pho was a little too salty, you’ll find better than average Vietnamese cooking at this strip mall restaurant.