Canton, Jimmy Johns

Good morning,

Grey skies at this time of year can make some a little gloomy. It undercuts motivation, but recently I was made aware that a new sandwich chain opened its first location in Ottawa. Wonderful. Something new to sink my teeth into.

On the way to my latest sandwich review, I also noticed that there was a Chinese eatery I’d not visited. And so, there was my dinner stop.

Riverside South is seeing a tremendous amount of construction and is set to become the next burgeoning development with both shopping and housing cropping up like fungi.

So while we’re in the early days of this neighbourhood, let’s have a poke around.

Ralf Joneikies, food and drink editor. [email protected]

CHINESE

Can’t go wrong with takeout at Canton

Read this story online here.

Strip malls are no longer just destinations for multinational fast food chains. Over the years I’ve been surprised by the quality of cooking in small family-run restaurants. 

So when I saw a new Chinese eatery in a mall in Riverside South, I had to stop in. While they have sufficient space for diners in their modestly appointed room, I opted for take-out.

Cantonese cuisine has food that is generally less spicy than other regional Chinese kitchens and that was the case with this experience.

With the popularity of open-ended egg rolls, I always imagine that Golden Palace makes all the rolls that are sold at every Chinese restaurant in Ottawa. The Golden Palace rolls are the standard bearer, and they do have a large operation that cranks out thousands of these each week.

I’m glad that this is not the case and it was only on one occasion when I felt I might have had the original at a different restaurant. 

The Canton rolls are very much their own recipe and they could have been better. Where the folks at Golden Palace gladly shared that their rolls are 70% meat, the Canton rolls felt like 70% taro. The seasoning was fine but they were very starchy and caused a gumming effect in the mouth, almost like eating a tablespoon of smooth peanut butter.

Hot and sour soup comes in dozens of variations and this was a lighter coloured version that had approximations of hot and sour. 

It was pleasant but short on ingredients, with the two most recognizable being tofu and bamboo shoots. I like mine a little more seasoned and so I added white pepper, shrimp and a dash of good soy sauce. It did the trick.

Wonton soup is already very mild. You order it because that’s what you want: something light and unchallenging.

I found the shrimp and pork dumplings to be nice and the napa cabbage added a sweet crunch. While the slivers of faux char siu pork added a pretty pale pink to the bowl, their taste added nothing beneficial. I was grateful however, that the broth did taste of chicken rather than just MSG water.

I have a bit of a fondness for this bean dish. When the green beans are parboiled, then cold water shocked (to retain colour) and then flash fried, it makes for one of my favourite vegetable dishes.

The beans are then stir-fried with minced pork and spices. The Canton interpretation had larger pieces of slivered pork that were properly tender. 

It was tasty enough and close to some of the better versions I’ve had.  Some kitchens however need to learn that when cooking a dish for take-out customers, it’s best to undercook the vegetables as they will continue to cook in the take-out container.

As it was, the beans had turned a little limp by the time I’d served them.

In the Cantonese tradition, even the Singapore noodles were milder than I would have liked. It was also a little short on scallions and shredded carrots.

It was a very healthy portion and at $16 represented a bargain. The ingredients were fresh, the dish was colourful, but lacked the requisite curry powder and scrambled egg. Once again I needed to augment with a few kitchen staples.

The star of this dinner was clearly the beef with onions. It’s a great combination which you’ll find in cuisines around the world. This was a very saucy dish and I called it the “beef you can cut with a spoon”, because that’s what I did.

The onions were plentiful but a little underdone, and the sauce was mild with a hint of sweetness. That beef was impossibly tender, and if you’d lost your dentures, you’d have no trouble consuming this dish. Delicious.

Canton Restaurant does a nice job of delivering Cantonese dishes at fair prices for large portions. It could do with a few adjustments so that takeaway vegetables remain firm but all in all, it was a reasonable experience.

So to my readers, if you find yourself dining in, rather than doing take-out, let me know your thoughts.

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SANDWICH

Jimmy John’s for the pickles

The latest sandwich shop to land in Ottawa is yet another American brand with a long history. Jimmy John’s was founded in Illinois in 1983 and, like all such success stories, was acquired in 2019 by Inspire Brands. The Inspire umbrella covers other fast food outlets such as Baskin-Robbins, Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and Sonic.

There are some folks who absolutely love a sub sandwich. I can take them or leave them, but I do want one of superior quality if I’m indulging. 

For sub lovers, Toronto has the advantage of having Jersey Mikes, a U.S. chain that began life in 1956. There are 15 locations in Ontario, with the majority located in and around Toronto. Canada is to see 16 more locations open in 2026 with the closest to Ottawa scheduled for Belleville. 

With its signature olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing, Jersey Mikes delivers a great sub sandwich and if you find yourself near a location and are in the mood, it’s worth indulging.

Jimmy John’s boasts daily fresh-baked bread, and that’s always a bonus for a sandwich shop. They also offer oversized pickles that are simply first-rate. As a nice gesture they offer to cut these monsters either in half or into quarters and I recommend taking them up on the service.

I ordered three different, regular sized, sandwiches to get an overview and first up was the Beach Club. It was a sandwich of provolone cheese, thinly sliced turkey, lettuce, tomato and avocado cream.

The turkey consisted of three sheets sliced as thin as prosciutto and was loaded with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and a bland avocado puree. If I were eating it blind, I might have guessed at the vegetables and that there was some sort of cheese.

The next sandwich was the meatball parm and I was unable to find it on their website. Perhaps it’s just an Ottawa specialty. 

I need to mention the website as it’s universal for all their North American stores. As such, there is no pricing, and their store locator appears to be useless for Canada. Just try finding the Ottawa shop. Or just type “Canada”… apparently, we don’t exist. That’s some service for the local franchise investor. 

I sought out the meatball separately from the cheese and tomato sauce. It had been cut into pieces and meagrely dispersed across the bread so that eating it as a sandwich was barely detectable.

The meatball itself had a foamy consistency, suggesting it had been laced with filler. No meatball made simply of meat ever has this processed texture.

The tomato sauce was of the chunky variety and had a satisfying amount of garlic but it had been sugared, presumably to reduce the acidity and to make it palatable. It’s an affliction in the world of fast food that sugar is added to almost everything.

The Turkey Tom was nothing more than the Beach Club without the avocado. For that it delivered a nicer experience with cleaner flavours.

For those unfamiliar, franchise holders are held to certain strictures that involve supply chains, purchase agreements and branding, to name a few. This also means that there’s little that a franchisee can do wrong. 

If there are issues with quality, it’s largely down to the multinational. They set the standards.

Quick bites

• Wreath & Wine Workshop — craft, sip, and create a festive holiday wreath with Flowers Talk Tivoli and Savvy Company’s Sommelier. Thurs Nov 20 6:30pm. Reserve your spot>> [Sponsored]

• After 17 years in the ByWard, Stephen Beckta’s Play is closing its doors. [CTV]

• It appears that McDonalds is slated to make a return to the ByWard. What fun. [MSN]

• The City of Ottawa is determined, along with OSEG, to keep its financial losing streak intact with another year in the red for Lansdowne. Along with our public transit record, we really are the poster child for government waste. [CBC]

• A great Chinese-Canadian institution, Montreal’s Wing Noodles. After 75 years it is going out of business. I doubt there is a Canadian who hasn’t experienced their soy sauce or fortune cookies. We bid a fond farewell.  [YouTube]

LOOKOUT WINE

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