Capital Eats best of spring 2026

There’s a bit of everything in today’s edition, including a product line that may be healthier than almost anything we’ve featured.

Staying local, we’re also globetrotting and, as a bonus, adding three eateries that haven’t been featured before. 

As always, the “Best of” list is in no particular order and sometimes it was the entire experience or just a few dishes that made an impression

Council Oak in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at 4837 Albion Rd. wowed with an all-you-can-eat Sunday buffet brunch earlier this year. 

Now the steakhouse proves this strong showing was not a one-off. Their kitchen and service staff are top professionals and the food is first-rate. 

Not only is the steak very good and exquisitely grilled to order but you may just want to load up on side dishes. The veggies are nicely done and fairly priced. You also don’t want to miss out on that roasted bone marrow starter.

Torta Boyz recently moved to 354A Preston St. Based on my experience, their fans wasted no time in following them to their new location.

They produce full-flavoured and bold Mexican fare but when you go, you’ll definitely want both their wings and the Caesar salad. Both items represent the most memorable versions I’ve had in years.

La Nhâu Viet Kitchen & Bar at 108 Murray St. in the ByWard is setting a whole new standard for Ottawa’s Vietnamese restaurant scene. To my mind, it’s decades overdue. There’s plenty of exciting cooking here and we can all hope it has a knock-on effect. 

Try the umami-packed beef carpaccio for intense, refreshing citrus mouthfuls or the Vietnamese garlic noodles made famous in San Francisco. La Nhâu appears to be the only restaurant in Ottawa offering this dish. 

Go once and you’ll be back for more.

Pestle & Pods is an Ottawa-based company making healthful beverages to be consumed either hot or cold.

I admit I admire founder Prem Pitchiah’s inventive drinks using functional mushrooms, moringa, ashwagandha, maca and an endless series of fragrant spices.  These blends are vegan, organic and unsweetened so the versatility is built in.

Add the “milk” and sweeteners you prefer and I found that maple syrup had the right flavour that matched many of these powders. 

If you’ve enjoyed ‘golden milk” at Indian restaurants, then Turmeric Ginger is for you. Need to ease into a deserved sleep? Lavender Nights may just be the ticket. It’s fragrant with lavender and has calming chamomile and ashwagandha in the blend.

It’s no surprise that he’s also rolled out a fruity and fragrant powdered curry that he’s named “The One”. It’s a versatile masala curry that has a little black pepper heat but is ultimately characterized as mild. 

I used it to make a chicken leg curry that turned out very nicely. The potatoes, carrots, Vidalia onion and zucchini added a natural sweetness that was perfect against this coarse-ground curry mix.

It really is a fine mixture that makes for an essential pantry staple. Their website is comprehensive with the health benefits of the ingredients and offers loads of recipes.

Junior and The Kid owner and pitmaster Chris Villeneuve recently opened at 117 Beechwood, taking his fabulous BBQ creations out of Rockland. 

I wrote a profile just a few weeks ago and I now had the chance to try his food.

In the space vacated by Red Door Provisions, Villeneuve is bringing even more diversity to Beechwood Village. 

The appeal of BBQ is, of course, the art of this cookery that patience rewards. It takes years of hard-earned skill to create fall-off-the-bone ribs and melt-in-the-mouth burnt ends, and Villeneuve has mastered it. 

For his excellent smoked mac and cheese, he uses his mother Francine’s (RIP) recipe and cavatappi noodles that have a little more surface area for the sauce to stick. It’s a none-too-strong cheese but just right to allow the smoke to meld with the creamy dairy. The noodles were al dente, which you can’t always expect from a BBQ house.

The slaw was standard fare, as was the potato salad. The potatoes were small and of a “new” crop so they were very sweet. The dressing felt constructed of sour cream and yogurt with dill and sweet onion. Qualitatively, it was very good; it just lacked interest and salt.

The ribs couldn’t have been better. No meat stuck to the bone and it was love at first bite. Villeneuve uses his excellent BBQ sauces in the recipes, and they are full-flavour and low sugar for an added benefit.

Dining at Akira Back in the Chateau Laurier has its price. It’s an attractive room with sombre lighting and trippy, laid-back EDM eliciting a big city supper club vibe.

Mains can have some eye-popping prices, but then you come across something as memorable as this cucumber salad for $16 and soon you realize you could make your evening out a little more affordable.

This is a worthwhile destination for a special occasion or date night.

Gorditas La Mexican at 2350 Stevenage Dr. in an east end industrial park, is the definition of a hidden gem. 

You simply don’t expect to find such true Mexican flavours in an out-of-the-way area no one would think of for good dining.

It’s a simple menu of 11 gorditas, two soups and one taco. On one visit I tried the menudo soup (tripe), but tried it as broth alone. It was a rich-looking broth but ended up tasting fairly two-dimensional.

You go for gorditas, of course, and they are all winners. You have a choice of corn or wheat flour, and everything is fried in pork fat. Curiously, one of the best choices is the poblano pepper and refried bean gordita. Luscious and delicious.

Sinbad is located at 2285 St. Laurent, unit C11. This was a recent discovery and based on the kebab and sides, it’s easy to recommend this as a destination for reasonably priced and delicious Middle Eastern food. 

This Iraqi family opened Sinbad in October of 2025 and interestingly, they offer a few Indian-sounding items such as chicken tikka and tandoor bread. 

Given that they claim to have had no prior restaurant experience, their food is very good, and I recommend them as a good and healthy takeaway option if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

Next door to Sinbad is the more established Somali eatery Sabaya Shack (2285 St. Laurent Unit C7). This unassuming hidden gem produced one of the great beef wrap sandwiches I’ve enjoyed.

I discovered it last year and was craving their insanely good beef samosas (the best $2 you’ll ever spend) I recently stopped in. 

This time I indulged in the lamb wrap, a loaded sandwich packed with charcoal-grilled lamb and onions and a house BBQ sauce. I don’t know what’s in that sauce, but I need to get my mitts on that recipe.

For a sandwich that cost $15 there was a remarkable amount (the wrap weighed more than a pound) of lamb and it was as great as the beef wrap of last year.

Akka Dining Lounge at 145 Besserer St. was a welcome surprise. Here was a Palestinian restaurant making an attempt to provide a more upscale experience of its cuisine. We have a number of such eateries in Ottawa, but they tend to be more informal. 

Matriarch and chef Tahani Zawani knocks it out of the park with rich and tasty versions of hummus and eggplant dips. Then really impressed mightily with the nicest lamb shank I’ve had in the capital. 

Akka delivers a healthy cuisine and does it with warmth and a bit of family pride on the side.