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Ottawa's best cheap eats of 2024
You can still score a cheap meal at these places

JnJ Bakery

Buttercream bun. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout
Name + address: JnJ Bakery, 62 Barrette St.
I’m not certain that for the money, there is better eating to be had than at JnJ. Owner and pastry chef Sung Hae Lee knocks out masterful sweet and savoury croquettes, buns and tarts, and her magnificent recipes have made me a regular customer.
Try her bulgogi and curry chicken croquettes ($4) while sitting down because you’ll be swooning. Just one of these and a salad makes for a delicious and complete meal.
Run 2 Patty

Run 2 Patty. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout
Name + address: Run 2 Patty, 1224 Shillington Avenue, Unit A
Most Jamaican patties available in Ottawa are brought in wholesale from a handful of producers in Toronto.
Run 2 Patty (which refers to a customer order shouted to the kitchen) has patties that are better than any I’ve had in recent years in Toronto. They’re stuffed to the crimped edges and are beautifully seasoned.
Patties come as beef, curried chicken, chickpea, goat, ackee and saltfish and my favourite: oxtail. They’re individually priced at between $3-$4 with boxes of 12 selling for between $30-$35. These are crave inducing.
Detola’s Kitchen

Detola’s Kitchen samosas, meat pie and Nonso’s wrap. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout
Name + address: Detola’s Kitchen, 2544 Bank St.
Detola’s Kitchen brings some exceptional Nigerian flavours to spice-hungry foodies in Ottawa.
Adetola Kpando's cooking is not just about heat however and you sense that every dish, corny as it may sound, is made with love. You’ll enjoy her beef Nonso’s wrap (one of the best sandwiches of the year) and her comforting goat soup but it’s the smaller, big flavour treats that’ll have you thinking about the great value.
Her beef meat pie ($4) looks like an over-stuffed Cornish pastie and will fill you up until dinner. The vegetable spring rolls (five for $6) are delicate and delicious and the beef samosas (five for $6) are little crispy packets of wonder done in spring roll pastry and just try to avoid inhaling them all before you even start the car.
Amma’s Biryani

Amma’s vegetable biryani. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout
Name + address: Amma’s Biryani, 1816 Merivale Rd. (inside Silk Road Foods)
It was on a cold January day of this year that I landed at Amma’s Biryani inside the Silk Roads Food shop on Merivale.
I tried a number of items but it was the vegetable biryani ($8.99) that blew my mind. This vegetarian dish was a bowl of fire with whole spices that surprised the palate with every bite. Yes, the spices such as clove, star anise, and cardamom are whole so be on the lookout.
If you’re having it either alongside a soup or salad, this is a portion big enough for two – four if you’re serving it as a side dish and it may well be one of the best things you’ve tasted this year.
Bite & Bite

Bite and Bite Shanghai dumpling. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout
Name + address: Bite & Bite, 1465 Merivale Rd. (no website)
Bite & Bite was another top discovery from January of this year. Everything here is scratch cooking and although the menu is small, it’s one of the best Asian food destinations of the year.
The prices are modest and their robust and warming noodle soups might set you back as much as $15. The soup stock is based on chicken and it’s cooked fresh each day.
But for $8, you’ll enjoy the best tasting Shanghai dumplings available in Ottawa. Four filling meaty pork dumplings runny with soup that will have you thinking about them long after you're done. Collagen-rich goodness.