Second Wife: odd name, good food

• Name + address: Second Wife, 511 Bank St.

• Diet: Meat, gluten free, vegetarian, seafood

• Appetizers/sides: $2-$15

• Mains: $15-$28

• Wheelchair accessibility: No

• Website: www.secondwifeottawa.com

It’s unavoidable so let’s get this out of the way first: this is the most ill-conceived and eyebrow-raising restaurant name in my experience.

Based on meeting one of the owners, I’m fairly certain that it was not intended as (ahem) questionable but we are in a time with different sensibilities and there’s nothing wrong with testing the market you are in. In fact, this proves it’s a little necessary.

The quote on their menu, “Your wife deserves a break, leave cooking to us,” apart from the grammatical hiccup, does nothing to ameliorate your first impression.

I find it important to also add that the restaurant’s website is secondwifeottawa.com. The “Ottawa” is crucial, if you omit it, you’ll end up in a different market altogether.

I’d not seen chicken soup on an Indian menu before and so of course, I ordered it.

It had slivers of both fresh celery and scallion but also a curious brown aspect that reminded me of tinned St. Hubert chicken gravy. 

The bowl also held nicely cooked pieces of chicken but tasting the okay broth, I couldn’t shake that St. Hubert feeling.

The vegetable pakora arrived next and for some mysterious reason came served with a handful of pre-seasoned frozen fries that were in fact, the highlight of the dish.

The pakora were stodgy and dry. There were so many of them that I had the impression someone was trying to get rid of the things. They were served alongside very small amounts of five different dipping sauces which made no difference at all.

Thank goodness for eggplant, a phrase, based on many bad experiences, you’d never hear from my lips. Yet this eggplant bharta was indeed very good.

The eggplant had been roasted and cooked with vegetables, crushed cashews, cream and butter. This is my kind of vegetarian cooking: plenty of dairy. 

It was generously spiced without being challenging for even the most novice of palates. A lovely dish.

The garlic naan that came as part of the mixed grill platter was another highlight and in fact it held up nicely for a lunch snack the next day. The garlic was fresh and was complemented by the butter that enriched the puffy soft dough.

Rice and noodles in any dish are, for me, the first to be assessed. If the quality is good in the basic starches, it suggests that the kitchen knows what to value and has certain standards.

The basmati was light, fluffy and the individual grains had the right amount of bite resistance. The accompanying butter sauce, clearly based on tomato, was perhaps just a tick too sweet but delicious nonetheless. The vindaloo sauce was savoury, without excessive heat but had great depth and switching between the two balanced the eating experience.

The grill portion of this platter consisted of lamb, chicken, fish tikka as well as tandoori chicken and was impressive in that nothing was overcooked and dry. Given the different cooking times of the various meats, this suggested a chef with experience. At $19 this was a well-portioned and tasty lunch.

Chef and co-owner Gurdev Singh along with front of house manager and business partner Neeray Negi bring their many years of experience to the enterprise. Negi indicated that he’d worked at another Indian restaurant in the Glebe and Singh had last cooked at Rama Krishna on Rideau.

They are providing a good, if not slightly imperfect dining experience. Give them some time to iron out some of the recipes and you can count on Second Wife to deliver decent and well-priced food.

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