Tortilla Maker’s Tacos Birria, Chez Lionel’s carpaccio and risotto

Good morning,

I’ve recently had the experience of being impressed by new items on menus of some favourite restaurants. So this is the theme of this edition.

We explore a classic Mexican item with a twist that may be new to Ottawans and I revisit a French bistro with a spring menu and we round things out to a new ramen shop that is just doing everything right.

Get your bibs on and let’s hit the road.

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

Editor’s note: We’ve made a slight change to the newsletter. We’ve moved the information about a restaurant to the bottom, as well as added additional useful information for readers. We hope this will helps readers learn more about each place we review.

DISH

Tortilla Maker’s tacos birria

Tortilla Maker burst onto the scene in August of 2023 and as co-owner Diodora reminded me,  “We were just getting ourselves organized on the first day when you walked through the door.”

I’m glad I did because when a business produces such a great product, it makes my job easier.

Recently Miguel and Diodora reached out to let me know that they were introducing Tacos Birria to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, to their menu. This is a specialty item originating from the states of Jalisco, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas and what may be a surprise to some, it’s traditionally made with goat meat rather than beef.

Over the last year they’ve added approximately six tables so you can now dine in. this means that you can enjoy, what ranks as amongst the best, Mexican food Ottawa has to offer.

In fact other Mexican restaurants are now using Tortilla Maker tortillas for their tacos. Why not? They are better than anything else on the market. Full stop.

Birria is a slowly simmered moist meat served in a modest variety of ways. Sometimes the meat is served drenched in a broth made from the same meat which you then add to your taco and top with sweet white onion and chopped cilantro. 

The way more familiar to most of us is a taco ready-made and served with a cup of broth into which you dip your taco. If you don’t have a proper technique going in, it can be a messy, drippy affair. 

The goat meat was tender, juicy and maintained its mildly pungent character. What a nice reprieve from the dry, flavourless beef of too many taco shops. My appreciation also extends to those who clean the goat meat from the bones. Anyone who’s worked with goat knows how difficult it is. 

Then there was the queso birria, wherein the goat-filled taco had added queso fresco and then fried on each side. With the cheese acting as a glue, this method did make it easier to dip the taco.  

Another item you’d be well advised to consider for take-away is the Pozole. The Tortilla Maker version is made using chicken with the requisite hominy corn. It’s a very filling dish that appears more as a stew than a soup, that can then have all manner of things like lettuce, radishes, avocado, lime or salsa added to it. Delicious and super healthy.

To all our Mexican brothers and sisters who celebrate, Happy Cinco de Mayo.

DISH

Chez Lionel’s carpaccio and risotto

A few weeks ago Chez Lionel introduced their new spring menu and while they made my list of the Best of 2024, I may have been even more impressed with their latest offerings.

I was not only enamoured with their takes on bistro classics, I was just as stunned by the level of cooking coming out of that kitchen.

They have changed things up recently with a three-course prix fixe replacing the two-course from last year.  While this increases the per-person spend, it also gives the diner a broader experience of the menu.

My lunch companion managed to overdo things a bit, ordering more à la carte than she could eat. I was there to the rescue her, of course, but with my three courses, I wasn’t as much help as she’d hoped.

She did muster some courage however, in requesting two items generally not to her liking: calamari and a beet dish. She happily devoured both, but not before I had my forkfuls.

We’ve all had beet salads involving goat cheese, but the kitchen here opted to dress this dish with goat cheese mousse and crumbled pistachios. For extra texture and colour they added brioche croutons, pea shoots and pickled red onion. While this was enough to share, it was so very nice it was easy enough for one person to plough through.

The calamari was a palette of colours involving pineapple chutney, red cabbage, jerk spiced mayo, curried cashews and cilantro. It was the most inventive fried calamari I’ve tried and it was a beautifully tender flavour bomb.

While you’re there, you will want to strongly consider the iceberg lettuce salad consisting of roasted garlic emulsion, fried prosciutto, croutons, parmesan and green apple. Again the whole just made sense and made for one exciting mouthful after another.

Then there’s the seafood risotto. Risotto always seems like a simple enough dish: rice cooked with some kind of broth and fat, wine and Parmesan Reggiano. It’s a blank canvas that can accommodate a variety of additions.

Most restaurants, in my experience, get it egregiously wrong. That includes many so-called Italian restaurants. To get it right you need an experienced chef and the correct rice.

The three most common types of rice used are Arborio, Baldo and Carnaroli. There are others that are a little more boutique and difficult to find so we’ll stay with the three most common.

I’ve used all three over the decades and I’ve come up with a formula for remembering quality results: ABC. Carnaroli produces the finest results due to its resistance to overcooking. Baldo is next best with Arborio being the most common, price effective and easy to find.

At Chez Lionel they use Arborio and the results were superb. As with everything else they make the lobster bisque that seasons this dish. It was liberally peppered with bay scallops, Argentinian shrimp, garlic croutons, peas and was dotted with saffron mayonnaise. I think of it still.

Chez Lionel changes their menu a few times a year and you may want to book a lunch reservation while this menu is still offered. Note that there will also be a Mother’s Day Brunch that looks very appealing.

DISH

Kuma Takumi takoyaki and shoyu ramen

While Kuma Takumi is a relatively new review, I did return recently and felt the need to highlight two other items for you. 

Takoyaki is a very famous Japanese street food and can be found in many restaurants with varying degrees of success. It’s a deep fried doughball containing (hopefully) tender octopus and topped with bonito (katsuobushi) flakes, Japanese mayo and a kind of teriyaki sauce. Think of it as a cephalopod donut hole.

If not done well, it can be a bit of a chewy mess but here the dough was fresh and delicate and the octopus centre tender and creamy. 

If you find yourself in the market for bonito flakes, make sure you are buying a superior quality and that means flakes that are wholly pink without a brown aspect. You’ll pay slightly more but you won’t get a bitter component. Luckily, the folks at Kuma Takumi take their craft seriously. 

For the quality, I was expecting to pay more but at under $7 for four, this was a gift. If you’ve not had this before, do yourself a favour.

I’ve already gone on record with my thoughts that this restaurant ranks in my top four of best ramen in Ottawa. Now I was back to sample their shoyu (soy sauce) ramen and it was much more delicate and balanced than I expected.

Rather than slurping from a salt bath, this ramen had a considerable depth of flavour with the umami effect kicking in after each spoon without the salt fatigue that can sometimes happen.

It turns out that here, they actually make their own soy sauce for this ramen and it’s much milder, yet complex, than you’d expect.

I know I’ll be back as they plan on adding Omurice to the menu. 

COMMENT CORNER

FROM THE ARCHIVE

The Dessert Course: A stretchy twist on gelato

Originally published July 2024

I am running a few minutes late; my previous meeting is running over.Some readers may recall that last year I directed you to a merchant in Kanata that was bringing to Ottawa from Montreal, a Middle Eastern ice cream called Bouza.

In Lebanon and Syria, Bouza (ice) al haleeb (milk) is the dessert of summer. It’s a stretchier form of the treat as it uses salep powder made from the bulb of a wild orchid giving it a unique elasticity.

Now you can find it in Ottawa and it’s made by the good folks at La Brioche at 2440 Bank St.. It’s far less sweet than the versions to which we’re all accustomed, but the recipes are very nice.

They offer a variety of fruit flavours but I chose to go with ashta (cream), tiramisu and pistachio. This combination works very well together.

The tiramisu coffee profile was full-on and the pistachio was as it should be when it’s natural: an olive green and robust.

They sell it in single- and double-scoop cups but if you’re doing a take-away container, it comes in a one kilo box for $30. So mix and match to your heart's content. This is very good stuff.

QUICK BITES

• Mobeen Hussain produces some of Ottawa’s greatest BBQ and now he’s had his shop broken into for the third time in seven years.  [CTV]

• As of this writing not much is known but the space vacated by St. Louis Bar and Grill on Elgin will soon house a Good Neighbour restaurant. [CTV]

• For what it’s worth, Open Table has named an Almonte restaurant as one of Canada’s Top 100 brunch spots. [Inside Ottawa Valley]

LATEST STORIES