domus café

domus café would be a unique experience in any Canadian city and we are lucky it have all to ourselves here in Ottawa.

The café is dedicated and focused on Canadian, regional and seasonal cuisine. That means fresh organic produce from local farmers, meats and fish from the best parts of the country, seasonal specialties as nature brings them to harvest during the year.

We had decided to try domus at the last minute and arrived just before seven o’clock without a reservation. We managed to squeak in before the room filled up with other more responsible diners who had managed to call ahead.

The interior of domus is almost a season in itself. With its soft yellow walls and shaded rust trim the café is like a constant breath of spring. The large front windows invites copious amounts of light to pour in no matter what seasonal turmoil is going on outside.

Water was served as was a choice of breads with a dipping sauce of canola oil and a light wine vinegar.

Our server arrived, one of three that manage a room that could seat up to 40. She asked if we wanted drinks and returned promptly with them, ready to answer our menu questions and tell us about the evenings specialties.

The menu was that culinary curse that one occasionally runs into. How do you choose when you want to try it all?

With our servers gentle nudging we decided to share a grilled endive and asparagus salad($14) Lynn choose one the specials, a wild west coast Halibut ($32) while I decided on a menu choice, Tempura Perch ($29.) Both came with the same collection of fresh seasonal vegetables.

The salad was heaven. A pure white endive which had been blanched and then lightly grilled was topped by three short plump spears of asparagus, also grilled, and flanked with spring sprouts on gentle shaves of red onion, semi-soft dollops of Ontario goat cheese, all drizzled with a light CPCO vinaigrette (Cold Pressed Canola Oil.)

Our mains arrived. Lynn’s Halibut was light, flaky and moist. The medley of vegetables included sprouts, mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and the same, or so it seemed, three spears of robust asparagus that had peeked through our previous salad.

My Tempura Perch was wanting. Tempura is something I know and love. I had asked when I ordered if the fish was just battered or tempura battered – there is a difference. The batter was weak and flat, not at all like a good tempura batter which is light and softly crispy. My vegetables were a mirror reflection of Lynn’s.

I can understand, in a way, the efficiency of a common vegetable serving but when I saw one of the flank steak specials go by I thought maybe the plate could have used a different approach to the potatoes.

Asparagus and fingerling potatoes seemed to be the seasonal theme of the day leaving one to wonder what happened to the now available fiddlehead?

We ordered a dessert, a medley of lemon tastes. Three examples of lemon on one plate, a mix that included a lemon sauce, a lemon cake with a dollop of lemon sorbet and a lemon pudding that was thick and sweetly tart.

domus café is a rare treat. The food is above average and fresh, fresh. The dedication to organic produce could use a little widening of the network or at least a little more work marrying the dishes to the accompanying vegetables in a more imaginative rather than just a practical way.

A last note is the wine list. It is pretty extensive and representative. In keeping with their theme to pursue local there are a few choices of Prince Edward County wines that aren’t available anywhere but in Prince Edward County which is just down the road from Ottawa.

Our bill was $107 for a shared salad, two entrees, a shared dessert, a juice and a glass of wine.

The experience and quality was just short of being beyond measure.

But we did wonder if success might have devolved into a formula, if the sense of the Canadian culinary adventure might have been set adrift somehow by the lure of a Henry Ford approach to plate presentation.

domus café

87 Murray Street
613-241-6007
www.domuscafe.ca/

JAZZ'OO

It’s like when you buy a great new pair of shoes. They look fabulous, fit perfectly, but will still require a little breaking in before they become completely comfortable.

That’s JAZZ'OO.

It is billed as a European Bar and Lounge, located on Sparks Street just up from Yesterdays.

It is a restaurant, bar, patio, jazz club and probably any number of other things that weren’t immediately obvious.

We arrived and stood inside for a good 10 minutes before anyone asked if we wanted a table. In that 10 minute span a number of waiters had breezed by us, one stood talking to patrons on the outside patio.

But we eventually got seated and left with our menus. Some time later our waiter returned to ask if we wanted to order drinks. No water, no bread, no advice and seemingly no particular interest.

We wanted to order just a juice and a glass of water deciding to wait until we got the lay of the land. There was some discussion about the juices available. The waiter returned with the wrong juice but managed to get my glass of water right. We said nothing.

The menu is interesting and offers a good choice of options. The salads range into the 18 dollar range while entrees hover between 22 to 35 dollars.

Our waiter returned and asked if we were ready to order. In announcing that there were other items available that weren’t on the menu he promptly pulled out his order pad and began to read the choices to us. I hate this. Serving is part of the experience of dining. Surely your server should know what is on offer, how it is prepared and perhaps, if you’re lucky, even how things taste.

We ordered a Mediterranean Seafood Salad to share ($18). Lynn wanted to try the Mediterranean tenderloin goulash with a tomato paprika chili sauce on basmati rice ($22). I opted for one the specials, a 10 oz steak with steamed vegetables, roasted potatoes and a mushroom wine reduction sauce ($25).

I also ordered a glass of wine from one the most curious wine list I have ever seen. It is pages and pages long. What is curious about it is that it tells you what wines are available but most aren’t. 90 percent of what they list are not available. Think of it as a wine wish list where your wish never comes true.

Finally the bread arrived along with our salad plates. Lynn’s plate had encrusted tomato sauce on the bottom while mine was soap scummed. When my wine finally arrived I told our waiter that we wanted clean salad dishes. “Okay,” he said as he scooped up the dirty ones and left.

The salad arrived along with clean plates. The presentation was odd. Holding true to the current rule of building height on a plate this salad had the height constructed by assorted greens tented underneath 3 full leaves of romaine lettuce sprinkled with the dill yogurt dressing. The upside down cake approach to salads. There was a Sesame encrusted piece of tuna, two sea scallops and two shrimps – not the jumbo shrimps as advertised.

This was a great salad. The tuna was perfectly seared and just warmish inside. The scallops and shrimps were just right. The real surprise was the dill yogurt dressing. It had just a hint of dill, not a heavy hand, and something sweetish to balance the yogurt. I am guessing it was a small drop of honey.

Our plates were cleared and while we awaited our main dishes I noticed another waiter attending to a nearby table. He was animated, full of information, suggestions and was engaging. For the first time ever I realized I was experiencing waiter envy.

Our entrees arrived. Both dishes were well plated. We dug in. "Oh no," raced through my brain as I tried to slice my steak with my Crocodile Dundee sized steak knife. I had a tough piece of meat. It was perfectly prepared, the right color and a perfect crusted sear. The sauce was a treasure. The potatoes were earthy and pungent. The Swiss chard was great but the new small carrots were heated but still annoyingly raw.

To be fair the steak was a good quality piece of meat. As I sawed my way around the gristle there was gold, mind you it only appeared in the smallest of nuggets, but it was quality. I decided that I had just gotten that one bad steak in a hundred of other perfect steaks. Somewhat like our waiter.

I looked up at Lynn to see her fanning herself. “This is hot and very spicy,” she said. She reached for my glass of water for relief. Her own water glass had never been on our waiters agenda.

Lynn is a hot babe in more ways than one. Spicy food is something she enjoys and eats regularly. She was enjoying her dish but would have rather been warned about its bite. Our waiter hadn’t bothered to share that information, or worse he might not have even known.

Drone # 6 returned and asked how our meal was. Most of my carved up steak was still on my plate and I mentioned that the cut was bad. “Can I do something,” he asked. “Well, probably not..,” I responded as a question. “Okay,” he replied as he scooped up our plates and left.

The bill was $91.00 I rounded it off to a 100 dollars. Normally I tip in the 15 to 20 percent range but not on this night.

Serving food is not just a job it is a profession and a good professional can make your experience something special. A good server can serve everyone, the customer, themselves and the business. It is easy to be ordinary and not that difficult to be memorable.

JAZZ’OO has a lot of potential. It is a great looking space, it has great music and offers live Jazz on the weekends. The Wednesday night we were there they had a guitarist playing on the patio.

What it lacks at the moment is focus. The night that we were dining no one was in control, no management to attend to the problems, to oversee the flow of the room, no one to host the experience.

JAZZ’OO

132 Sparks Street,
613-232-6161
www.jazzoobarandlounge.com