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VON’s
It had to happen sooner or later.
We have been blessed as we explored our culinary safari of Ottawa’s dining offerings.
Blessed because we have discovered a genuine food culture that is active and alive. Whether it has been a neighbourhood joint or a well known establishment we have never been completely disappointed, critical maybe but never off put.
In fact we have been enormously encouraged, challenged, to find some place better than the last.
That last place we dined at always seemed to be a place we would return to in a breath.
Our run of luck ran out last night when we decided to dine at VON’s in the Glebe.
VON’s is a Glebe institution that has survived for 30 years. That is impressive.
The room is beautiful. Soft colours, whimsical chalked quotations written on the pillars, pure white table cloths and a comforting bar.
As we looked around the room we felt hopeful.
It wasn’t that long before a server arrived and placed us.
After some time our server returned and asked if we wanted drinks. “Water,” I suggested would be a good start.
Our experience went down hill from there.
But you can’t make sloppy service a bookmark for the rest of the event.
We decided to share the PEI mussels. There are four choices of sauces. We chose the tomato saffron option.
They arrived in a narrow sauce pot. These succulent and tasty mussels were sitting atop their sauce instead of swimming in it. When we finally got to the tomato sauce we found it weak and soupy.(12)
Lynn ordered a Grilled Chicken salad.(18) I opted for the Pork tenderloin stuffed with a prune and sage filling.(23)
Lynn’s salad looked like a salad, but the chicken seemed to have never been close enough to a grill to brag about a relationship, it was cold and dry.
There was another affront lurking in this salad just below greens, small chunks of canned pineapple. Need I say more?
My Pork Tenderloin was beautifully presented, two healthy servings of Pork oozing with the prune and sage stuffing.
It had to happen sooner or later.
We have been blessed as we explored our culinary safari of Ottawa’s dining offerings.
Blessed because we have discovered a genuine food culture that is active and alive. Whether it has been a neighbourhood joint or a well known establishment we have never been completely disappointed, critical maybe but never off put.
In fact we have been enormously encouraged, challenged, to find some place better than the last.
That last place we dined at always seemed to be a place we would return to in a breath.
Our run of luck ran out last night when we decided to dine at VON’s in the Glebe.
VON’s is a Glebe institution that has survived for 30 years. That is impressive.
The room is beautiful. Soft colours, whimsical chalked quotations written on the pillars, pure white table cloths and a comforting bar.
As we looked around the room we felt hopeful.
It wasn’t that long before a server arrived and placed us.
After some time our server returned and asked if we wanted drinks. “Water,” I suggested would be a good start.
Our experience went down hill from there.
But you can’t make sloppy service a bookmark for the rest of the event.
We decided to share the PEI mussels. There are four choices of sauces. We chose the tomato saffron option.
They arrived in a narrow sauce pot. These succulent and tasty mussels were sitting atop their sauce instead of swimming in it. When we finally got to the tomato sauce we found it weak and soupy.(12)
Lynn ordered a Grilled Chicken salad.(18) I opted for the Pork tenderloin stuffed with a prune and sage filling.(23)
Lynn’s salad looked like a salad, but the chicken seemed to have never been close enough to a grill to brag about a relationship, it was cold and dry.
There was another affront lurking in this salad just below greens, small chunks of canned pineapple. Need I say more?
My Pork Tenderloin was beautifully presented, two healthy servings of Pork oozing with the prune and sage stuffing.
Problem was the meat was dry as dust and crusted over from being over cooked or worse precooked and then reheated.
Pork Tenderloin is not that hard to prepare. The trick is, and it is not a big one, keep it moist. The meat speaks for itself and you can’t go far wrong if it has a professional touch in the general vicinity.
I looked over to a woman who was seated at the bar. She had ordered the Steak frite. (26)
A dish I had considered ordering.
Her frites, french fries, were presented in a tin mug of some sort. Curiously it was a McDonalds approach to presentation where a traditional look would have sufficed.
I watched as she attempted to carve her way through her steak searching for a morsel she could actually chew on.
Despite these culinary failings there was no shortage of people willing to pay a premium for poor service and over done food.
How does this happen in a city that we are now discovering, or so we think, has a genuine culinary curiosity?
Maybe some are not far enough removed from Mother’s grey, bloodless Sunday Roast Beef dinners to notice the difference yet.
Perhaps just getting a meal, regardless of its content, is enough for most.
Is it fuel or flavour we seek?
VON’s
819 Bank Street
613-233-3277
http://www.819bank.com/
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