THE PEPPER GARDEN

Some of Ottawa’s dining treasures are found just off the beaten path.

Nestled in beside a Pizza Hut in the midst of a small parking lot just east of the Aviation Parkway on Montreal Road is one such treasure –The Pepper Garden.

It seems very unassuming from the outside but once you walk through the doors you enter a large warm room resplendent with booths throughout.

At the back there is an open kitchen where the chefs ply their trade just behind a plating cook who adds the finishing touches and garnish to your meal while your server waits to whisk it to your table.

Lynn and I have been there many times. Our first time was on our regular date night, the second time we celebrated Lynn’s father’s birthday there and tried their brunch buffet and a third time we took my family and some family friends, 14 of us for dinner. Each time the food was superb and the service remarkable.

The fare is mostly Italian but there are some standard standbys on the menu. You can get a good steak, a BLT or a burger.

But the real treasures are the Italian offerings.

When Lynn and I were first there she ordered a homemade seafood soup which was aswim with morsels of sole, shrimp and crab bathed in a soothing broth (4.)

Always a sucker for mussels I opted for their version prepared in a smoked leek and wine sauce (11.49.)

Both dishes were delicious and large.

For our main courses we both decided on chicken. Lynn chose the grilled chicken breast with a honey, lime ginger glaze served with a black bean corn salsa tossed in a roasted red pepper sauce (17.)

I ordered the chicken and pesto fettuccini, which was fresh pasta, a grilled chicken breast, zucchini and the same red pepper sauce (16.)

As you may know by now both of us are not big eaters but somehow we managed to try just one more bite, and then another, until our plates were almost empty - almost but not quite.

If we had room for a dessert there was a lot to chose from, ranging in price from 4 to 7 dollars. I saw a tempting raspberry chocolate tartuo go by but we were full. It doesn’t take much food to sate our need for excellent cuisine.

Just recently I was at the Pepper Garden again and my date was my mother. We were there for lunch.

We both had a tomato rice soup speckled with chunks of ham but decided to forgo the warm bread and bread sticks but instead chose capicollo and provolone toast - foccacia bread with melted provolone and diced capicollo (7.)

Every booth and table in the restaurant had a patron occupying every available seat. Yet the three servers managed the crowd like air traffic controllers. Every dish arrived safely and on time.

My mother decided that the foccacia toast was so good she would try something else with cheese and chose the multigrain grilled cheese sandwich with smoked gouda and carmelized onion (8.60.)

I had the snow crab cakes on fresh mixed greens with a side of fresh fruit salsa dribbled in an orange basil aioli (9.80.)

It was hard to imagine that we were Vanier, well maybe not so hard considering that Lynn and I have eaten at other Vanier venues and have almost always come away contented, pleased with our meals.

My mother and I sat there for a while as the lunch crowd thinned out, slowly sipping our coffees and dutifully ignoring the dessert menu. It was a nice place, a comfortable place to catch up on her news and our new lives since the recent death of my father.

We talked about how life changes and how things can only make us all stronger in the end.

Good food and best friends are always a good mix.

THE PEPPER GARDEN

681 Montreal Road,
613-749-2999
www.peppergarden.ca

THE ART OF THE SMALL

Bank Street, between Somerset and Gladstone, has quietly been mushrooming with little nooks and crannies that serve up good, substantial food that isn’t a sub, shawarma or a slice of pizza.

Last winter Lynn and I were about to set off to see Le Cirque du Soleil when we suddenly felt mild pangs of hunger.

Not wanting to commit ourselves to a sit down dinner and neither of us being big eaters anyway plus we just weren't that hungry we decided to go local.

We duckwd into the Temptation Tea Shop which is right next to the Royal Oak at Bank and MacLaren.

The Temptation is an unassuming comfortable place with non-descript tables and chairs, everything is basic and functional.

They started out trying to cash in the on the bubble tea craze that briefly surfaced during ’04 and ’05. Then as that bubble began to burst the Temptation folks quickly diversified their menu.

They expanded their choices in the traditional Vietnamese manner – just add a new ingredient or three to what is already on the menu and call it something else.

The food is basic, filling and reasonable. We shared some wonderfully crisp spring rolls (3.99) and a huge plate of stir fried chicken with lemon grass and a side of extra rice (8.25). I had a mango smoothee while Lynn sipped tea. The bill was 18 dollars. We were full.

The most expensive item on their menu is a stir fried combo of shrimp, chicken and beef with red and green pepper in a lemon grass sauce (9.99). The teas and smoothies are amazing and only cost between 4 and 6 dollars. Try their coconut bubble sherbet drink – a drop of some long lost beach heaven fantasy.

The Temptation Tea Shop is a very affordable gem.

We would have dawdled and hung out but we were in a rush to see the arobatic magic of the Cirque.

We were able to order, eat, pay and leave within 20 minutes.

Eating at the Temptation prompted me to take a tour of other small joints near Bank and Somerset.

Just kitty corner from Hartmans on Somerset is Basmati, which offers Indian fare that they say can be adjusted to fit your individual hot/spicy tolerance level.

Again the place is small and the décor unimpressive, basic and functional seems to be the interior design for these small places. Basmati operates largely as a take out business but they also have seating for about twenty.

The food is very good, better than most Indian restaurants and very reasonable. A butter chicken curry with rice, veggies and a fresh baked naan is (12). It is ready in no time and a treat to eat.

For me one order was enough for two meals.

Basmati has everything you could possibility imagine from an Indian kitchen. They even play to as wide an audience as they can by offering a Tikka or Tandoori Pizza(8.99) – or how about a Desi poutine (4.50), that French Canadian classic with a unique twist. Don’t scoff, for the price it is worth bringing a little adventure to your palate.

Going south on Bank from the Temptation and on the opposite side of the street is MIGA which bills itself as a Korean Japanese establishment. If you ignore that particular bit of food schizophrenia you’ll find reasonable choices from both sides of that great cultural divide.

The interior is again not fancy, just functional.

The food is very good and nicely presented.

They tend to lean more to the Japanese half of their cultural equation perhaps because that is a more common experience for this city.

Neither Japanese nor Korean cuisine are particularly related to one another, although one could make the argument that the Koreans were some of the early settlers on the island of Japan but that was eons ago, somehow imagining culinary exchanges lasting over time doesn’t seem very plausible. (Never ever bring up that particular bit of history with either one of the cultures – some old wounds never seem to heal)

The highlight of this mini sampling tour of the small is the Imperial Food and Beverage just beside Barrymores.

After a renovation of the old Pita Pit, which seemed to take forever, the Imperial finally opened and was a success as soon as they unlocked the door.

In keeping with the previous three establishments the Imperial is a wallet bargain with their Salmon Fish Cakes (14) being the most costly item on the menu. These Salmon Cakes are perfectly sauteed and arrive crispy with a homemade Dill Tartar Sauce. Their soups are made daily and never fail to amaze (4).

Where they differ from the others is in decor. Certainly not basic or cafeteria, the Imperial has created a cosy and comfortable small room with subtle lighting and an eclectic collection of old film posters.

They toss a great salad. Try the Wild Rice Waldorf for a meager (5.25). Like Basmati the Imperial offers poutine (5.25) with a twist that you’ll have to discover on your own. Still hungry try the desserts a whopping (4.25) each.

So that is our little tour. Four small but substantial eateries in a four block area along Bank Street.

Most when they think about that particular stretch of Bank Street only consider Whalesbone and the Buzz as being the best, the premium places to eat at in that area of town.

And that’s what they are, premium places. You expect and get great food, great service and you pay for it. They offer a dining experience where what is offered on our tour of the small is simple good food done well for a reasonable price.

Buzz and Whalesbone have created a new culinary standard along Bank Street and that influences the smaller places and the result is good food all around.

One last thing, the old corner store on the south corner of Bank and MacLaren has been going through some changes.

The store closed late last year and re-surfaced as a Vietnamese fast food place.

Lynn and I tried it just days after it opened and enjoyed their spring rolls and a beef stir fry done in a piquant lemongrass sauce. It was delightful.

A few weeks later that business closed and morphed overnight into a fast food burger joint. They still kept their poutine which was always their best seller. I guess it must be considered as a Bank Street basic staple food. Whats up with that?

Well no sooner had they been open for a few weeks doing burgers when they closed again.

Yesterday new signs went up and they are now called Basil, a Thai and Pho restaurant. I am not sure if poutine is still on the menu.

All this was done under the same owners, the original Vietnamese family that ran the corner store.

We'll keep you posted.


TEMPTATION TEA SHOP

324 Bank Street,
613-237-1291
www.temptationteashop.com

BASMATI

373 Somerset Street West,
613-233-0303

MIGA

399 Bank Street,
613-230-0084

IMPERIAL FOOD AND BERVERAGE

329 Bank Street,
613-237-3636

BASIL

312 Bank Street,
613-567-9029

THE BLACK TOMATO

On a beautiful summer night we decided that we would explore a more festive site for our dining date and set off for the annual Greek Festival in the South end.

Driving by with eyes perked for parking opportunities we passed the main festival site and only to see jams of people lined up to squeeze into a very small space.

Cheek to jowl isn’t our cup of ouzo.

The Greek Festival is obliviously a popular event that has grown over the years – it now needs to expand to a new venue in order to accommodate the crowds.

So we drove on in search of a good menu and a non elbow rubbing environment.

We were now cruising like teenagers just searching for what might fancy us. We tried New Edinburgh, but the Fraser’s Café was also jammed. We considered going back to the Pepper Garden in Vanier but eventually we cruised into the Byward market.

While drifting aimlessly through the market and noticing that the entire city and all of the visiting tourists were seated somewhere and eating, or wandering around watching people sitting and eating, I thought that perhaps we should hit an A&W.

I was driving a nice car with an open sun roof, it was a beautiful Wednesday summer night and I was with a hot girl friend, all the necessary ingredients for a drive in.

But suddenly an empty parking space appeared directly in front of the Black Tomato on George Street.

The Black Tomato had been recommended to us numerous of times and mostly from informed sources. The Parking Gods had gifted us a spot just out side the front door so we were enticed in to try their food.

The room was full but the staff quickly found a table for us. The room itself is pretty basic set in an old stone building with a nice bar that no one seems to use. This isn’t a hangout for food compelled locals.

The menu gives it away. It is a litany of the ordinary, a collection of salads, a selection of sandwiches and a varied choice of entrees. The menu is designed for any and all tastes and wallets.

We both ordered sandwiches which came with a side salad.(16)There isn’t much we can say about our choices. We both ordered variations of chicken, mine their own BBQ version, Lynn’s a Cajun variation. Neither complimented the chicken but overwhelmed it.

In effect we both got chicken breasts that had been prepared the same way with only the slathering of different sauces to distinguish them.

As we looked around we saw eaters not diners. The Black Tomato seems to cater to those people, mostly tourists, who were just stopping in for a bite to eat before rushing off to something else.

The price is a tad expensive considering the quality is only middling but the location is terrific and there is great music – available for sale as nod to the location’s earlier history as a record shop.

Should have gone to an A&W.


THE BLACK TOMATO

11 George Street,
613-789-8123