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