From burgers and pizza to kebabs and cocktails, this year’s survey of favourite bites might be my most budget-friendly and multicultural yet.
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Recommended Videos
Two caveats apply. My picks are not the city’s absolute tops in their categories. They’re simply faves from what I ate in 2024. Nor are they endorsements of everything available at the restaurants that earned kudos. Finally, some seasonal or even momentary items have left menus and now are only distant, delectable memories.
Best small bite
Best appetizer
At Stofa on Wellington Street West, a five-course meal in November included two wonderful starters: a softshell crab bao bun and a tempura-fried betel leaf with Thai-flavoured chicken sausage. Honourable mention: Ember’s charcoal-kissed salmon crudo, which leaned in an Asian flavour profile.
Best sandwich
Best burger
Best taco
Best pizza
Best soup
At Merivale Noodle House, I was very partial to the novel pleasures of bun cha ca ($18.95), a Vietnamese soup in which fried fish cakes are the featured protein and a mild broth is studded with chunks of tomato. Honourable mention: Bite & Bite Shanghai Fried Bun’s seaweed-enriched wonton soup.
Best kebabs
Best barbecue
Best bargain
The $9.99 chicken-leg-and-fries lunch at African BBQ House is a fantastic, filling steal. Honourable mention: Those Shanghainese pan-fried buns ($9.99 for four) at Bite & Bite Shanghai Fried Bun.
Best spicy food
Best unique Ottawa cuisine
Best poultry
At Stofa, quail stuffed with confit quail and chicken mousseline was as tasty as it was technical, and accompaniments including apricots, Brussels sprouts, money-pickled onions and puffed grains completed the plate harmoniously. There are so many honourable mentions: the Peruvian roast chicken to go from Lima Peruvian Rotisserie inside Raphael Peruvian Cuisine on Elgin Street, Ember’s superbly sauced roast chicken, and the Korean fried chicken from Pelicana Chicken, which came in a multitude of flavours.
Best red meat
Best seafood dish
Best dessert
A dessert at Stofa was a mind-boggling mix of sour cream apple torte, poached apples, toffee screech rum sauce, cheddar and pecan streusel and apple cider gel, with the interactive fun of a salted caramel “nitro bomb” thrown in for good measure. Honourable mention: The idiosyncratic but craveable ice creams from Sadie Beans Ice Cream.
Best treat
