For Valentine’s Day, anniversaries and date nights, Citizen restaurant critic Peter Hum has just the places for you.
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At a Centretown restaurant last week, I sat within earshot of a couple who told their server they were marking their anniversary.
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Faithful to that eatery as they are to each other, they return there each year on their big day to celebrate their love, they said. What’s more, on each annual visit they order the same shareable dish for two.
Awww. What could be more romantic?
That restaurant is one of my recommendations for hungry lovebirds, not just for Valentine’s Day and anniversary celebrations but for date nights too.
The list, some might say, is a little one-sided. It does skew to restaurants that are downtown, more expensive and French-inspired, if not entirely French. For romantic meals, these options sprang to my mind, and that’s probably a bias. But I invite you to send me suggestions, especially if they’re suburban, more budget-friendly and not so Euro-centric. After all, if a Caribbean vacation is for lovers, shouldn’t a jerk chicken dinner be too?
Absinthe Cafe
As Absinthe Cafe’s website states, nothing says I’m fond of you like fondue. At the veteran Hintonburg restaurant, that oh-so-interactive and retro-but-timeless treat is a tradition going back more than a decade, offered Tuesday nights when the weather is cold. For $69 a person, Absinthe’s fondue feast consists of three courses — a Gruyère and Emmental cheese fondue for starters, a fondue bourguignonne starring beef tenderloin, and a chocolate fondue to finish. Each fondue has just the right accoutrements and each can also be ordered separately if three fondues is one or two too many.
Chef-owner Patrick Garland’s restaurant, which opened on Wellington Street West in 2007, is also renowned for its steak frites, although its other fine bistro dishes should not be overlooked. It also serves its namesake liquor in the time-honoured “absinthe drip” ritual, with ice-cold water slowly dripped over the sugar cube into the glass, diluting the absinthe and releasing its essential oils.
Aiana
Arlo Wine & Restaurant
Fauna Food + Bar
It was at Fauna, on Bank Street beside Frank Street, where I overheard the anniversary celebrants who had returned for their traditional dry-aged rib-eye steak for two ($120).
Coincidentally, before that couple arrived, we had just polished off that super-savoury feast for two, replete with cheesy potatoes, mushrooms, turnips, kale and cippolini. It was a carnal indulgence to leave beef-lovers swooning, with a seam of funky flavour well developed over 80 days of dry-aging. Arguably the superior sauce could have been served on the side, so as to leave the steak’s crust as crispy as possible. That said, the sauce did make everything better.
We began dinner with a half-dozen plump, meaty P.E.I. oysters ($24) that were well-paired with an apple and champagne mignonette and a house-made hot sauce. After our beef, we still had room for an excellent dessert of tiramisu affogato ($14). Service was assured and friendly, and the wines and cocktails on offer were at least a notch above.
Le Poisson Bleu
Le Poisson Bleu, which opened in the spring of 2022 east of Chinatown, makes food, which in addition to being delicious, is great conversation fodder on a date night.
Chef Alex Bimm’s passion is doing innovative things with fish and seafood, including dry-aging them as if they were beef or poultry, turning them into charcuterie, putting fish into chili and more.
More traditional appetites won’t go hungry, as there are more conservative choices on the menu like mussels and fries or, on Mondays, fish and chips. But what sets Poisson Bleu apart, and what’s well worth discussing with your date, are Bimm’s creative efforts.
At our recent dinner, we thought the dry-aged steelhead trout crudo ($21) was one of the top raw-fish items we had in recent memory, thanks to the concentrated flavour of its fish that stood up to a very persuasive roasted chili paste.
A special of seafood “pâté en croûte“ delighted us with a thick slab of brioche wrapped around smoked salmon, hamachi and swordfish charcuterie, plus just the right accoutrements.
North & Navy
Restaurant E18hteen
Chef David Godsoe of Restaurant E18hteen, Oct. 21, 2020.
Opened in 2001 in a beautiful, spacious, heritage stone building, Restaurant E18hteen serves premium steaks and classically opulent fare with a combination of French flair and modern Canadian influences. While chef David Godsoe is just in his mid-30s, he’s been cooking with a steady, sophisticated hand in Ottawa for more than half his life and he’s overseen E18hteen’s kitchen since 2016. The star dinners for two here, a chateaubriand ($155) or Australian lamb ($166), stress tenderness. Other mains include Australian Wagyu striploin steaks, lobster bucatini, miso black cod and a lion’s mane mushroom risotto. For gourmands, a five-course tasting menu is available at $140 a person. The wine cellar here is well-stocked and five whites and five reds are available in five- and nine-ounce pours.
Restaurant Les Fougères
Les Fougères’ co-owners Charles and Jennifer Warren-Part, in their restaurant in 2017.
A beloved restaurant since it opened in 1993, Les Fougères in Chelsea is a perfect blend of countryside and modern vibes. Thanks to its 2016 makeover, this rustic West Quebec getaway presents an attractive, contemporary space in which a wraparound dining room overlooks a backyard forest. An undulating bar and open kitchen add visual appeal.
Owners Charles Part and Jennifer Warren-Part know what their customers like, including one of the best duck confit main courses around, and a seafood dish chockful of elements that Part called “Mouth of the St. Lawrence,” which won Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates competition in 2008, sending Part to the Canadian Culinary Championship.
Riviera
Ottawa legend Stephen Flood, Riviera restaurant’s master bartender, in 2017.
The Whalesbone Bank Street
The original Whalesbone location, which turns 20 this year, remains a relaxed and even boisterous place to toss back as many fine oysters as the two of you could wish for. On Tuesdays, those briny little aphrodisiacs are just $2 each, too, — cheap date night, anyone? — accompanied by a tray of fine sauces, even if all the bivalves need is a squeeze of lemon and some shaved horseradish to achieve perfection.
This month, I renewed my acquaintance with the Bank Street Whalesbone for my first visit there in a dozen years. The servers and chefs were still dressed in fisherman chic and the music ranged from vintage New Orleans funk to ’80s British pop. In addition to those tiny but punchy P.E.I. oysters, we split some impeccable salt cod fritters ($23) and kampachi crudo ($32).
The prices for some dishes are higher than comparable dishes around town, but that’s usually been the case with the Whalesbone, which, with good reason, champions higher-calibre, sustainable seafood.