Favourite Ottawa restaurants

I don’t know about you, but I tend to like restaurants for one or two particular dishes. I order the same thing nearly every time I go. My thinking is, if I want something different, I’ll go to a different place. Sometimes, usually after being ribbed, I try to break out of my comfort zone and order a different dish instead of my preferred pick. I'm almost always disappointed and wish I'd just eaten what I had come for.

When I was in Mali, I remember craving a particular dish (a roasted vegetable and goat cheese salad) from a restaurant in Centretown. I was so disappointed when I came back to find that this restaurant had closed – and I’ve never found another salad quite the same.

While there are a few exceptions to my one-dish per restaurant preference (i.e. the Wellington Gastropub often changes their menu and I have tried several different things those times I’m lucky enough to get to eat there), the following is a list of my favourite restaurants and my favourite dishes there – in other words, where I am very unlikely to order anything else.

I’d be interested in hearing yours too – esp. from local fellow vegetarians.

Taj Mahal (our favourite Indian restaurant): palak paneer and onion bajia. The second, and more conveniently located choice of Indian restaurant is Indian Express where I actually alternate between palak paneer and chick pea curry.

Siam Bistro (best Thai place around): vegetable green curry

The Works (the go-to place for a burger craving): I’ll have the ‘Johnny be Goat’ with goat cheese, warm leaf spinach, roasted red peppers and a veggie patty. Another good place for a veggie burger is the Manx (which actually has a menu I deliberate over) as well as the Corner Bar and Grill (a new and welcome addition to the neighbourhood).

Basmati (fab little Indian restaurant downtown where I often pick up a lunch to go): vegetarian wrap –it’s goodness in a naan.

Fuschian (this is a little Vietnamese place in Chinatown that used to be called Cam Kong – lucky for me, the new owners serve a very comparable dish to my previous fav): vegetarian spring rolls on vermicelli