The National Arts Centre's in-house restaurant occupies one of the city's most strategically placed rooms — above Confederation Square, looking out over the Rideau Canal, with a retractable canopy patio that becomes Ottawa's most considered outdoor dining space when the weather cooperates. The setting scales from a government working lunch to a pre-theatre dinner to a full group booking with equal grace, which is a range that most restaurants in the city can only partially cover.
The New Canadian menu is reliably assembled rather than adventurously composed, which is the correct choice for a room that serves as many different types of occasion as this one does. The wine list is serious enough to satisfy guests who care about what they're drinking. The private dining capacity handles the kind of institutional Ottawa evening that requires gravitas in the room without the formality of a tasting menu restaurant.
For visitors to the city on business or government work, 1 Elgin is the safest recommendation for a dinner that needs to go smoothly regardless of who's at the table.
