Best Rated Restaurants in Ottawa : 286 Top Picks for 2026

Vietnamese•Ottawa•value

La Nhau Viet Kitchen & Bar - 30+ years of Pho

Let's clear the air first: the "30+ years of Pho" tagline is a stretch.

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Japanese•Nepean•value

Gyubee Japanese Grill (Merivale)

Gyubee Japanese Grill on Merivale is not trying to be the most refined room in Ottawa, and that's precisely the point.

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9.8

Based on 8065 reviews

Mexican•Kanata•value

Ay Dios Mio Tacos

Kanata is not the first place you'd go looking for a serious taqueria, which makes Ay Dios Mío Tacos something of a welcome disruption in the west-end suburbs.

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Lotus of Siam

Lotus of Siam is doing something quietly radical on Bank Street: treating Thai food in Ottawa with the same seriousness the city usually reserves for French bistros and omakase counters.

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Vegetarian•Ottawa•value

Govinda's

Govinda's has been operating in Ottawa, which means it predates the city's entire modern plant-based dining scene by several decades.

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Starbite Resto

Vanier doesn't need Starbite Resto to be precious about anything, and from what research consistently turns up, it isn't.

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NOX Eatery & Public House Inc.

Sandy Hill doesn't ask much of you, and neither does NOX — but that's the whole point.

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Anabella’s Kitchen & Lounge

Little Italy in Ottawa has a way of producing restaurants that lean on nostalgia as a substitute for ambition — the red sauce, the Frank Sinatra, the sense that Italian-American sentiment is doing more work than the kitchen.

Lebanese•Hintonburg•moderate

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Vietnamese•Ottawa•value

Co Oi Kitchen

Co Oi Kitchen occupies a particular lane in Ottawa's Glebe that very few restaurants bother with: Northern Vietnamese cooking, Hà Nội-rooted and deliberately restrained, in a tradition most of the city's Vietnamese spots treat as backgro…

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Solomon’s Oven

Solomon's Oven is doing something quietly radical on Wellington West: a Syrian bakery-kitchen whose identity isn't filtered through any trend cycle or Toronto-via-Brooklyn lens.

Hintonburg dinnercasual nightcreative

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Altay Flame Uyghur Cuisine

Vanier doesn't ask for your approval, and neither does Altay Flame.

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Togo Coffee 土狗咖啡 (Ottawa)

Togo Coffee 土狗咖啡 (Ottawa) is a strong brunch move in Centretown in Ottawa when you want the meal to feel worth leaving the house for.

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Maria's Tacos

Maria's Tacos is not a restaurant in any conventional sense — it's a window cut into the wall of Maverick's on Rideau Street, and that distinction is the whole point.

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Dinette Atomique

Sandy Hill runs on neighbourhood logic — people here eat close to home, and the spots they love tend to earn loyalty quietly rather than chase attention.

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Linden Pizza

Linden Pizza in Vanier is running on a kind of genuine curiosity that's harder to fake than technique — the menu reads like it was assembled by someone who actually travels and then came home and cooked what they missed.

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La Zone 23

Mexican and Algerian under one roof sounds like a bar bet somebody actually won.

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Masakali Indian Cuisine

Masakali Indian Cuisine keeps showing up in the right conversations in Kanata when people want a reliable indian plan.

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Based on 12974 reviews

Turkish•Nepean•value

Agha Turkish Restaurant Ottawa

Agha Turkish Restaurant opened in Nepean in early 2025 and built a reputation faster than most new spots manage in their first year.

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Based on 12898 reviews

Indian•ByWard Market•value

Masakali Indian Resto Bar

On Clarence Street in the thick of the ByWard Market, Masakali makes a case for Indian food that isn't shy about its bar program.

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Based on 6058 reviews

Indian•Nepean•value

Sundari's Kitchen

Sundari's Kitchen in Nepean operates with the kind of focus that most restaurants are too nervous to commit to: it is a South Indian specialist, full stop, built around the dosa tradition of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka rather than the gener…

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Based on 3739 reviews

Indian•Downtown•value

Masakali Indian Cuisine

Masakali Indian Cuisine is a indian restaurant in Downtown in Ottawa that is worth opening when you want a clearer read on the menu and the room. If Unable to extract menu items is your kind of order, that is a good sign.

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Based on 2164 reviews

Photo of LOLA'S KITCHEN Filipino Restaurant

LOLA'S KITCHEN Filipino Restaurant

Lola's Kitchen has an origin story worth understanding before you go.

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Based on 2058 reviews

Photo of Seau de Crabe Restaurant (Ottawa)

Seafood•Orleans•splurge

Seau de Crabe Restaurant (Ottawa)

Seau de Crabe sits on Tenth Line Road in Orléans — not the kind of address that appears on anyone's instinctive short-list, but the operation has built a following on a format that resists trend-chasing: shellfish cooked to order, sauced…

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Based on 2024 reviews

French•Ottawa•$$$

L'Orée du Bois

Twenty minutes north of Ottawa, across the river and into the Gatineau Hills, L'Orée du Bois occupies a building that reads as half Normandy farmhouse, half turn-of-the-century Quebec country home — and the distinction matters.

date night

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Based on 1922 reviews

Indian•Ottawa•value

Kalinga Indian Cuisine

Kalinga Indian Cuisine is not operating in the tikka masala comfort zone that passes for Indian food in most Ottawa strip malls.

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Based on 1729 reviews

Middle Eastern•Nepean•value

Phynicia Restaurant

Phynicia isn't chasing trends or rebranding itself as Middle Eastern-inspired anything.

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Based on 1548 reviews

Vegetarian•Ottawa•value

Chickpeas

Chickpeas at Ottawa Trainyards has been making the case for Palestinian plant-based cooking as a daily discipline — not a trend —, which puts it well ahead of every plant-forward wave Ottawa has since surfed.

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Based on 1378 reviews

Middle Eastern•Downtown•value

Shawarma AL MOUNA

Shawarma Al Mouna is a downtown Ottawa counter where the logic is refreshingly simple: one operator, one focused menu of Middle Eastern staples, and a room that seats maybe a dozen people before it gets loud.

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Based on 1310 reviews

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Japanese•Barrhaven•value

KINTON RAMEN BARRHAVEN OTTAWA

Kinton Ramen landed in Barrhaven this past October, tucking itself into a Strandherd Drive unit around the corner from the Walter Baker Sports Centre—the kind of suburban address that either becomes a weeknight habit or fades fast.

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Based on 1284 reviews

New Canadian•Wellington West•value

Supply and Demand

Supply and Demand landed on Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list in 2024 at number 75 — a meaningful data point for an Ottawa room, where that kind of national recognition tends to lag behind what is actually happening on the plate.

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Based on 1248 reviews

Cafe•Ottawa•value

Café Raphaël

Café Raphaël is the project of owner Raphael Wakin, a decade in the making and planted deliberately in Ottawa's Little Italy at 101 Champagne Ave S.

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Based on 1166 reviews

Asian•Old Ottawa East•value

Sula Wok

Sula Wok is a walk-up window on Main Street in Old Ottawa East, and the fact that it consistently draws a lineup should tell you more than any star rating.

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Based on 1054 reviews

Mexican•Ottawa•value

Torta Boyz

Torta Boyz built its reputation on a food truck — the kind of origin story that demands discipline, because when there is no atmosphere to absorb the slack, every component on the sandwich has to justify its place.

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Divan Turkish Cuisine

Kanata is too quickly dismissed as a suburb of parking lots and chain restaurants, which makes Divan Turkish Cuisine — opened in Fall 2025 at Kanata Centrum — the kind of arrival that demands a rewrite of that reputation.

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Ayla's Social Kitchen

Little Italy has no shortage of rooms trying to be Italian.

Vietnamese•Chinatown•value

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Pho Tuan

The Somerset West Chinatown corridor has been the backbone of Ottawa's Vietnamese dining community for decades, and Pho Tuan is consistently cited as one of its most dependable addresses.

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Foodinator 干饭人

Foodinator 干饭人 — the name is Chinese slang for someone who eats with focused, unselfconscious intensity, roughly "the person who destroys their rice" — telegraphs its whole personality before you've seen the menu.

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Cumberland Pizza

There's a version of Ottawa pizza history that begins in 1973 on Cumberland Street, survives a 2022 fire that would have finished most operations, and comes out the other side with the same family still running the kitchen.

Pizza•ByWard Market•value

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Bistro Ristoro

Let me be upfront about what Bistro Ristoro actually is, because ByWard Market will happily drain your wallet on forgettable tourist-trap pasta if you blink.

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Japanese•Kanata•value

Kuma Takumi

Kanata rarely enters the conversation when Ottawa's Japanese food scene comes up, and Kuma Takumi seems content operating in that gap.

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Korean•Sandy Hill•value

In's Kitchen

Sandy Hill doesn't have a shortage of cheap eats, but In's Kitchen on Templeton occupies a specific lane that the neighbourhood hasn't exactly crowded out: Korean home cooking, family-run, operating with the quiet confidence of people wh…

New Canadian•Wellington West•moderate

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Stofa

Stofa occupies a deliberately modest footprint on Wellington West — ten tables, a tasting-menu format, and a price point that sits around $95 for five courses.

Contemporary•Manotick•moderate

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The Olive Branch Manotick

Manotick operates on its own clock — unhurried, self-possessed in that village-by-the-water way — and The Olive Branch appears to understand this without being told.

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Chopp Chop Thai Street Food

Orleans doesn't collect a lot of food-media attention, and Chopp Chop Thai Street Food reads like a place that's entirely at peace with that.

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Japanese•Orleans•value

Nagi Sushi

Chef Moriyuki Hiroha reportedly spent thirty years at Ottawa's most established Japanese counter before opening his own intimate bar on St.

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Mi Amor Tacos

Mi Amor Tacos is operating out of a shipping container on Bullman Street, and that format is not a workaround — it is the whole concept.

New Canadian•Little Italy•value

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Perch

Justin Champagne-Lagarde brings a pedigree earned at Atelier — one of Ottawa's most technically serious kitchens — to Perch, his own room in Little Italy, and the throughline is reportedly fluency rather than imitation.

Hidden gemsdinnerlow key

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Eastern European•Ottawa•$$$$

YAN'S Restaurant

Yan's arrived on Murray Street in December 2025 with a premise Ottawa had never quite tested before: what happens when two former Toronto finance professionals — Armenian couple Armen Dalibaldyan and Gohar Ghumashyan — trade spreadsheets…

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Contemporary•Westboro•value

Brassica

Westboro doesn't need another room where the menu reads like a trend report and the cooking can't keep up — and Brassica, which chef Arup Jana opened in early 2025 after losing his previous kitchen Allium to a fire, is reportedly operati…

Cocktail Lounge•ByWard Market•$$$

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Bar Ocelli

The co-owner of Bar Ocelli trained at London's Beaufort Bar and Artesian — two programs recognized repeatedly at the Spirited Awards for technical precision — and that lineage matters when reading what Ottawa's bar scene is being asked t…

cocktailhidden gemdate night

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American•Stittsville•value

VANILLE Cafe & Bakery

VANILLE Cafe & Bakery is a sensible american call in Stittsville in Ottawa when you want something that usually lands well. If Not enough menu information is your kind of order, that is a good sign.

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Mocha Mirage Café

Mocha Mirage Café on Bank Street is doing something Ottawa's café scene has quietly needed for years: anchoring a room in genuine Middle Eastern and North African hospitality rather than borrowing its aesthetic as a mood board.

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Japanese•Nepean•value

Mandarin Restaurant

Let's clear one thing up: despite the "Japanese" label, the Mandarin on West Hunt Club is a full-throttle buffet in the Ontario tradition, part of a chain the Chiu family started back in 1979.

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Based on 20577 reviews

Japanese•Orleans•value

Mandarin Restaurant

Let's be honest about what Mandarin on Tenth Line Road is: an all-you-can-eat buffet where over 150 dishes fan out across soup and salad bars, a grill table, a prime rib counter, and a sushi corner, then keep going into an ice cream sund…

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Based on 11940 reviews

Photo of Dosa King South Indian Restaurant | Bar

Indian•Hintonburg•value

Dosa King South Indian Restaurant | Bar

Hintonburg has quietly developed into Ottawa's most compelling stretch for independent cooking, and Dosa King on Holland Ave is consistently cited as one of the anchors holding that reputation together.

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Based on 4063 reviews

Gastropub•Stittsville•value

The Cheshire Cat Pub

The Cheshire Cat Pub is one of those places that earns loyalty through sheer staying power.

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Based on 3955 reviews

Vietnamese•ByWard Market•value

Pho By Night

Twenty-six years on Dalhousie Street is the kind of tenure that functions as its own credential in a neighbourhood as restless as ByWard Market.

Pholunchtakeout

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Based on 3625 reviews

Photo of #1 Best PHO Near Me in Ottawa🥇 - ParLê by Viet Fresh Vietnamese HALAL FOOD- Consumer Choice Award

Vietnamese•ByWard Market•value

#1 Best PHO Near Me in Ottawa🥇 - ParLê by Viet Fresh Vietnamese HALAL FOOD- Consumer Choice Award

ByWard Market has no shortage of Vietnamese spots, but ParLê by Viet Fresh at 313 Dalhousie occupies a structurally distinct position in that landscape — it is Ottawa's only halal-certified Vietnamese restaurant, which means it has opene…

Pholunchtakeout

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Based on 3077 reviews

Italian•Barrhaven•value

Via Cibo

Barrhaven gets overlooked by Ottawa's food press in a way that's almost a running joke, which makes Via Cibo at 3181 Greenbank Road genuinely worth flagging.

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Based on 2042 reviews

Breakfast•Wellington West•moderate

Chesterfield's Gastro Diner

Wellington West has a particular weekend-morning quality — unhurried, a little worn around the edges — and Chesterfield's Gastro Diner seems to have been built specifically for it.

Wellington West night outstylisheasygoing

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Based on 1926 reviews

Middle Eastern•Centretown•value

Mr. Fez Shawarma (Downtown)

Mr.

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Based on 1851 reviews

Italian•Stittsville•value

Cabotto's

There's a version of Ottawa's dining scene where the most atmospheric Italian table in the region isn't downtown — it's a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival stone house in Stittsville, with a gabled roofline and gingerbread trim that read…

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Based on 1658 reviews

The Third

Hintonburg has always had a personality problem — too many spots angling to be the neighbourhood's flagship while missing the point that this particular corner of Ottawa runs on something unpolished and lived-in.

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Based on 1528 reviews

Indian•Ottawa•value

SONA THE INDIAN KITCHEN

Sona The Indian Kitchen is not trying to be the fanciest subcontinental room in Ottawa — and that restraint is precisely what the research keeps surfacing.

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Based on 1514 reviews

Small Plates•Hintonburg•moderate

Bar Lupulus

Bar Lupulus occupies a particular position in Hintonburg that few bars manage to hold with any conviction: it is genuinely useful to a mixed table.

Wellington West night outdinnerdate night

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Based on 1503 reviews

Contemporary•Orleans•value

The Bad Alibi

The Bad Alibi opened in June 2021 when industry veterans Matt Lewis and Jason Morris built something deliberately for Orleans rather than exporting a downtown concept east when rents got uncomfortable.

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Based on 1456 reviews

Photo of Heartbreakers Pizza - Parkdale Ave

Pizza•Hintonburg•value

Heartbreakers Pizza - Parkdale Ave

Heartbreakers Pizza on Parkdale Ave in Hintonburg is doing something Ottawa's pizza scene has been quietly short on: New York-style pies made with genuine conviction by a family operation that seems to care about what goes in the dough a…

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Based on 1156 reviews

Pizza•Little Italy•value

Farinella Rochester

Little Italy in Ottawa isn't exactly starving for pizza, but Farinella Rochester has carved out a specific lane and seems committed to staying in it: Roman-style pies, no apologies, at a price point low enough to make you second-guess th…

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Based on 1125 reviews

Middle Eastern•Ottawa•value

El Mazaj

El Mazaj is doing something Ottawa's Middle Eastern dining scene genuinely needs: no-frills, wallet-friendly cooking that respects the source material.

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Based on 1114 reviews

Italian•Stittsville•value

Napoli's Café

Napoli's Café on Main Street in Stittsville is carrying fifty years of family history without turning the dining room into a nostalgia exhibit — which is harder than it sounds.

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Based on 1113 reviews

Cafe•Ottawa•value

Arlington Five

Arlington Five occupies a genuinely interesting position in Ottawa's café landscape — a building with roots in the city's punk rock underground that now runs a scratch-kitchen breakfast program for the Centretown crowd.

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Based on 1066 reviews

Indian•Downtown•value

Deccan Delights

Downtown Ottawa's South Indian representation has a new centre of gravity, and it is pointedly not trying to be everything to everyone.

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Based on 1049 reviews

French•ByWard Market•moderate

Ratatouille Bistro

Ratatouille Bistro arrives in the ByWard Market with a contemporary French-leaning concept and, by most accounts, a room that has been deliberately designed to slow a table down.

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Pür & Simple

Pür & Simple has built its reputation in Ottawa on a premise that sounds simple but proves surprisingly rare: a brunch restaurant that treats brunch as the main event, not a weekend afterthought propped up by novelty cocktails and overde…

Bistro•Hintonburg•moderate

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Petit Bill's Bistro

Petit Bill's Bistro is doing something Ottawa's restaurant scene chronically undersells: running a serious kitchen behind an unpretentious front door.

Gastropub•The Glebe•value

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The Rowan

The Rowan has accumulated the kind of neighbourhood credibility that most gastropubs spend years chasing and never quite land: its regulars in The Glebe treat it as a standing appointment rather than a considered choice.

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Town

Town doesn't bother with a manifesto, and that restraint is most of the point.

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Italian•Orleans•value

Cucina da Vito

Orleans rarely pulls food writers across the city, which makes Cucina da Vito one of Ottawa's more quietly consequential restaurants.

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Le Poisson Bleu

Le Poisson Bleu plants itself on Somerset Street West — roast duck windows and bubble tea counters on all sides — and makes no apology for what it is: a seafood neo-bistro operating at a price-point-one in the middle of Ottawa's Chinatown.

Modern Canadian•Little Italy•splurge

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Atelier

There is no other restaurant in Ottawa quite like Atelier, and the field narrows further when you look across Canada.

Wine Bar•Gatineau / Hull•$$$

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Soif Bar à vin

Véronique Rivest is the most decorated wine professional Canada has produced — ranked second in the world at the 2013 Sommelier World Championship, a two-time Canadian champion — and she could be pouring in Paris or New York.

wine barcocktaildate night

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Brunch•The Glebe•value

The Belmont

The Belmont has been a quiet constant in The Glebe, occupying a Bank Street address that regulars describe as feeling genuinely human-scaled — a giant wooden bar at the centre, years of collected décor on the walls, and a kitchen that ru…

Seafood•Centretown•splurge

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The Whalesbone Bank Street

Twenty years on Bank Street is a track record most Ottawa restaurants cannot come close to matching, and The Whalesbone has spent those two decades refusing to dress itself up as something grander than an oyster house.

New Canadian•Centretown West•$$$

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Arlo

Co-owner Alex McMahon trained in the wine program at Noma before returning to Ottawa and building what has become, by most serious accounts, one of Canada's finest natural wine cellars on Somerset West.

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Fine Dining•Kanata•splurge

Amuse Kitchen & Wine

Amuse Kitchen & Wine occupies a strip mall on Eagleson Road in Kanata — between a body shop and a car wash, by most accounts — which means the room has no ambient prestige to lean on.

Contemporary•Old Ottawa South•value

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Dessert First

Old Ottawa South doesn't need another brunch spot that treats poached eggs as a personality.

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Bistro•Westboro•value

Trio Bistro and Lounge

Trio Bistro and Lounge sits on Richmond Road in Westboro occupying a space the neighborhood actually needs: a kitchen that stays serious past midnight.

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La French Canteen Barrhaven

Barrhaven doesn't get enough credit for knowing what it wants, and La French Canteen on Fallowfield Road seems to know exactly what it is: a gourmet burger and sandwich shop that reportedly smashed a Parisian brasserie aesthetic into a N…

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Merivale Station Restaurant

Merivale Station is not trying to impress anyone, and by all accounts that's the whole point.

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Smoked Royale

Smoked Royale opened on Wellington West in July 2025 with a thesis that's harder to execute than it sounds: Montreal smoked meat, made halal, with portion sizes that actually reflect what you're paying.

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Thai•Little Italy•value

Wandee Thai Cuisine

Wandee Thai Cuisine operates out of Little Italy with the kind of low-key confidence that doesn't require much advertising — the room fills on its own.

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French•Ottawa•splurge

Le St. Laurent

Le St.

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Retro Gusto

There's a version of Italian in this city that confuses noise for life and portion size for generosity.

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Japanese•Downtown•value

Sushi-ro

What Sushiro is doing in downtown Ottawa is worth understanding before you go: a deliberately small room, a short menu built around homemade sauces, and a kitchen that has decided restraint is the most coherent thing it can offer.

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Vegetarian•Ottawa•value

Peace-Garden Vegetarian

peacegarden vegetarian is doing something quietly radical in the Ottawa lunch landscape: it operates out of an office building atrium surrounded by what regulars describe as an indoor jungle of exotic plants and trees, light pouring down…

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Steele's Restaurant

Steele's on Merivale Road in Nepean is the kind of diner that stopped trying to impress anyone several decades ago and has been better off for it ever since.

Contemporary•ByWard Market•moderate

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Dark Fork

Dark Fork is one of the more pointed concepts in Ottawa's dining scene — not a novelty, but a deliberate argument about how we experience food.

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Italian•The Glebe•value

The St. Rita

The St.

Contemporary•Kanata•value

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ViaMarzo Kitchen & Wine

What Megan and Selo have built at ViaMarzo Kitchen & Wine in Kanata is the kind of family-run room that suburban dining rarely produces: a contemporary Italian-leaning kitchen operating with the conviction of a downtown destination, minu…

Vietnamese•Downtown•value

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Phở việt Noodle

Ph Vit Noodle occupies the old Maniac Chicken space on Wellington Street West, and by most accounts it has settled into that address with the kind of unpretentious confidence a neighborhood actually needs.

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French•Sandy Hill•value

Signatures Restaurant

Let's clear up the most common misconception about Signatures before you dismiss it: this is not a student kitchen.

date nightcocktailstourist friendly

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French•ByWard Market•$$

Chez Lucien

Chez Lucien occupies a particular kind of space in the ByWard Market that Ottawa locals seem to guard with proprietary affection — a dim, lived-in pub room with a jukebox, a fireplace, and an atmosphere that regulars insist cannot be man…

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Based on 3288 reviews

Call Menu Rate

103

Seafood•Centretown•splurge

Pelican Seafood Market & Grill

Pelican Seafood Market & Grill has operated at the intersection of retail fish market and sit-down dining room, with a proper restaurant expansion following in 1996 — an unusual duality that the room appears to treat as a structural argu…

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Based on 2839 reviews

104

Photo of Green Door Vegetarian Restaurant

Vegetarian•Old Ottawa East•value

Green Door Vegetarian Restaurant

Green Door Vegetarian Restaurant has been running a pay-by-weight vegetarian buffet in Old Ottawa East since the late 1980s — which puts it in genuinely rare company among Canadian vegetarian institutions.

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Based on 2392 reviews

105

Breakfast•The Glebe•value

Wilf & Ada's (No reservations)

What Wilf & Ada's gets right — and what Ottawa's brunch scene keeps fumbling — is refusing to choose between diner accessibility and genuine kitchen discipline.

brunch

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Based on 2200 reviews

106

Northern Italian•Centretown•$$$$

North & Navy

North Navy may be the most carefully conceived Italian tasting menu in Ottawa, operating out of a converted Centretown townhouse that seats fewer than 40 people.

date night

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Based on 1732 reviews

107

New Canadian•Centretown•splurge

Riviera

When Canada's 100 Best placed Riviera among the country's 30 finest restaurants in 2024, the reaction from Ottawa felt less like surprise than collective exhale — as though the city had been waiting for outside confirmation of something…

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Based on 1662 reviews

108

Contemporary•ByWard Market•$$

Lavender Grill

Lavender Grill occupies a room in Ottawa's ByWard Market that, by most accounts, resists the neighbourhood's tendency toward either tourist-trap excess or studied cool.

date nightcocktailstourist friendly

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Based on 1614 reviews

109

Japanese Ramen•ByWard Market•value

Sansotei Ramen

Sansotei built its Ottawa reputation at the Elgin Street original, establishing itself as the city's consensus answer for serious ramen before expanding into ByWard Market.

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Based on 1575 reviews

110

Seasonal French-Canadian•Westboro•moderate

Gezellig

Gezellig occupies a converted former bank in Westboro, and the bones of that space do a lot of the work before a single plate arrives.

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Based on 1574 reviews

111

Gastropub•Ottawa South•$$

Hunter's Public House

Hunter's Public House has built a reputation as one of Ottawa South's most dependable weekend brunch destinations — a gastropub operating with enough kitchen ambition that it landed on OpenTable's Canada's 100 Best Brunch restaurants lis…

pubcocktaildate night

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Based on 1574 reviews

112

Bistro•Manotick•moderate

Black Dog Bistro

Manotick is the kind of Ottawa village that makes you wonder why you ever moved to the city, and Black Dog Bistro is what keeps locals anchored to it.

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Based on 1483 reviews

113

Japanese•Little Italy•value

Kuidaore

Preston Street has plenty of restaurants pitching themselves as destinations, but Kuidaore occupies a more specific and more interesting lane: a genuine izakaya in the middle of Ottawa's Little Italy.

Sushidinnertakeout

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Based on 1422 reviews

114

Mexican•ByWard Market•value

Corazon De Maiz

Corazón de Maíz sits in ByWard Market doing something the neighbourhood genuinely needed: Mexican cooking built around masa the way it's supposed to be built, from the ground up.

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Based on 1291 reviews

115

Photo of Daldongnae Korean BBQ - Somerset

Daldongnae Korean BBQ - Somerset

On a busy stretch of Somerset in Chinatown, Daldongnae runs a tighter operation than most of Ottawa's Korean BBQ rooms, and it shows.

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Based on 1260 reviews

116

Pür & Simple

Barrhaven is not where Ottawa food conversations typically start, which is precisely why Pür & Simple gets to matter more out there.

takeouteasygoing

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Based on 1258 reviews

117

Korean•Old Ottawa South•value

Table SODAM

Table Sodam makes its argument quietly.

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Based on 1222 reviews

118

New Canadian•Centretown•splurge

Beckta Dining & Wine

Nineteen consecutive years of CAA 4-Diamond recognition is the kind of statistic that cuts both ways — it can signal genuine institutional excellence or the slow calcification of a room coasting on accumulated goodwill.

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Based on 1070 reviews

119

Bar•Little Italy•moderate

The Moonroom

Let me tell you what The Moonroom actually is, because calling it a bar undersells it in the specific way that matters.

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Based on 1008 reviews

120

Contemporary•Old Ottawa East•value

Japanese•Ottawa•value

J:unique kitchen

There is a particular kind of editorial confidence in a restaurant that holds a tight room on Cooper Street, takes no reservations, and closes on Mondays.

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Tartelette Bakery & Cafe

Tartelette is the kind of project that makes a lot more sense once you know the backstory.

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State & Main

Let's be honest about what State & Main is: a Recipe Unlimited chain doing the downtown-cocktail-bar routine out in a Barrhaven strip on Strandherd Dr.

Vietnamese•Chinatown•value

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Saigon Boy

Saigon Boy operates out of Ottawa's Chinatown strip on a premise that doesn't get complicated: bowl large, broth properly made, price low enough that the question of whether you can afford lunch today never enters the equation.

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DreamLand Cafe

Dreamland Cafe sits in Little Italy, Ottawa, small enough — six guests is the room's natural ceiling — that scale feels like a deliberate philosophy rather than a real-estate accident.

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Mazarine Brunch

Mazarine Brunch is doing something Ottawa's weekend-morning scene has needed: it takes Middle Eastern pantry logic — labneh, shakshuka, shawarma spice — and builds a full brunch identity around it rather than treating those flavors as an…

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Sí Señor Mexican Street Food

Sí Señor Mexican Street Food is filling a real gap in Ottawa's dining landscape: counter-service Mexican cooking that prioritizes the chaotic, unapologetic spirit of street eating over any pretense of fine dining.

Middle Eastern•Kanata•value

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Tirweka

What Tirweka is doing in a Kanata strip mall deserves more attention than the exterior would ever suggest.

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Thai•Centretown•value

Sweet Basil Restaurant 🌿

Sweet Basil is doing something the Thai spots on Bank Street mostly aren't: cooking for the neighbourhood rather than performing for it.

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El Taco De Oro

El Taco de Oro has built a genuine following in Ottawa by doing something the city's Mexican scene doesn't always prioritize: keeping it direct.

Gastropub•Hintonburg•moderate

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Wellington Gastropub

Here's what Wellington Gastropub gets right that most Ottawa restaurants spend years trying to fake: it knows exactly what it is.

Peruvian•Centretown•moderate

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Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine

Peruvian cooking remains one of the most underrepresented cuisines in Ottawa, which makes Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine in Centretown worth paying attention to.

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Noodle House 79

Let's get one thing straight: Noodle House 79 is not doing "global" in the way that word usually signals trouble — a laminated menu sprawling across three continents, committed to nothing.

Seafood•Alta Vista•splurge

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Mermaid's Seafood Restaurant

Alta Vista is not where Ottawa diners typically look for a considered seafood meal, and Walkley Road has no interest in persuading them otherwise.

Contemporary•ByWard Market•$$

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ALORA Ottawa & ALORA Rooftop

Alora occupies a rooftop position in the ByWard Market that gives it a structural advantage most Ottawa dining rooms cannot manufacture: an elevated view over one of the city's most active neighbourhoods, paired with a contemporary room…

date nightcocktailstourist friendly

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Italian•Manotick•moderate

Babbos Cucina Italiana

Manotick moves at a pace most of Ottawa has quietly forgotten — village-slow, unhurried, the kind of place where the family two tables over is almost certainly celebrating something and you'll know what it is before dessert.

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Ethiopian•Vanier•value

Habesha Restaurant

Vanier doesn't do performance dining, and Habesha fits the neighbourhood like it was built for it.

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Breakfast•Centretown•$

Yolks

Yolks arrived on Bank Street as an Ottawa outpost of a Vancouver-born breakfast concept, and Centretown's weekend crowd appears to have adopted it with the kind of sustained loyalty that shows up as a lineup before the doors open.

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Indian•Centretown•value

Second Wife the Indian restaurant( parking available)

Here is what Second Wife gets right that half of Ottawa's Indian restaurants fumble: it removes every excuse not to show up.

Steakhouse•Centretown•moderate

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Harmons Steakhouse

Harmon's Steakhouse occupies a familiar and well-defined lane: a classic steakhouse format planted in Centretown, Ottawa, where the neighbourhood's appetite for downtown occasion dining gives the concept a natural home.

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Corner Peach

Corner Peach occupies a specific and unusual position in Ottawa's Chinatown: a 30-seat bistro that functions simultaneously as scratch bakery, neighbourhood lunch counter, casual wine bar, and semi-private dining room, without any of tho…

French bistrodate nightdinner

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French•Ottawa•moderate

Benny's Bistro

Benny's Bistro, tucked behind a bakery in Ottawa's Byward Market, operates on a kind of quiet confidence that larger rooms rarely manage.

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Indian•Stittsville•value

Masala Trail

Stittsville doesn't usually factor into the conversation when people are mapping out Ottawa's dining landscape, and Masala Trail seems fine with that.

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Thai•Centretown•value

Thai Lanna Cuisine

Thai Lanna Cuisine is doing something quietly radical on the Centretown grid: it's serving northern Thai cooking — the kind rooted in Chiang Mai rather than Bangkok — at a price point that makes you wonder if the block got skipped during…

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Italian•The Glebe•value

La Strada Restaurant

Fifty years on the Ottawa dining scene is not a footnote — it is the whole argument.

Quebec Wine Bar•Centretown West•moderate

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Buvette Daphnée

Buvette Daphnée landed at number 97 on Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list in 2024 — a recognition that, by most accounts, arrived later than the room deserved.

Italian•Old Ottawa East•value

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Vespa Wine Bar

Old Ottawa East doesn't exactly scream late-night wine bar energy — it's the kind of neighbourhood where people are more likely to be arguing about sourdough hydration than hunting for a good Barolo.

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DUKES Ottawa

DUKES Ottawa occupies the converted house on Adeline Street that formerly held Alice, and the transition has produced something the neighbourhood apparently needed: a brunch room with serious culinary DNA that has no interest in performi…

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Ugly Monday Coffee

Ugly Monday Coffee is a downtown Ottawa counter spot operating out of Centretown's Albert Street corridor, and the name turns out to be less a complaint and more a thesis statement.

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Jack's Kanata

Jack's Kanata is not angling for quiet introspection, and that clarity of purpose is exactly what makes it work.

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Based on 4542 reviews

150

Middle Eastern•Nepean•$$$

Les Grillades

Les Grillades has built a reputation in Nepean as the kind of Middle Eastern grill house that makes a group dinner feel like an occasion without asking anyone to work too hard for it.

shawarmagroup dinnermiddle eastern

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Based on 2189 reviews

151

Sustainable Seafood•Centretown•splurge

The Whalesbone Elgin Street

The Whalesbone on Elgin Street is the more polished sibling to the original oyster bar that put the name on Ottawa's map, and by reputation it carries the same foundational commitment: seafood sourced responsibly, rotated according to wh…

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Based on 2129 reviews

152

Vegetarian•Centretown•value

Pure Kitchen Elgin

Pure Kitchen Elgin has been anchoring Ottawa's plant-based scene with a straightforward conviction: vegetables are the point, not the consolation prize.

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Based on 2102 reviews

153

Giovanni's Restaurant

Giovanni's has occupied its corner of Preston Street, and forty years of continuity tend to leave a mark on a room — the good kind.

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Based on 1626 reviews

154

Del Piacere

Del Piacere on Preston Street has the kind of reputation that doesn't rely on spectacle to hold its shape.

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Based on 1618 reviews

155

Vegetarian•Westboro•value

Pure Kitchen Westboro

Pure Kitchen Westboro isn't trying to convert anyone, and that's probably why it keeps pulling people in.

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Based on 1586 reviews

156

Contemporary Tasting•Stittsville•value

NeXT in Stittsville has built a quiet reputation as one of the Ottawa region's more serious arguments for what Sunday brunch can actually be.

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Based on 1514 reviews

157

Steakhouse•Orleans•value

Delicious Steak House

Orleans isn't exactly overrun with rooms that take beef seriously, which goes a long way toward explaining why Delicious Steakhouse has been pulling regulars back to St-Joseph Boulevard without apparently needing to try very hard.

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Based on 1507 reviews

158

Japanese Omakase•South Ottawa•value

Shinka Sushi Bar

Shinka Sushi Bar occupies a quiet corner of South Ottawa, and that address is genuinely part of the story.

Sushidinnertakeout

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Based on 1298 reviews

159

Middle Eastern•Centretown•value

SemSem

SemSem is doing something Centretown badly needed: serving Middle Eastern food that reads like a family's actual cooking rather than a diplomatically softened version of it.

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Based on 1284 reviews

160

Prohibition Public House

Prohibition Public House has been doing something Ottawa gastropubs rarely manage since opening in 2016: committing fully to a concept without letting the concept swallow the cooking.

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Based on 1251 reviews

161

Southern-American•Centretown•value

Union Local 613

Union Local 613 takes up three floors of a heritage building on Somerset West in Centretown, and the architecture does genuine work in shaping the evening.

Hidden gemsdinnerlow key

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Based on 1235 reviews

162

Japanese•Ottawa•value

Sapporo Sushi Ottawa

Sapporo Sushi Ottawa on Carling Avenue carries a family legacy that traces back to North Toronto in 1995, when Young Ham built a quiet reputation for precise, unfussy Japanese cooking over thirteen-plus years.

Sushidinnertakeout

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Based on 1226 reviews

163

Seafood•Nepean•splurge

The Seafood Grill

The Seafood Grill on Merivale Road in Nepean operates on a premise that is rarer than it should be in Ottawa: the fish market and the kitchen are the same business.

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Based on 1178 reviews

164

Italian•Westboro•value

Fratelli Westboro

Fratelli has been part of the Westboro fabric, which in Ottawa restaurant years puts it somewhere between institution and local landmark.

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Based on 1159 reviews

Siam Bistro

Siam Bistro has been on the downtown Ottawa map, which makes it older than most of the Thai restaurants in this city combined.

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Based on 1129 reviews

166

Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Noodles•Centretown•$

Le Mien Craft Noodle

Le Mien on Somerset West occupies a particular position in Ottawa's food conversation that is difficult to manufacture: it is the place serious, research-minded eaters keep returning to when asked where the city is actually cooking at a…

date night

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Based on 1111 reviews

167

La Dolce Vita

La Dolce Vita on Preston Street occupies a particular frequency in Ottawa's Little Italy — the one that refuses to perform.

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Based on 1095 reviews

168

Photo of Little Victories Coffee Roasters - Elgin

Little Victories Coffee Roasters - Elgin

Little Victories Coffee Roasters on Elgin Street is the project of Jeremie Thompson and Andrew Bassett — lifelong friends, accomplished barista and veteran roaster respectively — who built their Centretown flagship around a single organi…

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Based on 1051 reviews

Tennessy Willems

Tennessy Willems is the kind of place that makes you wonder why more people don't just go build the thing they want.

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Based on 1021 reviews

170

Barbecue•Westboro•value

Lexington Smokehouse & Bar

Lexington Smokehouse Bar has been operating on Richmond Road in Westboro, and by most accounts it runs a tighter ship than its price point suggests.

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Based on 1016 reviews

171

Vietnamese•Centretown•value

Pho Thu Do Restaurant

Thirty years of pho tradition is not a marketing line — it's a specific kind of pressure, and Pho Thu Do on Somerset Street West appears to be carrying it seriously.

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Gastropub•Wellington West•moderate

Elmdale Oyster House & Tavern

The Elmdale Oyster House Tavern has been open, and under the Whalesbone Group's ownership it reportedly resisted every impulse to sand itself into something more broadly palatable.

Wellington West night outdinnerdate night

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Phuket Royal

Phuket Royal occupies a particular and underappreciated niche on Somerset Street West: a genuinely multicultural kitchen that does not apologize for its own breadth.

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WOW SIP VANIER

Vanier doesn't spend much time worrying about what the rest of Ottawa thinks, and Wow Sip fits right into that attitude.

Canadian•ByWard Market•$$$$

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Restaurant e18hteen

The stone building on York Street has been operating as a fine dining address long enough that its reputation precedes any individual meal.

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Brunch•Chinatown•value

Jax

Ottawa has a persistent habit of underselling Jax, a 22-seat bistro on Bronson Avenue that has been running chef-owner Ben Breitler's local-seasonal program since at least 2012 — long enough that the regulars have become institutional.

Italian•Old Ottawa South•value

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Mr. B's Osteria

Mr.

Middle Eastern•Centretown•value

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Jericho

Jericho carries a biography that shapes everything about how it operates.

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Fontenelle Diner

There are diners that perform nostalgia and diners that simply never stopped living it.

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Royal Treasure 敦煌

Royal Treasure 敦煌 on Somerset West operates without apology, and that directness is part of the appeal.

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Wei’s Noodle House

Wei's Noodle House occupies a basement space beneath a REMAX building on Somerset Street — a few tables, a takeout counter doing the heavier volume, and no particular interest in announcing itself to anyone who isn't already looking.

French Bistro•Centretown•moderate

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Gitanes

Gitanes on Elgin Street has accumulated one of the more convincing reputations of any French bistro in Ottawa — not through reinvention or concept, but through the kind of sustained consistency that becomes its own argument.

Bar•ByWard Market•moderate

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Apothecary Lounge

Apothecary Lounge is the kind of bar concept that could easily go wrong — a prohibition-era apothecary theme in a heritage cellar beneath the York on William building, a structure dating to 1875 in the heart of ByWard Market.

Contemporary•Old Ottawa South•value

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Paper Tiger Noodle Bar

Paper Tiger Noodle Bar sits on Bank Street in Old Ottawa South with the low-key presence of a place that doesn't need to advertise — a small, intentionally dark room with a rock-bar sensibility and a kitchen that, by all accounts, is doi…

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Bar•Downtown•moderate

10Fourteen

10fourteen is a downtown Ottawa bar that seems to have solved a problem most bar kitchens don't even acknowledge: that people want to eat actual food late at night without turning it into an occasion.

Contemporary•Stittsville•value

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The Village Cafe

Stittsville doesn't need a destination restaurant to validate it, but The Village Cafe has apparently decided to give it one anyway.

Contemporary•Centretown•moderate

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Manor Lounge

Manor Lounge on Elgin Street has built a reputation around a premise Ottawa's more self-serious dining rooms rarely attempt: that a genuinely good time and genuinely good food belong in the same room.

Contemporary•ByWard Market•moderate

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Ember

Ember is doing something specific in ByWard Market, and it deserves to be named plainly: this is a room built around fire as philosophy, not gimmick.

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Hey Kitchen

Hey Kitchen sits on Somerset Street West without any apparent interest in being discovered by the right people.

Brunch•ByWard Market•moderate

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Speakeasy Tapas Lounge

Down a flight of stairs from York Street, Speakeasy Tapas Lounge commits fully to its premise in a way that sets it apart from every other candlelit room in ByWard Market chasing atmosphere.

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Brunch•Stittsville•value

Eggspectation - Kanata

Eggspectation - Kanata is a contemporary restaurant in Stittsville in Ottawa that is worth opening when you want a clearer read on the menu and the room. Fried Chicken & Waffle and Uneggspected® also give you a decent sense of the menu.

Cocktail Bar•Centretown•$$$

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Stolen Goods Cocktail Bar

Sparks Street runs on lanyards and lunch sandwiches — government-district energy, in other words, not the kind of block that makes you think cocktail destination.

cocktailhidden gemdate night

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Wine Bar•The Glebe•$$

107 Fourth Avenue Wine Bar

107 Fourth Avenue occupies a converted townhouse in the Glebe that, by all accounts, understands what a neighbourhood wine bar is actually supposed to do.

wine barcocktailhidden gem

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Restaurant•Ottawa•$$$$

Le Petit Chef - Ottawa

Le Petit Chef at Restaurant Bar Tulip inside the Hilton Garden Inn & Homewood Suites Ottawa Downtown is, at its core, a theatrical proposition before it is a culinary one — and the best version of this place leans into that fact without…

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Contemporary•Stittsville•value

Brews and Blues

Brews and Blues landed in Stittsville inside a former Equator Coffee Roasters space, and owner Corri brought serious hospitality muscle with her — she previously ran the Juke Joint up in Carp, and that background shows up in how the plac…

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Elgin Street Diner

Elgin Street Diner earns a weekend detour when you want brunch that beats the usual default.

brunch

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Based on 6701 reviews

197

Brewpub•LeBreton Flats•$$

Mill Street Brew Pub

Mill Street Brew Pub's Ottawa River outpost occupies one of the more consequential pieces of real estate in the city — a cobblestone terrace at the water's edge in LeBreton Flats with what is, by most accounts, the largest outdoor footpr…

pubcocktail

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Based on 6302 reviews

198

Pub Italia

Pub Italia has been holding down its corner of Preston Street for thirty years, and the room's reputation precedes it in a way few Little Italy spots can claim.

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Based on 3324 reviews

199

Mexican•ByWard Market•$

Ahora Mexican Cuisine

The ByWard Market has a well-documented tendency to charge tourist prices for food that doesn't justify them — the foot traffic is reliable enough that a lot of kitchens simply stop trying.

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Based on 2450 reviews

200

Mexican•Centretown•value

El Camino (Elgin)

El Camino on Elgin doesn't position itself as a traditional taqueria, and by all accounts that refusal is precisely the point.

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Based on 2348 reviews

201

South Indian•East Ottawa•value

Coconut Lagoon

Chef Joe Thottungal's Coconut Lagoon sits on St.

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Based on 2184 reviews

202

French Bistro•Centretown•$$

Cocotte Bistro

Cocotte Bistro arrived in Centretown and promptly filled a gap Ottawa had been quietly ignoring: the French brunch room that treats the morning meal with the same seriousness a proper bistro applies to dinner.

wine barbistrococktail

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Based on 1887 reviews

203

Steakhouse•Kanata•value

Bâton Rouge Grillhouse & Bar

Bâton Rouge in Kanata is not chasing the adventurous-eater crowd, and that clarity of purpose is reportedly what keeps it working decades in.

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Based on 1845 reviews

204

Mexican•The Glebe•value

Feleena's

Thirty-eight years on Bank Street is the kind of longevity that only happens when a neighbourhood decides a place belongs to it — and The Glebe has clearly decided that about Feleena's.

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Based on 1550 reviews

Khao Thai Restaurant

Khao Thai has been running on Murray Street, which in Ottawa restaurant years is practically geological time.

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Based on 1464 reviews

206

Steakhouse•ByWard Market•moderate

Luxe Bistro

Luxe Bistro sits on York Street in the middle of ByWard Market's tourist corridor and still, by most accounts, manages to feel like it belongs to people who live here.

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Based on 1456 reviews

207

American•The Glebe•value

Banditos

Banditos arrived on Bank Street in 2018 as the Glebe's quietly confident answer to the taco question, built from the ground up by Matt Loudon and his partners with a made-from-scratch philosophy that reportedly extends to tortillas and s…

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Based on 1355 reviews

208

New Canadian•Centretown•value

Fauna

Fauna has appeared on Canada's 100 Best across multiple years, and the consistency behind that recognition is worth understanding before you book.

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Based on 1110 reviews

209

Seafood•Old Ottawa East•splurge

The Shore Club

The Shore Club in Old Ottawa East positions itself as a deliberate occasion — not the kind of room that flatters every Tuesday, but the kind that asks something of you before you walk in.

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Based on 1056 reviews

210

Vegetarian•Centretown•value

Wolf Down

Wolf Down is making an argument in the middle of Centretown, and the argument is a pointed one: fast, affordable vegetarian food doesn't need to apologize for anything.

Japanese•Centretown•value

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Izakaya Shingen

Izakaya Shingen on Bank Street is doing something Ottawa's dining scene genuinely needs: a room built around the ritual of sharing rather than the performance of dining.

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Japanese•Centretown•value

Hanabi Japanese Cuisine

Bank Street has no shortage of Japanese restaurants content to coast on teriyaki combos and safe maki, which is precisely why Hanabi at 434 Bank Street draws the kind of attention it does in Centretown.

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s o m e w h e r e dine bar

Let's be honest about what s o m e w h e r e dine bar is doing on Murray Street, because the name alone tells you something: it's coy on purpose.

Italian•Centretown•moderate

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Giulia

Giulia is the kind of italian room in Centretown you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. Burrata from Puglia and Tuna Crudo also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Mexican•Centretown•value

La Fiesta Latina

La Fiesta Latina on Somerset Street West is doing something Centretown has needed for a while: running a casual, corn-tortilla-committed kitchen that draws from Mexican traditions without softening the flavour ambition for a risk-averse…

French Bistro•Wellington West•moderate

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Absinthe

Absinthe has occupied its corner of Wellington West long enough that it no longer needs to announce itself.

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Cafe Orient

Thirty-plus years on the same stretch of Somerset is not a marketing story — it's a verdict.

Contemporary•Kanata•value

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Cafe•Hintonburg•value

Drip House

Drip House 2 on Parkdale Avenue is the kind of café Hintonburg has been quietly building toward — a room that treats community as infrastructure rather than aesthetic.

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Chez Lionel - Kanata

Chez Lionel - Kanata is a contemporary restaurant in Kanata in Ottawa that is worth opening when you want a clearer read on the menu and the room.

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Colonnade Pizza Carling

Colonnade Pizza on Carling Ave operates from a premise that most Ottawa restaurants quietly envy: a recipe so well-regarded it has remained essentially unchanged.

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Drip House

Drip House is doing something Ottawa's café scene rarely pulls off convincingly: a coherent double life.

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Bar•Centretown•moderate

Charlotte

Charlotte opened on Elgin Street in Centretown back in 2017 with a clear premise: build the room around the glass, not the plate.

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Piper Arms Barrhaven

Barrhaven doesn't get a lot of love from the downtown crowd, and Piper Arms seems perfectly indifferent to that dynamic.

Thai Street•Centretown•value

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Khao Street Food

Ottawa is a city where genuinely good Thai food at a reasonable price demands more effort than it should, which makes Khao Street Food's presence on Centretown's cheap eats map more consequential than its modest footprint implies.

Westboro dinnerfamily dinnerpatio

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Italian•Westboro•value

The Grand Pizzeria & Bar - Westboro Beach

The Grand Pizzeria & Bar at Westboro Beach is doing something genuinely unusual for Ottawa: a waterfront restaurant that actually functions as a real restaurant.

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Contemporary•Old Ottawa East•value

Jfuse

Old Ottawa East tends to fly under the radar — it's a neighbourhood that feeds itself without much external attention, and jfuse fits that rhythm while apparently doing something more ambitious than the surroundings might suggest.

Seafood•Centretown•splurge

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Flipper's Seafood Restaurant

Flipper's Seafood Restaurant has occupied its spot above Von's Bistro on Bank Street for over forty years, reached by a staircase that functions as an informal filter.

Contemporary•Westboro•value

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Elise Restaurant

Westboro has a particular self-possession that not every Ottawa neighbourhood can claim, and Elise — sitting at 381B Winona Avenue — reads as a natural fit without simply blending in.

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Joe's Italian Kitchen - Preston

Preston Street in Ottawa's Little Italy has no shortage of Italian restaurants doing the expected thing — red sauce, candlelight, a Sinatra playlist left running a beat too long.

Middle Eastern•ByWard Market•$

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Shawarma Palace

What Shawarma Palace Rideau is doing in ByWard Market is straightforward and increasingly rare: running a Lebanese counter operation that treats shawarma as craft rather than assembly.

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Based on 5002 reviews

231

Pizza•Centretown•value

Johnny Farina

Johnny Farina has been running on Elgin Street — a family operation inside a former movie theatre, and the space makes that history legible.

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Based on 2739 reviews

232

Wellington Diner

Hintonburg has a way of putting its best restaurants in plain sight and letting word of mouth do the work, and Wellington Diner on Wellington West fits that pattern.

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Based on 2186 reviews

233

Burgers•Orleans•value

Occo Kitchen

Orleans rarely comes up when people start debating where to eat in Ottawa, and Occo Kitchen seems to be quietly benefiting from that oversight.

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Based on 1951 reviews

234

Breakfast•Sandy Hill•value

Father & Sons Restaurant

Father & Sons on Osgoode Street has been operating in Sandy Hill, which means it was feeding University of Ottawa students before most of them were born.

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Based on 1827 reviews

235

Vietnamese•Centretown•value

New Pho Bo Ga La

New Pho Bo Ga La has been an anchor on Somerset Street West for over fifteen years, and the room makes no effort to pretend otherwise.

Pholunchtakeout

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Based on 1759 reviews

236

Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole is solving a problem Ottawa's bar scene has historically had no interest in solving: building a room with actual layers.

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Based on 1472 reviews

Casa México Merivale

Casa México Merivale isn't chasing ambition — it's chasing relevance, and on a stretch of Merivale Road where strip-mall dining trends toward the forgettable, that's the shrewder play.

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Based on 1382 reviews

238

Greenfield's Public House

Barrhaven gets dismissed as Ottawa's culinary afterthought — chain restaurants, strip-mall sushi, nowhere to actually eat late — and Greenfields Public House seems to exist specifically to make that reputation awkward.

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Based on 1342 reviews

239

Photo of SIDEDOOR Contemporary Kitchen & Bar

Southeast Asian•ByWard Market•$$$

SIDEDOOR Contemporary Kitchen & Bar

Sidedoor Contemporary Kitchen & Bar has a clearer sense of identity than most places twice its price.

cocktaildate night

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Based on 1239 reviews

240

Trattoria Caffè Italia

There are restaurants that accumulate time like furniture — each year adding another layer of regulars, another decade of institutional memory — and Trattoria Caffè Italia, which has anchored 254 Preston Street for nearly four decades, i…

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Based on 1076 reviews

241

Brunch•Hintonburg•moderate

The Hintonburg Public House

The Hintonburg Public House has been holding down Wellington West long enough to earn a room full of regulars who treat it like a second living room — loud when it needs to be, not so loud that conversation becomes a project.

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Based on 1053 reviews

The Soca Kitchen

Vanier has been quietly eating better than the rest of Ottawa for years, and The Soca Kitchen on Beechwood is a legitimate reason why.

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Colonnade Pizza

Colonnade Pizza has no interest in the wood-fired credibility race currently sweeping through every revitalized urban corridor, and its track record suggests it never needed to enter.

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American•Orleans•value

Chuck’s Roadhouse

Chuck's Roadhouse in Orleans isn't reaching for anything it can't grab — and that's the whole point.

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No Forks Given

No Forks Given is a hand-food concept on Somerset East in Sandy Hill, and the name is genuinely descriptive rather than cute.

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Thai•Centretown•value

Social Thai

Social Thai on Bank Street is doing something quietly contrarian in a city that has plenty of Thai spots content to coast on familiarity.

Contemporary•Manotick•moderate

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Restaurant•Ottawa•$$$$

Barrio Ottawa

Barrio Ottawa is a restaurant restaurant in Ottawa that is worth opening when you want a clearer read on the menu and the room.

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Heist Manotick

Heist is doing something Ottawa's dining scene rarely pulls off outside the Glebe or Westboro: convincing a village to dress up.

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The Bridge Public House

The Bridge Public House operates on a logic most Ottawa restaurants have quietly abandoned: that a good burger, a cold drink, a dog at your feet, and river light on the water is actually enough.

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Zak's Diner

Zak's Diner is a strong brunch move in Ottawa when you want the meal to feel worth leaving the house for.

brunchcocktail

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Based on 6912 reviews

251

Pizza•ByWard Market•value

The Grand Pizzeria and Bar

The Grand Pizzeria and Bar has one of the more interesting origin stories in Ottawa dining — and the building at 74 George St earns that claim before a single pizza comes out of the oven.

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Based on 4188 reviews

252

Bar and Grill•Ottawa•$$

Tavern On The Hill

Tavern On The Hill is a bar and grill restaurant in Ottawa that is worth opening when you want a clearer read on the menu and the room.

cocktail

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Based on 2408 reviews

BFF Burgers

BFF Burgers has set up on Bank Street in Centretown with a pretty clear thesis: the smash burger format exists to solve a specific problem, and that problem is wanting a genuinely good meal without doing any math about whether the occasi…

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Based on 2280 reviews

254

Photo of Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant

French•New Edinburgh•moderate

Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant

Metropolitain Brasserie, a French brasserie in Ottawa's New Edinburgh neighbourhood, is the kind of room that has apparently made its peace with what it is and stopped renegotiating.

French bistrodate nightdinner

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Based on 1538 reviews

255

Canadian•Centretown•$$$

Zoe's

Zoe's is not, in the strictest sense, a Centretown restaurant — it occupies the Fairmont Château Laurier, which means it arrives pre-loaded with the gravitational pull of a room that has witnessed actual history.

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St. Martha's Brasserie d'Orléans

Orleans is the part of Ottawa that restaurant conversation tends to skip over — the suburb people drive through, not to.

Contemporary•Manotick•moderate

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Starling Restaurant and Bar

Starling Restaurant and Bar is a strong brunch move in Ottawa when you want the meal to feel worth leaving the house for.

wine barcocktailbrunch

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Angelina

Manotick doesn't usually ask you to dress up.

New Canadian•Centretown•$$$

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1 Elgin

1 Elgin occupies one of the more consequential dining rooms in the capital — positioned above Confederation Square with sightlines over the Rideau Canal, inside the National Arts Centre.

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Contemporary•Centretown•moderate

Good Neighbour

Good Neighbour suits a night out in Centretown when you want contemporary that feels grown-up without getting stiff.

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Italian•The Glebe•value

Cantina Gia

Cantina Gia occupies a narrow room on Bank Street in the Glebe — exposed brick, a marble bar, and candlelight that arrives unrequested rather than performed.

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Working Title Kitchen

Working Title Kitchen operates out of a century-old Anglican church in Sandy Hill, and the room is apparently smart enough not to oversell that fact.

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Rooftop•ByWard Market•$$$

Wise Town Cafe

Wise Town Cafe is the café Centretown actually needed — not another espresso bar running on vibes and a Nordic shelf aesthetic, but a family-owned room with a genuine origin story.

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Copper Spirits & Sights

Copper Spirits & Sights occupies the 16th floor of the Andaz Ottawa, and by most accounts it represents the most dramatically situated outdoor bar in the city.

cocktaillate nightdate night

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Pizza•Centretown•value

Al'deewan (Manak'eesh) Bakery (OTTAWA)

Al'deewan (Manak'eesh) Bakery (OTTAWA) is an easy pizza option in Centretown in Ottawa to suggest without needing a long explanation. Manakeesh and Lebanese Mini Pies also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Namche Kitchen

Namche Kitchen is the kind of contemporary room in Hintonburg you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. Steam Momo and Pan Fried Momo also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Ramen•Sandy Hill•value

Taki Ramen

Taki Ramen is a sensible ramen call in Sandy Hill in Ottawa when you want something that usually lands well. Gyoza and Edamame also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.8

Based on 1749 reviews

268

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Turkish•The Glebe•value

Sultan Ahmet Turkish Cuisine Ottawa

Sultan Ahmet Turkish Cuisine Ottawa is a strong brunch move in The Glebe in Ottawa when you want the meal to feel worth leaving the house for. All Mix Meze Plate and Sigara Boregi also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.7

Based on 6212 reviews

A La Istanbul Turkish Cuisine

A La Istanbul Turkish Cuisine is an easy turkish option in Ottawa to suggest without needing a long explanation. Sigara Böreği and Grilled Jumbo Shrimp also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.7

Based on 1736 reviews

270

Ciao Italia

Ciao Italia is a sensible chinese call in Chinatown in Ottawa when you want something that usually lands well. Carpaccio di manzo and Garlic Mussels also give you a decent sense of the menu.

Breakfast•Centretown•value

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7AM Breakfast & Lunch

7AM Breakfast & Lunch is a smart brunch call in Centretown when the morning is supposed to feel a little more like an occasion. 7AM Breakfast Bowl and Classic Eggs Benedict also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Citizen

Citizen suits a night out in Centretown when you want contemporary that feels grown-up without getting stiff. Fried Olives All'Ascolana and Beef Carpaccio also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Golden Ox Noodles

Golden Ox Noodles is the kind of italian room in Little Italy you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. Porkys Punch and Satay Bites also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Tapas•Centretown•value

Aroma Meze

Aroma Meze is the kind of tapas room in Centretown you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. Spanakopitakia and Saganaki also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.6

Based on 1510 reviews

275

Photo of Grounded Scratch Kitchen, Coffeehouse & Bar

Contemporary•Westboro•value

Grounded Scratch Kitchen, Coffeehouse & Bar

Grounded Scratch Kitchen, Coffeehouse & Bar is the kind of contemporary room in Westboro you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. 20hr Burnt Ends and Burrata also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Champa Thai Cuisine

Champa Thai Cuisine is an easy thai option in Ottawa to suggest without needing a long explanation. Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Rolls and Chicken Satay also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Art House

Art House is a smart brunch call in Centretown when the morning is supposed to feel a little more like an occasion. Soup of the Day and Hungry Babe Salad also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.5

Based on 1321 reviews

278

Pakistani•Ottawa•value

New Desi Zaiqa Restaurant

New Desi Zaiqa Restaurant is an easy pakistani option in Ottawa to suggest without needing a long explanation. Chicken Samosa and Bun Kebab also give you a decent sense of the menu.

Contemporary•The Glebe•value

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Erling's Variety

Erling's Variety earns a weekend detour in The Glebe when you want brunch that beats the usual default. Duck Tartare w 'nduja and Tuna Crudo also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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Indian•Centretown•value

Turmeric South Indian Restaurant | Bar

Turmeric South Indian Restaurant | Bar is an easy indian option in Centretown in Ottawa to suggest without needing a long explanation. Paneer Pakora and Chicken 65 also give you a decent sense of the menu.

Contemporary•ByWard Market•moderate

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Aulde Dubliner & Pour House - ByWard Market, Ottawa ON

Aulde Dubliner & Pour House - ByWard Market, Ottawa ON suits a night out in ByWard Market when you want contemporary that feels grown-up without getting stiff. Baked French Onion Dip and Hairy Larry Caesar also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.4

Based on 3925 reviews

282

Greek•Little Italy•moderate

EVOO Greek Kitchen

EVOO Greek Kitchen is the kind of greek room in Little Italy you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. Trio of Spreads and Spanakopita also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.4

Based on 1687 reviews

283

Seafood•Little Italy•moderate

Mati

Mati is the kind of seafood room in Little Italy you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. Tuna Tartare and Lobster Wonton Tacos also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.4

Based on 1432 reviews

THE ALBION ROOMS RESTAURANT

THE ALBION ROOMS RESTAURANT is the kind of tapas room you reach for when the evening is meant to matter a little more. Seared Scallops and Fried Goat Cheese also give you a decent sense of the menu.

Contemporary•The Glebe•value

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CRAFT Beer Market Ottawa

CRAFT Beer Market Ottawa earns a weekend detour in The Glebe when you want brunch that beats the usual default. Korean Sticky Ribs and Crispy Salmon Sushi also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.3

Based on 4086 reviews

286

Breakfast•The Glebe•value

Von's Bistro

Von's Bistro earns a weekend detour in The Glebe when you want brunch that beats the usual default. Crab Cake Benedict and Chevrette Salad also give you a decent sense of the menu.

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4.3

Based on 279 reviews