town Restaurant (Ottawa)

[AD]

town is a new restaurant where the Elgin Freehouse used to be (Elgin and Gilmour).

I went for dinner Wednesday night. It was the best restaurant meal I've had in Ottawa that I can remember.

We split a few small plates to start. The pecorino potatoes were good but a little plain. Corn in a bag with a tomato butter was delicious and simple. (Dipping the potatoes in the tomato butter was a good idea). The cod fritters were perfect and pretty filling. I think there were 5 on the plate, and they were definitely not light. The ricotta gnudi with hand-chopped pesto was unreal. So good. For such a cheesy dish I could have eaten it all night.

My large plate was the crispy trout. It was 3 thin pieces of trout, nicely crisped and nicely seasoned. It was sitting on top of grilled king mushrooms (nicely scored), agrodolce (shallots and white wine, reduced), soffrito, and what I think was some grilled yellow zucchini? Not sure about that. It was a yellow vegetable that wasn’t a pepper. Each element was great on its own but when I could manage to get them all on the same fork, it was amazing. The portion was large but not too large. Another large dish at the table was the small plate Lamb Ragu with papardelle (large enough for a main for sure). Tasted great. Had a chocolate pudding for dessert. It was OK, for chocolate pudding.

Our server (Phil) was great; friendly, funny and definitely knowledgeable - I asked him what agrodolce was and he knew, didn’t have to go ask the kitchen to ask. He explained the lamb ragu and how it’s prepared without stumbling. Obviously very comfortable talking about food and ingredients, styles etc.

Not sure why people are calling it a gastropub - "Gastro" sure, but I consider a pub to be full of beers. There are 6 beers at Town, 3 on tap and 3 in bottles / cans. Beau’s, Kichesippi, St. Ambroise on tap, Peroni, Creemore and something else in bottles / cans. Wine list was small but well-rounded and there’s a daily cocktail.

Prices were decent - $5 - $13 for small plates, $20 - $25 for large plates. Atmosphere was great, not too loud, not too crowded, chairs were comfortable. Nice to see that the menu reviewed in the Citizen is different than the menu I chose from the other night. I hope this suggests frequent changes and new choices each time someone visits.

Two things they could work on - There were very few vegetarian options on the menu, and none of the large plates were veggie. I imagine the kitchen would create something amazing if you asked, but when there’s no choice up front it’s kind of alienating. I’d also lengthen the beer list. Or, do BYOB / BYOW with a minimal corking fee. More places need to do this in Ottawa.

I will definitely be back as often as my wallet allows.

PS - You'll need reservations to eat here.

[meggo]

thx AD!

[Ms.Huxtable]

Great review AD. Sounds like it's worth checking out.

[bouche]

something new to put on my local list. thanks AD!