Weekend in Ottawa, Endless Summer and Dunn’s restaurant review

My boyfriend, his friend and myself went to Ottawa last weekend. My boyfriend was booked for a gig in a club called Maverick for the event Endless Summer (he is an electronic music dj ^^) there so we all decided to make a weekend thing out of it.

This is the club =)

We took a Greyhound bus to get there and 2h30 hours later we were in Ontario! We first went for coffee in a cute coffee-shop we found near the bus stop. I had my first Chai iced tea (it was awesome ♥), my boyfriend had a double espresso (apparently it was very very strong lol) and his friend had a huge black coffee.

My Chai Iced tea and the very strong espresso ♥

After that we went out for dinner at Dunn’s. The restaurant was almost empty which made us suspicious right away. Dunn’s wasn’t our first choice, but the restaurant we wanted to eat at (a texas grill place) was completely full with a 30 minutes wait for a table. We thought it couldn’t be that bad and it wasn't THAT bad, but I have to say that overall the experience wasn’t great.

This is the Dunn's we went to

First of all, the waitress seemed really annoyed that we were slow to order, which to be fair might have been our fault. Since we don't know their menu and we are not used to ordering in English, we were a little confused and slow at first. Then, every time we would tell her something from the kitchen wasn’t right (it happened twice) she seemed increasingly fed up with us. I’ve never had a waitress get impatient because I told her something I ordered wasn’t right, it’s not like we we’re being rude either we were very polite about it. =O

First we ordered two appetizer plates : bbq chicken wings and hot chicken wings. The bbq wings were great, but the hot ones were raw, cold and bloody inside. Knowing how many bacteria there is in raw chicken this is obviously unacceptable for a restaurant, so we asked her to put it back in the oven for us. After that the wings were fine, but my boyfriend felt ill all evening afterwards.

 We then ordered ribs, which were good if a little dry. We had a choice of two sides with that and I chose fries and fried mushrooms. Our friend, on the other hand chose double fries, but was served only a couple fries more than I did. He asked why double fries wasn't actually a double portion of the fries and of course that really annoyed our waitress. Oh well =s

My ribs and fried mushrooms

Anyway the food wasn’t all that bad, but the cooking and service wasn’t very good. I don’t think I would return! Plus, the food was really expensive.

Our friend brought his huge Quebec flag to Ottawa, yes he did. XD Kept things interesting!

My boyfriend and I at the restaurant. I'm so pale and the picture does not even wash me out O_O

We finally went to the party and had a good time then returned the next day! I was a pretty good weekend overall even if the food wasn’t great!

My boyfriend mixing =D Yay for Dj Matduke ♥ His set was amazing

I've added a video of a little bit of his set! The sound quality isn't very great, but it's fun anyway ♥

Lunch at Nickels

On our day off, my boyfriend and I went out for lunch and to shop for some necessities. We chose to eat at Nickels for lunch!

This was my first time taking pictures of food inside a restaurant and I was a little self conscious. Fortunately, the lighting wasn't too bad, so I didn't have to take as many pictures as I thought to get pretty good results.

Of course, my food photography skills leave somewhat to be desired in comparison to many, but I think the shots are decent enough!

I chose the fish and chips! ♥

The fish was nice and crisp, not soggy or wet. The fries were lightly seasonned and thin and very crispy. I wasn't a fan of the coleslaw, but I never am. The only coleslaw I've ever enjoyed so far is the coleslaw from St-Hubert. Also, I was a little disapointed by the Kraft tartar sauce I was given. I would have preferred homemade obviously. Overall, my lunch was nice, if nothing out of the ordinary. It was a little heavy for lunch though =p The plate was huge! I left more than half of the fries, because I was so full!

And my boyfriend chose the Smoked meat sandwich (one of Nickels' specialty)

I only had a tiny bite of it, so I can't really comment, but I've had this dish countless times in the past! Nickels' smoked meat sandwich is always a treat!

The service was quick, friendly and efficient even though the restaurant seemed pretty busy. The booths were confortable and the subdued lighting was nice. I was glad to see tough that there was a spot light over each individual table which allowed for good pictures!

The bill only came up to 23$ (with tip 27$) which is a lot cheaper than what we usually pay at restaurants! We were really pleased to have chose to have our lunch there! I definitely recommend it.

Homemade caviar sous-marin sushi

I’m in love with this restaurant in Montréal called Kanda sushi. It’s basically an all you can eat sushi place, where you can order as much sushi as you like from their premade menu from nigiris to makis and sashimi. You can also get other types of Japanese food like tempura shrimp and veggies, endamame, yakitori, etc and it’s all included in the same price. It might not be the fanciest sushi (although the fish is always really fresh and tasty), but I adore going there!

One of my favourites is the caviar sous-marin nigiri (submarine caviar). I’ve never seen it anywhere else and it’s really yummy! My boyfriend and I always order tons of them. Until recently, I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it consisted of, so one day we went to eat there and I asked the waiter. Basically, it is made of surimi (imitation crab), red caviar, Japanese mayo, cucumber and salmon all chopped up finely and placed on a rice ball then wrapped in seaweed.

Here’s a picture from their site:

Source

I decided to try it at home and it was a real success! Although I didn’t have any salmon handy so I skipped that. I will definitely try it with salmon next time. Also, I didn’t have any Japanese mayo (the last time I bought some, I didn’t cook very often and I ended up wasting about half of it! It’s pretty expensive so I haven’t bought anymore, but the light mayo I used was a fine replacement)

♥ ♥ ♥

Ingredients (for 4 pieces of nigiri):

- 100g of calrose rice (sushi/Japanese short grain rice)

- 4 sticks of imitation crab

- 1 teaspoon of finely chopped cucumber

- 1 teaspoon of caviar

- ½ tablespoon of light mayo

- 1 sheet of nori

- 15 mL of rice vinegar

- ½ tablespoon of sugar

- 1/8 teaspoon of salt

I have recently found out that this type of sushi (with the seaweed rolled over a ball of rice and filling) is called a Gunkan sushi. I found this on a visit at Yuzu Sushi in Quebec City. They didn't have exactly the caviar sous marin, but they had other variations that were really yummy. I will keep an eye out in the future for any sushi spots serving Gunkans and what variation they offer. Who knows I might stumble across a caviar sous marin dupe?

It’s one of my favourite types of sushi! What’s yours?