AshleyW

Check out my wine tasting experience at: http://www.ottawafoodies.com/forum/437?pos...=3162#post_3162 We stayed at: Lawrenceville Guest House 1502 Niagara Stone Road Virgil, Ont. L05 1T0 Tel: 905-468-4333 http://www.niagaraonthelake.com/merchantde...=649&SHOWALL=NO $99 per night with breakfast included

We tried the new Chinese restaurant which is specialized in BBQ dishes/noodles/congee dishes. This is called Jo Moon Ting at 832 Somerset Street West (Rochester & Somerset). This restaurant has equipment to do BBQ duck, BBQ spare ribs, BBQ pork. They have BBQ duck hanging in the glass box. But I didn't try their BBQ duck yet. Since this is a Cantonese style restaurant, the way they serve BBQ duck won't be like how they serve PeiKing duck. They cut up the duck and you eat with the skin and meat together. But you can buy it for takeout and serve yourself with Peiking duck way at home. I try their wonton noodle soup. It was pretty good. I normally like to order the restaurant's specialty.

Yes. Tianrun used to offer very good Dim-Sum. But not any more after the management has been changed (I heard that one of the owners has sold his shares) http://www.ottawafoodies.com/vendor/64

I would recommend Double Happiness BBQ at 777 Somerset Street West. This is the only specialized place for BBQ duck and Char Siu (BBQ Pork) in Ottawa. See http://www.ottawafoodies.com/vendor/1169 for review on Double Happines. Other places to buy BBQ duck is Kowloon Market at 720 Somerset Street West. New 168 Market is bigger. I heard that most of the Chinese restaurants get their BBQ duck either from Kowloon Market or Double Happiness? I also tried the Peking duck at Eastern City. Check my review at: http://www.ottawafoodies.com/food/223 You need to get a feel of how clean the place is. Some of the grocery stores in Chinatown are very dirty. Think about how they will process the food!!! This is the reason I seldom buy cooked meat from grocery stores in Chinatown. I heard all the inside stories that drive me away from purchasing. Note: You can forget about Brother Wu. I tried their food once and my friends all tried once. We all concluded the same comment "You won't see us there for 10 years".

I heard different thing. I heard that Steve is going to work for another restaurant in Ottawa. Let's wait and see.

I know. But he is leaving after 4 months at Par-fyum. Ottawa Citizen mentions it last week. But I don't know where he is going this time.

As you all know that Steven Vardy has left Par-fyum. Do you know which restaurant Steven is going to?

Yes. I do feel that is was a bit expensive. But you compare the price against Mandarin Ogilvie Restaurant in the east end, the price is better. I tried Beijing Tianrun and was my recommendation as well. But Fortune Express is closer to home and the dim-sum wasn't that bad. You can go to OttawaFoodies.com to check the food pictures I took.

You may want to try Fortune Express's dim-sum in Kanata. But their dim-sum is only available on the weekend from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Typical dim-sum selection. But their price may be a bit expensive (but should be cheaper than Mandarin Ogilvie Restaurant). Recommended dim-sum dishes are: Baked BBQ pork puff, deep fried pork dumpling, spring roll, stuffed bean curd, har gow, steamed rice noodle roll Dim-sum dishes that I don't recommended there: stir fried turnip patties, sticky rice. I posted some dim-sum pictures at another website (I am told not to post the website name here). Table for 4 after tip is around $54.

Have any one tried Beckta and Par-fyum recently after the changes in chefs?

I finally tried the sushi at Loblaws. I went to Hull/Gatineau for shopping last week and also did my grocery at the Loblaws store there. I bought a box of Futomaki for myself to try out. I asked the lady at the kiosk to make a fresh one for me. She asked me to come back in 5 minutes. I ate the sushi in the small eating area immediately and found the sushi pretty fresh and tasty. I will give a rating of 7.8 out of 10 for the one I tried out. It is convenient for a quick lunch.

I am a bit disappointed to read this news. Stephen Beckta and Stephen Vardy make a good team and this is what Beckta is about. Chef John Leung is also the co-owner. Having two executive chefs in the same restaurant may be good or bad. We will have to see how it goes. Time will tell.

MinhD, This is good that your group will try out the list of restaurants one by one. Would love to read your comments about other restaurants on the list. You know, going out to eat is very time consuming. Sometimes I just don't have the time to dine out. (A little thing called work always got in the way.) A small request: After you have tried out the list of restaurants, will you kindly rate each restaurant and re-arrange the order? The restaurant receiving the higher rating (say 10 is the higher score) will be the #1 and so on. This will give me some idea of the restaurant I should visit first. I tried few of the restaurants in the list already before I heard about the list.

Every time I do grocery at Loblaws, I have to pass through the sushi kiosk at the entrance. They have a sign "Made Fresh Daily" and I intrepret that the sushi there is made every day on site. I wonder if you have tried them. If so, what is your rating?

You may want to check out the review of Genji by OttawaXpress. http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/food/food.aspx?iIDArticle=9722 I think Ottawa Citizen's food critic, Anne Desbrisay, also gave a review of Genji few months ago. But I can't find that article from Ottawa Citizen's website any more.

If they implied that Chinese can't cook non-Chinese food, that is absolutely nonsense. Don't you know that there are many famous Chinese chefs out there across the world who can cook French cuisine, Italian cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Vietnamese food, Thai food, fine dining food, etc. etc. etc? Chef John Leung, the co-owner of Parfyum (former exec chef of British high commissioner and Eighteen restaurant) is a good example. Chef Susur is another famous chef in Toronto (from Hong Kong). In Hong Kong and other countries, many exec chefs of 5-star hotel restaurants are Chinese. Are you aware of this? Perspective restaurant at Brookstreet hotel (in Kanata) also includes sushi and other Asian influcenced dishes in the menu. Chef Michael Blackie worked at Mandarian Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong and Oberoi resort in Bali, Indonesia. His kitchen expereince in Asia has definitely broadened his cultinary skills to another level. I go to a restaurant for the good food. Who care if the restaurant owner is Chinese, Jamaican, French, Japanese, Vietnamese, Italian, British, Korean,.... as long as the food is delicious? By the way, this is Canada - a multi-cultural place!

Well, there are so many good restaurants in Ottawa that you may want to try out. Domus, Whalesbone Oyster House and Ahora are on Chef Vardy's favourite restaurant list (Chef Vardy is the executive chef at Beckta). He was interviewed by CBC Ottawa Morning few weeks ago and he gave his list of favourite restaurants in Ottawa (not in particular order): Domus Cafe (87 Murray street, Byward market) Ambiente (18 Beechwood Ave.) Luxe Bistro (47 York Street) The Manx pub (370 Elgin St) Seafood: The Whalesbone Oyster House (430 Bank Street) Fine Dining: Signatures (453 Laurier Avenue East) Fine Dining: Baccara, at the Casino du Lac Leamy Mexican: Ahora (307 Dalhousie Street, Byward Market) Caffe Ventuno–Il Negozio Nicastro, Westboro Italian: Cafe Spiga (271 Dalhousie St, (At Murray) French Cuisine: Les Tartuffes (in Gatineau) Vietnamese: New Mee Fung (350 Booth Street) Japanese & Sushi: Genji (175 Lisgar Street, at Elgin) I got the list from someone asking CBC for the list since no one can write the list while driving and listening.

Hi Lesley, I agree that the response to your story has really gone out of proportion. You were just sharing that restaurant incident you had on Canada Day. However, in addition to Beckta, I assume that you must have heard other restaurants in Ottawa from your food critic friends or read some of the critic review written by Anne Desbrisay. You could have gone to Chateau Laurier, Westin, Marriott to enjoy a safe hotel dinner on that day. Canada Day is the most busy day in Ottawa. Our co-op student from Toronto went to a famous restaurant in the Byward Market with his girl friend on Canada Day. The meal wasn't good either. He told me it was expensive and not worth the money. But he did try some other restaurants in Ottawa and was very pleased with quite a few. I believe that you have listened to CBC's Ottawa Morning interview with Chef Stephen Vardy. You gave a good review of Beckta in the past, so I assume that you will trust his recommendation. Here is the list of Ottawa restauarnts recommended by Beckta's Chef Vardy (not in particular order): Domus Cafe (87 Murray street, Byward market) Ambiente (18 Beechwood Ave.) Luxe Bistro (47 York Street) The Manx pub (370 Elgin St) Seafood: The Whalesbone Oyster House (430 Bank Street) Fine Dining: Signatures (453 Laurier Avenue East) Fine Dining: Baccara, at the Casino du Lac Leamy Mexican: Ahora (307 Dalhousie Street, Byward Market) Caffe Ventuno–Il Negozio Nicastro, Westboro Italian: Cafe Spiga (271 Dalhousie St, (At Murray) French Cuisine: Les Tartuffes (in Gatineau) Vietnamese: New Mee Fung (350 Booth Street) Japanese & Sushi: Genji (175 Lisgar Street, at Elgin) I tried Signatures, Baccara, Ahora, Les Tartuffes, New Mee Fung and Genji before. The food there are very good. But every restaurant has its different characteristic and its specialty food. No restaurant can be perfect. I can always be able to pick few faults for criticism. Lesley, I hope that you can come to Ottawa again and try the above list of restaurants and provide your fair review so that you can compare with the top-notch restaurants in Montreal.