The Cupcake Lounge - Ottawa

We checked out the Cupcake Lounge yesterday when we were exploring Byward Market and when I saw that they had Key Lime cupcakes on Sundays, I knew I had to come back to pick up a cupcake before we hit the road back to Toronto. 

Display case (their cupcakes aren't all pink! that's just bad lighting on my part)

 

Key Lime cupcake

I was really disappointed. The vanilla cake was crumbly and hard; the icing was thick with nice tart lime flavour, but it was quite heavy. The fondant flower was cute, but it wasn't very appetizing. 

I was also a little disappointed that I got charge $1 for the box - the cupcake itself was $3.25 (excl. tax). 

Overall: The cupcakes are pricey and I didn't like the cupcake I got because the cake was crumbly and hard, the icing was way too heavy. However, it wasn't as bad as my experience at Crumbs; at least the cupcakes here are fresh (not much consolation I'm afraid). 

Website: http://www.thecupcakelounge.com/

Benny's Bistro - Ottawa

At the back of The French Baker/Le Boulanger Français is a cute little restaurant called Benny's Bistro. 

No reservations are taken here

The Menu

Baked multi-grain bread to start 

Really yummy - soft and chewy inside with a hard crust outside.

Croissant from the French Baker

Perfectly flaky and crunchy outside with a soft, light and buttery center. Magnifique!

Benny's salmon gravlax, warm lemon, caper & fingerling potato salad, informata olive tapenade, sunnyside egg

Amazing! After trying it, it's no wonder that the salmon gravlax is one of the most popular items on the menu. The salmon was perfection in this brunch dish: slightly warmed, tender and delicious! Beautifully presented and delightful to eat.

Confit Albacore tuna loin, fennel and radish salad, smoked tomato water, panko crusted chorizo balls, poached egg, saffron aioli

The tuna loin was fantastic! My friend and I weren't wow-ed by the broth of tomato water and I thought it might have detracted from main dish of the tuna, poached egg and salad.

Yukon Gold potato gratin, maple cured pork loin, soft poached eggs with hollandaise sauce

This was my main dish...I was half finished before I realized that I didn't take a picture. (Food Blog fail)

It was just SO GOOD! I loved the potato gratin with the poached eggs and pork loin - it all worked very well together with taste and texture. And when you order this dish, you must upgrade the dish with the hollandaise sauce (extra $2 - but so worth it) because it's delicious and it ties everything together. 

Overall: Amazing brunch! Benny's has some interesting takes on the normal brunch items (eggs, potato and salad) and does them to a whole new level of yumminess! I would totally recommend brunch here!

Website: http://www.frenchbaker.ca/bakery/index.aspx

Le Moulin de Provence - Ottawa

My friend gave us a local tour of Ottawa and pointed out some local attractions, but the highlight was definitely the charming Byward Market:

  

We stopped by a popular tourist site: Le Moulin de Provence made famous as the "Obama Bakery". 

 

It's overwhelming how many pictures of Obama are in the bakery. 

The Obama Cookies

(There's even a collectible tin with Obama's picture in the Bakery)

Knowing me, I was more interested in their cakes and boy do they have a lot of cake!

I decided not to gorge myself sick with dessert before dinner so I opted for two desserts. 

Mousse Pistache-chocolat 

I loved the pistachio mousse and it made me even happier that there was so much of it! It had a strong pistachio flavour and there was enough of it to overcome the heavier and richer chocolate mousse. 

Tarte poire amande avec chocolat 

In comparison to the Clafouti tarts, I found that the shell was too soft and super crumbly. The chocolate was a welcome surprise inside:

However, I found that it overpowered the pear flavour and almond paste. 

Overall: I was pretty happy with the cakes and tarts at Le Moulin de Provence, even if I was overwhelmed by all the Obama memorabilia. Everything is so reasonably priced (compared to Toronto) - the cakes and tarts were all under $4 (vs. the $5-$6 in Toronto). 

Website: http://moulindeprovence.com/

Woodenheads - Kingston

On our way to Ottawa, we planned a stop for lunch in Kingston. Of course, one of the most talked about restaurants in Kingston (and one that comes highly recommended from my friends) is Woodenheads Gourmet Pizza:

The Wood Fire Oven

The Bar

The "Simple" two paged menu. 

The second page is all gourmet pizzas (and the make-your-own option at the bottom).

We had some difficulty choosing since all the options looked good. Therefore, we asked the helpful waitress for her recommendations and she helped narrow down our choices:

Arrogosta

Curried lobster veloute, portabello mushroom, balsamic grilled red onion, smoked salmon

 Instead of a traditional tomato sauce, the sauce is a home-made curried lobster sauce (apparently veloute is a one of the 5 "mother" sauces of French cuisine made with tomato, hollandaise, béchamel and espagnole). It was really lovely (although I kept hoping for chunks of lobster) with the portobello mushrooms and sweet grilled onion together - it worked well. I loved the finishing touch of the hearty smoked salmon pieces delicately layered on top, but the best part has got to be the combination of all the ingredients together baked on a crispy smoky thin crust. Yum!

Nonna Mela

Apple butter, roast garlic, cheddar, sweet onions, blackened chicken

When we first saw this pizza on the menu, we thought it was such a unique and almost bizarre combination, but it worked incredibly well! I wasn't too sure about going from a sweet base of apple butter, roast garlic and sweet onions to the saltier items of cheddar and blackened chicken, but after eating this pizza, I was convinced that it was a totally genius combination. I'm a HUGE fan of apple butter! It's sweet, creamy and delicious and it has a way of making everything taste 100x better. 

Overall: WOW! The pizzas here are original and delicious! I totally understand why this is the first place that everyone from Kingston recommends: the food is amazing, service is great and prices are reasonable. You've got to eat here!

Website: http://www.woodenheads.ca/

The Wedding Cake Shoppe

The Wedding Cake Shoppe is located in the west end of the city at College and Ossington. 

Lately, I've been on a bit of a cupcake craze (especially after my New York trip), and according to BlogTo, The Wedding Cake Shoppe has the best cupcakes - so of course I had to try it out!

After exploring the menu online, my coworkers and I were really intrigued by the Ferrero Rocher cupcakes which are available on Saturdays or by special order. Therefore, I called in advance to order 4 Ferrero Rocher cupcakes, a Raspberry cupcake and an Almond cupcake to be picked up the next day. 

Here they are!

Wow! The cake was super moist, spongy and surprisingly light and fluffy. The icing has an airy consistency and leaves a delicate after-taste as it melts in your mouth. The Ferrero Rocher had less of the Ferrero taste than I would have liked; the Almond cupcake stayed true to the original flavour (even if it was missing the almond on top) and the Raspberry was delicious (even if the icing was a little heavier than the other cupcakes). 

Overall: I really liked their cupcakes. My impression of the cupcakes was that they were super fluffy and delectable. The cake was delicious and the icing had the perfect balance of lightness and it wasn't too sweet.

Website: https://theweddingcakeshoppe.com/

Truck'N Tailgate for Prostate Cancer

I found out about the Truck'N Tailgate for Prostate Cancer event on the Toronto Food Trucks website: On Sept. 20, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., five trucks including Gourmet Gringos, Stuft Gourmet Sausages, Curbside Bliss Cupcakes, Hogtown Smoke and Caplansky’s Deli Truck will be serving up eats on Lombard St. between Victoria St and Church St.

I arranged to meet up with some friends for lunch and we took a divide and conquer approach. 
My friend went to Gourmet Gringos (GG):

 

(Photo courtesy of S.M.)

(Photo courtesy of S.M.)

I went to Stuft Gourmet Sausages (SGS):

 and my other friend went to Caplansky's Deli Truck. 

Our Haul...

From top to bottom: Baja Fish Tacos (GG), Creole Turducken with chimmichurri sauce (SGS) and Barbacoa quesadillas (GG)

1) Baja Fish tacos = grilled mahi-mahi + chipotle aioli + coleslaw + guacamole. We found that there wasn't enough sauce on the tacos even after the coleslaw and aioli, we felt that the tacos were really dry. I would probably give them a 6/10. 

2) Creole Turducken sausage (turkey, duck, chicken seasoned in Creole spices) with chimichurri sauce (the green stuff). I wasn't really impressed by this either - the sausage had a lot going on with so many herbs and spices in the mixture. It was a relatively huge portion too, but probably not worth the $9 price tag. I'd rate it 7/10 because it was more filling than the fish tacos.

3) Barbacoa (mole braised short ribs + cilantro + onions) quesadillas were AMAZING! The melty cheese, fresh tomatoes & peppers, succulent tender beef and nicely fried tortilla made this finger-licking good! and combined with the dipping sauce on the side made it even better. I'd definitely order this one at Gourmet Gringos again!

Pulled Pork Slider $5 and sweet potato fries (Caplansky's Deli Truck)

Spring Sushi

A new All-You-Can-Eat Sushi buffet place opened up near the Cineplex Theatres at 10 Dundas East.

Pretty packed inside the spacious restaurant

The menu is on a "Lillipad" aka IPad. This made the experience really fun because you can interactively explore and select items, place your orders and keep track of the orders.  

Las Vegas Roll, Spicy Salmon roll, Crispy Beancurd Avocado roll, Cucumber and Avocado roll, Fried Mixed Vegetable

The Las Vegas Roll was crispy fried roll with assorted sashimi, cream cheese, avocado and crab meat. It was a large sushi roll (not as big as Sushi Bong), and the ingredients all worked well together. The fried outside was different and it just tasted so good.

Another pleasant surprise was the crispy bean curd avocado roll. It was so good. The bean curd was crispy and tasty and it wrapped tightly with the soft sweet avocado in rice. Great pairing!

Vegetable Spring Rolls, Tempura Shrimp, Takoyaki and Gyoza

I really like Takoyaki (an obsession that started with my trip to Japan): there's just something about those batter fried balls with minced octopus inside. Unfortunately, these ones were not very good. The batter was mushy and the ball kind of melted apart. 

The gyoza were good though - crispy fried skin outside and vegetables stuffed inside. The sauce had a hint of chili in it (but not spicy in general)

BBQ Eel sushi, Spicy Salmon sushi and Bean Curd Pocket

I love unagi (bbq freshwater eel) and I was hoping to just eat it by itself, but the sushi was the closest I could get (the other options were sushi roll and BBQ eel on fried rice). There was a huge portion of rice with the eel in the sushi. The spicy salmon was pretty good and the Bean Curd Pocket was really good - super tasty bean curd skin. 

Red Dragon Roll

Tempura shrimp, cucumber, fish roe and salmon on top

This was pretty good - the tempura shrimp was still warm and crispy from the fryer and the sushi was tightly wrapped so it didn't fall apart. 

Beef Udon in soup and Fried Seafood Udon

The fried seafood udon had too much pepper in it, but it was still okay (not quite as pretty as the picture in the interactive menu). 

Spicy Salmon roll, BBQ eel and Avocado Roll, Crispy Bean curd Avocado roll

In the first spicy salmon roll we ordered, half the pieces were just crispy tempura batter rolls which was a huge disappointment. In the second spicy salmon roll we ordered, we actually had salmon in all the sushi pieces - and they were all good. 

Mango ice cream and Tiramisu

One of my favourite parts of Sushi buffet is Dessert! I love mango ice cream. It's a treat since I don't usually see it so I always order it whenever I see it on the AYCE sushi menu. 

The tiramisu wasn't very good - but it was a lighter dessert than the ice cream.

Deep Fried Banana

This was SO GOOD! Nicely crispy and crunchy on the outside with a soft banana center. The raspberry sauce was pretty good too.

Overall: I think Spring Sushi's AYCE sushi buffet for $14.99 is a great deal! The quality of the food is good and it's delicious. The interactive menu experience is a ton of fun and it's pretty efficient - it helps both you and the kitchen staff keep track of what you're ordering (which solves the most popular complaint in the whole AYCE sushi process)

Website: http://springsushi.com/