Good Eats in Ottawa

My wife and I recently went to Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec for a long weekend to visit with friends. Ottawa, Canada's capitol city, is beautiful and a lot of fun, as is Gatineau. During the cold and snowy winter these cities are great, especially during their Winterlude festival, which is when we were there. Our goals were to skate along the famous Rideau Canal, the world's largest ice skating rink, check out some of the ice sculptures and and snow sculptures at a couple of parks, and stroll the ByWard Market area. Now all of this walking and skating sure does work up an appetite, so there were some good eats along the way.

My first two food goals were to go to Swiss Chalet (a Canadian chain rotisserie chicken and rib restaurant) which I absolutely love, and of course to get some Tim Horton's coffee. Besides Buffalo, New York, I don't think there are any more Swiss Chalet restaurants in the US....what a shame. Friday night, a few hours after our arrival I was slurping down a bowl of chalet chicken soup, thoroughly enjoying a half rotisserie chicken with french fries, a roll and their wonderful chalet sauce, before forcing down a delicious slice of coconut cream pie. All this for less than $15. You really can't beat it.

The next morning it was off to the canal, where we enjoyed free hot chocolate and had a nice long skate up and down the canal. The place was packed and the snow was coming down all morning. While I did have beaver tails (fried dough doused with powdered sugar) on my to-eat list, the line was way to long to wait. After the skate I was craving my Timmies fix, and I quickly spotted one on our drive back to Gatineau. Here I got myself a large coffee with cream, and purchased three large cans of ground coffee to bring back home for myself and as a gift to my in-laws (who love the stuff). Next to Tim Horton's was a Chip Truck selling Poutine (only in Canada) and I was quite tempted to partake, however I knew their was poutine in my future in the next couple of days.

The next day we were in the Byward Market area and decided to stop into the Auld Dubliner & Pour House ( http://www.irishvillage.ca/dubliner.aspx) for lunch. This place had a really great atmosphere, and I can assure you that if I lived in Ottawa, I would be a regular at this place. The menu had just what I was looking for...POUTINE. As you can see in the photo below, this had very nicely cooked homemade french fries, a dark, rich, thick beefy gravy and a tonne of fresh cheese curds. It was heavenly.