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Sidedoor Contemporary Kitchen & Bar
Category: Restaurants Tapas/Small Plates Tapas/Small Plates [Edit]
18B York StOttawa, ON K1N
(613) 562-9331
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
8 reviews for Sidedoor Contemporary Kitchen & Bar
8 reviews in English
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Review from Michael R.
3/17/2012
This was a great find, and a perfect start to my first visit to Ottawa.
Ate at the bar, as I was by myself, and struck up a conversation with some regular visitors. They enthusiastically pointed out a few favorites, and they all turned out to be delicious. The bartender was also quite helpful, and offered up her own opinions.
I started with the Lamb with funky chili tacos. Great little three or four bite tacos, packed with flavor. Quite unique and good. As a bonus, the happy hour prices knocked a couple of dollars off the price.
I'm not a huge fan of papaya, but I'm glad I followed the recommendation for that dish. Crunchy, spicy, tangy, and sweet--absolutely delicious.
Finally, I took the bartender's advice and ordered the "grilled beef". This dish was the star of the evening. Perfectly cooked sliced beef (sirloin, perhaps) that I suppose was marinated as well. It was served with lettuce, thai basil, and house pickles. The pickles consisted of carrot strips, pickled jalapeno slices, pickled ginger, pickled red onions, another diced chili (anaheim?), and accompanied by a hoisin-based sauce as well as an aioli. The beef was full of flavor and extremely tender. The simple title of the dish belied it's true flavor.
Very impressed during my first experience! -
Review from Kaitlin G.
Ottawa, ON
4/3/2012
Last night my sister and I visited Sidedoor Contemporary Kitchen & Bar for some late dinner and to view Top Chef Canada. Their head chef, Jonathan Korecki, is competing this season, and we're big fans of the show, so we thought it would be fun to watch it in his domain.
We arrived around 9:30, (the show is at 10), and were seated at what is, in my opinion, the prime viewing position in the bar. I LOVE the decor in the place. You feel instantly hipper for walking in the door. The servers are all sharply dressed cool young things, and very friendly. Sadly there seemed to be a little confusion over who was serving our table, because we waited a fairly long time to order a drink and an even longer time to order some food.
The food. Be still my beating heart. We ordered the crispy fish tacos and the shrimp tacos. Honestly, I'm still thinking about them. I'm quite certain there are wizards in that kitchen. Sadly, when we tried to order more, we were informed the taco machine was down. (They make all the tortillas to order). In the words of the server, HEARTBREAKING!
So we ordered the doughnut platter. Duh.
We were so fortunate to encounter the maple bacon donut as the feature of the night. Other flavours were dark chocolate, white chocolate cranberry, and cinnamon sugar. Each one was 100% worthy of the "CHEERS!" we shouted before each new flavour. After the maple bacon, (best for last, obviously), our fingers were sticky and we were happy.
The happy hour prices on the tacos were excellent too!
Cannot WAIT to eat there again. -
Review from Dave C.
Ottawa, ON
we were shopping downtown and happened to walk past this restaurant and noticed their Top Chef poster hanging in the window - we are huge fans and are excited to watch the new season starting next week. Turns out their chef is in the show....so therefore we had to try it out...:)
it's a tapas style restaurant and their box lunch features - salad, tacos, and soup - 2 please, one with fish taco and the other shredded beef.
service was great, quick, friendly and informative - the beef platter arrived before the fish....this was confusing, must have been dying at the pass...lol
anyhow we started on the beef tacos, super tasty - the carrot and coconut soup was the star of the show i think, great salad - very tasty meal....we will repeat. -
Review from Krista C.
Vancouver, BC
2/20/2012 1 photo
Everything about this place is amazing. From the perfect room, to the chandeliers of glass bottles to the pretty little rock and flower arrangements on every table to the beautiful and BIG restrooms.
Our server Cam was awesome and our food to die for. Baja fish tacos, steak tacos, lamb tacos, and seafood laksa were thoroughly enjoyed. The cocktail list is unique and interesting...we loved the Jalepenoa - Hendricks gin, muddled cucumber & jalapeno ..delicious!
This would be a great place for a party..one of the most well put together rooms I have ever seen. And Cam let us know that Chef is on the next Canada's Top Chef. My bet is on him to win.
I have one more day to lunch in Ottawa and I have to say, I may just go to Sidedoor again tomorrow it was THAT outstanding! -
Review from Coy W.
Updated - 8/9/2011 12 Check-ins Here
It was long enough since my first bad experience at a place with good food so I decided to give it another try while some friends were visiting from out of town. We asked to be seated on the patio and they let us choose our seat.
Just a warning and this is not Sidedoor's fault but if you sit close to the alley of the red building you may or may not smell urine because of drunk idiots I'm assuming.
Back to the review. We ordered some calamari and some tacos. The tacos again were good and you should try them all. The only one I haven't liked was the bbq pork one.
The salt and pepper calamari was fantastic though!
The staff was better (no bugs in my cutlery and servers didn't act like douchebags) but wasn't awesome. However I ran into one of my favourite servers in town and she now works there. If you want to be guaranteed a very good meal with fantastic service, I'd ask to be seated in Sandy's area. I hope I didn't spell her name wrong!!!Listed in: Ottawa: Outdoor Patio's
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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4/6/2011 First to Review
I had an hour or so to kill around happy hour, hadn't eaten and was drawn to the "Make tacos not… Read more »
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Review from Krystina R.
Liberty Village, Toronto, ON
Lunch special is out of this world. Bajan fish tacos are awesome.
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Review from John S.
NEPEAN, ON
5/21/2011 2 Check-ins Here
The food at the Sidedoor was fantastic. Michael Carmichael has a winner here.
The Crispy Prawn is wrapped in betal leaves then coated in a light tempura. This was just amazing.
We followed that with three of their mini soft wrap tacos. Chinese BBQ Pork, Spicy Beef and the Lamb with Funky Chili (thier name). All were very good.
I also had the Tom Kah Gai Chicken & Prawn soup. It starts off a bit subtle compared to a classic Thai version but seems to get more flavorful as you eat it.
I finished off with the "son-in-law egg". You'll have to try this one for yourself!
Ask for the wine list from Eighteen if you want a bigger selection. -
Review from Eric B.
Ottawa, ON
10/21/2011
Very nice meal, including the seafood chowder, steak and Creme brûlée. A little overpriced and trendy, but very tasty.
