Caffé Italiano — Restaurant in Ottawa

The food and the portions suck. I’ve been here twice now and both groups I went with left disappointed and still hungry. I had the ravioli the first time and it’s nothing specular. At least they upped their portion from 5 to 7 pieces for the person that ordered it this time. The second time I went with the cappellacci. My seafood was undercooked and I caught 2 lobster shells in it (They offered me a drink for that but I don’t drink). There were also only 5 small cappellacci. Portion was so small that I was asked if I had even received my plate because it was gone when they had just finished serving.

From a taste perspective, they’re trying to be fancy but failing at it and would do better sticking to the classics. Our group tried oysters, lasagna, chicken marsala, butcher’s cut, etc. Noone liked their plate.

Also, beware of going with a small group (8 in our case) as they charge you a 18.5% tip...

The food was amazing. You start out with bread (think it was sun dried tomato and rosemary but aren’t sure) and some oil with sun dried tomatoes to dip. The bread was warm and amazing tasting. We ordered the calimari to start. Then shared the chicken Marsala and special of Alfredo. Could not decide which was better because they were both amazing tasting. We ended with the canola that you build yourself. The atmosphere was really good. Noise level was fine as there wasn’t many people there. Can’t comment on the noise level with full capacity. We will go back. Only drawback is the limited menu. Not sure how often we will go based on that but it was a great meal for sure. 1 app, 2 meals, 1 dessert and 2 non alcoholic drinks for $125 (tip and...

We really enjoyed dining here. What interested me the most was the catch of the day. We had the catch of the day and the tenderloin with potatoes. Being a chef myself, I was pleasantly surprised. We've dined at many of Ottawa’s fine dining restaurants, but never experienced such clean, well-executed flavors.

It was fascinating to see a French-based sauce paired with Italian elements — and the trout was simply amazing. The demi-glace reminded me of being in France. We asked the lady serving us (unfortunately, I don’t recall her name) if we could speak to the chef, but she mentioned the chef was busy.

Although the steak quality wasn’t the best, it was cooked to perfection.

Thank you, Chef, for bringing the true essence of seafood to...