Gitanes — Restaurant in Ottawa

Went here on a recommendation from a friend.

The food was, unfortunately, nothing special, despite a very well-conceived menu.

Heirloom tomato salad appetizer was overall quite good, but the main courses were lacking. Crab spaghetti had a perfect cook on the pasta itself and a great presentation, but tasted of not much -- definitely underseasoned. Duck with foie gras saw the latter mostly missing in action (and this is a $52 dish), and what was there was not well-integrated. The duck itself looked properly cooked, but the fat was insufficiently rendered.

The sea bass was underseasoned, and the portion here was quite small. (I had zero expectation of huge servings, obviously, but it was almost comically thin.) Both it and the duck mains lacked any form of starch -- hardly mandatory, but both dishes would have benefitted from something in this regard, especially the duck with its rich sauce. Certainly, neither of these felt French or even modern French (whether you're getting your French food in Paris, London, Amsterdam, or here at home in Quebec).

Wednesday night reservation, one or two tables occupied outside, and four inside, including ours. (Looked like others were mostly couples, we were four.) Very confusing, then, that the wait for the mains was so long -- one companion of mine said 45min after the appetizers were removed, and I think that's about right.

Drinks were pretty good and came fairly quickly.

Ambience is fine overall, with a modern industrial decor. The chairs for the inside tables, though, were likely chosen for appearance rather than function. While they're not uncomfortable (which really surprised me), you will realize when you get up to leave that it's the chairs -- and their hollow plastic shells being pushed or pulled over the concrete floor -- that have been responsible for occasional loud booming noises you've heard during dinner.

Servers were polite, informed, relaxed, and solid overall.

Four adults, three cocktails, four glasses of wine, three appetizers (one with a caviar add-on) and two mains was $500. Fine dining price, bistro ambience, and just-okay food.

Since there are so many very good reviews for this place, there seem to be only two explanations: Others don't know good food, or the place wasn't at its best. Since you don't know if I know good food, either, then maybe you assume the second option.

If you did assume that, and if you were to go, maybe you'd want to try a busier time. Maybe the head chef was out, maybe they were off their rhythm with so few customers -- or maybe Wednesdays are often so slow that they left prep late, and in trying to catch up they cut some corners.

But if you go and later write a review, really review it -- don't feel you have to say it was amazing because you didn't know a word or two on the menu or you spent a lot of money. Because I'd love to check out the new reviews in six months and find things are different than...

Got the tasting menu for two and was quite disappointed. We were told by the waitress that the chef doesn’t give small portions and that it’s more than enough food for two people served “family style” however we left hungry after paying over $155 a person. The tuna tartare consisted of huge thick slices of tuna, served alongside beef tartare and 4 little hollow cream puff sized buns for two people. She offered us crackers after we finished the bread. The pasta tasted good but was cold and soaked up the sauce like it had been sitting. The people beside us arrived at the same time and we were served our apps first while they were watching but they got their second course before us and then it took another 15 minutes for us to get ours. When the waitress realized that we didn’t even touch our dessert she didn’t ask us if we didn’t like it she just said it looks like you’re full and took it away. The fois gros dessert was absolutely awful and tasted like grease. The texture was almost slimey. When we asked for modifications the waitress appeared super judgey and said she didn’t want to ask the chef that. Our modifications were just asking if we could have something cooked medium rare. She also asked if we wanted more drinks and when we said no she replied with “so you’re gonna have the rest of your dinner with water?” The people beside us laughed. Only thing I liked about this plate was the atmosphere and the music being low. There were several empty tables around us the entire time we were there and they placed us right beside another couple who were close enough to insert themselves into our conversations. There was no reason for them not to space us out more considering there were 3 tables taken and approximately 8 tables in the room. When leaving to the bathroom we would hit each others’ tables, that’s how close we were. Genuinely can’t believe we spent $420 on this meal. I’ve attached a photo of the main course which is a lamb saddle with snapped peas, how was this supposed to feed two people “family style”??

*Update: Their reply says that it's $105 per person but the website says $145, you can see for yourselves and we were actually charged $155 per person which we thought was just a price increase that hadn't been updated on...

My partner had come across an Instagram post by someone describing how good the food (particularly the French onion soup) and atmosphere are and decided to book us for the tasting menu. We were seated promptly at the bar when we arrived, agreed the atmosphere and decor had a charm to it and ordered our drinks to start the night. She decided to try the Nouveau Riche spicy cocktail which was actually delicious however I noticed while one of the bartenders was making it he used his bare fingers to clean the inside rim of the glass. We ordered Oysters and the French onion soup in addition to the tasting menu. The bartender warned it might be too much food. The oysters were nice and came with good accoutrements. The tasting menu included escargot which were chewy with way too much butter and cheese. Cacio e pepe with shell pasta and tons of runny sauce that was just passable as well as deep fried onions that looked dark and tasted like they were cooked in dirty oil. Next was something they called steak but was really a slab of fatty flesh with tons of sauce on it and fries. It was barely edible, we only tried a couple of pieces before putting our forks down and the fries were again dark and tasted like dirty oil so we didn't eat them. The menu finished with Creme Brule that she said was alright but I didn't try because it was another item bathing in sauce. I can't tell you what the onion soup is like because we never got it even though we were told it was coming with the second course. The whole tasting menu was served on single plates to be shared and took about three hours from start to finish. The bartender did check on us often and understood we weren't particularly happy with the food. Some items on our bill were comped (not the 98 dollar steak) and we were offered a free digestif which we declined because we just wanted to leave. Our total bill was just over 300 dollars even after having some items comped so I would suggest if you plan to visit this restaurant, order a single item and maybe one or two cocktails or glasses of wine. There are many places your money can be...