Les Grillades — Restaurant in Ottawa

I don't get it... I've tried this place twice and I thought, and everyone I knew insisted, that my first experience was a one off, unfortunately it wasn't.

The first time I came here was in 2015 with a few coworkers, one of them had spoken highly of this place and I was excited to see what they had to offer.

I looked over the menu and it seemed very straightforward, I then noticed that they had a dish called Mandi. I love this dish and I've had it served many different ways but the premise is generally the same, meat and rice are pressure cooked (they used to cook it underground but I doubt anyone does that in Canada). The result is fall off the bone meat with flavoured rice. They usually throw some nuts or raisins on top to make it a proper meal. When I finally got my order I was displeased visually. No nuts or raisins... fine, very little meat and the rice was horrible. I ate the food and then when the owner asked how it was I wasn't afraid to voice my opinion, I flat out told him that this wasn't Mandi, they should either rename it or completely remove it from their menu.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago, we were a big group that came in for a friend's birthday. The place was full, the server was very courteous but he was clearly rushing everything. I asked what kind of salad came with the food and he said "normal salad" whatever that means.

The food comes and the salad doesn't look appealing, there's random beets thrown on top of lettuce with a weird dressing , to me it didn't work but it wasn't horrible. I order the halabi kabob, and I have to say that the meat was good, it wasn't out of this world, not enough to bring me out of my way but good enough.

The disaster on my plate was the rice, this tomato flavoured unseasoned sad excuse for rice. One bite of that was enough to disgust me. I liked one aspect, had no opinion on the salad and hated the rice, overall a very forgettable meal at a hefty price.

My friend and I made the mistake of ordering desserts, when I asked the waiter a specific question about the dessert (what comes on top of it) he assured me that it was what I would expect. When I got it, it was nowhere near what I expected, it was very bland and unappetizing.

Avoid the rice, avoid the rice pudding and the knafa and you may have an ok time.

I for one have lost all respect for this place and will...

Not sure what the hype is about the mediocre tasting food and the small to average portion sizes served here.  I invited guests here along with my family on a recommendation.  I was absolutely disappointed starting with the flat affect of our server.  We ordered a mixed BBQ family platter, a shish tawouk family platter and 2 kids meals.  It arrived and that was the last time we saw our server.  The meagre salad that accompanied each family platter was the size of an individual salad at any other restaurant.  Typically, some sort of dipping sauce like garlic or hummus is served with kebab meat.  So it was curious that we didn't have any.  I waited around for our server to ask, maybe even order some hummus.  But she was nowhere in sight in the half full restaurant.  I retrieved a menu from an employee standing at the front of this cafeteria styled restaurant.  I was surprised to find out that the platters included garlic dipping sauce and turnips, which we didn't receive.  I reached out to another server in lieu of our absent one, ordered hummus and requested the garlic and turnips that should have come with our meal.  Angered now that we had completed our meal as the garlic, turnips and hummus were brought to us, I asked our previously absent server what happened to her and our sides.  Her reply was that she was too busy, laughed, then pointed in the direction of the cafeteria cashier when asked if I can speak with the manager.  Perhaps they were busy, because they were rationing food which would explain the small portion sizes of food and canned hummus served.  My wife spoke with the cashier, who turned out to be Jad the manager.  He told her he would come to the table.  We waited 20 minutes, he didn't come so I expressed my disappointment about my experience to Jad at the cash, paid and left.  Outside in the parking lot I was stopped by Jad and the chef, apologizing about what happened inside.  I told him it should have simply been handled inside at our table.  Ignorantly, they invited me to return another time and spend another $130 and it would be better.  I laughed and told them that I would never come back to a restaurant that treats guests in this manner.  There are far better restaurants in Ottawa that are not run by classless staff...

Tried Les Grillades for the first time this weekend and unfortunately I was pretty disappointed in the service and the atmosphere.

The staff was pretty rude when we walked in and because it was my first time I needed some time with the menus but my server was just getting frustrated and didn’t make any suggestions or try to help me understand the items better. Just stood there rolling her eyes and tapping her foot like we needed to hurry up.

The thing that bothered me most about my dining experience here was the bugs … YES BUGS FLYING AROUND !!! I have never been to a restaurant in my life that had so many little fruit flys flying around at first I just seen one and me and my friend were trying to kill it then we noticed there was over 6 of these flys on the wall right beside us it was very difficult to enjoy the experience with these flys on and around are food / flying around are faces and heads.

We obviously asked to move where a very polite male server came to help us move are drinks and plates to a new table but we still had the same problem to the point we just asked for takeout box’s and left.

We told the gentleman working at the front desk that it was extremely unprofessional and hard to enjoy are food with these bugs flying around but he said there was nothing they could do and it’s just that time of year … he must have thought we were stupid because that makes no sense at all the fruit flys are attracted to ripened fruits and vegetables so there is clearly something extremely wrong with the kitchen and the cleanliness of how they are storing there garbage / fruits and vegetables.

Although the dining experience was horrible the food was really good wish I could have enjoyed it more instead of having to leave...