Pubwells on Preston — Restaurant in Ottawa

Dropped in after a visit to the war museum. What a great find! It was around noon on Sunday so the pub was mostly empty (1 other table when we arrived). Pubwells bills itself as a local English style pub and they really hit the mark with the decor and atmosphere - lots of wood embellishment, taxidermy animals, indie style music at a background level volume. Since there wasn't a large number of patrons, it made for some good conversation with the bartender/server. It really did feel like a cool neighborhood pub where the locals can come to hang out and socialize with the staff and others. I'm not sure how it would be if the place was busier though. The kids had cheese pizza and grilled cheese kids meals. The grilled cheese was made with a cheddar/mozzarella mix instead of the dreaded cheese slices and the fries were standard British chip style but seemed like they were a frozen commercially produced product - as a plus, they had a nice spice rub added to them. I had an Italian chicken sandwich and the wife had a combo pizza. She was going to change to a club sandwich but the server recommended sticking with the pizza. After he left, i mentioned that if he had that much pride in the pizza, it should be good. Although i have to admit some skepticism of pizza at a british pub. In fact, both the kids cheese and combo pizzas were really great. Anyone who's read any of my reviews knows that I'm a little picky with pizza so I dont dole out praise lightly. The toppings on the combo were in good ratio and did not overwhelm the structural integrity of each slice (no floppiness) and allowed you to taste each element in combination (how a propos). The crust was well seasoned and was probably brushed with olive oil since it had some nice flavour to it almost focaccia like but not overly thick. My italian chicken sandwich was also really great. The chicken was nicely grilled and juicy and the rest of the sandwich had nice Mediterranean flavors - roasted red pepper, kalamata olives, sundried tomato and was tied together with some melted mozzarella and pesto. It was served on a focaccia style bread that was toasted and was nicely flavorful (maybe the pizza dough is doing double duty here). However, my only critique of this sandwich was that the toasting created a barrier that didn't allow the moist ingredients to adhere to the bread. This enhanced the presentation of the sandwich with the vibrancy of the inner ingredients' colour's and the golden toasting of the bread....but the moist inner ingredients were able to slide out of the sandwich quite easily as I was taking bites if I wasn't careful...not a huge task and in the end I may have only had to eat 1 piece of chicken a couple red peppers off the plate...so not a huge problem from a sandwich eating experience. Overall, we really enjoyed our visit and if we lived in the neighborhood, we would definitely be visiting regularly. Great...

Before ordering on Uber eats I called in to ask about what to expect from the hot wings and the gentleman on the phone was friendly and said they'd be pretty hot, I like to think I have a higher heat tolerance than most Canadians and on a scale where sriracha is a 3 and a spicy vindaloo is an 8 I would place the wings at perhaps a 5 or a 6 at the pace that I was eating them, had I tore through them as quick as I could then I would have felt the heat a bit more. Preparation of the wings could be considered slightly overdone by some (not me) depending on what you expect but certainly not to the point of being dry, just enough to crisp the skin and really bring out the flavour of marinade. Either an increased portion of sauce or the option for them to be tossed in the sauce after cooking would go a long way as while they are tasty, when dipping you end up either rationing sauce by the last few wings in the box or just having a few dry wings which again, I find plenty tasty on their own cause of the crispy skin.

I also ordered a serving of garlic sticks which I quite enjoyed, the portion you get for 6 dollars is priced well I would say as other restaurants will charge the same for only a few doughy sticks, this is a crispy, buttery pizza dough with oregano and other herbs on-top, almost like a less fragrant and more garlicky version of za'atar, quite nice.

Overall I was pleased with what I had ordered and look forward to enjoying the atmosphere in...

Overall a solid local watering hole that deserves more attention from locals.

CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: (1) Nachos were excellent, for the price and expectation of a plate of nachos I would add an additional layer of nachos/toppings, for people to go back to ordering it. As it stands, we'd rather get something else on the menu or eat beforehand based on the nachos we received (simply because we were quite hungry afterwards) (2) Open earlier on a Sunday, if you want the casual "after church" or post-brunch crowd you need to be open by at least 1. It was a stunning day, but we missed out hanging chez vous because you weren't open yet.

Beer on tap: Great selection for different tastes, solid Guiness pours and no taste of residue you would get from dirty pipes (nor the hangover from it!)

Food: Pizza was excellent. Pub vibes and pizza? Seemed odd, but honestly it's the style that you want from places like Boston pizza - but actually good crust, topping distribution and more importantly : price. I see myself sitting with friends having a few drinks with a pizza in my future.

Atmosphere: Cozier than expected, more of a winter pint vibe on the inside - but nice terasse as well for the summer :) knowledgeable and polite staff, great music in Thursday's.

Will be going...