Stofa Restaurant — Restaurant in Ottawa

It's reputation is a bit ahead of what it actually delivers... It's like a movie version of a nice restaurant but they're all actors

Edit: ive been asked to be more specific, here goes: We were seated in a very full, tight room for a 6ish pm dinner and no one spoke to us for about 15 mins after seating. At that point a tall, very enthusiastic (overly enthusiastic) waiter tells us that some amazing house bread will be coming out soon, and apologizes for the fact that we don't have menus because they ran out of menus, and that we'd get the next set that become available. Ok, that's a first. 5 minutes after that, two small, thinnest possible slices of some pretty good sourdough are presented to our hungry selves with great gusto. These are eaten in one bite and we are scratching our heads wondering where the rest was, especially since it's been about 20 mins since we've been seated, and we're hungry. The menus (!!!) finally arrive. Specials are described at length. There are only 2-3 dishes that we're into. We order dinner and a bottle of wine. The dinner comes out and the waiter starts describing my wife's dish - his description took a really long time and we're supposed to be sitting there looking at our food while he's doing this? He starts another long description of my dish and I said "that's ok, thanks" and I started eating and he actually said "you don't want me to describe the dish to you?" in a sad, disappointed way. And he made me feel so bad about it that I stopped eating (we're starving at this point) and said "ok, let's hear it" and he just started up again from the beginning, as if that was the point of the dinner, and seemed genuinely happy that he got to finish the description, no clue about the fact that I'm starving and pretty annoyed with him by then. Ok, description done, we're eating and drinking the bottle of wine we ordered. Except that, again, we're generally left alone the rest of the meal (which I don't mind), but when he sees me refilling my wife's glass of wine because it had been empty a few minutes, he comes across the room and tops hers off by a few more millimetres and then mine with a kind of "oh I've got that" expression. Ok thanks, man.

Look the food was creative, tasted ok, but it was nothing exceptional in today's Ottawa food scene. There were only a few dishes we even considered ordering, as we're not really into chicken hearts and calf liver and such. The vibe there, particularly from this waiter, is not one we ever want to experience.

I dunno, I'm a huge fan and supporter of the Ottawa restaurant scene - I love that it's thriving. This is the only new restaurant we've tried in 5 years where my overall...

Visited for the Taste of Wellington set menu promo. So this is a rather limited view of the restaurant's abilities and/or food. The restaurant offered a 3 course meal with no substitutions at a reduced price.

Salmon was the best part of the menu. Smoked in house, balanced with pickled radish and pickles with some dill and seeds. 👌

Deep fried 'tempura' baby eggplant was inconsistently cooked throughout. Of the 4 pieces of eggplant, I felt as if there were only parts of 2 of the eggplants that were well cooked enough. The tamarind sauce and yogurt with zaatar was a really cool mix of flavours. Slightly spicy to eat, but balanced out by the tangy sweet tamarind and pressed yogurt. Note: the orange flaked topping was a crushed dehydrated sausage. I couldn't really make out the flavour :(

I think the eggplant was a good idea in thought, and the flavours were well done, but I was super disappointed at cooking quality of tempura as if the chef that created the menu left instructions 'put it in the deep fryer for X minutes' and it was prepared as is (and rushed) without any quality control (Both my gf and I shared this experience with our eggplants).

Finally, the Sous Vide Pork Loin was also quite disappointing. The cut was lean, and the meat inside was quite dry. Not dry enough to be tough, but enough to need lots of sauce to make up for the texture. They seared it before serving, but it was barely golden brown. I personally would have preferred the outside to be seared at a higher temperature for a crustier or toasted texture. I think the sousvide was just left in a bit too long. I can appreciate that the menu is affordable and sousvide meats are easier to prep so restaurants can better handle the traffic. However, I wasn't super excited about the end result of the cooked food.

The flavours in the dish could have been a bit stronger. The entire pallete for the pork was earthy and a bit too mild for my taste (although quite hearty with root vegetables and a good portion of meat).

The service was quite good and I enjoyed my experience for the $50 spent. Our server was professional and was impressive with how he described our dishes when serving. I enjoyed restaurant and ambiance, and had a great date night!

However, given the quality I had expected from a place that serves 40-50$ mains and $90 blind tasting menus, I did expect a little more from the food.

Thanks for participating in taste of Wellington Stofa! We will hopefully visit again to try the standard...

We went to Stofa for a special occasion/date and were pleasantly surprised by this venue. I read few positive reviews before booking and then found 1 star reviews after I made reservation, which made me a little suspicious/conscious about my choice.

I am glad I didn’t read bad reviews first, eventually:)) So I’ll give my feedback as bullet points.

1. intimate space if you want to go for a date, special occasion or business dinner. Many people, including us, were here for an anniversary.

2. no kids were at the venue, this felt like an adult place where you can actually enjoy the atmosphere and food! We were glad we left kids at home.

3. minimalistic decor which coincidentally fitted into our personal taste. Love it!

4. I loved the fact that after each course the flatware were changed! This is what you would expect from the restaurant like this. All the dinnerware was appropriate to its use as to my knowledge of the etiquette. Proper flutes for sparkling wine, proper espresso cup, adorable steak knives, etc.

5. we felt very comfortable being served, no judgement (visible at least) all servers well dressed, and I loved their aprons!

6. food was very good. I couldn’t find a single point to complain. We ordered 5 course meal and sparkling wine. We loved every piece of it.

7. although portions seemed small, we weren’t hungry after the visit, and I felt full 2/3 of course completion. The diversity of the flavours in the dishes made up for the amount of food.

8. we ordered Citrus Salad and Cod Cheeks for the starters, Duck breast and rabbit ragout for the main, and soufflé and chocolate cake for dessert. I can’t describe flavours, but every dish was interesting and very well balanced. It was so perfect I was in doubt I was awake :)

I liked the soufflé, this is the best desert I’ve had in a long time. Well done! The chocolate cake was accessorized with side sweets with different flavours and ice cream. It was an explosion of flavours that complemented each other.

I ended up liking a “chef’s choice” course that came within our 5 course menu. I don’t remember what it was, or what it was called, but that was the most amazing thing I ever tried in restaurant ( there was ricotta and polenta as part of the ingredients).

It’s not cheap place, but it worth the visit! Thanks for that one review that made me choose this place :))

This IS the place that deserves to be called a Restaurant. Thank you chef, servers, and everyone involved. 🥰

Will definitely come...