The Belmont — Restaurant in Ottawa

In short: an awkward dining experience.

A member of my party had made a reservation three weeks earlier for four. We were there celebrating a birthday of which the restaurant was aware. My wife and I entered the restaurant on-time and stated that we had a 5:45pm reservation for four under the name of my friend. The restaurant was not busy, there was one other table occupied. The server that greeted us did not check any kind of reservation book and told us to sit anywhere with two chairs. We said that it was actually a reservation for four and the server promptly guided us to a table with four chairs. Not five minutes after (still on-time), the other two people in our party arrived and they too stated that they had a reservation under the same name. Again, the server did not check any reservation book and somehow did not clue in that they were part of our party. Unprofessional, disorganized staff was the first impression. Unfortunately, the first impression held up for the rest of the evening.

We started with a 2-meat, 3-cheese charcuterie board. It was presented beautifully with salami, capocollo, aged cheddar, blue cheese, and brie. After we had finished that, the server didn’t come back for ages. After waiting too long, we finally made our entrée orders. We ordered an elk salad dish, an order of jerk chicken, and two orders of chipotle lime pork, in addition to some beef and cabbage dumplings. After we placed our order, the server explained that the restaurant does not try to have a table’s food come out at the same time, and that food comes out as it’s ready. We were fine with that idea. One entrée came out very quickly; however, the other three came out about 45 minutes later. No matter the philosophy on how a restaurant is run, that is way too long for one to wait for food after another has already been served. We noticed that other guests who arrived after us were being served before us. No acknowledgement or apologies for this, by the way. What is worse is that the two people that were served last had to speed eat so that we could make our movie at 7:30. So they could not even take their time to savour and enjoy the food.

In the end, Belmont ultimately disappointed and ruined the birthday party we had planned. We arrived at 5:40 and didn’t leave until 7:20pm. One hour and forty minutes. We didn’t make it to our movie and had to get our tickets exchanged for an 11:00pm show.

As for the food, my friends enjoyed the chicken and por. I had the elk. The elk was cooked beautifully, nice and tender, not gamey at all, but the rest of the dish—basically a cabbage salad—was absolutely disgusting. It was doused in this awful, vinegary dressing that made me pucker up like a character on a sour candy wrapper. I ended up eating it because I was hungry—anything is palatable when you’re hungry enough, and we had a movie to make—but any other night I would have sent it back. The dumplings were quite ordinary, and I’ve certainly had better, more tasty dumplings at home. And for $12 you only get six dumplings .

Now, I realize I am nitpicking here, but when I’m spending $45 per head on food (alcohol not included), I expect service excellence. The Belmont did not deliver the service expected at that price point. I also feel like there is a tension in the atmosphere at The Belmont. The aesthetics, rustic décor, and level of service suggest casual dining, but the restaurant name and pricing suggest finer dining. It can’t decide what it wants to be. Whatever it is, it’s not working for me, and I’m never going back.

If you’re looking for a casual dining spot, go to Kettleman’s Bagels, if you’re looking for finer dining, go to The Keg. Those restaurants...

Nice place, didn't have the carbenet savingnon I wanted, or didn't have a good selection of wine all together.. the Syrah wasn't a match. Kinda overpriced for their tiny drinks... my friend had your "special drink on the night" which was about 2 ounces and a 12$ price tag. Yikes! Tasty tho, but I've been to other places which had bigger and something you'd enjoy for a little longer than 5 minutes. Also, not having an actual drink menu and having to stand up to read the drink menu off the wall was a bit awkward and not appealing. The music was beyond loud and My friend and I had to shout in order to hear each other, actually kinda hurt my eardrums at some points. The menu itself was a bit hard to read and understand what would be on the plate as it is in plain text format that brings no imagination or picture to mind, (just a suggestion). In the other hand, the beef and pork dumplings were very good and the sauce was a great match! The prawns were delicious with the broccoli!! And the food had a reasonable price. I did enjoy your food! I rate this place 3 because; 1) there was no consideration for the people on the tables trying to chat as the music was too loud when I was here. 2)the drink menu on the wall was not reachable, and awkward to be standing up to order... 3) the food menu was hard to understand. 4) pricey tag for small drinks... and very small variety of beer/wine ... I paid 10$ for maybe 5oz of wine? That wasn't even good.. :S... didn't win me on the...

This is a really cool spot to have a meal, with all of the geographical pennants tacked onto the walls (as well as plenty of other knickknacks that seem to bring the whole vibe together).

I went here for brunch with a friend and got the Eggs Benny with a side of sausage and by and large, the food was excellent. The only knock I have is that neither my friend nor myself specified the style of Eggs Benny and both of the eggs on each of our plates came back as over hard, which meant that we couldn’t dip our toast or potatoes in them. If you get the Eggs Benny, I would recommend specifying that the eggs are over easy if you are so inclined.

The side salad was really good, though, with the green tomatoes. And the potatoes that came with the meal were scrumptious as well. I also had a coffee to go with the meal, which was much needed.

I would eat here again, although due to the limited seating, I might suggest booking a reservation if it’s the weekend. (Several overly ambitious patrons who had booked reservations showed up 10 minutes ahead of time, wondering if their table was free yet, which normally would bother me because it felt like these patrons were trying to rush certain patrons out of their table(s), but in this case, I’m guessing they were just excited to eat, so I can’t fault them for that)

I would...