The Merry Dairy — Restaurant in Ottawa

On the 28th of July, I attended a local poetry reading; the event's gimmick (if you want to call ‘encouraging sharing and broad reading’ a gimmick!) was to read a poem you love and another poem you wrote. I ran off a copy of “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” by Wallace Stevens, wrote some lines about names for heatwaves, and called it a day. Not quite the finale! The Merry Dairy picked my name for a free scoop that same day. The concept of poets’ time doesn't apply to free goodies, so I channelled my latent Marianne Vos and made haste to Fairmont. I locked my bike to the rack on the premises and — once the shop floor was uncrowded enough for social distancing — sauntered in. I racked my brains, chose the fresh Mint Chip as a free scoop, and bought a funfetti ice cream sandwich (that is, vegan strawberry ice cream sandwiched between vegan sprinkle sugar cookies).

The mint chip ice cream was fantastic, being made, if I recall correctly, from neighbourhood-sourced mint. Nothing toothpaste-like about it! I noticed that the milk crates around the premises showed local suppliers' logos. If you don't want to share your name with a heat wave, shop local!

Eat plants, too! The ice cream sandwich was a delight. The non-dairy ice cream's texture matched that of the dairy-based ice cream, and the cookies' consistency was perfect! The strawberry flavour shone through, so folks who insist that they're too refined for kiddie sweets will enjoy this funfetti take.

I wish the abbreviations for soy-free and gluten-free were clearer — during a previous visit, I'd thought ‘SF’ stood for sugar-free and wrote off some otherwise scrumptious flavours for fear of an alternative sweetener's after-effects — but this is a very small quibble. I might have been distracted by the shop's great playlist! “Song 2” is, naturally, my favourite Blur song to hear in Ottawa, but “Girls and Boys” on a hot summer's day during the hockey offseason is hardly second fiddle!

There's a gelato place that gets a lot of press in Ottawa, even after their owner supported the Freedom Convoy. The emperor has no clothes. Or masks. Gross! I'm impressed with the Merry Dairy's COVID-19 protocols, as well as with their employees’ patience and friendliness. Thanks for the...

Merry Dairy is a staple ice cream shop here in Ottawa, and for good reason. The location is colourful, quaint & cute, tucked away into a neighbourhood off of Wellington street, and the staff are lovely people. There’s usually a lineup going around the building — especially in the warm months, where it can wrap totally around to the other side! With that kind of popularity, the quality speaks for itself.

EDIT: Since leaving my review I have had an incredibly genuine conversation with the owner about my feedback on the previously underwhelming flavours. This past weekend, we decided to return to Merry Dairy to try totally new things, and they absolutely hit it out of the park!! We got two scoops of Ontario Peach with Fresh Mint Stracciatella in a plain waffle cone, as well as two scoops of Birthday Cake and Ube in a lavender cone. Both of our cones were absolutely delicious, especially the birthday cake + ube + lavender cone combination, which was so perfect as a combination of flavours that only days later I’m already painfully tempted to go back for more (maybe with a scoop of Toasted Coconut instead of the birthday cake flavour? Aaaah)! I can happily say that Merry Dairy has become a must-stop location for me in the future. Thank you!

For the sake of preservation, I’ve kept the remainder of my original review below:

“I find that their flavours tend to be very hit or miss; they’re either spot on delicious or they’re edging on a bit mediocre. For example, I got a Salted Caramel scoop and a Cotton Candy scoop. The Salted Caramel was fantastic, super creamy with an excellent depth of flavour! But the Cotton Candy wasn’t creamy, had a strange mouthfeel (possibly because it’s a vegan flavour?) and hardly had any taste to it whatsoever besides a vaguely sugary one. It was incredibly disappointing. I have to say the cinnamon sugar cone was great and so were the hot fudge, caramel & oreo crumb toppings I opted for, so the end result was still a yummy treat. I think I will likely go back to the Merry Dairy again, but I’m going to have to exercise caution and ask more seasoned friends for their recommendations...

I love the Merry Dairy. Their ice cream is amazing and I love the frozen custard during the summer. However, tonight a gentleman who was on the closing shift was very rude to me. We were part of the last customers and got in just after 8pm. The people behind us got to hold the sign indicating to other customers that the store is now closed so we were not late. We arrived at 7:45pm. It just took some time to get served which is common as the store is normally very busy. When we finally got in, I asked to try some of the new Christmas flavours. I am not quoting him verbatim, but the gentleman told me to bear in mind that they are closed and I have to be quick. He also said some people want to come in the store and try every flavour. I only wanted to try two flavours which would not have taken more than a minute really. The rest of the service consisted of the two closing employees discussing how they often close earlier and how next week there will be three people closing instead. Now I understand the desire to go home after a long shift because I’ve worked in customer service but at no point do you take that out on customers. If you don’t want to serve us, it’s better to just turn us away than to make us feel uncomfortable. If this was our first time here- we may have been totally put off the store entirely. Other than this - I love the Merry Dairy and will keep coming back for the ice cream. In past, many of the other employees are usually...