Working Title Kitchen — Restaurant in Ottawa

I have gone to the restaurant many, many times and it has been excellent. Unfortunately, my recent experiences have been awful. Sadly, my most recent visit has caused me to never want to go back. I went to go eat on the terrace because the indoor restaurant was full. The terrace does not require reservations so I was hopeful I would be able to get a table. When I arrived a table for four was just opened up by a party leaving. The hostess told us to wait at the bar and assured us that it would only be about a ten minute wait for them to clear and clean the table. My party of four was told that we would be brought water and menus while we wait. We waited for about 5 mins when the manager came and told us the same thing, informing us that they were also having a big wedding party and were very busy but she assured us again that we would have a table within 10 mins. We waited and cups were brought with not water or menus. They came and filled up one and half of our cups saying they would bring more water to fill the rest, they never did. Two parties of two arrived a little while after we arrived who were also seated at the bar waiting for a table. They were both brought menus and water within mini a of their arrival while we had been waiting for at least 15 mins with no menus or water. By this time a table of two and another table of four had opened up. They were sitting empty, plates cleared. There were enough tables for all of the wrong parties to be seated and were not needed as there are no reservations on the terrace. The manager was no where to be seen and there was only one server working for the whole busy terrace. We have had this server before and she was very kind but tonight she was understandably overwhelmed would not even look at us. I do not blame her as it was the fault of the manager for not scheduling more people to help knowing they would be busy. This is a busy season and the restaurant was already hosting the wedding, the manager she have had more help to accommodate the rush or not had the terrace open if she knew it would be too overwhelming. We waited for almost 40 mins with no menus or water. The party of two that arrived AFTER us was seated at a table for four! Nobody came to talk to us after we arrived. This made no sense when we arrived first and there was table for two open! Regardless there was still another table for four open. We tried getting the attention of a server but it was very difficult. Finally we got someone’s attention and he told us he would check. So after 40 mins they offered us a table but at this point we were so frustrated we decided to leave. We could see they were overwhelmed and the food was going to take a long time. If they had told us at the beginning that the wait would be so long or that they couldn’t accommodate us than I would not be waiting this review. This was an horrible experience especially knowing how wonderful this restaurant used to be. I don’t know if the management had changed but the manager should be appalled at the way her service was conducted. I am really sad to see such a great restaurant fall down like this. Either know your limits or learn to work better in a rush because that is the restaurant business. This was not the only bad experience I’ve had and thus The Working Title has lost what used to be a very happy customer. I am truly sad and frustrated by this poor management and...

Lovely location, one of the nicest places to meet for lunch in Ottawa, outdoors in good weather, next to an old heritage church. The waitress was friendly, went out of her way to get a few photos of our group on request.

Now to the bad stuff. I ordered a liver pâté as a light lunch. What arrived was a huge pile of oiled toast (not buttered) with a circular 2.5” in diameter 1/2” high dish of a slightly bitter, quite wet pâté absolutely smothered in some kind of sweet jam with some dry unidentifiable flavourless green herb sprinkled sparsely on top. The overly sweet jam overpowered the small amount of pâté provided. I tried to move the jam aside to get to the pâté but it was pretty much impossible to do as there was more jam than pâté. When the dish arrived I asked the waitress about it as it was not at all what I was expecting. She said that was how it was served. I ate some of it but it only tasted worse and worse: the sweetness jam was the predominant flavour. I shared the remainder of the odd mix with my lunch companions. No one was impressed. The waitress never came to check on us. For $17 plus tax and tip, the experience was of eating bread and jam for lunch. I actually felt quite sick afterwards.

The waitress offered no compensation or apology and given that we did, as a group, eat the thing, I wasn’t going to kick up a fuss. Had I been alone, I would have sent the dish back on arrival, but was embarrassed to fuss in front of my friends.

It was an unpleasant experience. Too bad because the lovely setting would have made it a go to destination for me. Very disappointed.

I had been there for a burger a week before. The burger I ordered was adequate, though I’m fairly sure it was a pre-made frozen burger (of reasonable quality). It was offered with either green salad or potato salad. I asked for a bit of both and was told that they didn’t do that. On request the waitress asked them to make an exception for me. They did and I was served a very small, but pleasant, portion of each. At $25 before tax and tip, I wasn’t impressed but not too bothered. I probably wouldn’t order the burger again though. On that visit, the service was exemplary though, friendly smiles from all the staff, notably pleasant.

Checking out the inside of the restaurant, it looked like a lovely setting for dinner. Bhat Boy’s upbeat colourful large scale paintings were on display in the dining area. That and the high ceilings made the whole place cheerful and welcoming in spite of being in the semi-basement of the old church. 5+ out of 5 for ambiance.

If only the food...

Updating this review to say that the pastries and bakery portion of the business are fantastic. I haven't ordered for a brunch or dinner service since the below.

ve been to Working Title on four occasions now, spread across several weeks. I desperately wanted this place to be good as I live right around the corner, but it may be one of the worst brunch experiences I've had.

On different occasions i've had the classic breakfast, the chorizo dish, mushrooms on toast, and the eggs benedict. The quality of every single dish was not even subpar - it was singularly terrible and exemplary of an incredibly lazy kitchen staff. The potatoes are obviously deep fat fried in advance of service and then reheated (probably in a microwave). They are incredibly dry, flavourless, and have a gritty texture around the exterior that suggests the potatoes haven't been washed properly.

The bagged lettuce mix they use is not properly picked through, so you often end up with clumps of rotting lettuce. The scrambled eggs are also obviously cooked in advance as they come out as rubber and barely luke-warm, which is a theme throughout every meal - improperly heated food. The singular thing cooked to order are poached eggs. Mushrooms on toast was cold and didn't serve nearly enough mushrooms for the exorbitant price. Chorizo was dryyyyyyyy, again suggesting it was cooked in a deep fat fryer in advance. Simply, the quality is way way way below par before even factoring in the frankly ridiculous prices (everything is $18-25, with an average of $22 from memory).

Service was also shocking. I had the displeasure of having the same blonde waitress on each of my visits who is perhaps one of the coldest people i've ever encountered. She was completely missing from service, only taking orders and payment while the kitchen porters and cafe staff ran my actual orders or refilled my water. Even during check out, she doesn't even gave the courtesy to stay at your table; she wanders off to chat with coworkers or fiddle on her mobile, leaving the machine at your table to checkout yourself. She never once said a common courtesy of "thank you" or "have a nice day", let alone any kind of small talk.

And the cherry on top of this miserable food and this shocking service, the resto defaults to an 18% gratuity suggestion. It leaves me with the singular thought: are you mad?

Cappuccino was okay, but not quite enough for the price point.

The space has potential, but the offerings are shocking for a mid 2000s Holiday Inn and Breakfast, let alone an independent resto in 2024. Avoid until there is marked...