From Peking duck to Sichuan hot pot to dumplings to soups to barbecue, the Citizen’s restaurant critic Peter Hum has recommendations for you.
Published May 16, 2024 • 8 minute read
The Citizen’s restaurant critic, Peter Hum, has put years of work into this list of Ottawa-area Chinese eateries, taste-testing and reviewing each spot along the way. We’ve compiled every related review we’ve published over the last five years in one spot, to help you decide where to go when it’s time for some Chinese food — from dumplings to soups to noodle dishes and more.
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This roundup post is based on the past few years of reporting and reviews. Information here may not be up to date. We’ve listed the publication date, so we are all on the same page, plus the original links so you can read the full article.
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Takumi BBQ
956 Merivale Rd., 343-588-0873, takumibbq.wordpress.com
This casual restaurant, which opened in 2023, takes its cue from China’s northeastern Dongbei region, where barbecuing is huge. Here, diners grill their own marinated meats and vegetables over gas grills embedded in their tables, while ventilation hoses above each grill minimize the spread of cooking smells. The quality of the meat, including sliced pork, pork belly, beef and lamb, was high. Garnishes and condiments were superb and refilled for free on request. Service was friendly and proactive. For an affordable, convivial dinner, this place is easy to recommend.
Read the full Takumi BBQ review, originally published Apr. 19, 2024.
Bite & Bite Shanghai Fried Bun
1465 Merivale Road Unit 2, 613-224-1888
At this tiny strip mall eatery that opened in the fall of 2023, there was a laminated card on every table instructing customers how to eat the eatery’s namesake specialty. “Step one: Take a small bite,” the card read. “Step two: sip the hot soup. Step three: Dip in vinegar or chili oil. Step four: Eat the pan-fried bun!” Since the signature item served here is a crisp-seared dough ball wrapped around a juicy pork filling and scalding liquid, this was a recipe for not just success, but also for avoiding injury or at least damage to your shirt. The risk was worth it, though. Easier to eat, and delicious in their own right, were the soups that star house-made wonton dumplings stuffed with pork or pork and shrimp.
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Read the full Bite & Bite Shanghai Fried Bun review, originally published Mar. 13, 2024.
Sammi & Soupe Dumpling
41 York St., 343-588-5588, sammisoupedumpling.ca
Read the full Sammi & Soupe Dumpling review, originally published Mar. 13, 2024.
Meet Noodle
160 Metcalfe St., 613-565-5555, meetnoodleottawa.com
Meet Noodle, which opened in May 2023, is one of several Chinese lamian noodle purveyors in Ottawa. At all lamian shops, fresh noodles are made by hand by a chef who twists, stretches, pulls and folds blobs of dough until they’re manipulated into strands that match a customer’s order. Beef soups are also de rigueur at lamian shops, and my dining companion had Meet Noodle’s braised beef noodle soup. In this hearty bowl, some bits of beef were tender and meaty, while others were more gristly. My favourite item here was the biang biang noodles, which packed a brusque, spicy-savoury punch. On one hand, the dish, which loaded its bowl with wide, chewy noodles and earthy seasonings, was vegetarian. However, it also came with a bowl of lightly beefy broth to slake your thirst.
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Read the full Meet Noodle review, originally published Feb. 8, 2024.
Gongfu Bao
365 Bank St., 343-341-0999, gongfu.ca
Since when is a corned beef sandwich Chinese food? The answer: when it’s served for breakfast and lunch at Gongfu Bao’s side-hustle-y Hong Kong-style cafe. At this Centretown eatery, this dreamy sandwich starred a thin slab of house-made, crisped, but tender corned beef, markedly better than, but not unrelated to, the tinned product of last resort. It was layered with egg, tomato and chili crisp, all framed by a puffy, house-baked milk bun that had a slightly sweet cookie top. That baked item was a treat all its own ($6), along with other made-daily, bread-y treats to be enjoyed onsite or to go. Also at breakfast, there was a custard-filled Hong Kong-style French Toast that sweets-lovers would swoon over. Of course, Gongfu Bao, packs them in at dinner for its steamed buns, which continue to be impeccable.
Read the full Gongfu Bao review, originally published Dec. 29, 2023.
Yi Ryo Pan-Fried Buns
252 Bank St., 613-510-8793
Opened in 2023, this tiny Centretown spot specializes in Shanghainese fare. Above all, there were its pan-fried buns, which were marvels of taste and texture. I also enjoyed its wonton soup, which differed markedly from what Chinese-Canadian restaurants, Cantonese restaurants and Vietnamese restaurants have served for decades. Its broth was clean, savoury and complex, flecked with bits of ginger, garlic and soggy seaweed. While its wontons were on the smaller side, they were certainly sufficiently pork-y and fresh-tasting, and there must have been 20 or so of them crowding the bowl.
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Read the full Yi Ryo Pan-Fried Buns, originally published Mar. 30, 2023.
Noodle’s Invitation
174 Colonnade Rd. S., Unit 28, 613-228-8484, noodlesinvitationottawa.com
Well-hidden in a Colonnade Road South industrial building, this takeout-focused kitchen specialized in dishes that featured freshly made-in-house, nicely chewy wheat and rice noodles. More often than not, the spice levels set our palates thrumming. We enjoyed the complexities of Wuhan hot dry noodles, which seemed to include the funk of preserved mustard greens, as well pork fried to a dry crumble. Dan dan noodles were nuttier, due to the presence of sesame paste. Beef noodle soup pleased us with chunks of beef, toothsome wheat noodles and separately packaged broth that was substantial and beefy, with a slight licorice-y note.
Read the full review of Noodle’s Invitation, originally published Jan. 18, 2023.
Perfect Meat Bowl and Fried Skewers
450 Bronson Ave., 613-231-4115, perfectmeatbowl.com
The name of this franchise operation, which has locations in Toronto and Montreal, leans into hyperbole but could be more descriptive, as the specialty here, Sichuan hot-pot eating, is not just “perfect” but also “perfectly spicy.” Here broth that was ordered “medium” spicy was pretty incendiary, and the bowl contained a menacing amount of whole Sichuan peppercorns, whose numbing powers we eventually tried to avoid. That said, you can order the soup base “mild” or even in a spice-free “tomato” variation. You select cuts of meat, seafood, vegetables and other products to cook yourself in the hot pot. The other attraction here was a selection of grilled and deep-fried meats and vegetables, usually on skewers.
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Read the full review of Perfect Meat Bowl and Fried Skewers, originally published Jan. 18, 2023.
Peking Duck
90 George St., 613-860-0888, pekingduck.ca
One of the few splurges for Chinese food in Ottawa, this restaurant is part of a China-based chain of Peking duck restaurants that sprang from a progenitor in Beijing that opened in 1864. The chain has grown to include not only multiple locations in China but also outposts in Hong Kong, Lisbon, Tokyo, Toronto and Vancouver. The Vancouver location even has a Michelin star. The restaurant’s namesake specialty was a multi-course delicacy that requires expertise, equipment and planning in the kitchen. Even at Peking Duck, the whole roast duck must be ordered a day in advance along with the table reservation. Once the bird was cooked, a chef carved it in the dining room, dispatching crisp duck skin, taken from the bird’s chest, with sugar on the side for dipping. Then came a pair of ceramic ducks, loaded with more skin and meat, as well as supple, steamed pancakes and garnished with scallions and sauce. In addition to Peking duck, the restaurant’s menu has many fancy and even banquet-ready dishes, such as whole fish or lobster, pricey and contentious bird’s nest and shark’s fin soups and more.
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Read the full review of Peking Duck, originally published Oct. 13, 2022.
Chili Chili
706A Somerset St. W., 613-421-6789, restozone.ca/ottawa/chilichili
The Chinatown restaurant Chili Chili is easy to miss, as it’s entirely downstairs. But we were rewarded with immensely flavourful food, including spicy, mouth-numbing stir-fries, softshell crab fried rice, mapo tofu that was invigoratingly spicy and complex, braised eggplant with chili and garlic sauce, and more.
Read the full review of Chili Chili, originally published Oct. 27, 2020.
98 La La Noodles
179 George St., 613-518-0239, lala-noodle.com, iinstagram.com/98lalanoodles
This Lowertown eatery specializing in noodle soups and skewers served us many solidly made and even exceptional items, blessed as required with bold flavours. My go-to pick would be the classic beef noodle soup with pickled mustard greens, taking a small over a large to leave room for more kebabs. The just-made noodles (ordered as you please for thinness, thickness and flatness, or as per your server’s suggestion) were texturally spot-on and fresh-tasting, and the beef broth was rich and concentrated. Flecks of pickled mustard greens added a layer of sourness and the dish had pleasant chili heat. More robust was the Sichuan classic, dan dan noodles, which starred flat, wide noodles in a thick, spicy, peanut sauce, with bits of pork adding a meaty accent.
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Read the full review of 98 La La Noodles, originally published Aug. 6, 2020.
Harbin Restaurant
591 March Rd., 613-263-1586, harbinrestaurant.com
Opened in the fall of 2019, Harbin, which takes its name from a metropolis in China’s northernmost province, presented visitors with a clean, bright dining room filled with blocky wooden tables and chairs, a wall-sized faux Chinese ink drawing and imitation brickwork. Here, Mandarin pop or rap was the soundtrack to our dinner, obscuring the roar of the kitchen’s gas-fired woks. The restaurant’s evolving menu included, in addition to some more common stir-fries, fried rices and appetizers, a dozen Sichuan dishes, some Northeastern Chinese dishes, clay-pot dishes, some intriguing casseroles said to be traditional in Harbin, and plenty of chef’s specials. I was not been let down by anything I ate here.
Read the full review of Harbin Restaurant, originally published Jan. 30, 2019.
Where else should Peter Hum go for Chinese food? Leave your suggestion in a comment below or send it to: phum@postmedia.com
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