Ottawa Foodies

they also have potato and cheese perogies for vegetarian option.

What a wonderful place - all the food looks homemade with care. Vegetarian options are the mushroom perogies and sauerkraut perogies, mushroom cabbage rolls and beet salad. The mushroom perogies were my favourite and I dream about having them again soon. You can buy ready-to-eat perogies and frozen. The service was very friendly and it is obviously a family-run small business, which feels good to support.

Last autumn, my daughter and I discovered that we could walk to Lakomka and Beryozka, and this became a favourite, relaxing weekend activity for us. One Sunday as the weather began to turn colder, the friendly lady in Lakomka told us that her mother and father were planning to open up a Perohy take out next door. I was very happy to hear about the Ukrainian community making its presence more known in our town. Throughout the long, harsh winter we were unable to make the walk, and when the sidewalks were finally cleared and we had a milder day, we returned to see that the windows were still papered up. We were assured that Perohy was coming soon, and wondered what it looked like inside.

At last came spring, and we made our weekend walks to Perohy. It was a fun treat for my daughter to go ‘out’ to Perohy for supper, as we have never gone out to restaurants often. As we spoke with the family there and got to know them a bit, I began to think at home about the acquaintance and the nature of their business. In particular I was impressed with the Mama of this establishment, with thoughts to the husband/father and their daughters as well. I realised that this is not at all like any restaurant. I promised the family that I would post my comments on their Perohy take out.

What is special about Perohy is that its foundation is love. It is a business that feeds their family; but it is created out of love and with a mandate to share that love. This mother works to feed the community as she works at home for her family. She puts the love of her hands into the perohy or pirojki or holubtsi that you buy, as she has done for many years at home and has passed this on to her family. Go to the restaurant at College Square and see if you find love in a greasy pizza or frozen veggie burger. When I haven’t our own perohy at hand, or as a treat for my daughter, a bit of a tradition for a weekend lunch, I am comfortable that she is eating good quality food with the love of honest people that I would create for her at home. I am happy to support their family’s business.

As well, it must be noted that this mother is worthy of honour as a woman who has balanced life for her large family and shares with the community. In health research women’s paid and unpaid work are now given serious attention as societal determinants of health. The father and husband is a gentleman who has put his heart and determination into his family, and the daughters are kind.

We enjoy and fully appreciate our visits to Perohy and the efforts that the family puts into this remarkable, pleasant place.

Found out the hard way that they close at 5 on Mondays, and 8 every other weeknight :(

I was so happy to find this place today when I visited the Russian store Lakoma. It is right next door.I tried the cabbage rolls, cabbage salad, blines, salad oliver and of course perogies and everything was delicious! I thought the cabbage rolls and perogies tasted familiar and I read below that it is the same woman from the Ukranian Orthodox Church who did the cooking! This made sense as I went every year to the bazaar just for her food. The food is even better then the ones I tried in Europe. The staff was very pleasant and helpful. I am thrilled that I no longer have to try so hard to make it myself (which never turns out) and can buy it there.
My daughter loves it too and it makes a nice healthy alternative to all those hamburger fast food places.

I ordered a variety of their perogies last night and brought them home to have for dinner with the family. Everyone was impressed with the size and quality of them. My fav. was the potato and cheddar cheese, but my boyfriend swears by the pork ones.

We will definitely be back...soon!

WOW! those are A+ perogies!
Mine never look like that. They're sealed so pretty!!
It's odd that they wouldn't have the original cottage cheese and potato ones. That's the only one's I've made.
I'm def going to have to try these beautiful works of art now. Thanks for the pic!

I can asure you all that these pierogis are not only made of food, but love as well.

Not only can you taste the love, but you can see the Rudenesque Polish ladies fingers in the sealing dimples.

I bet they would be open to the idea of making dry cottage cheese/potato ones. No harm in asking. They have an email address.

perogiestakeout@hotmail.com

Tks for the menu, I went to their website to check it out...disappointed that they don't make the Ukranian favorite, which is dry cottage cheese/potato mixture. If anyone notices them there let me know. Grocery store perogies are pretty awful and the 'elders' are getting too much arthritis to make them...and it's too big a job to do them myself. (hours and hours and hours, it sucks!!)

You can't eat in here (there are no tables/chairs as space is limited in their shop), it's only take out. They serve hot and cold food to go, and frozen food to go as well.

The perogies are fairly tasty here, though paying a dollar a perogie seems to be too expensive (especially for the quality). The quality was good here and if you are nearby with time at a premium, it might be worth it. In my opinion though, I am better served to buy the cheaper handmade ones from the competition or to make my own.

No doubt the perogies here are good... there certainly have been others OF Members who have said so over the last year. BUT, when a NEWBIE (or two) comes along and posts a Review and a half dozen Forum topics and they all rave on about the same thing (no matter the topic at hand)... well it's plain & simple... "There is a SHILL in the house".

Ottawana - Ya might want to stop now... time has proven that this type of interaction will actually work against your business.

Ottawana is right. Healthy and quality home-made food is hard to find these days. This is espeicially true when you have a family with small children. Before we heard of perogies-takeout, we used to buy the regular perogies you'd find in a grocery store. After my kids tried the perogies from perogies-takeout, they don't want to get anywhere near the grocery-store-perogies. They ask me every week to get them the potato bacon and potato cheddar perogies. The difference in the taste and quality is evident even to small kids. Since my kids are so crazy about these perogies, it is a good excuse for me to treat myself to some quality food :-D. My only wish is that they would be open 24 hours a day, so that I could satisfy my craving for perogies even at 2am.

I have been buying their perogies for over a year now...their perogies (and other food) is delisious and worth every SINGLE PENNY I pay... I'm a mother of 3 children and it use to be a huge headache for me too cook Ukrainian food espesialy perogies... I'm glad we have such store in Ottawa, is saves lots of time for me and I know that I feed my children with good home made healthy food. The price is very good for such work, it is home made and hand made..for me to make perogies would take almost the whole day (not to count the shopping for ingediences) and they would finish in less that one day...
+ their price is different, it is not only $11.99 there are cheapper and more expensive ones, depends on the filling (I usually buy cheddar cheese $10.99), sometimes potato cottage cheese, those are $11.99 and if you are not familiar with the price for cottage cheese it is over $16/kg in the store...
I realy love that store and I advice all my family and friends to go there...

There are definately better perogies than others. I am just shocked by the price of $11.99/doz, especially given that this is take out.

I mean, the contents are fairly inexpensive- cheese or bacon being the most expensive ingredient. The bacon in most perogies is in extremely tiny bits. Cheddar cheese is not overwhelming and for the record cheese here in Ontario is MUCH cheaper than in Manitoba.

Labour- well yes they are made by hand but experienced ladies hammmer perogies out in no time flat.

I guess I just can't get over the mark up enough to pay alot of dough for well, dough.

I would gladly spring for $10 of Pascal's ice cream though.

Pan Bagnat, my wife was taken to a place in Winnipeg that was supposed to have the best perogies in town. For what it's worth, she found the reheated ones from Perogies Takeout to be superior to what she had there. Disclaimer: she isn't a big fan of Eastern European cuisine anyway, so you may not agree.

WOW! $11.99/doz! That is steep. I'm used to Manitoba where the Ukrainian ladies get together and make perogies for a fundraiser and sell them at like $3/doz. Or someone's Baba might even give you some for free.

Screw university, perogie making is a gold mine here.

Just enjoyed a dozen Potato Bacon and a dozen Potato Cheese for lunch with the family today. The price is steep ($11.99/dozen frozen) but they are large and very nice. If you think of it as a takeout restaurant meal rather than a grocery item, the price easier to swallow. These perogies, with their mild potatoey filling, delicate but chewy wrapper, and tasty fried-with-onions exterior, are radically different from what you find at your grocery store.

Just finished my supper of these potato and cheese perogies, with a ton of fried onions, double smoked bacon bits (made from Brhant(?) Double smoked bacon from the European deli on Merivale), and modified HP sauce.

I know, sour cream should to be on this plate. But I like my modifired HP sauce with them instead. Something I learned from the cafateria at Bakehead University in Blunder Bay ( or is that Lakehead University in Thunder bay).

Were's my couch ?

Forget the couch, I'm off to blow my blues harps (harmonicas) at the Emdale Tavern.

Hope that the walk there gets me thirsty for some Beau's Lug Tread Lagered Ale.

www.beaus.ca/index.html

Tried all the varieties on sale the day we went in....pork, potato, sauerkraut. Pork is so far my favorite but all were very good.

Agree on the borscht...very yummy. Never seen beans before, but yummy none the less.

You can get frozen or hot borscht, in various sizes. This is the first borscht I've had that's contained beans (!), but it was delicious nonetheless!

After seeing the comments here last week, my husband and I had to try out the eats. I agree that the perogies are great but I was not overwhelmed by the cabbage rolls. I guess it is the usual problem that I grew up with a mom who made them and everything gets compared to that. She made them quite small and they were stuffed with rice, onions and bacon....yum! She put lots of tomato sauce on it and cooked it until it was fairly thick...I actually prefer it that way.

This is the first time I have found cabbage rolls without pork in them, which I prefer...so I definitely give them credit for that, and they are the best store/takeout ones I have had ....now if i could just get mom to sell hers.

I've had both the rice & mushroom and rice & meat (contains pork), and they were both delicious. The sauce is the most authentic I've found. Most cabbage rolls from grocery stores have a tomato sauce that is too thick, and sweet.

I've had the cabbage, jam, and cherry filled pirojki (pronounced pee-ro-shkee). All make for a delicious snack, and for $1.99, it's a good cheap eat!

I had a stuffed pepper and it was FILLING. Lots of rice and meat in these, and lots of sauce in there. My SO was not a fan, as she doesn't enjoy ground meats or green peppers very much. All the more for me to enjoy!