Ottawa Foodies
Connecting you to Ottawa's best food
Foods from Infusion Bistro
Reviews
Sign in to add a commentRestaurantThing review
Showing comments 1 to 5
Aug 11
Nice place in the Glebe. Casual and cozy! Good dishes and tasty focaccia. I recommend their burgers!
2008 Jan 28
the appetizer of seafood chowder had a pleasant flavor, minus having been a little over-seasoned. perhaps i just had a little bad luck with the soup ladle, as the big chunks of potato outnumbered any seafood 4:1.
dinner was a disappointing experience. rubbery calamari stuffed with bland, sautee'd mushrooms, diced tomato and avocado, and artichokes over a bed of chewy wild rice. this was accompanied by a thick, bright orange rosee sauce that tasted as if it were either old or poured out of a bottle, and tasteless, under-seasoned vegetables. the last thing you really need to serve with large, chewy tubes of calamari is chewy wild rice and chewy mushrooms. nice effort; not-so-nice result. at least the wine was good, because it was definitely needed.
my companion ordered a satisfactory but unexciting cream pasta with leek and chicken. he had to pull out a few chunks of chicken as they were pink. we sort of expected this, as it is actually written on the menu (hilariously and insultingly enough) that their pork is served pink because they believe that pink pork is the "right way" for pork to be served. I suppose that we should have taken that as a sign of things to come.
For dessert, we ordered a flight of creme brulee. These were supposed to be three different flavours: peach, green tea, and chai. Flavoured creme brulee is generally a mistake in and of itself, but I guess I felt like punishing myself that night. I asked the waiter if he had made a mistake on quoting us the flavors, because we tasted what was supposed to be "peach" and could only taste a slightly off vanilla. He assured us that it was indeed peach, and the flavors are subtle because the creme brulee is flavored with tea. trying to flavour such a cream-heavy dessert with something like tea proved to be futile, as it only served to flavor the creme brulee in such a way that made it taste dirty or not-too-fresh. again, a nice idea, but not so good to the palate.
unfortunate, as it is a lovely space and the chef seems to have potential somewhere in there.
dinner was a disappointing experience. rubbery calamari stuffed with bland, sautee'd mushrooms, diced tomato and avocado, and artichokes over a bed of chewy wild rice. this was accompanied by a thick, bright orange rosee sauce that tasted as if it were either old or poured out of a bottle, and tasteless, under-seasoned vegetables. the last thing you really need to serve with large, chewy tubes of calamari is chewy wild rice and chewy mushrooms. nice effort; not-so-nice result. at least the wine was good, because it was definitely needed.
my companion ordered a satisfactory but unexciting cream pasta with leek and chicken. he had to pull out a few chunks of chicken as they were pink. we sort of expected this, as it is actually written on the menu (hilariously and insultingly enough) that their pork is served pink because they believe that pink pork is the "right way" for pork to be served. I suppose that we should have taken that as a sign of things to come.
For dessert, we ordered a flight of creme brulee. These were supposed to be three different flavours: peach, green tea, and chai. Flavoured creme brulee is generally a mistake in and of itself, but I guess I felt like punishing myself that night. I asked the waiter if he had made a mistake on quoting us the flavors, because we tasted what was supposed to be "peach" and could only taste a slightly off vanilla. He assured us that it was indeed peach, and the flavors are subtle because the creme brulee is flavored with tea. trying to flavour such a cream-heavy dessert with something like tea proved to be futile, as it only served to flavor the creme brulee in such a way that made it taste dirty or not-too-fresh. again, a nice idea, but not so good to the palate.
unfortunate, as it is a lovely space and the chef seems to have potential somewhere in there.
2007 Apr 18
This is a fun little spot in the Glebe with an interesting mix of food.
I started my meal with a black pepper/smoked bacon/chickpea soup that was really flavourful and my girlfriend had the chicken satay which was also good and came with a tonne of peanut sauce (luckily it's served on the side so you can choose how much to eat).
For mains I ordered the ossobuco which was incredibly tender (pretty much just falling apart) but I didn't find it had a great deal of flavour. I've never had ossobuco before so I don't have anything to compare it with. Luckily the mashed potatoes that went with it were extremely good. My girlfriend had the lamb/spinach/pecan salad which was very good and was a nice big portion size too so I got to finish it off.
Service was very friendly and we had a great time overall. We went on a Tuesday and people were being turned away so I highly recommend making advance reservations.
I started my meal with a black pepper/smoked bacon/chickpea soup that was really flavourful and my girlfriend had the chicken satay which was also good and came with a tonne of peanut sauce (luckily it's served on the side so you can choose how much to eat).
For mains I ordered the ossobuco which was incredibly tender (pretty much just falling apart) but I didn't find it had a great deal of flavour. I've never had ossobuco before so I don't have anything to compare it with. Luckily the mashed potatoes that went with it were extremely good. My girlfriend had the lamb/spinach/pecan salad which was very good and was a nice big portion size too so I got to finish it off.
Service was very friendly and we had a great time overall. We went on a Tuesday and people were being turned away so I highly recommend making advance reservations.
2006 Oct 5
Infusion Bistro has a wonderful arrangements of food. The owners and staff are very friendly and they will accomodate you.
FeedMe
silver
Michael Pickard and his right hand man (regrettably I've forgotten his name), each prepare a soup du jour with either a common ingredient or theme. When you order up "the challenge", you get a platter with a good portion of each soup, and bread bridging the bowls.
Off you go. A sip of this broth, a sip of that; or chow down on one and then the other -- the tasting method is up to you. If you sit at the bar in front of the kitchen you can query the chefs for clues as to what's gone into the making of each soup... and if you're curious like me, you may think up devious questions to try and figure out who created which -- they don't want to prejudice your judging, and are cagey about giving out too many clues.
When you've reached a decision, they will tell you whose soup you prefered, and then a chalk mark goes up on the wall under the name of the winning chef. Last time I was there Michael had a very tenuous lead.
Great fun! Love their playfullness. And the fish-based soups I had at my last visit were both excellent -- one sweet and chunky, the other a more savoury vichysoise-style broth with delcate shreds of fish and earthy Asian mushrooms. I picked the latter, which Michael had created.