absinthe

love the food, questionable service. i have gone to absinthe many times and was actually surprised to see i had never written a review as i really like their food. i've had their duck salad (at lunch time, which was the most amazing salad i ever had), their famous burger, their korean style quail, beet salad and the duck and a few other dishes i forget! needles to say i like this place and their food! all of these dishes were delicious and cooked perfectly. i was recently there in november and again a couple weeks ago for my birthday, unfortunately we had the same waiter both times. the first time he ended up giving my friend and i 20% off of our bills as he knew he wasn't being agreatwaiter, forgetting our drink orders, never bringing us bread and plain just not being an attentive server. needless to say i was a little worried when i saw he was our server for my party of 11 on my birthday. he was excellent with me as he knew i was the "birthday girl", giving me a nice glass of wine on the house and a complimentary dessert. as for my guests, it was the same thing again- forgetting drinks, over charging on certain bills, checking his phone instead of serving us etc... and it was even worst for my friend who had been with me back in november. i love the food at absinthe, but feel service is just as important as the food especially in these types of restaurant. i will be taking a break from absinthe and hopefully on my next visit i will get better service.

my boyfriend and i went to absinthe for the first time for valentines day dinner. it couldn't have been a more perfect evening. the service was amazing, the atmosphere music and decor as well. they prepared a special valentines tasting menu for the evening. every dish we were served was perfect from the taste to the presentation. the appetizer was a sake glazed pork belly & crispy oyster with spicy pear slaw and lime dressing that was superb, my boyfriend who has never liked seafood even tried and loved the oyster! for the main course we chose the filet mignon with leek mash, mushroom ragout and madeira sauce. we both agreed that the steak was hands down the best we had ever had! even the bread they gave us as a snack which was homemade and served with honey butter was extraordinary! we had agreattime trying the different absinthe cocktails too. absinthe surpassed all our expectations on a special night, and we will definitely be back. highly recommended!!

consistently excellent. whenever my sister offers to babysit we put absinthe on the list of places to go for dinner. we know we should try other spots but absinthe is so consistently excellent it's hard to take a chance on going elsewhere in the neighbourhood. i have had lunch there - excellent. i hosted a corporate event there, an absinthe tasting, also excellent. although the liqueur was not to everyone's taste, the appies and service were agreatway to start our evening.

extraordinary. exceptional service, creative dishes,greatdrink options
you'll leave full and impressed

good food and atmosphere. went for dinner last night and was pleasantly surprised with the service, food and atmosphere. the menu was very reasonably priced considering the style of food and fresh ingredients and the price point pushed my girlfriend and i to each order the three-course table d'hote.
we started with the korean bbq quail duo. we enjoyed the kimchi and quail combination; however, i felt that the seared quail breast went much better with the rest of the dish than the simple fried quail legs.
our next course was the butternut squash soup and the arugula salad with lemon thyme vinaigrette. the soup was fantastic and had tremendous balance to it. the salad could have used a little more balance as the vinaigrette was quite acidic and when combined with the arugula was quite bitter on the palate.
for main courses we chose the steak frites and the shrimp/scallop dish. the steak was very nice but a little tough to chew since it was hanger steak. i guess that's expected with that cut of meat. however they did agreatjob with the marinade on the steak which tasted of some kind of vinegar base. the only thing i would comment about this dish is that the green beans seem to be a very disappointing choice to pair with the rest of the plate.
the shrimp and scallops was a lovely dish that was almost perfect. the shrimps and scallops were cooked beautifully and seasoned very nicely. the rest of the plate was a little bit of a letdown by comparison. the filling in the agnelotti wasn't thatgreatand they didn't really seem to fit the rest of the dish in terms of flavor and texture. overall, a very nice effort for the mains but certain details kept them from being exceptional.
we finished with the apple tart which was excellent and had a big scoop of delicious house made ice cream. very nice way to finish dinner.
the service was very good and certainly added to a pleasant experience. water glasses were never left empty and every server who dropped off food explained each component of the dishes. overall, we really enjoyed our experience there and definitely look forward to going back.

totally amazing and fresh ! went there for our wedding anniversary and was not disappointed. chef also made us a special desert to conclude our perfect supper and evening. waiter was amazing and knew his wine's to match things up.greatplace and will be going back :)

after having a bad first experience at this restaurant, i was contacted by the manager with a gift certificate to return and had a much better meal. our server was friendly this time- although he forgot to take our drink order and left us sitting for 15 minutes until we asked for them. food was good, started with escargot- delicious!, then we had salads- bland and just ok, main courses were the duck and stuffed chicken- plates were well presented and good, we finished with their famous creme brûlée - it was delicious and very rich...but for a true critic the consistency was off , it was not firm enough or 'set'.

the male server we had was very friendly with me- my partner on the other hand may as well have been invisible to him. he explained my plate, but just set down his and walked away, he asked me if i wanted something from the coffee bar- i declined and then just walked away without asking him, ect. he needs to pay a little more attention to all people at the table- seemed very nervous- he even leaned-elbowes on the table at one point to discuss the menu- big no no in the serving world.

so all in all food was good- still overpriced if you ask my opinion ($140 for 2) atmosphere is not good for an intimate dinner butgreatfor a group, and servers need a little more training on the 'proper' table serving they seem to be going for there.


-----08 apr, 2012-----

very over priced and pushy. i ordered the steak and asked for it medium- it came well done in the middle and burnt on the outside to the point that the char taste was overpowering. will not go back.

great all i have to say. you get what you pay for. the steak frites was the best steak i have had at a restaraunt in ottawa. expensive but i am a big guy with a good appetite and it took everything for me to finish it. the atmosphere wasgreatand the waiter was also very attentive and friendly.

good food,greatvalue. i've had twogreatmeals here - one in october '11 with a group of 6, another in december '11 with a group of 12. both times service and food were great! their table d'hote option is stellar and equals excellent value for money. the charcuterie board, arugula salad, butternut squash soup and rainbow trout are all excellent; i wasn't a huge fan of the bugder (then again, i'm not a big burger person), but the side pulled pork poutine was something special! it's perhaps not the highest end food in ottawa (i wouldn't quite put it up there with allium, murray st, play, etc) but it's agreatall around option.

just went for lunch hadgreatservice. i had the duck monte crisco it was way way way to sweet. it came with duck confit cheddar caramelized ognions in a pain perdu club with fig sauce. this dish would have been mich better without the fig sauce it made it far to sweet. im sure they have some othergreatdishes here but it was a bit overpriced while i did enjoy my 15$ shot of absinth

the food was amazing,the service wasgreatand the atmosphere was non pretentious. i highly recommend this restauraunt for anybody who loves fine cuisine.

great place for dinner and drinks.. well made food,greatambiance. will go back for sure.

omnivore's ottawa supper club hosted their final supper of the year this past monday, and it was held at absinthe , a french bistro & bar in westboro. one thing i have come to love about oo's supper club is thegreatpeople you get to meet along the way.

the food is great, but i find the atmosphere lacking. after thegreatintimate feeling of their previous location, the noisy, cavernous room just doesn't do it for me

i can finally knock this restaurant off my wish list. we arrived in the early evening and got agreatseat next to the window. actually, any spot in this restaurant would be great. it's got such nice big windows at the front and overall a reallygreatatm