art is in bakery

i've come here forlunchmany times, and their options have never ceased to impress me. my favourite combination is the roast beef 1/2 sandwich with the clam chowder, both of which are flavourful and delicious. the service can sometimes become slow, particularly when it's busy (duringlunchhours), but the place still remains relatively clean and it is clear that the staff are working hard. the bustling atmosphere may be a turn off for some, but they make up for it with great food!

i'm giving a 2.0 for a few reasons:

positive:
the food was delicious. had the avocado toast with the super salad.

negative:
we ordered two orders of toast, and the avocado toast with the super salad... and that was over $26?!?! how is one entree and 4 pieces of toast $26?! i was shocked when we were paying. i stopped the girl and told her she must of made a mistake because it says the avocado toast is $14.95 (which is already really expensive for breakfast). yeah, it is. but the super salad is an extra $4. so $18.95. she didn't mention the extra $4 jump in price when you order that specific salad. i asked what the options were for my side salad that came with the toast and she just left that $4 extra part out. i could have literally bought all of the ingredients to make avocado toast and "super salad" for my whole family for $18.95! the girl was a little rude after i was unhappy about spending that much on one breakfast entree.

little things:
the location is extremely loud. was there not during regular breakfast orlunchtimes on a tuesday.
you have to pay for parking in the lot.
lots of kids running around.
tables are super close together. i had a woman getting pissed off at me because i was sitting behind her... even though i was sitting there long before she got to the restaurant.
toast comes buttered, rather than butter on the side if you want it/butter to your liking.

tried this place because i live a stones throw away but with how expensive everything is (and trust me when i say i eat out a lot so i know when i'm getting ripped off) i probably won't come back 🤷‍♀️

easily one of the bestlunchspots in ottawa. the food is innovative yet homey and comforting in the same delicious bite. come early if you need seating as this place gets packed.

i heard good things about this place and bought their bread at farm boy before, but this place totally lived up to my expectations. went forlunchon a week day and it was quite busy. i had the fried crispy pickle melt which was to die for, and my bf had the tuna melt, which was ok, and the clam chowder - which is one of the best we've ever had. the only negative aspect of this place is the location: who wants to eat in an industrial parking lot with the occasional garbage truck?

art is in is one of my favourite lunchtime destinations. they've made changes to the interior recently, so there are a lot more places to sit inside, as well as outside. it looks a lot better now, although it's still pretty loud indoors. 

i've never had a meal i didn't like here, although i tend to lean towards the different sandwiches. the thai chicken is stellar. the pastries are marvellous so don't leave without a little somethin' somethin'.

tip: arrive early forlunchand expect it to take a while. i don't mind the wait because it's good food here.

dropping by to pick up a loaf of bread? do it. best time to go is late in the afternoon after thelunchcrowds have cleared out. sometimes the selection is picked over and depleted, but in my opinion the bread is very much worth going at this time just to avoid the rush.

note! the parking situation at the city centre has changed recently. it's free to park here for 90-minutes but you must get a parking chit from the machine and pick the "free" option. they do patrol and ticket, so consider yourself warned.

i always enjoylunchhere but it ia quite overpriced (only complaint). there soups and salads are always quite nice and burgers are great. always fast and good service. when you go duringlunchhour it will be busy so patience is expected and appreciated. quick and close to my work so it's my go to place.

food was great but overpriced. i visited this spot onelunchtime out of curiosity because of the rave reviews. i had a cheddar scone and the clam chowder, which were absolutely superb, but i felt a bit ashamed at the time for spending so much money on simply on soup and scone for take-out. it took an extremely long time to get the food as well with both line up and being served (which i find ridiculous... come on, it's soup!). for someone with the time and money to spend, i recommend it.

pick up your viennoiserie, the gtfo.. with a fantastic selection of creative pastries and some of the best croissants i've tried in canada (although they can be hit-and-miss, a fair result of in-house handmade baked goods) this is the place to go for your sweet breakfast treats.

but.

the service is terrible, the lines are long, and the restaurant is a lazy attempt to cash in on warehouse chic. with bad acoustics and uncomfortable wooden benches, eating in means being more distracted by your neighbours' conversations than focusing your own food and company.

thelunchmenu is unimaginative. the staff are either too busy or too cool to smile at you. you have to order at the front and take a number sign to your table to get a busy kitchen staffer to drop off your plate (and that's the last you'll see of them). you get a cup to serve yourself coffee, but the coffee pot is often empty, filled with grinds, and just kind of gross, as it is placed next to open doors and masses of people.

and yet there is a weirdly strong pressure to tip. seriously, i've never felt so awkward not tipping for service i didn't even receive.

there is an expedited line if you just want to order pastries to take home, but if you don't already know what you want, expect to wait in the normal line to be able to actually see the pastry case. and yes, it's worth looking.

in conclusion, if you have a decent coffee maker in your home, head over to art is in to pick up some goodies but then go back home and have breakfast in bed.

overpriced and overrated. dropped in forlunchlast week. not impressed. i had the angus steak sandwich for $11.95, (may even have been $12.95). the bread was very tough and the sandwich lacked any special flavour. was just ordinary. you can't just slap a couple pieces of bread in a panini press, add some undercooked meat, a little dijon mustard, charge top price and expect customer satisfaction. also had the bacon soup for $5.95 which was interesting but luke warm at best. mylunchguest felt the same about her meal as well. biggest turnoff however was that we found the place actually quite dumpy with no ambiance whatsoever. the table we sat at was dirty as were the floors. so, after +$40.00, including tax, for a couple of mediocre lunches, we won't be back.

had the poutine, pulled pork mac and cheese and the classic ham and cheese sandwich forlunchbetween two people. everything was amazing. service is good. even the ketchup is homemade and delicious. will definitely be back and will bring out of towners here to show off.

 w and i have been to art is in numerous times for theirlunchbut never brunch, and a couple weekends ago we finally made an effort to go and try out their sunday brunch. the line was ridiculous. they’ve always had a line for even their lunch, but this line is at least 3x as long, this picture was taken when i was in the middle of the line, and there’s maybe 25 if not more people in front of us in the line! apparently it has never been this busy before. i wonder what brought all the people here that weekend… when we finally got to the front of the line, w picked the open face brunch burger . it’s basically a steak burger with bacon, arugula and a sunny side up egg. i wonder if any dish can be turned into breakfast/brunch is an egg is put on it? i digress. w commented on saying it tasted like any other burger and there’s nothing really special about it. i have to agree with him on this one. i am a huge lover of eggs benedicts so of course i ordered house benny with smoked salmon . the

best laid back atmosphere forlunchin ottawa!. well made sandwiches and soups. i recommend getting there early on the weekends as their selections sell out. pastries are divine but again, get there early!

unique!. i can't comment too much about this place because i have only been twice... and both times they were quick stops.

on sat we popped by for a coffee but the guy in front of us was lining up for a second bowl of lobster bisque. we're impressionable.

it was a fabulous soup! rich and flavourful. with a great little biscuit on the side.

the servers were all very nice and checked up on us.

it's not the most comfortable seating but for a quicklunchyou can do much much much worse.

careful..... used to frequent this spot on a regular basis but moved out to the country and haven't been in while. stopped in forlunchwith a friend and must say sadly i was dissapointed. is it just me or have the prices doubled? my angus striploin sandwich was good and all, but i expected more than 1oz of beef for $10. i could see the meal portions of those around me and let me tell you if i paid $12 for a cup of mac n cheese, i sure wouldn't do it again. also my friend had never been but was handled rudely at the cash when she 'ordered wrong'. then we waited 20 mins for two sandwiches, in a restaurant where most of the patrons were already eating. maybe it is just that there are so many excellent new generation restaurants popping up to contrast this one against, but the service here combined with the price means to me if they aren't careful the clientele will go elsewhere. too bad. let's hope it was just an off day...

what happened !!!???!!!. beyond disappointed!!!

i have family that comes into town from out west once a year, for a month, and this is one of the first places they asked to go based on their experience last summer. after today's experience they said they never want to go back! what a shame!!

i have been a fan for a couple of years and used to frequent the restaurant weekly, i was probably one of your best free marketing tools and used to rave about you to anyone that would listen. now, i am not sure i will ever go back either. if i do, it will be a rarity.

our experience today:
we arrived for a latelunchand the staff was rude and seemed not to care about the customer at all. i inquired about the monday soup and sandwich offer and the staff didn't even know if it is still offered and said there was no one in the restaurant to even ask about it. strike one!

we ordered a variety of things to share amongst 4 of us and the only decent thing was the ham and cheese sandwich. we ordered pulled pork mac & cheese which was good but... for the 14.00 we paid, it certainly was not worth it! it was a very small portion, with croutons on top to make it seem like its a bigger portion than it actually is and there was barely any pulled pork! strike two!

next, we ordered a vegetarian quiche with salad for $12.00. the quiche was so small i shocked and was undercooked, it was actually like liquid. the salad was saturated in oil and was completely limp, disgusting and inedible! picture attached. strike three!

the tuna melt, which was my all time favorite was also horrible... 2 summers ago, this amazing sandwich cost $5, now it is over $10 for just the sandwich and no extras. i knew that the price would increase and for the quality it was, rightfully so... but to double with the quality taking a nose dive, no no no! the bread was too hard to bite through, there was barely any cheese on it, and where the heck was the tuna? the edges of the sandwich were plain bread with a bit of mayo. really?? strike four!!

we also shared the expresso brownie, my lord... what happened to this? what too much coco or something. strike five!!

i found things changed drastically following the renovation closure. again, i used to frequent your restaurant a couple of times a week but since the renovation i go maybe once every two or three months and the meals have lacked every single time. i wonder, have you noticed a loss in customers? i notice more and more negative reviews and people saying they will never return.

will you do anything about this to save your reputation? i really hope so!
the loss of such a great thing is sooo sad!