Club Red at Ottawa Senators Hockey Game

Prior to my trip to the UK, a group of us went out to a hockey game that was a lot of fun. We got club seats at the Scotiabank Place, and part of the perk of club seats are access to Club Red restaurant and lounge.

The Ottawa Senators were playing the Atlanta Thrashers that night, and Ottawa played a great game. A few from the group were from the States, so they thought it was a real neat experience to be able to watch a hockey game in Canada.

We made reservations to eat at Club Red before the game started.

My appetizer was the caprese salad: vine ripened fall tomato with fresh basil, bocconcini mozzarella, aged balsamic vinegar, and first pressed olive. Unfortunately, the basil was chopped up and marinated in olive oil. I much prefer the classic way of making the caprese salad where you have whole fresh basil leaves. It wasn't a bad salad, but it definitely lacked the 'fresh basil' taste. It had a cheesy crisp on top that was quite good.

MJ ordered the peekytoe crab and seared scallop with a ruby red grapefruit sabayon and lotus root crisps. I tried some of it and it was good.

For mains, I ordered the baked halibut filet with creamy parsnip puree, carrot & ginger sauce, and steamed broccolini. Unfortunately, the halibut was very dry, and the veggies had absolutely no flavour to them. The parsnip puree was pretty good, but that was about all that I enjoyed.

Three of the guys had the 8oz AAA filet mignon wrapped in double smoked bacon with a wild mushroom risotto and rossini sauce. The way the filet mignon was presented was different to me. It was butterflied not quite all the way, and then split open, with the inside revealed. We were a little confused when we saw it (thought the order was mixed up), and constructed it back together to check whether or not it was actually a filet mignon.

J had the slow braised short ribs with cabernet braising reduction, roasted root vegetables and blue stilton on a roasted garlic mini red mash.

All of our dinners came out luke warm, and the food was very mediocre. We mentioned the temperature problem to our waiter, and he offered for us to come back during the first intermission for free dessert.

We took him up on the offer.

Apparently, hockey puck desserts aren't that rare in Ottawa. I thought it was pretty cool when we saw it at Poco Pazzo, but we saw it again here at Club Red.

I ordered the Club Red sample platter. This was a combination of the Senator's puck, American cheesecake, and crème brûlée with pistachio & coconut macaroon cookies.

Three of the guys ordered the Senators chocolate puck, a praline wafer topped with rasperry filling & covered with dark chocolate ganache. The presentation of this was pretty neat. They had wafers that looked like a hockey stick and net, and the chocolate puck looked like a real puck. The only problem with this dessert was that it was still frozen, and everyone had trouble eating it.

N ordered the baked American cheesecake topped with caramelized peaches & chantilly cream.

The presentation of the food was not bad, but the taste of the food was definitely lacking...especially for the price that we paid. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure how much one should expect when dining at a hockey stadium. I do want to give kudos to Frank, our waiter, who provided us excellent service.

During the game, I walked around and thought it would be neat to take pictures of some of the concession stands near my seat. Actually, this was J's idea. Being American, he thought the menus were kind of exotic.

Here is a menu at a concession stand. One item to note is the poutine: fries with cheese curds and gravy for $5.75. If I had had room in my stomach, I would have definitely ordered the poutine.

In Ontario, all signs and menus are written in English and French.

Here's another concession stand.

Beer nuts.

Club Red Restaurant and Lounge

VIP Gate 2, Club level of Scotiabank place

1000 Palladium Drive

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Telephone: 613-599-2582