Weekend Brunch at Benny's Bistro, Ottawa

CK and I met up with some of our friends, that we went to high school with, this past weekend for brunch at Benny's Bistro. Boy, how time flies. We found out that our good friend, J, is expecting a new baby boy soon. We also caught up on high school gos (gossip), which I always find interesting. We shared stories on who ended up where, and even though we haven't kept in touch with a lot of the people since high school, you always feel like you know them well because of the brief connection from your teenage years. We had a great time, and it's always nice to share a few laughs with old friends.

Benny’s Bistro is a small little bistro attached to the French Baker on Murray Street. Murray Street is starting to become my new favorite dining street. It's got so many great restaurants packed in a span of a few blocks.

Every weekend from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm, Benny's offers a brunch menu that changes with the four seasons. They still had their Winter menu when we were there, and this is what we had:

For me, it was a toss up between a traditional eggs and meat breakfast (which I love), and the organic forest mushroom & leek "confit" taco. I decided to go for something different, and ordered the taco. It was a flaky, buttery pastry taco shell smeared with a lemon & horseradish crème fraîche, with a pile of filling that was so high, it hid the actual taco shell. The filling was greens, mushroom, leek, Belgian endive, and shaved butternut squash all tossed in a white balsamic vinaigrette. Although the idea was neat, I found that the pastry combined with the vinaigrette a little too oily and heavy. I would have preferred the vinaigrette to be less oily.

J had the salmon gravlax served with a caper and fingerling potato salad. This was topped with a sunnyside egg, and on the side was a black olive tapenade. He really enjoyed this dish.

The pan roasted Pickerel filet was by far the most popular dish at our table. Everyone ordered this except for J and I. The pickerel was served with red quinoa, braised leek risotto, beet ribbon & mustard green salad in a Shitaki mushroom consommé. This was an extremely healthy dish, but note that it is also a light dish. CK was ok with the lightness but everyone else complained that they were still very hungry at the end.

Overall, the food and ambience was OK. While they did have some interesting dishes on the menu, the taste just didn't make an overall impact on me.

After our meal, I couldn't resist buying a few pastries from the French Baker to take home. More on the French Baker pastries in my next post...

Benny's Bistro
119 Murray Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Telephone: 613-789-6797