Beckta Dining & Wine

I loved this rest...

I loved this restaurant. I had made reservations for my boyfriends birthday and I was not disappointed. Had a great experience and can't wait to go again.

Firstly, let me qualify myself: I am a serious foodie and have had the great fortune of dining in the many of the highest rated restaurants in most major cities in Canada. Although this passion, at times, pushes the limits of my disposable income, I LOVE a culinary adventure, and frequently throw responsibility to the wind if it means I get to have a great meal. That said, a certain bar has been set, but I am by no means an educated critic with an educated palate. So, I went to Beckta on a recommendation from a friend who tends to be about as critical as me (not quite, but close) and has the same deep love for restaurants, and measures them on the same basic criteria: ambiance, food, and service. His words were, "As far as Ottawa's concerned, well worth the price, and impressively creative." Being that he is well acquainted with the restaurants of the world, I took that as high praise. So, I took my girlfriend there for our 1 year anniversary. We ordered the tasting menu with the wine pairing. I was excited for the guided flavour-tour from the souschef of one of the greatest chef's Canada has to date (the creator of the restaurant who's no longer there). In a word: disappointing. There were wonderful highlights of this meal; but also, some incomprehensible errors. They were late seating us, so we were comp'd an 'amuse-bouche' while we waited: [something] on a pickled watermelon rind (I'm doing my best to remember all of the details, so I apologize now for what you see in square brackets). It was delicious! Perfectly balanced, and the rind had a great texture with just a hint of watermelon flavour coming through the pickling. When we were finally seated, we were served another amuse-bouche: cranberry meatloaf on some kind of potato. The meatloaf had about 3 seconds to deliver flavour before the potatoes took over and stuck around for way too long. So, while clever, it was a miss. Next was a pan-seared tuna done in a dusting I can't remember, with an edamame purée. For the first time in my life, the tuna was under cooked (i.e. had no searing, or firming of the outer edges - maybe it was supposed to be Sashimi), the dusting was just wrong for tuna, and the purée was just rough-chopped edamame - at least put some salt on that! Or maybe some truffle oil! Next was a duck ravioli in a duck consommé. The consommé may well be the best I've ever had, but the rest was all wrong. The pasta had nothing and was far from al dente, and the duck was chopped way too fine and flavoured with something uncomplimentary, which created this dry, weird-tasting, mush-wrapped oddity. Fail. The octopus was overcooked. Enough said. The rinse-bouche, was a clever granité, but that's a 'gimme.' The plat principal was a wonderful cut of perfectly cooked bison, but the gooseberry [I think] reduction was way too tart, and insulted the meat, essentially killing the flavour. Again, one element perfect, but something key was wrong. As for dessert, I'll quote the immortal Homer Simpson, "Meh." Oh, and there was a soup I completely forgot about; so, you do the math. The wine pairing was nearly brilliant. Each selection was well balanced, well refined and delivered in just the right places for the main flavour of the dish. No problems here at all. Decor... truly, nothing noteworthy. The service? Absolutely exquisite; but, not enough to make up for the rest. All in all, a disappointing meal... no, that's not quite true... it was a good meal, but a disappointing culinary adventure. And, certainly not worth the price tag.

Loved it!

The hype is true! We had the best dinner here...great service...great wine...excellent appetizers , entrees and dessert. Worth the price and a great way to celebrate a special occaision. We ordered the salad with goat cheese and pear...excellent, and the prawns for an appetizer. Both great. Dinner was filet mignon cooked perfectly, and trout- also superb. Dessert...well super sweet caramel chocolate gooey deliciousness and some yummy gelato from Pure. All around, excellent meal and can't wait to go back.

Best Restaurant in the city

Bar none, the best in Ottawa. It is our go-to special occasion restaurant. Wonderful food, excellent service and a quietly elegant space.

Extremely overrated....awkward service by...

Extremely overrated....awkward service by unkowledgeable staff...nice presentation, but unpleasant flavours..completely wrong wine pairings..after we were seated, a loud family of four with kids were seated next to us...the kids were running around the tables, and playing portable video games for the entire 3 1/2 hours we were there...at that price, I would expect to have a quiet, enjoyable evening....and I agree with the previous reviewer regarding the decor, absolutely hideous! I gave it a 4 because...well, because I'm nice.