Best of Chinatown: Comforting, home-cooked Indian cuisine at Mehfil

 As I climbed the steps to Mehfil Indian Cuisine at 792 Somerset to order takeout on a quickly cooling April evening, the tantalizing smell of classic Indian food hit my nose, and I smiled. There is no smell more comforting to a hungry stomach than that of hot, fresh food.

Best of Chinatown: Variety and flavour at New Pho Bo Ga La

 New Pho Bo Ga La in Ottawa’s bustling Chinatown at 763 Somerset serves big, delicious flavours in a variety of different Asian cuisines. When I visited on a bright, sunny afternoon unseasonably warm for spring in a Canadian city, I was treated to a big, hot bowl of spicy Thai

Best of Chinatown: Yangtze Dining Lounge’s elevated Chinese classics

 The Yangtze Dining Lounge is a staple of the restaurant scene in Ottawa’s Chinatown. Yangtze has treated its customers to the highest quality service and authentic Szechuan and Cantonese cuisine since opening in its iconic building at 700 Somerset in 1982. With a long menu and plenty to choose from,

Best of Chinatown: Special, spicy Sri Lankan food at Karuna Cafe 

 Natalia and Alita, a pair of sisters from Ottawa, opened the Karuna Cafe four years ago to share the Sri Lankan food and culture they love with the world—or, at the very least, with their city. “We love making food,” Natalia said, “And we want people to know about our

Best of Chinatown: Explore new flavours with Rangoon’s delicious Burmese cuisine

 Rangoon Restaurant, at 634 Somerset, is very hard to miss: look for bright lime-green porch railings and electric blue accents on a red brick storefront on your next trip through Ottawa’s Chinatown. In the summer, bright flowers will burst from the flower boxes on the patio’s edge and pink umbrellas

Best of Chinatown: Lunch at The Art House Café

 If you have never been to The Art House Café at 555 Somerset, you have never been anywhere quite like The Art House Café. An experience all its own for the eyes, mind, and tastebuds, the café serves healthy, tasty snacks, sandwiches, soups and baked goods— as well as coffee,

Best of Chinatown: Chili Chili has authentic Chinese food with a spicy kick

 Photos: Grace Geisbrecht Chili Chili is a little bit tricky to find, but absolutely worth it once you do: tucked under street level, it is, quite literally, a hidden gem of Ottawa’s Chinatown. With a menu full of spicy, delicious options from the humid southwest of China, Chili Chili’s doesn’t

Best of Chinatown: Ha’s (incredible) Dim Sum Noodle House

 Near the bottom of the hill on Somerset street on the eastern end of Ottawa’s Chinatown is a new restaurant with blue railings in a red brick building: Ha’s Dim Sum Noodle house. Ha’s is the second dim sum restaurant in Ottawa Chinatown, but their dim sum and Cantonese fry