[Ottawa] Von's Bistro

Review Location:
819 Bank Street
Ottawa, Ontario






If you’re like me, then you love breakfast food. I’m not much of a morning person though, so brunch is probably like the best thing invented. While in Ottawa, we ended up taking a stop here on a Sunday for some early afternoon fuel.

This place is located in the "Glebe" area of Ottawa, and is a small little restaurant. To maximize on seating, all the tables were quite squished together, but the big light inviting glass windows help a bit with the perception of space.
There are 2 intruding pillars in the middle of the restaurant that probably what hold up the place, but they have creatively lined the entire pillar with chalkboards and display daily specials. The rest of the décor had a homely feel to it. It was very busy that afternoon, but we didn’t have to wait to long before getting a small little table next to a window.

The brunch menu wasn’t too large, with five or six different types of things to order from. One thing that I really liked about this place, is that instead of choosing from just home fries or salad, you have the option of half-and-half! Makes it a lot easier for indecisive people like me.

"Pacific Smoked Salmon Benedict" -Served on an english muffin & hollandaise sauce, with home fries

I decided to try the eggs benedict which is something I don't get often. I noticed that the egg yolk was cooked, and correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn't an eggs benny come with a runny egg? I guess it must be the after-effects of that salmonella craze. Personal opinion, but I think this would've tasted much better if it had the runny egg. The hollandaise sauce helped a bit. It was creamy and moistened the dryness from the English muffin.You also have to make sure when you get this, to eat it fast! The smoked salmon starts to cook after a while from the heat of the egg and english muffin. Doesn't make a huge difference, but you do lose some of the smoothness from the smoked salmon.

2 Egg Breakfast Plate - Your choice of two eggs with bacon, ham or sausage, homefires and toast

 Left: "Seafood Omelet" -shrimp, scallops, tomato, olive red onions, peppers, and garlic

Right: "Harvester Omelet" -potatoes, onions, bacon, mushrooms and sour cream

I didn't eat too much of these other dishes, but from what I tried I don't really have anything good nor bad to point out (as I'm sure we all know what eggs taste like...). The home fries (which I also had on my dish) had a really distinct taste to it, likely from the fryer or oil that it was fried in. I can't tell what it is, but it's almost like all the flavours of everything they fry in it went into the homefries. The toast was also a little too toasted for my liking. It wasn't burnt, but more so dried. I felt like I was eating Melba toast. Or maybe it was just my piece?


Nothing too outstanding about this place in terms of food. The eggs were alright, but the sides were all a little off in my perspective. The service on the other hand was alright considering there was only one server. She was quite occupied with other tables, but never failed to come by and check up on our table to see if we needed anything.