Ottawa, Texas?

On Thursday Evening we had the pleasure of a lovely meal in an Ottawan owned restaurant called the Lone Star Texas Grill. Now I've been to Texas on two occasions and on neither was their a place called Ottawa, but this food clearly built on the strong Texan tradition. But more about that shortly, first to catch-up with what we did after a wonderful morning and early afternoon in Ottawa as outline in the last post.

Late Afternoon in Ottawa

After leaving the City at 2.40pm it was an easy 4.5 mile, 12 minute, drive to the Comfort Inn East where we are staying tonight.

Comfort Inn East, Ottawa

As we drove towards the hotel we passed a Laundromat about 300 yards away. While we had not planned to wash today, not knowing how long an Ottawa visit would be, if we did wash clothes we would not have to do a later evening visit in Thunder Bay, as I'd been planning.

At 3.00 we walked over to the One Stop Laundromat on Cyrville Road, Ottawa. 

One Stop Laundromat

Drew looking after the Wash and Dry

We only needed one machine for a wash and one for a dry, the processes was complete in an hour and we are back to having all our clothes, apart from the once we are wearing clean. I calculate a laundry in the hotel in Banff will now see us through for the two weeks to come (we pack for seven days on holidays like this one.) 

Dinner

On returning from the Laundromat we looked at food options. As I mentioned in the post last night, during the 'driving' days of a holiday we look for somewhere that is close and convenient. I wasn't planning to drive back into Ottawa City Centre, however nice the food would be.

Much to our surprise we found that the nearest restaurant, one we could see from the hotel, served Texas Food! Somewhat of a surprise to be eating Texas Food in Canada, but we both love this type of food, so we walked the 100 yards across the Car Park to the restaurant which was called The Lone Star Texas Grill.

The Lone Star Texas Grill

The food was very unCanadian, but really lovely. Indeed the place is so popular with locals that a 150 seat restaurant was full. We had a 30 minutes wait before we got a table, but they have good wi-fi, so I read emails and Facebook while we waited.

Starters

While we were ordering we got a plate of chips and dips, the dip was a spicy tomato putting us in good spirits for what is to come. We like our food spicy, indeed Drew has become a Chilli grower managing to grow enough for us to use four times a week for 12 months last year, and with many, possibly more, growing at present. 

For starters I went back to an old favourite of mine - Chicken Wings. These were meaty and covered in a sticky barbecue sauce. We might be in Canada but this is eating like an American.

Wings, BBQ sauce and Ranch Dressing

Drew opted for Chicken Tortilla Soup also an old favourite of his. It was tasty with a nice strength of meaty flavour.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Mains

For mains I went with the odd named Burrito called the Knife & Fork Burrito, I'm not good at eating with my hands, but this burrito was so loaded even the most proficient eaters would need a knife and fork. The flour tortilla was filled with Taco beef, refried beans, lime cilantro rice, queso, tomatillo salsa & corn & black bean salsa. This was topped with ranchero sauce, cheese, sour cream, pico, avocado & jalapeños.

My lovely burrito

Drew went for the Ranch Burger - a burger with lettuce, 

tomato & onion with cheese, this was served with fries on the side. He says it was extremely tasty.

Drew's Ranch Burger

We took the short stroll back to the hotel and got to bed at 10.00pm.