Indulge upscale but casual
Special touches, great food make restaurant a tasty place to visit
The most typical of suburbia’s dining-out options haven’t yet arrived in Riverside South.
One day, we can safely assume, Tim Hortons, Starbucks and McDonald’s will touch down to serve Ottawa’s fastest growing bedroom community. Meanwhile, for the 10,000 or so people who already live there, Indulge Kitchen & Cocktails is making an upscale yet casual splash on Limebank Road.
This two-month-old, 90-seat restaurant and bar, owned for the most part by the company behind the Broadway Bar & Grill franchise, has cranked up the local culinary cool, serving tasty food on large, attractive plates, adorned in more than a few cases with flourishes of molecular gastronomy.
Responsible for these indulgences is chef and partowner David Godsoe, 22, who only graduated from Algonquin College’s culinary program in 2011. Food nerds will be pleased to know of his enthusiasm for showcasing “fresh local products with a little molecular twist,” as he wrote on his profile at moleculargastronomynetwork.com.
Accordingly, Indulge’s menu makes copious references to “lemon air” and “strawberry gel.” The beer batter on the seasonable, sustainable fish in the fish and chips has been “aerated,” and the beet salad’s watermelon cubes have been “compressed.”
But during my recent visit, the wows came not from surprising froths and blobs but from well-seasoned, expertly cooked meats that were the succulent stars on modern, still-life-as-food plates.
The surroundings at Indulge are also sleek and handsome. It’s a place of soft green walls and dark wood. The ductwork that’s so common in many a new eatery looms over one’s head, and groove music resounds in one’s ears. Setting Indulge apart from other restaurants with a similar feel are the views through large windows of airplanes taking off.
But when the food — which had been described knowledgeably and served affably — landed on our table, all eyes came off the jets and focused on plates that were feasts for the eyes.
The beet salad ($14) was a complex creation dramatically arrayed as a narrow rectangle across a large, circular plate. The culinary equivalent of an ensemble film, it featured chilled beets and arugula as main protagonists. Cubes of watermelon, orange segments, pipings of Clarmell Farms goat cheese, candied pecans, slices of radish, a raspberry vinegar foam, herb oil and a maple balsamic reduction played meaningful roles too. I liked its multiple iterations of sweetness beside savoury cheese and peppery arugula, although I thought the beets too crunchy.
The charcuterie plate ($28 for two) similarly ran over with ingredients: more candied pecans, bits of fruit, pickled radish, parsnip, carrot, good crostini, and, of course, charcuterie, including house-made chorizo, some foie gras pâté topped with torched sugar, and slices of duck prosciutto. While the board deserved full marks for presenting a diversity of good tastes, perhaps its balance between charcuterie and non-charcuterie was a bit off. It felt more like a fruit, veg and nuts plate than a meat plate.
Fried calamari ($14) were satisfyingly tender and not greasy, and tandoori-spiced aioli and “lemon air” — a bit of lemony froth, no more, no less — added a spicy kick and novelty respectively.
Apps finished, we had high expectations for the mains. For the most part, they did not disappoint.
Duck confit ($25) and chicken breast ($22) were the best endorsements of Godsoe’s techie tendencies. Those mains were like poster plates for sous-vide cooking. The poultry items had emerged from their hot baths strikingly moist and evenly flavoured, and expert sears of their skin made them crisp and outstanding.
Indulge’s lamb shank ($32), while pricey, topped all the lamb shanks I’ve had in recent memory, thanks to its rich, braised-in flavour, tenderness and generous size.
The fully loaded steak & frites ($25), one of the menu’s four steaks, was another dish that could have other Ottawa restos looking over their shoulders. The pre-sliced flank steak was primed with flavour thanks to quality time marinating in Broadhead Stout. It didn’t at all need the peppery, mushroom-enhanced demi-glace that came with it. The fries were shatteringly crisp and topped with parmesan, while sweet, roasted cherry tomatoes and more maple balsamic reduction added extra dimension and savouriness.
Among the proteins, only the pan-seared sockeye salmon fell short — it had been a wee bit overcooked.
There were other small missteps on the main plates. With the duck, spaetzle — apparently deep-fried rather than boiled — was certainly too crunchy and oily. With the salmon, barley risotto was nicely al dente and flavourful, but much less saucy than expected — not to split grains of rice, but maybe it was more of a pilaf than a risotto? With the chicken, goat cheese “gnocchi” were more like cornmeal-crusted fritters. I liked it, but literalists at our table were disappointed.
The largely successful mains left us craving grand finales for dessert. Alas, the course left us frustrated.
On the menu, biscuit “bread pudding” with Clarmell Farms chevre ice cream appealed, as too did cinnamon baked apples with ginger ice cream. However, neither was available.
What we could order fizzled rather than dazzled. Slices of lemon cake ($7) were so-so. A deconstructed S’Mores dessert ($7) did not improve on the conventional treat. It seemed like a cheap assembly of too-burnt marshmallow, ordinary graham crackers and a smear of chocolate ganache. The strawberry gel blobs on both dessert plates? They might as well have been jam.
Still, in all, there was much more to like than dislike from Godsoe. I expect that raising the level of the desserts should not be hard for him. Indeed, if the young chef can get all of his menu to sparkle as its best offerings do, downtowners would do well to make the trip to Indulge in Riverside South.