REASONABLY PRICED MOZAIK MOSTLY A HIT FOR ITS MULTICULTURAL DISHES
What comes to mind when you think of street food? Calzones in Italy? Anticucho kebabs in Peru? Curry-filled bread loaves in South Africa? BeaverTails in the ByWard Market? Wherever you go, delectable, grab-and-go treats are true delights of travelling.
But odds are you and I won't be doing any leisurely globe-trotting any time soon. At least while the pandemic forces us to stay closer at home, we have restaurants like Mozaik Street Foodery as stand-ins for our journeys, supplying evocative casual eats.
Mozaik opened softly in February on Queen Street, just east of Bank Street. It's in the second-floor space that for the past few years was the Blurry Pixel, an e-sports and video gaming bar. Below Mozaik is Mulligans Golf Bar, and the businesses are jointly owned and share the same kitchen team. (The menu at Mulligans is a little more pub-oriented, but, in addition to fish and chips, it does include kimchee fries, chicken lemongrass dumplings and mushroom tacos, all of which would fit on Mozaik's concise menu.)
I ate twice this month on Mozaik's patio, which has since been reclaimed by Mulligans, and most recently in its narrow, woody dining room, in which newer beige banquettes and older captain's chairs flank the long bar that will remind some Ottawans of a certain age when this historic building was home to the Mayflower II restaurant and pub in the 1990s.
Regardless of where I ate it, the food that I had at Mozaik was all over the map. That goes for its quality as well as its influences.
Best was Mozaik's yansuji ($12), the chicken nuggets of Taiwan, so to speak. They were minimally battered and impeccably fried so that the well-seasoned meat remained succulent. A scattering of fried garlic, green onions and moderately hot chili rings made this very good snack even better.
These fried, but elevated chicken bits topped similar snacks that you would have found in recent years at Ottawa's Asian night markets. If all you need from a restaurant is one fine, craving-inducing dish to lure you in, then Mozaik's yansuji might well qualify.
Also very well made was the nicely spiced and moist lamb and beef kofta ($22), which was upsized to a main course with za'atar-spiced flatbreads, rice flavoured with tart barberries, grilled tomatoes and tzatziki.
All of the hand-held items that I tried were solid choices. From most to least favourite, I'd list the Cubano sandwich of citrusy pulled pork, ham, cheese and pickles ($15), the hotdog with Japanese garnishes à la Vancouver's Japadog ($14), and the sloppy-but-good burger topped with green chilies ($13), which has since migrated to the Mulligans menu. The fries and root veg chips that came with these items were all winners.
Two items — some fine, but not exceptional grilled oysters ($16 for six) and some overcooked and under-flavoured salt cod fritters ($15) — I could take or leave.
I was left with the impression that Mozaik's kitchen doesn't think much of salads. The fattoush salad ($12) was short of crunchy pita chips and a memorable dressing, and, even with a bit of preserved lemon to dress it up, it paled in comparison to what Ottawa's good Lebanese restaurants offer. A little better was the green papaya salad ($9), although it felt like overly simplified Thai fare, and I wished for a lot more pungency and heat in addition to its low-key sweetness.
Google tells me that cao lau noodles are a Vietnamese dish of especially springy rice noodles, pork, greens and broth. While I've never been to Vietnam, Mozaik's rendition ($12) struck me as a dud, mostly because of its flavourless and fatty scraps of pork belly. Also, while this was a dish that called for chopsticks, none were provided.
Dessert ($12) consisted of three small, good things: two rich chocolate slabs with crisps of salted caramel, a jar of something like a lime curd, and a corn fritter.
The wine choices here are very scant, but craft beer choices are better. Best to opt for Mozaik's imaginative cocktails, many of which take the use of Japanese spirits as a theme. Barman Stan Reyes, formerly of Datsun on Elgin Street, has concocted some attractive drinks.
Notwithstanding BeaverTails, the best street foods that I've had in Ottawa have been the vibrantly flavoured South Asian snacks made by Indian and Pakistani expats at places such as Vivaan, Khokha Eatery and Royal Paan.
Mozaik's well-intentioned and reasonably priced multicultural dishes did not always do their inspirations equally proud. But, if you stay away from the salads and start by sipping a Japanese vesper or Apple ginger sour, you should be more than all right.