By Juliet O’Neill
It’s Tuesday, it must be Starling Restaurant. Wednesday? Clarendon Tavern, Fairouz Cafe, Saigon, or Social.
Happy hour in the ByWard Market is good way for friends to dodge rising restaurant dinner bills.
There are so many options and we’ve done the research for you. A group of us tried nearly a dozen happy hours, some ending at 5:00 pm and others at 6:00 pm on various weekdays. Tip: order last call at ten to the hour and stay a while. Read on for more.
The least expensive happy hour we found was at the lively Grand Pizzeria and Bar. $5 for a pint of beer or a glass of wine, plus half-price wood-fired pizza ($11.50-$14). When we asked our theatrically grumpy server to recommend other happy hours, he replied “No idea. I never go out.”
Monday to Friday, 3:00 – 6:00 pm.
The stylish Starling Restaurant is a standout. $6 wines, beer, or sangria and delicious $15 sharing dishes – octopus, arancini, focaccia, fries with champagne gravy. The classic bar, fitted with brass parrot lamps, is overseen with TLC by general manager, Brett Creighton. Five-star service.
Daily 3:00 – 6:00 pm.
Fairouz Café serves $10 drinks and a delectable Middle Eastern menu of $10 dishes like muhammara, labneh, grape leaves or truffle fries, and $20 dishes like confit duck pide. Bonus: patio in the Tinhouse Courtyard.
Tuesday to Friday, 4:00 – 5:30 pm.
The menu at Saigon Ottawa, a small Vietnamese restaurant with a patio on Clarence Street includes $6 beer and wine, $5 tacos, $7 wings, $9 braised pork belly. All delicious, with the young man running the bar and attending our table insisting on initials only – “Everyone calls me CN as in CN Tower.”
Weekdays 4:00 – 6:00 pm.
The Clarendon Tavern offers $7 wine and beer, $10 cocktails, half-priced (about $10) artisanal pizza, chicken wings and cauliflower. Classy retro vibe in one of the oldest buildings in Ottawa. Lively patio on the cobblestones of the Clarendon Courtyard.
Daily 4:00 – 6:00 pm
At Social, happy hour is called social hour. Of course it is! $6 for draft beer and wine, six oysters for $12, and more, with a generous shareable chef’s charcuterie board for $19. Swish, comfy lounge inside and outside on the patio.
Daily 3:00 – 5:00 pm excluding holidays.
Joey Rideau buzzes with after-work drinks gatherings. We bumped into a former colleague stopping for one at the bar before heading home from the office. $5 lager, wine starting at $6 plus an extensive menu starting at $5 yam fries up to $25 steak frites.
Sunday to Thursday, 2:00 – 5:00 pm.
Happy Hour at the posh Shoreline Club at the Westin Hotel is so mysteriously dark that we barely found our friends who had arrived early. Half-price oysters and $2 prawns, $3.50 Sliders, $8 Sapporo draft and $12 wine. Bring a flashlight.
Daily 3:00 – 5:00 pm.
Milestones Grill and Bar has a “happier hour” with $6 wine and beer, and menu items ranging from $12 crispy tempura cauliflower to $18 burgers.
Daily 3:00 – 5:00 pm.
Luxe Bistro, $6 beer, $8 wine, $8 for two sliders, $20 oysters and more.
Daily 2:00 – 6:00 with Thursdays 2:00 pm to closing.
When you’re leaving and the server asks, “What you are going to do for the rest of the evening?” you could always say you’ll be back for late-night happy hour. They usually start at 9:00 pm.
Cheers!
(Photo: Juliet O’Neill)