Review 222 Lyon Tapas Bar - Ottawa

Lyons has a wonderful selection of tapas that taste just like they were made at home! The restaurant is in a house like building with cozy and creative decor. Kathy, our waitress, was extremely personable and attentive. She made it feel as though we were old friends. My only issue with this restaurant was it's inaccessibility in and around the restaurant for those requiring accessible entry and restroom access.

They lock cars in during holidays!

This place really exceeded our expectations. Everything we ordered was fantastic, with the flavours perfectly balanced. The chimichurri was the best I've ever had, and you absolutely have to try the shrimp monalisa. Can't wait to go back! There's very limited seating, so I'd recommend making reservations.

As far as tapas goes, 222 Lyon has nothing special to offer. It is subpar in almost every way. No points are made up by its plain and tight interior. The "fresh baked bread" was stale—worse than a discount bag of already cheap dinner rolls. The "brandy vinegar" that it came with was equally underwhelming. The worst dish we had to bear was the lobster special. $20 for a rubbery, flavourless piece of low-quality (probably frozen) seafood, accompanied by a single strand of limp scallion. Our dishes took awhile to arrive, despite the whole place only being able to accommodate 8 or so couples/groups. Nothing seemed to come at the appropriate temperature except for two bacon-wrapped dates ($5). Service itself was friendly. Ottawa does not have much to offer in terms of tapas generally, but there is surely another place that can do better than this one.

Spanish Tapas style. Excellent food, nice wines, reasonable prices. But be prepared for an evening of yelling at your dining partner. Very popular with many cheerful patrons all in a rather crowded room. Perhaps better on some nights, but rather loud on my first visit.

I was here a few times with some friends. The food we had was very good. The atmosphere is cozy. Both times I was fortunate enough for them to put the window seat aside for us. It's perfect for 6 people! The staff was super friendly and remembered me the next weekend. Great food AND good service is something to be proud of. Keep up the good work there guys!

Wonderful personable staff.. Food was exceptional.. if you are looking for a quiet dinner, you may wish to go elsewhere.. highly recommend with a group who like to share.. try the red sangria

I went here with a work party for lunch. It was quite expensive (one colleague had 2 plates, 1 glass wine, bottle of sparkling water) for $60. I found the food to be below above in flavour and presentation. Service was great , especially for a group of chatty folks! I won’t go back.

My wife, daughters and I had a wonderful evening at this tapas restaurant, excellent food, very friendly servers and owner, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would highly recommend this place.

Un seul mot wow! Un coup de cœur ! La nourriture est excellente, le service est personnalisé et conviviale. Même les clients qui nous entourent nous ont suggéré des plats. Ambiance colorée, animée et surtout appréciée. Dommage que nous restions si loin... nous reviendrons dans un avenir très proche. Bravo encore une fois !

J'ai beaucoup aimé! L'atmosphère est convivial et chaleureux, le service est très sympathique et la bouffe est bonne. Nous avons toutefois été surpris de ne pas retrouver de charcuteries espagnoles sur le menu et la carte des vins, bien, qu'abordable, pourrait être un peu plus étoffée. En somme, un excellent endroit à Ottawa!

Well, where to start? Lets go with the food first. My wife and I have been going to 222 Lyon for about five years now and we have never had a dish that was not perfect. We have tried everything on the menu and love it all. From the top to the bottom of the menu there is not one thing that is not prepared with loving knowledge of the Spanish tapas culture and care for the customer. Our daughter, god love her, is one heck of a picky eater, but we finally convinced her to join us one night. Well turns out she loves the garlic shrimp, the squid a la romana and her favorite is the snails andalusian. She also loves seeing Kathy as well as all the other staff. Secondly, all the staff must have been made to watch reruns of that old TV show Cheers, "where everybody knows your name" because each time we walk through the door we are greeted like family. We have also celebrated my birthday there the last few years and have introduced many people to the charm of 222 Lyon, even one person who liked to play with his mussel shells, lol. To say it is our favorite is to understate the feelings we have for 222 Lyon and it's wonderful staff.

My go to place when I’m in Ottawa. Home away from home. Never disappoints. Awesome tapas and wine. Even better staff

The ambiance is very welcoming and cozy. The service is very personable and the food is excellent. Love this place and will recommend to everyone.

The best restaurant I met in Ottawa. Excellent seafood and vegetarian options and above all the best service !!! I recommend you have everything you need to feel good!

Fantastic atmosphere and service. We are very happy we tried this place. A definite return visit is in our future.

Excellent service, food, and atmosphere! If we didn’t live in southern Ontario this would be our spot, easily! 11/10 would return.

I can never get enough of the food, atmosphere and staff!! It's always an enjoyable experience when I'm there and I wish I could go more often!

I absolutely love this cozy restaurant. Delicious food prepared by the great chef Phil and a always a warm welcome by the owner Laurie. J'adore!

Always an excellent evening out, food is awesome, atmosphere is casual and friendly. Sit at the bar and be hosted by Kathy.

Delicious food and wonderful service...perfect date place!

222 Lyon has become my favourite dining location in Ottawa. Fabulous food along with outstandingly friendly service - each time I visit, at the end of an evening I catch myself thinking on when I can plan another night here sharing over-the-moon delicious tapas and conversation with special people in my life. The setting is cozy and intimate - you won't want to leave!

Ho my god!!!! Thank you Universe for guiding us here!!! Soooo delicious!!!! <3

2nd time there and it was as good as the first . Nice and cozy and great meals for the price

222 Lyon is a great little tapas bar. I enjoyed every single visit. The food is delicious. We usually order too many plates but it is hard to hold back when it is that tasty. The service is personalized. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable of their menu They usually take charge decide the order of which the plates will be served which makes this experience even better. I strongly recommend this little gem!

Pleasantly surprised!<br/><br/>Great ambience, service and food. Visited at lunch today and was impressed. Enjoyed chorizo burger and fries while my friend ordered the snapper almondine -- we were both happy and satisfied with meal.

Ok. Been here in the past and tried again recently. Not quite Spain but you get some nice cozy sharing items. Sausage was not authentic but still good. Shrimps were fine as were the cheeses. Croquettes were ok too but I'd hope for more confidence in what they prepare. Let's change the decor a bit. Seems outdated.

Great food and fun service (you can always expect a lot of personality!). The regulars make it special. Love the calamari and mussels!

Very small place, but cozy. This is my go-to tapas place in Ottawa. The service is always very personal and friendly. They make some of the best calamari I have ever had. Their chorizo is another personal favorite. I seriously keep going back just for those 2 things.<br/><br/>The portions seem to vary based on the dish. I find the calamari & chorizo portions are very generous for the price, but I find some other dishes in the same category are much smaller.<br/><br/>I took my dad there, and he had never tried tapas before, but he absolutely loved their tarragon pork. <br/><br/>I highly recommend this place.

Worst customer service ever!. Unfortunately I have experienced my worst customer service at this location. The waitress , especially the older lady with blond her, was extremely impolite boarding rude! I would never go back there ever and wont recommend it!

We went here the first time last night. It was early on Saturday Evening and the restaurant was nearly full with patrons. We split all of our dishes between the two of us. We had a shrimp salad, stuffed mushrooms, fried smelts and meat stuffed peppers. All of them were great, and we were filled up. Not that familiar with Tapas, but all the dishes were decent sized for two people to share. We decided we would both probably try the restaurant again.

Good but stay away from the smelts. The salmon terrine was delicious (and quite big!), so was the artichoke dip.<br/>I was very disappointed with the smelts, as they didn't taste anything and were still 15$, which is a lot for a tapas.<br/><br/>Cute place anyways and most of the food was good!

Visiting from the states, and had a very nice dinner. Had 2 dishes- shrimp/chorizo and a scallop dish with flavoring of leeks and pernod. Both were well prepared. I would have liked a bit more salt and garlic in the shrimp, but it was still excellent. Chef is from Andalucia, I was told. Restaurant is in an old house - cozy feel and friendly people. Not crowded on this Thursday evening. Finished with a very good flan (orange zest). With a nice glass of temperanillo total bill was $55 plus tip. This diner was very pleased.

Awful service. I went there with a group a few months ago and all I can say is we will not be returning. The service left much to be desired and the waitress had a very bad attitude. I found the food over-priced as well.

Upsell staff.. good food. My wife and I have been here a few times, the two ladies who I see regularly are nice enough, but if you ask for opinion on something be prepared to be "upsold" by them suggesting both items whether you need it or not! Or the most expensive item, or the most expensive dish, etc. The food is really enjoyable and creative, the prices are high, but not abnormally so (its hard to find good tapas for a good price in Ottawa). Go for the food, not the service.

Disappointed... had to leave for 2nd sitting. I was very disappointed when we were told to leave for a 7:30 pm sitting! This was a special evening with friends and we had to rush out and leave. The food was very good but this spoiled it for us. <br/>Not going back.

Disappointed. The food was mediocre. But what I didn't like was the unacceptable number of errors on the bill. When I drew the waitress' attention to the errors she argued and was not professional about it. Nor did I appreciate being charged for two coffees because I asked for a refill. I certainly did not appreciate the experience.

Excellent tapas and great service. I will surely go back to try some more. The scallops in cream and white wine sauce were devine.

Too noisy. The place was very noisy. Very difficult to carry on a conversation. As for the food. Of the 4 dishes we had, the spicy mussels was the best followed by the Chinata Shrimps. Prefer the menu from Aroma Meze which also serves small dishes.<br/><br/>The service waas fine.<br/><br/>Overall I would give it a n average rating. Not enough for me to go back

Been quite a few times. Always great service and great food. Highly recommend it. Call ahead for reservations as there isn't much seating.

Decent food - Rude owner and staff. I have had my last meal at 222 Lyon. I have eaten here 5 times in the last year and my last two visits have turned me off this restaurant. The food is decent to good and the prices reasonable with the exception of their overpriced watery Sangria. On my second last visit I had ordered two bottles of wine for our table but the waitress kept rudely arguing with me that I had also ordered a glass of the same wine. I assured her that I had not but she continued to insist to the point where it was embarrassing and then gave us very poor service when I would not back down. To top it off she still added it to my bill at the end of the night causing another round of discussions( not the first time I was charged for something not ordered). My last visit was impromptu and we sat at the bar where we were engaged by an overbearing, loud and rude woman who was also seated there. We did not think much of this until the bartender informed us that this woman was the owner. 222 Lyon needs to learn something of customer service and their proprietor should lead by example. To my benefit Ottawa has a decent selection of restaurants ensuring that I don't need to return here. <br/><br/>To sum it up the food is good, the service isn't and double check your bill.

Good food but won't return. When a restaurant offers a Siesta menu to bring in business it's unfortunate when they "hide" it. We planned a 2:30 trip to the restaurant as the Siesta menu is offered from 2 to 4. We found the regular menu prices quite high for tapas so figured it would be best to try the restaurant during Siesta to sample the menu. On arrival we were given only the regular menu. We had to ask for a "Siesta" menu which was provided to us but at the same time we were told it was very small portions and she down played it, trying to steer us away from ordering from it. That put us off right away.<br/>Next, we ordered a pitcher of sangria. When they gave us the Siesta menu (upon request) we found we could have gotten Sangria by the glass at $5.00. They charged us $31 for the pitcher. We could have ordered 6 glasses of Sangria for $30. Again, another bad show of service. <br/><br/>For the food, it turns out the items we ordered from the Siesta menu were much tastier than our regular priced items as we ended up ordering from both menus. The spanish meatballs were delicious as were the Empanadas. The marinated calamari was underwhelming and the Ratatouille nothing special. <br/><br/>When our bill arrived we tried to reason with the waitress that it was not "fair" that she charge us $31 for a pitcher of sangria when the Siesta menu sold it for $5 a glass, we asked if we could instead pay for 5 glasses, the equivalent of a pitcher. She didn't relent and we weren't in the mood to argue any further, whatever happened to customer service?<br/><br/>The restaurant is quite small (6-7 tables) and we weren't surprised to see and overhear that all the tables were sat and given the regular menu and each of them had to ask for the Siesta Menu. Doesn't the restaurant realize that is why there are customers at 2 and 3 in the afternoon on a Monday? Why put customers off by not providing the menu to them right away? I think this is in bad taste and awful customer service.<br/>Although we enjoyed some of our dishes and our Sangria, we will not be back.

Had an amazing dinner tonight. Great service- thank you Cathy . Food was delicious. I could ear the beet and goat cheese salad everyday and not get tired of it. You have to order the Spanish coffee it's to die for.

Pretty good, but not a tapas bar. In terms of geography, this restaurant is an oasis in a Sahara-poor (food-wise) part of Ottawa. Nice physical set-up: prominent bar, and six nice tables in what must have been the parlour of an old Lyon Street house.<br/><br/>Based on several visits: fair service. Decent wine menu at fair-to-high prices. Nice to see a selection of wines available by the half litre. However, no local (Niagara or PEC) wines featured-which is too bad, especially in a city with lots of tourists. And likewise the beer: a poor variety of beer-on-tap (Steamwhistle and Speckled Hen . . . nothing from Eastern Ontario or Western Quebecl).<br/><br/>The big failure is that despite the name, this is NOT a tapas bar. Tapas are supposed to be cheap and small. In Andalusia, tapas are never more than 3 euros ($4.50), are often 2 euros, and are sometimes free (meaning they're covered in the cost of your drink). <br/><br/>These dishes, at (generally) $10 to $14 are usually well done (good smelt, fair asparagus, ok salads, soup that is sometime very good), but they're 2 to 3 times the price of what tapas should cost, and it's hard to have dinner for less than $30. For which price, you're better off at L'Oree du Bois, or Wellington Gastropub. <br/><br/>For tapas at real tapas prices, try Moonroom. The only place I know of in Ottawa that has small things to nibble on at genuine tapas prices.<br/><br/>Many of us would welcome more places that sell very small dishes at under $5 or $6.

Love the europeanness!. Reminds me of old-shool european taverns. excellent!!!

Great Service, Terrible Food. I was very excited to try a new wine and tapas bar. I was shocked that I had never been to this spot before. First I have to say the service was great; very friendly and very understanding when we complained about our food. The shrimps were ok...far too much oil though. The scallops in a citrus sauce tasted like detergent...very strong, horrible detergent. They were also soggy...not sure why. The presentation of the food was also poor. This is not my number one concern but would add to the appeal. Will not return.

Canada Gold Medal. I've eaten here a couple times, and love the ambiance on a date. But really, it's the best when Canada beats the USA for Gold Medal Olympic Hockey!

Food was very good, wine selection not so much. I also found it expensive - over $10 for quite a small portion, but like I said, it was very tasty. It's a really small place, so the atmosphere is fun when it gets packed, which I think it often does.

Enjoying a great evening here last weekend. The menu was reasonably priced and the selection was excellent. The food was tasty and the atmoshere was enjoyable. They had frogs legs as a special which was interesting to try. Great overall!

The food was nice and authentic, the environment was cosy and the staff were friendly and knowledgable. However, like most Spanish tapas places, it's not really my thing, nor are the Spanish flavours really my flavours.

Near downtown Ottawa, I felt like I was visiting someone's house because this was at one point a house. For such a small place they sure had a lot of staff. Despite all that staff we didn't' get served any bread even though all the customers around us had some. We eventually got it midway through the meal, but by then we didn't want it as badly. At least it was really fresh bread. We tried four tapas items starting with squid A al Roma which is dusted calamari with house dip ($11). The calamari was good, but the sauce wasn't very unique. Next are the Spanish style croquettes ($10). I haven't had croquettes often before and after trying it I remember why I don't usually order it. I just don't like the texture and the spice used. Not exactly sure what makes this one "Spanish", but it had shrimp inside and came out nice and hot. This dish doesn't look like much, but it is the Chicken al Ajilo ($12) with prosciutto, garlic, wine and a touch of chili. This dish tasted like someth

Here it is, my 100th post! My, how far i've come! I wish I had a picture to go with it but this one wasn't planned. It was still good nonetheless. A group of friends and I enjoyed finger foods and great wine this past Friday night at the Lyon Tapas Bar