Review La Terrasse - Ottawa

Went there for dinner, there's no signs pointing to where the restaurant is, it's a bit hidden on the left-hand side of the Fairmont. Lovely view of the river and Parliament, great vibes, a bit fancy. The menu is slightly over-priced but you do pay what you get and oh boy, the food is tasty! But expect the burger & fries to be like $41. Cute place for a date night, but I wouldn't go too often or else your wallet will cry.

This was bad. Will not return. Come at your own risk. You have been warned. Food is supbar, service is OK, view on the patio is amazing, wait times are horrendous. Full scoop below… We were late for our reservation by >15 minutes and so they gave up our requested high table… We weren’t told about this rule before arriving for the meal, but fine, I guess rules are rules. For reference, our reservation was at 7pm and we arrived around 7:18 or so. Roads near wellington were blocked off, it took a little while (ok maybe more than a little while) to park the car, and we had a guest who was walking disabled. They said we can start dining at another seat and move to a high table when one becomes available, so we thought fair enough. Fair warning though, if you’re trekking from the west end on a Sunday night like we did, prepare to leave well in advance of your reservation. Long waits are a feature here, not a bug. We couldn’t flag down a server to order food for about 60 minutes. On one occasion, we noticed a high table had freed up and asked a server to move us there, but he responded that the ladies at the front desk were responsible for seating, and hurriedly left before I could say “we’re ready to order food”. When I asked the ladies at the front to move us to the available high table, they said there’s a waiting list for the high table and they’d let us know when the waitlist frees up before moving us. Fair enough. However, that vacant high table would remain vacant for the rest of the night… so much for letting us know. After finally being able to order food some 60 minutes after sitting down, we were pleasantly surprised that our appetizer (crusted tuna) came rather quickly (~15 minutes). You can probably understand out disappointment when we found out we had paid $28 for the 5-6 thin, bland sashimi slices and some deprived lettuce skeleton garnish (I’m not sure what I mean here but you can see in the picture… the greenery looked like dried lettuce with the leaves removed.) Hit the mouth like unsalted lays chips. Delicious… Our mains would not arrive for another 75 minutes, some 2h+ after arriving. It was past 9pm by the time we were served more than 6 skimpy pieces of raw tuna and water. Somewhere along the way of waiting for food and asking the servers about our mains, 3 additional high tables opened up, for a total of 4. At this point, the view of the sunset was phenomenal from the balcony and we just decided to up and move to the high table. We carried our own dishes and drinks. No harm no foul, we’re happier with the balcony view and the servers figured out quickly enough that we had moved. The ladies at the front desk never came around to even check on us or the high tables for the rest of the night. At all times for the rest of the night, there were vacant high tables, so I’m not really sure what happened to this waitlist they earlier claimed to have accumulated. Mains were OK. We ordered the crab pasta and the cod. Both were VERY heavy in cream and VERY lacking in seasoning. If that is a flavour profile you like, then you may be in luck. I understand that the burger and steak frites are classics here, but these seafood dishes were also highly recommended by the servers. Not impressed, especially at the price. It’s always impressive when tables that arrive 1.5h after you do, end up leaving before you do. That’s what happened to us, as the high table guests beside us finished their meal and left. I remembered them because they arrived after we had moved to the high tables and thought “I wonder if those other vacant high tables will fill up too” (they didn’t). In summary, obscenely disappointing for what was billed as a casual dining experience attached to the Fairmont building. The view is a redeeming factor, and it really is one of a kind, but it is only really visible from the high tables and if it didn’t take us 3.5h to finish at meal that started at ~7:20, we might actually have had time to stroll around the lower balcony and admire the view at our leisure from there. Unimpressive.

Pricey but worth it. Enjoy a delicious meal with a gorgeous view of sunset at Rideau canal. They need reservations so make it online before going.

The view is honestly so amazing here and it almost made up for the pretty disappointing food. The service was super friendly and the bartenders made some really tasty drinks. But holy heck the dinner was disappointing. The crusted tuna lacked sooo much flavour I almost asked for some soy sauce so I can eat it like sashimi. The crab pasta dish had a heavy cream base but nothing much else in terms of flavour. I felt like someone forgot to salt the pasta water before cooking the pasta. The only saving grace was that the pasta was cooked perfectly al dente. The dessert was so unmemorable I didn’t even remember to take a photo. Maybe come here for the views, have a beverage and then skip the actual meal.

This place is beautiful, the food is very tasty and the staff are amazing. The vies from the terrace is gorgeous. i sat on the high chairs to have a better view of beautiful scenery. A vey Lind server served me he was very kind and after I finished my drink he brought me another one complimentary without me asking him, unfortunately I didn’t get his name. Would absolutely recommend this place, will be going there for dinner soon.

A pretty view and relaxing atmosphere, but the food was mediocre. Sadly the waiter spilled a glass of cold water on my mother during our visit on a chilly October evening.

Great experience sitting outdoor and the view is pretty good. Best to go in the late evening in my opinion. There are a few different types of seating setups to choose from; there are high table around the perimeter of the terrace and lower regular height tables in the middle, so choose to your liking. The food was ok, apps seemed a bit small but the entrees were larger portions. Overall the atmosphere is was the selling feature, especially if you have nice weather.

Before going there I read the comments and I was a little shocked but I still wanted to try it nonetheless and I was surprised in a good way! The Caesar salad was quite good (we asked for it without bacon which was respected) but the burrata wasn’t very good for 22$ it wasn’t great. As for the mains they were very good the steak and fries was great and I definitely recommend this dish if you decide to go there. Finally the view was amazing and there were fireworks which made the experience even better. Our waiter was also very nice, kind and funny (his name was Justin) unlike what other comments say about the service. All in all I suggest you try it and make your own opinion about it because the comments didn’t really represent the reality in my opinion

The onion soup I had was horrible and the service was not good either.

This is a good place for brunch. The food is good and fresh but the place is overrated. The ambiance is nice but<br/>If you look carefully you will notice that is not the " chateau laurier" like it used to be but just a restaurant who tries to be chic but is going down.

Gorgeous view of the Gatineau hills at sunset. Pricey but worth it for the quality of our meal. Wine is steep but the cocktails were great. Easy to miss this spot on the west side of the hotel by the canal if your walking by. Service was professional. Ask for Alex if he is working.

Devine. I had a most pleasureable experience at this establishment. A friend and I had lunch here one day when the buffet was not in operation and while I should of written this while I still remembered all the details, what I do know is this was a fantastic meal, we each were 100% satisfied, service was outstanding, my friend has special diet needs and the chef prepared a meal for her that was excellent without any hesitation. Aside from not being able to enter the premise thru the side doors and being forced to walk around to the front on a cold January day I was completed.

Brunch Beyond My Expectations. One can easily be taken aback when you find out its $40 but its worth every penny. Salad bar, omelette station, lamb, veggies, vegetarian dishes, breads, cheeses, pastries, chocolate and the list goes on. We were a group of four and everyone was pleased with the food taste, selection and service.