#lotwwintercatchup

It's pretty self explanatory - I'm doing catch up on reviews from the Winter before the end of 2019. At least I'm trying to!!!

JULUCA's BISTRO CAFE - Barrhaven ON

#lotwfallcatchup

So I was down in Barrhaven, and while I was down there I thought I would check out somewhere for lunch. I did some quick internet researching and came across a little independent eatery. But they were closed (but the hours suggested they should be open). Drat. Not to be undone, I decided to find another independent place, and Juluca's seemed to fit the bill.

From my brief internet search Juluca's seemed to be a pizza place that served up wings. But the photos showed what looked like a pretty fancy little bistro, or Bistro Cafe as they advertise themselves. I was curious as to what Juluca was; was it a name? Some place in Italy? A style of food? The only thing that came back besides the restaurant was an AIDS medication. Ummm ok?

Barrhaven is basically a suburb community for Ottawa, and Juluca's was in a very suburban area. Surrounded by homes and schools, and apart of what looks like a condo facility with business's on the ground and apartments above in a building called 'The Station'. It looks relatively new, my guess is built around 2016.

I parked in the back, and walked around noticing their very large patio (which was basically packed up for the season). I walked inside and first noticed the decor; the place was very nice inside. Very clean, chic/posh feel, with a fire place, exposed brick and fancy bar. But on the other side, while there were a few guys in suits, and some guys that seemed to be the owners, it was full of high school students. The place seemed more expensive than high school students would bother with, but then again, there wasn't anything else around for them to go.

I walked up to the counter where the server, dressed more like a hostess at a nice restaurant than a pizza joint, was on her phone. She looked up, not seemingly interested in her job. The menu is on a flat placard and I quickly saw chicken wings under Appetizers. I said I would get an order of the wings, but asked what the difference between their Hot and Suicide. She just looked at me and said "Hot is like, Frank's ... and Suicide was not...". Wow, ok, well I went with Suicide. I got a Coke Zero and then grabbed a table.

After about 10 minutes the hostess brought out my wings. What a fancy plate!

After she brought my wings she did bring over a bone plate, and wetnaps, and there was a napkin dispenser on the table already. The wings at Juluca's come by the pound, and there were about 11 wings in their pound.

The chichi plate was neat because it had a built in dip bowl. Now they filled that bowl with sour cream ... had that been blue cheese or even ranch that would have been cooler.




The wings were actually a really nice size; not quite large, but medium+ for sure in length. But they were also fairly meaty too.

The wings are deep fried, and the skin was nice and crispy. The meat, on the other hand, was kinda tough and the bones didn't pull apart easily. It looks like the wings are from frozen also.

The presentation of the wings was great. They looked crispy, but they were also sauced really well. Each wing was nice and wet, and there was a nice amount of sauce on the bottom of the plate.

As mentioned above, I went with Suicide as my sauce. The sauce was good, but it wasn't very spicy. It was cayenne based, but like the hostess mentioned, it wasn't Frank's for sure. By the way, she came and checked in on me, and was busing the tables and taking orders the whole time I was there (when I came in I must have caught her in a  moment of rest after a lunch rush?). I couldn't identify the sauce, and it wasn't suicide for sure, but the flavour of the wing didn't suffer at all.

FINAL SCORE:

The wings at Juluca's are actually decent. Good size, crispy, and well sauced. A bit tough, but not bad and suicide was not very hot, but a pretty acceptable. No idea what the other food is like but the pizza was pretty popular.  I don't make it to Barrhaven often so next time I go back I would try somewhere else to experiment, but these wings would do in a pinch. 8.5/15

Juluca's Bistro Cafe
613 Longfield's Drive, Barrhaven ON
julucas.ca

BONNIE & CLYDE - Ottawa ON

#lotwfallcatchup

For the past year, Elgin Street in Ottawa has been under some major reconstruction that severely affected all of the businesses up and down the strip. Hooley's Pub, which I first reviewed back in 2009, and then again in 2018, closed it's doors this summer stating that the construction was to blame. Wing lovers like me were quite sad, as Hooley's had one of the best wing deals in town, and a ton of unique flavours. 

Well you can't keep a motivated team down, and in a short time from the ashes of Hooley's came Bonnie & Clyde. From the same owners, they re-branded, redecorated, but also kept with some things that worked, namely wing night. If you aren't familiar with Bonnie & Clyde the actual people, they were bank robbing lovers that died together on the run from the law.

September was when they re-opened and they reached out to me on my Instagram (@lotw_wingking for those of you not yet following me) to tell me first about their Mango Habanero wings, but then to tell me about a super duper wing night event coming soon:

Well that sounded pretty awesome and it was right before my birthday, so it seemed like the best way to celebrate and try out Bonnie & Clyde (B&C). LJ & I were out of town for the day, but we wanted to get there right at opening to avoid the crowds.

We don't live downtown, so with the still ongoing construction (which actually ended just yesterday!) parking was a bit challenging, but we found some on a side street and made our way. I noticed right away the changes to the exterior with the name Bonnie at the front and Clyde on the side. I had never noticed the alley beside Hooley's back in the day, but there was seating and the big skull mural really stood out.

We got there just before 4pm, but it was locked up. Front door was a no-go and we didn't think we could go in through the side. We hung out for a little bit, and by around 4:10 someone came out and put out the sandwich board. It seemed like they were open on the side and we went in.

We were the first customers of the night, but the hostess sat us immediately next to the front door. I had to ask for us to be moved because even though it was September, it was freezing cold (about 15 degrees) so she moved us to a booth in the middle. We felt bad for all the waitresses who were all dressed in black skimpy outfits - they must have been freezing! There were an army of them out and about, but even at 4:30 there weren't a lot of customers, which I found shocking considering it was $0.20 wings!

B&C has blocked the place into two distinct parts: We were seated in the back park, Clydes. It really didn't look much different than the old Hooleys. Furniture seemed to be the same, decor the same. The front was still being done, but it was definitely done up, with an art deco/speakeasy/1930's feel kind of classy bar, with an amazing mural across the back bar.

I don't know if there is a normal menu, but on wing night they just passed out printed paper menu's. First thing I noticed were that the menu's were quite used being all crumpled all up and stained with food. It was a bit of a turn off and considering the place was newly opened, was also a little disappointing. The menu is pretty limited on a Monday night, aside from the wings. There are fries (regular, sweet potato, tater tots, curly fries) and then there are cheeseburgers, nachos and a salad.

The wing menu is quite extensive with over 30 flavours to choose from. It's a bit smaller than the old Hooley's, but it's still a very impressive list. The way wing night works is that wings are normally $0.59 a wing (although it was $0.20 a wing this night), but you have to order them in groups of 8, so each order is $4.72, with a drink purchase. That's pretty amazing. And this night, it was $1.60 for 8 wings. Incredible!

Our server was ok but she wasn't very warm (as in her friendliness). She took our wing orders, and brought us our drinks, Sangria for LJ (she said it was good) and Diet Coke for me. We didn't have to wait long and our wings came out.

The wings as mentioned above come in orders of 8 at a time. The wings come on a plate, with pretty equal amounts of wings and drums. We had lots of napkins and wetnaps for cleanup.

Nothing comes with the wings (again, don't know if this is the case on say a Tuesday night) but you can get a dip for $1. You can get Blue Cheese, Ranch, or Sour Cream (oh Ottawa). I really like their Blue Cheese, which is creamy and has chunks and I could just drink the stuff.

The wings are large wings, which is surprising considering they are only $0.59 (or $0.20 wings) - they must be taking a loss and making up for in it drinks at that price! The wings are all breaded so there is a little bulking up going on, but they are still a meaty wing. The one wing I took a size photo of above is probably the smallest length-wise wing but you can see it's meaty and breaded.

The skin with the breading is very crunchy. It's deep fried well. The meat on the wings is on the verge of getting tough. I suspect that on wing night they pre-fry a bunch of wings and then just toss them in before serving for a quick heat/crisp job on them, and that dries the meat out a bit? I don't know for sure.

We started off with 3 orders of wings: Kill Dill, Mango Habanero Dry Rub, and Suicide. It seemed like a good balance of flavours. The wings were all well coated in sauce, whether it was the dry rubbed wings completely coated in seasoning, to the creamy, sloppy sauced wings.

SUICIDE

I wanted some heat, so I got an order of Suicide. The sauce was very chunky with lots of red chili's covering the wings. It had a really nice heat to it, and the acid was great in cutting down the other two orders of wings. The blue cheese dip was also good in balancing out these wings. It was a good heat, but I wasn't crazy for this suicide.

MANGO HABANERO

This would not normally be one of my go-to flavours for wings, but B&C's specifically recommended it so I went for it, and boy was I glad I did. The spice powder is caked on and compliments the crispy breaded skin really well. I took a bite and really dug how the sweet mango elevated the habanero spice in my mouth. I just let it sit there in my mouth and enjoyed every bite. No LJ after eating some of her wings tried it and felt she couldn't really get the flavour as it's not super bold, but I thought it was bomb.

KILL DILL

LJ loves a creamy wing, and these definitely fit the bill. The dill sauce is tangy and, well, dilly, and garlic but then you have the Buffalo Blue in there with it's cayenne heat but there are sour little chunks of blue cheese in there too.

 It's quite amazing in my opinion. In fact it was soo good that when we went for a fourth plate of wings, instead of experimenting, we went back for another round of these!

Actually I loved the Mango Habanero & Kill Dill so much the next time I went back that's what I had!

FINAL SCORE:

I love these wings. Hot, crunchy, saucy/rubbed. The flavours are awesome and you cannot beat the price. Well actually, I found out the following Thursday they double downed and had $0.10 wings. TEN CENT WINGS. Amazing. I'll be back for sure ...

Bonnie and Clyde
292 Elgin Street, Ottawa ON
www.facebook.com/bonnieclydeottawa/

VIETNAM PALACE - Ottawa ON

This is the first part of my #lotwfallcatchup series, getting my reviews from months ago done as soon as possible.

One of my favourite places for chicken wings in Toronto is Pho Hung; I love their wings. Since I moved back to Ottawa a few years ago, I was disappointed to not have access to them anymore. The wings are called "CÁNH GÀ CHIÊN BƠ (CAY)" or special fried chicken wings spicy. At one point I was looking at Vietnamese menu's in Ottawa and some places just had chicken wings, some none, and then I came across Vietnam Palace, and there on the menu was "Fried Chicken Wings • Cánh gà chiên chya cay". Well I knew at some point I was going to have to go.

A year or so went by, and finally I was on my own for dinner, and I had a craving and decided to see if Vietnam Palace (VP) would satisfy the craving I was missing. I left to be there around 4:30 (I wanted to go early and avoid the dinner rush), but it was a crazy thunder, lighting and rain storming downtown and by the time I got there it was just moments before 5. Vietnam Palaces is a huge building located in Chinatown, and I was happy they had parking. As I parked, the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and I could proceed with my wing journey.

Actually, if there had been no storm, I would have been in trouble, because I wouldn't have been late, and as I found out, VP doesn't open until 5pm (they close from 3-5pm). Fate I guess.

VP is large and has multiple dining spaces. It's clean, lightly decorated if not just slightly dated. There's an upstairs, but I never ventured up. I had my pick of seats, and ended up in the back where lighting was decent and I wouldn't be to obvious for photo taking. My waitress was cordial and brought me my menu, and my requested glass of water.

My go-to at Pho Hung is the wings, as well as crispy spring rolls. I did this, but the Hot & Sour soup was speaking to me. The menu was very reasonably priced, so I felt like splurging.

The soup came out first, served in a very tall bowl. I know the Chinese for making Hot & Sour soup, so I didn't know what to expect from a Vietnamese restaurant, although it's basically the same. A small is $3.95 and was full of bamboo, shredded chicken, and tofu. The broth was very light in colour (I'm used to it being darker), and this soup was hot (temperature)! I mean you want something to warm your insides on a cold winter day, this is for you.

It had just a nice flavour. There was a bit of spice, but it was fleeting. The broth was thin, full of toppings, and just was very good. It took me a long time to eat because it was so hot!

Next my spring rolls came out. There are a variety of kinds, but I went with the Cha Gio 2 rolls ($2.50), crispy rolls filled with crab, pork, shrimp, vermicelli and onion. These were really tiny, so one could easily eat the 4 roll order. It's served with mint and fish sauce on the side for dipping.

Now I'm pretty good at handling chopsticks, but I wasn't being careful and while I was trying to dip, I had a slip. The roll went right off my chopsticks, onto the table, and rolled onto the floor before I could catch them.  I was not a happy camper.

When I did bite into it, it was crispy, and hot and fresh. The inside had a nice mixture in it, and went well with the fish sauce. If you haven't have had fish sauce, its slightly sweet, slightly sour and isn't fishy at all. These were good, if not tiny.

While I was eating my apps, my wings came out. They did not look at all what I was expecting (or hoping for) but they did catch my eye.

The wings didn't look ANYTHING like the ones I was used to, so I was a little bit disappointed. But these looked good and I decided I had to judge these on their own merit and couldn't compare them to Pho Hung because I just wouldn't be happy, or fair to VP.


The menu lists the wings as coming by the pound, and in a VP pound you get about 8 wings. They are pretty evenly split drums and flats, but the flats have half of their tips still left on. Not sure why they cut half the tip, but oh well. They are served on a bed of lettuce, which you can take as garnish, or a veggie on the side? They came sprinkled in white sesame seeds too which add not only a nice visual punch, but some texture and flavour as well. They were also served with a fork and a spoon, but I have no idea how to eat them like that, so I just used my fingers.

The wings were small. Ya, I wasn't impressed by the size. They were both short and scrawny pieces of chicken, and I'm pretty sure they are from frozen.

The texture of the skin of the wings were sticky and spongy. They weren't really crispy, but they weren't soggy either. The meat was relatively tender and the bones pulled apart ok.

The wings were coated in the sticky sauce, with every piece and every nook and cranny covered. But there wasn't a surplus of sauce on these wings either.

While the size of the wings were small, the flavour was bigger. The wings were sugary, salty, savory all at the same time. There was just a hint of heat, but it was a hint and not strong enough. Plus you get that little sesame jab in there too.

FINAL SCORE:

I really enjoyed my meal. Soup: good. Spring rolls: good. Wings: good. And for $16 it was nice to get to have a little variety. I was bummed about the size of the wings, but they have a nice sticky, tasty sauce to them. I would definitely go back to Vietnam Palace, but I probably skip the wings and try something else.

I guess I'm still on the hunt for a good cánh gà chiên bơ cay ...

7/14

Vietnam Palace
819 Somerset Street W, Ottawa ON
vietnampalacerestaraunt.ca