SIZZLE N'GRILL - Barrhaven ON

This review is from back in January.

Back in the fall, I had to go to Barrhaven (one of the surrounding towns outside of Ottawa) to run some errands, and I had decided to go and check out what kind of wings they had to offer. I was checking out what Google had to offer and I came across Sizzle N' Grill. 

This is Ali A's photo from 2018

Wow those wings looked dusted, crispy, and sauced so well! Don't they look great? So it was settled, I was going to stop in for lunch. Only they were closed. Their info on the door and online said they were supposed to be open, but alas the lights were off and the door was locked. So I went to my second choice, Juluca's, and reviewed them.

But I said I would return ... and I did. In 2020. And they were open this time.

Sizzle N'Grill is located not far from the 417 highway passed the Costco shopping plaza. It's in it's own plaza with three mixed use towers surrounded by suburbia. The bottom two levels are businesses while the top level is housing. There are a bunch of eateries (Gabriel's Pizza, Burger & Shakes, Cafe Crystal) but I was interested Sizzles.

Originally there was a restaurant called Delish Grill, but Sizzle N'Grill replaced it around 2018 I think. Inside the place still looks brand new. It's clean, it's bright. I like it. While it seems like more like a take-out joint, there are several tables and booths to sit at.

When I came, there were just two women dining at the booth beside me. By the time I left there were a few take-out orders, but it was pretty quiet. There was one guy working the counter, let's call him Sizzle Dude. Sizzle Dude looked like a cool guy, who didn't emote any emotion or enthusiasm for anything. He worked hard, he just seemed soo not into things.

It's kind of hard to nail down the cuisine here: it's kind of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern with wraps of kebabs and gyros, but then they also do burgers, poutine. Of course I was interested in the wings on the menu.

I asked Sizzle Dude about the wings, and then he said he had to check to see if they had them. This kind of surprised me. It's a Friday, and they may not have wings? I mean, I know wings isn't their main focus, but I would think you get more people ordering wings on a weekend than a weekday. Anyways, they had wings.

I could hear them in the deep fryer. That's a magical sound. Then I heard them come out of their oil bath and into a metal bowl. I love tinging sound they make hitting the bowl. Sizzle Dude sauced and tossed the wings. He took a heavy white plate, put the classic wing food paper down, then plated the wings. Then more hot sauce was applied to the wings. I was ready to eat!

Wings come in orders of 12, 24, 36 etc. There are no sides or dips that come with the wings. They were pretty evenly split between flats and drums.

There were no special clean up items for me other than napkins. But the napkins are the cheapest, thinnest possible napkins you can get. I'm not that messy an eater and usually get through maybe 2 napkins a wing sitting, but I needed a ton of these especially with such saucy wings.

The size of the wings were pretty decent. The length on these were a medium-medium+ but the height on these were large. They made for stubby looking wings because of this. They were also pretty meaty so a good width on them as well.

The wings were dusted before frying, giving the skin a very nice crispiness to them. They didn't look as nice as the photo Ali A took on Google, but they were crispy enough. The chicken was from frozen I'm pretty sure, but the meat was still relatively tender. Actually, a few wings were almost not cooked long enough and a bit red, but they were still ok to eat.

The wings were very well sauced. As mentioned above, they were tossed in sauce, then had even more sauce poured over top. I was happy to have lots of sauce to work with. The extra sauce did break down the crispiness of the wings in time, but the texture was still good.

The sauce was your standard cayenne based hot sauce. Probably Frank's. It was good. Nothing special, but good vinegary hot sauce.

FINAL SCORE:

The wings at Sizzle N'Grills were pretty good. Meaty, crispy, saucy. Size was a little unconventional, but still good. Tender enough too. While I wouldn't make the trek down to Barrhaven just for these wings, if I was local I would have them again for sure. 8/14

Sizzle N'Grill
200 Kennevale Drive, Barrhaven ON
sizzlengrill.com 

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

#tbt = Aphasia Centre of Ottawa Triva Night Fundraiser @ Boston Pizza ... with wings

I got to eat chicken wings, play trivia, AND help out a charity?! This was a great event. The Aphasia Centre of Ottawa is helping folks and their families deal with Aphasia. What is Aphasia?

Straight from their own website.

And just to reiterate from my Insta post, Boston Pizza Barrhaven is going to donate 10% of your bill to the Centre if you write Aphasia Centre of Ottawa at the bottom of your bill (speak to your server at the time of your bill). That's anytime you go. Awesome.

JONNY CANUCK's BAR & GRILL ~ Barrhaven ON

-- This Location is NOW CLOSED --

I'm not going to go there.

I'm not going to tread out some horrendous fake Canadian accent to talk about a pub called Jonny Canuck's. I won't do it. We don't use pronunciations like 'aboooot.' I've never heard a Canadian use the term 'hoser' without being ironic or imitating Bob & Doug. But the term 'eh' is used. I'm guilty of that. Lots of Canucks are.


Canuck is often a term to refer to a Canadian. New Zealanders are known as Kiwis, Aussie for Australian, Brit for British. And when I saw there was a place in the Capital Region of Canada called Jonny Canuck's, well the commercial exploitation of some patriotism seemed right for our humble nation. Although I thought it was referencing Johnny Canuck, the Canadian superhero who almost defeated Hitler during WWII (although apparently he was also a lumber jack in the early days who stood up to Uncle Sam), I was mistaken.



This bar and grill has no connection to the comic icon, other than the maple leaf. Their website puts a sophisticated and leading foodie trend on their food goals:

"Jonny Canuck's prides itself on being a leader in the Ottawa restaurant market. We have a keen understanding of our marketplace and a willingness to experiment with offerings and promotions which has allowed us stay one step ahead of market trends and become reognized as Ottawa's trend setter with the restaurant going public. We adopt a modern day approach to the widely-accepted bar & grill restaurant theme and are continuously searching for ways to introduce new and unique menu items and product offerings. Jonny Canuck's Bar & Grill is never satisfied with the generally accepted norm and enjoys leading the market to new heights. We offer great food, combined with reasonable prices, which are complimented by our exceptional service and contemporary design."

I'm going to be honest here, it's just a bar and grill. The decor is cleaner and modern, but the food is simple pub grub. Maybe they had higher hopes when they first opened, but a 'leader in the Ottawa food market'? I don't think so. Actually, the two locations of this chain wannabes are even in Ottawa proper: one is in Barrhaven, the other, Orleans.

I was there late and on my own, and I didn't get a chance to take photos of the interiors of the place, it being dark and me not willing to draw considerable attention to myself. Instead I took some from their website. The photo above shows the crowd that Jonny Canuck's sees itself having. Well, that was the demographic I saw eating/drinking. Maybe some older folks, but these happy-hipsters could very well have been the same people I saw.

The atmosphere inside was as I mentioned earlier, clean and modern. There were flat screens with the game on, and music, but it was pleasantly quiet enough that I could eavesdrop on peoples tables not close to me (not that I did).

My waiter was Mush (yes, Mush). He was great. Friendly, unassuming and quick to inform. He also refilled my Coke without asking. Normally I don't care for waiters over waitresses (I just find waiters tend to be less friendly - I guess I'm just sexist like that) but Mush would be my go to guy if I go back.

It was late at night, I hadn't had anything to eat since early in the day, so I took advantage of their wing special. It wasn't a great wing special, but it was cheaper than usual. I didn't have to wait long when Mush brought my platter.

I was in the Barrhaven region that night, but I had looked at Jonny's website in the past, so I had an idea of what they served. When the picture above showed up on their website, I knew I was having wings. But it was hard to tell if the photo was of their food, or something they got off the Internet.

The wings flavour in that photo looked like a Cajun or Suicide. I had both flavours and neither looked like those. But the wings didn't look bad. I was in after 9pm, and the wing special every night is $0.50 a wing (not an especially cheap deal, but better than full price). They are served in multiples of 5, so that meant I got to do some sampling.

The chicken itself is breaded in flour, then deep fried, then tossed thoroughly in sauce. The wingette's and drummys are about a medium size. Because the wings were generously sauced, the breading was fairly mushy. The Cajun dry spiced wings were very crisp. Actually, I didn't mind the slightly soggy skins. But maybe I just really wanted to like the wings.

Let's get down to the flavours.

CAJUN (see above photo)

Dry spiced on a crunchy wing, this was actually a very muted flavour. Oh the Cajun was there, it just wasn't overpowering like some places have. But it wasn't bold either. Good for 5 wings, but I would want some liquid on there for more.

HOT

Classic, simple hot wings. Tossed in Frank's. Nothing special, but not bad either. But not hot. Nooooo way.

HONEY MUSTARD

Awesome. The best wings of my menagerie. Honey, mustard - the sauce was perfect.

SUICIDE

I saw these and eyed them before tearing into them. I was curious because the looked like they would be hot, but I got no heat smell off them. Visually, I could see flecks of peppers, so I knew it was going to be a homemade sauce. This meant it might be hot, but would probably taste, errr, not so good. Then I tore into a flat:

I waited for the heat . . . nothing. I waited for an after-bite . . . nothing. What the heck? Then I noticed, I could barely taste a flavour. There was lots of sauce, but there was no heat, and no real flavour. Very unusual. I mean, I just didn't taste anything. Maybe it was an off night for the suicide.

FINAL SCORE: What can I say . . . the wings were ho hum. If you like breaded saucy wings, these might be fore you. If you like bold flavours and crispy wings, not so much. My service was great and heck, I got a lot of wings. But I hate to think these represent Canadian chicken wings. C'mon Jonny, next time wow me, eh? 5/10

Jonny Canuck's Bar & Grill

Ottawa (Barrhaven, although they say Nepean), On

jonnycanucks.com