Return to PUB 101 - Ottawa ON

So it's April and mother nature wasn't done with winter. She decided to throw one last winter party before the start of spring and we had a major ice storm on a Sunday. Monday morning we lost power in our apartment, so when it came time for lunch, I HAD to go out to get something. 

I checked my handy dandy spreadsheet of wing nights in Ottawa I've created, and I saw Pub 101 has AYCE wings on Monday. Boom, decision made. I reviewed the wings at Pub 101 in April of 2009  and I really enjoyed them. I actually went to re-review them when I came back to Ottawa, but didn't get it done so I did a mini-review in my 2016 recap.

The place hasn't changed much inside - its a clean pub that's very bright with lots of windows. It was pretty dead inside - there was a kid and his dad on vacation in Ottawa, two senior couples (who seemed to be enjoying a noonday drink), and me.

Pub 101 is part of a trend of restaurants doing a set price menu's for all their food. The price just went up from $5.01 to $6.21, which is fine considering you get a good size portion. It's a phenomenal deal on meals. And in this economy, a great price for an order or wings.

I was here for AYCE wings, but there was no sign of this deal - like no chalk board or signs (just what I had seen on their website). I ordered wings with my waitress, but she didn't say anything about the AYCE deal and she seemed like the type that wouldn't forget. So one of two things was happening: A) They've cancelled the AYCE special (but they still had it in January) or B) It's only a night time deal. I should have asked the waitress to confirm but I felt awkward.

Wings only come in single orders, with about 6-7 wings in an order for $6.21. That's if you buy a drink, if you don't, it's $7.21. But you can get any drink, like pop. Each order of wings come with celery and carrot sticks, which were firm and fresh. No dip though, although I'm sure you could get some on the side for $1.

The wings themselves are not huge - they are about a medium in length and relatively medium in meatiness, but there was some variations in size for sure. The chicken had very tender meat, and the skin was crispy from frying. Overall a well cooked piece of chicken. It also tasted smoked; maybe it was the BBQ in both of my orders, but it added a nice depth of flavour. As for sauce, the wings were nice and sauce, but there wasn't much leftover in the basket for extra slopping.

I went with 2 orders of wings, BBQ and Mango Chipotle, but I did get a side of Suicide for $1 for dipping.

BBQ

This was a good BBQ sauce - not too sweet, not too savoury, but a bit smokey. Just a well rounded BBQ sauce that was pretty good. It was gooey and sticky and I like that. They were overshadowed by the Mango Chipotle though ...

MANGO CHIPOTLE

This was a really unique wing. The waitress made it sound like a dry rub wing, but it was like a chipotle bbq sauced wing with a dusted mango? Or maybe it was the other way around. I got a mild fruit flavour but I wouldn't be able to identify the fruit as mango though. It was a bit smokey, sweet, and actually pretty salty (my guess from the dusting). It was really good. I would get these wings again for sure.

SUICIDE

This was a unique, homemade sauce I think. It had a nice bite, very vinegary. Maybe scotch bonnets? I don't know. I asked the waitress what was in it but she said the kitchen wouldn't tell her. I liked it, but I wouldn't want a whole order of the wings in this sauce - its a good accent sauce.

FINAL SCORE:  Good wings. I liked them. Crispy skin, tender meat, not that big, but they have some solid sauces that aren't your typical commercial sauces from the Pub. I'm not sure what the deal with the AYCE is these days*, but overall solid wings. 9/15



*EDIT - Pub 101 has informed me that AYCE wings on Monday IS after 5pm.

Pub 101
101 York Street, Byward Market, Ottawa ON
pub101.com

PUB 101 ~ Ottawa

The Market. The Byward Market. The heart and soul of Canada's Capital. Or is that the Parliament Buildings? I don't know. Either way, the Market is where the action is at and I was . . . at there. I guess all the rain we've been getting has got my brain waterlogged.

So the point is, I was in the Market, and decided to check out the pub, Pub 101.

Before this night, I had some pre-concieved notion that PUB 101 was just a student club that was about getting drunk and not about food. I had no real reason I thought this. No one ever told me that, I had never been, I just thought this. But walking by, I looked in and it appeared to be a cool little pub.







The supper crowd on a Wednesday was pretty mixed. The atmosphere was kind of 'hipster-pub', with a few students, some suits, and some rough looking locals. Lots of dark wood, a great looking bar, this place definitely had some character. There are 3 floors (1 =pub, 2=sports room, 3= dance club) and a patio, so there's a nice appeal to everybody apparantly.

My waitress Marcela was friendly, helpful and willing to answer all my questions. She brought me free refills on pop, but had to charge me a side of sauce for $1.50 extra. She also told me about wing night right off the top, which should be common for servers, but isn't.

Everywhere I looked it seemed people were eating wings, and it wouldn't be long before I understood why.

Wings came out 10 in an order, dusted and deep fried. I wanted to try a couple of sauces, so I got two orders and a side of sauce to try 3. The two baskets came out and I was just so happy to see them filled.

The wings ranged from Medium-to-Large wings. They were pretty meaty, and tender too. The dusted wings again let to a crisp skin. A good over all piece of chicken.


For the sauces, I went for Hot, Suicide, and BBQ.

HOT

These wings were, well, pretty generic. Hot was not, more of a mild. The sauce had been pretty absent, or absorbed into the skin. It wasn't bad, but just a generic hot sauce in the wing. I could have eaten them as they were, but I ended up adding the Suicide to them all.

SUICIDE

The little black container came out, and I took a whiff. I couldn't smell all that well (I've had a big of a cold) so I stuck my pinkie in to sample: my good old friend 3rd Degree. Found in bars and restaurants all over Ontario, this bottled sauce is one of my favourites. It is a syrupy sauce, with a nice kick that increases the more you eat.

As I said, I dumped the sauce all over the Hot to increase the heat, and by the time I was done, I had a nice sting going on in my mouth.

BBQ:

This is my secondary go-to wing sauce after hot/suicide at restaurants, and so I had to sample 101's. One bite and I was in heaven. The BBQ sauce was sticky, sweet and melded so well with the crispy wings. It was good enough that I had to ask Marcela what the sauce was. She went and checked: Diana's. Bottled Diana's Gourmet BBQ sauce.

I haven't actually had this sauce in a LONG time (last time I can remember is high school, over 10 years ago). I felt a little duped that store bought BBQ sauce was going to be that good. I am no culinary expert, but I was feeling that I was a little better than this. Maybe it was the combination of the damp weather with crispy wings, a friendly atmosphere, and lots of wings in my belly that had me enjoy them. Well the they were good, and I guess that's the important thing.

FINAL SCORE: Sometimes places have wing night, and the wings are over cooked, under cooked or just done poorly because its cheap night. But this night at Pub 101, the wings were hot, tasty and really hit the spot. I might try their Cajun or the Jerk wings, but I will be having BBQ again for sure. 7/10

PUB 101

101 York Street, Ottawa

pub101.com

Diana Gourmet: Spicy BBQ ~ Sauce Review

Back in April, I went to Pub 101 for some wings. They had some great BBQ sauced wings and when I asked what it was, it turned out to be Diana Sauce that you can basically buy at the store. I was sad that I had been duped by a non-homemade sauce, but happy that I could simply buy it at the store. And I did, on sale.



I bought both Original and Spicy, and it was at this personal BBQ that I used Spicy (because if the sauce was just Original, than Spicy would be, well spicier.

I have no idea who Diana is. And I couldn't find any info on her or the history of the sauce. I remember having it at home with my parents many many moons ago, and that it was decent sauce. Then for years, I never had it until, well Pub 101. Her pictures look like a 50's house wife.

I was testing out my 3rd version Charcoal Chimney and doing wings up, and the only sauce I could think to use was Diana's sitting on my self.

The look of the sauce is a reddy/brown/orangey colour. It somewhat thick, but really it is more runny.

I could see chunks of spices floating around and that seemed to bode well for this spicy BBQ.

I smelt the sauce before putting it on the wings . . . it smelled sweet. I tasted the sauce . . . it tasted sweet. I thought perhaps the sauce needs a moment to kick in. So I dove into my grilled wings with Diana's all over them and I came to the same conclusion . . . sweet.

That didn't stop me for mowing down on these wings. But I was disappointed in the sauce. It was just super sweet. No heat. Ok a minor tingle, but there really isn't any heat in there. Even worse, it didn't taste like the sauce I had at Pub 101.

It was pretty goopey too. It stuck to the wings pretty good - it would have been better on crispy deep fried wings. But then again, so would a more bold BBQ sauce.

FINAL SCORE: Ok, I wasn't a fan. It was just too damn sweet. No heat. Some people I'm sure would like it, but not me. I'm hoping the original will have a fuller, bolder flavour. At least my wings themselves were good. 1.5/6

Diana Sauce: Gourmet Spicy
dianasauces.ca

THE PEARSON PUB - Whitby ON

I am severely behind in my posting - this review was from back in May. Perfect for #TBT!

My wife and I were visiting her father who lives in Whitby Ontario, just East of Toronto. When we go, if we go out to eat, we have a few of the same places we always go, and I usually don't get wings at those places. Well on this trip, we decided to go try someplace new. And when we got there, it was crazy busy and no seating. So we left, not sure where to go, when my father-in-law suggest The Pearson Pub.

I was shocked actually; he's not really a pub kind of guy. I've always wanted to go because it looks like a cool converted house in downtown Whitby and I've seen it advertise wing specials. It's in the Pearson Lanes block of shopping, and it used to be the Tilted Kilt Pub about 10 years ago (not associated with the chain). I think it was a different pub years before that. Funny enough, LJ's uncles both worked at the pub years ago when they first came to Canada.

The pub is a nice, charming, Victorian home that looks more like a nice tea house than a pub. It has a great wrap around porch that has some seating, but the porch is sadly not really wide enough to accommodate a lot of seating that I'm sure would be greatly taken advantage of.

Inside looks like a standard pub. It's pretty spacious, with lots of seating, rooms etc. One space seems cleared out as a dance floor. Another is the bar. I don't even know if there is dining space upstairs. When we got there, it was pretty dead. There was one dad with his little girl having dinner, and that was it for the main dining space. The other people were all seated at the bar for a drink. I didn't catch our servers name, but she was friendly and attentive.

The menu was classic pub fare, fish and chips, burgers, wings etc. Well that's what we got. I was interested in the wings and super surprised by all the wing specials they have; Tuesdays are half price, Thursdays are $0.65 wings, Sundays are 2-4-1 and everyday is a Pint and Wing special. Unfortunately, I missed every one of those specials.

LJ went with the 8oz cheese burger with bacon, which comes topped with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and red onion. She said it was good, but just ok good. She also upgraded her potato fries to sweet potato fries which were lightly battered, crispy, but limp too that came with an aiole dip.

Her dad got the Fish and Chips, which were to battered haddock pieces with fries and coleslaw. He's not much of a talker about his food, but I think he liked it. I know I really liked the look of the batter on the fish.

I got the wings of course, but I took the option to add some fries on the side. I liked the look of my plate when it came out!

The wings come in one size of order, which is about 7 or 8 wings.

The wings come with celery, carrots and dip. That's the way it should be! The veggies were fresh, and the dip was dill dip, which is awesome choice.

For $1.50 more I was able to add fries to my wings. These are, I'm fairly sure, frozen breaded fries. They were crunchy and were ok, but nothing special.

The size of the wings was decent; in between a medium and a large wing. They come dusted and are fried which makes for a crispy skin, but due to the sauce, they lost their crisp factor pretty quick.

The wings were relatively tender and pulled apart not too badly. They were also fairly meaty. Sauce-wise, they were pretty wet.

For the sauce, I went with classic Hot, and then I got a side of Suicide.

Hot = standard cayenne hot sauce. Good, but nothing standing out here. You know what you are getting.

Suicide = a little spicy, a little fruity, a little smokey.

It was good, but definitely an on the side sauce situation.

FINAL SCORE:

These were pretty decent wings. Nice size, dusted, fried, crispy, then less crispy because they were nice and saucy. Hot was simple hot, and Suicide gave a nice flavour to have on the side. Love that it came with veggies and dill dip, and some crispy breaded fries. And boy are there a lot of wing specials. The other food was decent too. Certainly no gastro pub, but a descent little pub. 9.5/15

The Pearson Pub
101 St Mary Street, Whitby ON
https://www.facebook.com/thepearsonpubwhitby