I rely on social media to keep informed about new restaurants in the city, as well as new wing sources. I guess you do too, otherwise, you're just reading about my food experiences just for fun? Cool if soo..
This past month, Sarp, aka Roughchop Ottawa, is one of those people that I follow and he likes to highlight some interesting food in the city. On January 10th, he posted this:
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Marguerite Grill sounded interesting, and what you can't see in that photo that's missing is a shot of the menu. I gave it a quick scan - and they had chicken wings!!! Well that was it, I was going to check them out.
I had a rough idea where this place was, but I'm not in Vanier very often. All I knew was that it was in the Loblaws parking lot. What sucks is if you don't know they are there, you won't see them, especially on a cold dark winter day. They sit in a corner of the parking lot, but the part that faces the main lot has a fence with no advertising. The north part of the structure has a Goodyear auto shop. Then it is surrounded by parked cars. If I wasn't looking for it, I'd miss it, and if I did see it, I'd kinda think it was a shipping container.
What this place does having going for it is that it's not just a simple food truck or chip truck; this place is a mobile camper with a big kitchen. They've also got a big structure built around it to keep people warm in the winter. More on that in a bit. They also take debit and credit for payment, which is great.
I confirmed on the posted menu that they do wings. They also do shawarma, fried, burgers, subs, salads, pasta. It's a crazy amount of choices. The order window slid open quick and I saw that two guys were working, a younger guy taking orders/cash and the older gent who was cooking and turned out to be the owner. Both were very friendly and excited to start my order (as I was the only one there at that time, during the lunch hour). I said I wanted wings, and the window guy confirmed they had wings. "How do you want them done, well done?" I said sure, assuming they meant crispy, but I didn't clarify. "Now the sauce!?" he asked with enthusiasm. I asked what they had. "Ultimate BBQ, Hot, and ah, we don't have Honey Garlic" but the owner chimed in they did "oh! We have Honey Garlic!" I appreciated the enthusiasm but Honey Garlic is not my wing thing.
They got my wings in the fryer and the owner came over, his hands in that please/prayer gesture, saying "I hope you enjoy my wings, I hope they are really good, and that you come back and try my other food too!" They asked if I lived nearby but I said no (they got sad faces), that I heard about them on social media and wanted to check them out (happy faces!). I asked how long had they been open and the owner said two months. He was going to open in the summer, but wanted to open sooner, and then had to build the porch because he couldn't bare his customers standing in the cold. He said he'd put heaters out there, but he couldn't afford to yet. I said it looks like you have a good size trailer and he said when they get going they can have a lot of people cooking.
Then the young guy brought me an onion ring on a toothpick to try. He was still trying to get his deep fry timing down on the rings (he said he had fries down now). I said it was great - crispy coating but the onion tore easily inside. He was really happy that it worked out. Not long later, the food was ready and they again they hoped I enjoyed my food. I said that I was sure all the food was good, but what was special. "The Persian Kebabs" the owner said, and the young guys nodded his head yes and almost started salivating. They said almost everything is homemade (except the onion rings and the meatballs, but they would have homemade meatballs soon), but that the Persian kebabs were something special. Interestingly, there is no kebabs on the menu.
I took my bag with the container, and wished them the best of luck, and headed to the car to try my wings. They both waved and I was really happy with how friendly and appreciative they were for my business.
There are 10 wings in the order. They are roughly split 50/50 of wingettes and drumettes. There are no sides that come with the wings, and the clean up available are napkins.
The wings are small. Length wise. The flats are relative in size to the length, but the drums are much more meatier.
The skin on the wings were nice and crispy. They wouldn't be what I called "well done" but they were cooked just right. I wouldn't want them any lighter.
The meat was relatively tender, with the bones and meat pulling away with little difficulty. The wings come from frozen I'm pretty sure based on the blackening on the bones.
The wings were covered in sauce, but there wasn't much extra sauce on them. Despite that, my fingers got stained big time, with napkins only able to remove the first dying layer.
The flavour on the wings were good. It was just straight cayenne based hot sauce; probably Frank's. It was good, but it was missing a bigger flavour punch. I started to wonder what the Ultimate BBQ tasted like.
FINAL SCORE:
The wings were a nice snack-y lunch. They weren't big, but they were crispy. I was really drawn in by the friendly service and I would definitely go back to try the kebabs. This may look like an Ottawa chip truck, but it's really a Middle Eastern take-out kitchen. Go check them out, follow the map below!
7.5/14
Marguerite Grill
373 Marguerite Ave, Ottawa ON
facebook.com/margueritegrill
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