Ottawa has a multitude of exceptional culinary establishments. Every neighbourhood has its own assortment of unique restaurants, cafés, bars, and bakeries for every preference.
Taste Ottawa, the city’s first-ever city-wide hospitality directory encourages Ottawa residents and visitors to experience the joy of food, socializing, and culture.
This spring, in partnership with the Canadian Tulip Festival, Taste Ottawa invites residents and tourists of the capital to indulge in diverse cultural tastes through a unique restaurant-driven event. From May 14th to May 20th, everyone is invited to enjoy delicious meals at some of Ottawa’s finest restaurants.
Each participating restaurant will have its own pre-fixed custom ‘Taste Ottawa Tulip Festival Menu’ items available throughout the week.
Taste Ottawa believes in the importance of celebrating the restaurant industry and bringing back the element of community that makes food so exciting. With the help of local BIAs and the Tulip Festival, it aims to give the local food industry a boost, especially after the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Everyone will have the opportunity to celebrate culinary diversity, discover new restaurants, new dishes, and engage in social events while creating their own unique restaurant tour with friends and family at a reasonable rate.
Launched in October 2022, the Taste Ottawa webspace is dedicated to showcasing Ottawa’s delectable culinary offerings and helping people to navigate the capital’s food scene. The directory does not stop at Ottawa’s ‘downtown’ neighbourhoods—from Kanata to Orleans and everywhere in between—the website hosts an interactive directory of several participating restaurants with maps to pinpoint locations easily. Every restaurant has its own blog-style page with the necessary information, photographs, social media pages, and 360o interior tours.
To kick off the exciting, delicious spring, Taste Ottawa, in collaboration with Bank Street BIA, held a launch party on April 20th, 2023, at Fauna Ottawa, a contemporary Centretown restaurant + bar. Guests were served some of Fauna’s staple cocktails and dishes while a live DJ and entertainment from Aerial Antics and Rockabilly Joe set the scene for the upcoming Taste Ottawa event.
Attendees were entered in giveaways and gifted gift cards and coupons to various Ottawa establishments, including La Roma, Soul Stone Bar and Grill, Bridgehead, and more, to encourage on-premises engagement with restaurants and renew customer confidence to enjoy indoor dining.
This year is the inaugural bi-annual Taste Ottawa event in partnership with the Canadian Tulip Festival. Make sure to get out and experience Ottawa’s diverse culinary offerings; you might just find your new favourite restaurant!
For more information, visit tasteofottawa.com