Where should I take someone visiting Ottawa?
A visitor's Ottawa is built from a handful of specific, entirely genuine local landmarks — plus, if there's room for one serious dinner, a couple of the city's best rooms.
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BeaverTails
The pastry was born here — fried dough, stretched into a beaver-tail shape and topped to order. The Killaloe Sunrise (cinnamon sugar with a squeeze of lemon) is the classic order, named for the small Ontario town where the recipe started.
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Le Moulin de Provence
A French bakery since 1998, and the site of an unplanned 2009 stop by then-President Obama, who bought two maple-leaf shortbread cookies — one for himself, one for his daughters. They've been sold as "Obama Cookies" ever since.
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Zoe's, Fairmont Château Laurier
Afternoon tea inside Ottawa's castle-shaped landmark hotel — English scones, open-faced sandwiches, LOT 35 loose-leaf teas, all under chandeliers and Yousuf Karsh's famous portrait of Winston Churchill.
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Atelier
A restaurant that serves nothing but its own tasting menu — seven courses built around molecular-gastronomy technique, roughly three hours long. If the visit calls for one serious, memorable dinner, this is the city's most distinctive answer.
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Aiāna
A vibrant, elegant dining room built around an open kitchen, with hospitality warm enough to match the room itself. It's the kind of space that makes an evening feel like an occasion before the food even arrives.