Beckta
Dining & Wine (613)
238-7063 www.beckta.com
226
Nepean St., Ottawa, ON
Rating:
5 stars Price: $$$$ Last visit: August 11, 2012
Those
who know me well, understand my passion for great food. For fine
dining I look for a restaurant with a continental flair, super fresh,
locally sourced ingredients, presented well by a friendly
knowledgeable staff as prepared by a chef that can surprise me with
interesting taste combinations.
I've
wanted to eat at Beckta ever since I first read about it on the
Ottawa Foodies blog. We finally made it there on our last trip to the
Canadian capital. Based on that experience I feel confident in saying
Beckta is perhaps the finest restaurant in Ottawa today. Situated in
a converted house downtown, it is calm and refined. The service is
impeccable. We arrived after being soaked in a sudden thunderstorm.
They helped me dry off as I was seated. We never felt hurried, and
we never felt ignored. Every member of the wait staff was fully
knowledgeable about the food. The food is innovative, unique, almost
indescribable. Sometimes chef Michael Moffatt reaches a bit too far
in an effort to find the perfect pairing of tastes, but there are
more hits than misses. Here's
what we ate:
As
we surveyed the menu, we were served fresh crusty bread from a local
bakery. The choices were fennel/date, whole wheat/nut and classic
baguette. We tried them all and went back for seconds. The sweet
butter was paired with an unique caramelized version.
We
were then offered a bite-sized amuse-bouche of smoked char on lemon
fennel puff pastry.
I
started with a glass of Rose “Bistro,” (Hidden Bench, Beamsville
Bench, Ontario, 2011) that is dry with a tart cherry after taste I
liked. Merry tried and liked a cocktail of Campari
with sparkling Eska water & fresh grapefruit.
For
appetizers I had sweet pea soup with wasabi cream fraishe, verjus
pickled ramps, pea shoots and baby fennel chip. This was an
interesting contrast of sweetness with highlights of sharp spice.
 |
| Sweet pea soup |
Merry got the prize, however with heirloom
beet salad with baby radish, grilled halloumi cheese, black olive oil
croutons with truffled leek vinaigrette. This salad is wonderful on
so many levels, it needs to be tasted to be believed.
 |
| Heirloom beet salad |
For
a main course I chose pan roasted breast of Quebec Magret Duck with
sun dried cherry gnocchi, arugula, early summer succotash, chantrelle
mushrooms and fresh cherry cumberland sauce. Very savory dish. Duck
was perfect at medium rare. I accompanied this with a spicy red wine
recommended by our server called "Pipe Down" (Organized
Crime, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, 2010). I found this too sharp by
itself, but our server was right to suggest it, as it went very well
pared with the duck.
 |
| Quebec Magret Duck |
Merry
choose the exotic orchid flower rissoto with carmalized onions,
almond cream, oyster mushrooms, wilted misuna (Japanese mustad
greens) and baby spinach pesto. This dish had a light perfume taste
from the flowers but the spinach pesto and misuna over-powered the
other flavors and made the whole dish a bit of a dissappointment.
 |
| Orchid flower rissoto |
That let-down as quickly picked up with Merry's dessert choice of
raspberrty cheesecake with cinnamon basil graham crumbs, exploded
raspberries, spice box fudge, huckleberry molassas and fresh
currants. This white mound with no crust has the exploded raspberries
on the inside of a light, creamy filling unlike any other cheesecake.
The graham crumbs, currants and fudge were scattered on the plate to
be added as whim dictates.
 |
| Raspberry cheesecake
As
we were having coffee, a surprise finish was brought out - a chinese
spoon for each of us with a "deconstructed" apple crisp
comprised of a small crust on the bottom, then cream filling with
spiced apple bits on top accompanied by a small graham bar. A very
nice last bite.
|
Dinner
took about 2 hours in all. Price was $180 for the two of us
including drinks and tip. Although the price is high, we agreed it
was a good value for an extraordinary evening. We will certainly go
again. Maybe next time we'll try one of their famous blind tasting
meals.
