Murray Street Restaurant, Ontario

Eating in Ottawa
Vive and I enjoyed two restaurants for dinner in Ottawa: Murray St. Restaurant near Byward market and b/side restaurant in the Somerset area. We enjoyed both of them and their focus on local ingredients and wines from Ontario. At Murray st. Restaurant the décor is kind of casual tavern with some black booths and tables and a bar. The place was not busy on a Monday night and we were directed to take whatever table we wanted (this seems pretty common in Canada). Our waiter was a bit pretentious in a kind of know it all way but he was prompt with service (not many others to serve) and knew a lot about the small menu (he repeated the specials to us twice in a matter of five minutes so he must not have been fully focused).
The menu emphasizes a variety of charcuterie done in the restaurant including things like heart and ostrich. We were a little too timid for the heart but we did try the ostrich as part of a meat and cheese plate with three cheeses and two meats. The meats we selected were a pork terrine and the ostrich. We asked the waiter to please select the cheeses with an emphasis on strong flavors and a mild bleu (V doesn’t like blue). We were happy with two out of the three. He selected a seven year cheddar that was fantastic and a light blue which was fine with me but not preferable given I like stronger flavors (but it was what we asked for) and a goat cheese that was almost flavorless to me. I wasn’t fond of this. The plate came with three condiments: honey, pepper jelly and Saskatoon berry jam. Thinly sliced crostini was used as a palate. The pepper jelly did not really go because it just masked the flavors but the others complimented the meat and cheese.
We had both a white and red to taste with the cheese. The white was the waiter’s suggestion and it was a light, oaky pinot something but it wasn’t really appealing and it was way too cold. The red was a Cab franc which was fruity but not particularly complex (both were Ontario wines).
For our mains, we had a salad that the waiter recommended with hazelnuts, goat cheese and a vinaigrette made from tea. The salad was way too overdressed but tasty nonetheless. The greens were fresh (serving was quite small). Vive had the special: pheasant leg with panko fried and a little pie filled with braised short ribs. This was good but incredibly rich between the puff pastry crust and the fatty meat. I could only eat two bites of that. The pheasant was fine but not particularly interesting.