Jim's Driving School, Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario (613-731-1777)…read more What a great school! Very Professional. Sophia the Office Manager is very pleasant and excellent to work with. She helped us out a great deal. The course my daughter took was 30 hours on line theory and 10 hours of actually driving. The price was very competitive. The Driving Instructor was Gihad Qassem who was also excellent. My 16 year old daughter said Gihad was very professional, funny, knew how to teach, and made the driving lessons very enjoyable. My daughter took her G2 Driving test two days after passing the Drivers Education course, SHE PASSED the first time, so Jim's Driving School and Gihad must be doing something right! We highly recommend Jim's Driving School on Bank Street in Ottawa.

I took in car lessons with them, my instructor was very patient and very organized. I passed my…read moreroad test with them. I highly recommend them.

I am very glad that I chose Kemptville Driving School! Having no driving experience, the instructor…read moreprepared me for the G2 test in just a week and I passed the first time! All the instructors are very friendly and real professionals! I highly recommend this driving school.

I went into the Cordon Bleu's afternoon tea expecting an afternoon tea experience which I did not…read morereceive anything close to it. First off, there was no loose leaf tea, only bagged, and I was brought a tiny cup of hot water which didn't even fill my mug. Additionally, tea cups were not used. Then, the savories came, and it was not on a three-layer display, as is typical with afternoon tea. These were very yummy though! The chefs came around with more if you so chose which was nice as well. Then, the scones came and they were warmed which was really special. They didn't come with clotted cream as advertised. When I asked, the student went somewhere to double check, and then informed me it was mascarpone. After, the deserts came out and I loved their display; however, our table was then ignored for 15-20 minutes as I tried to flag down someone for more water. That was extremely disappointing as I saw the table next to me be checked up about 5-6 times in between and nobody acknowledged us, even when I was clearly looking around and trying to flag someone down. To their credit, the deserts were fancy, and yummy, and they came around with more if you wanted some. The trolly with marble cake at the end was cute; but wasn't anything special. Overall, I would say this was disappointing and not worth the $95. I know it's students, but for this price point, much higher quality service is to be expected. I wouldn't come back for another event here. I would like to credit the older French man's service. He was very personable, and made the service feel special. It was just a shame when he stopped coming around in the middle because we were then ignored for a while by the others.

I attended a short course in tarts, and it was incredible. The service was over the top. We were…read moretreated so well. While we waited for the course to start we waited in a beautiful lounge area. The kitchen was so well stocked and the support staff was so helpful (students). The chef was also on the TV screens so we didn't miss anything. It was just a great course. We made and took home two tarts - and I am excited to make them at home as well. Just fantastic - I will be back for more courses. The parking was also super easy and they gave us an apron to take home - super cute!

I had a bad experience at Alliance Française in Ottawa, although I've heard good things from other…read morepeople. I had a received a credit towards any class or private classes after cancelling a course (they don't do refunds). I emailed the school multiple times to set up private classes and no one ever got back to me. I finally I went in person and spoke to someone who took my availability and said she would email me later that week to set something up, she never did. Nor did she answer my emails politely asking for an update. About three weeks later I went in person again and she finally set up two private classes. I had specifically asked for someone who speaks with a European accent, and they gave me a teacher from the Caribbean. Not a big deal, she spoke very clearly, but for an $80 session I thought it was a bit weird that they wouldn't grant my request. The first class I asked the teacher if we could focus more on conversation and listening, and I could make a note any errors I was making. Since I was studying to take the TFI French exam, she said we could make that the focus of our next class and she would bring all the teaching material to go over the following week. The next class she didn't show up, I waited and eventually had to ask the reception to call her and she showed up 30 min later. She didn't bring any of the coursework for the TFI exam that I was looking forward to reviewing, and she had nothing prepared. I figured we might as well do conversational French again, as I wanted to take advantage of having a native speaker. But she insisted on spending our time writing on the board. I explained that I know how important verb conjugations are (I practice them at home), but that I would like to work on my speaking and listening skills. She reluctantly agreed, but her attitude changed and she started acting bored and irritated with me. It got so bad I eventually just walked out. Needless to say, I'm not planning to go back. I am now using a service called italki to speak with native speakers over Skype and I am much happier with it. Good luck to everyone in their language learning adventures, I hope your experience with AF is better than mine!

From the owner: Alliance Française Ottawa is a language center, an exam center and cultural center that offers…read moredifferent francophone activities to the community, in addition to the library and Culturethèque (online library). It is also a language center that offers French courses for adults, companies, and government employees. The organization is part of a wide international network created in 1883 whose missions are to promote French language and Francophone cultures around the world. Found in 134 countries, the Alliances Françaises are non-profit organizations founded locally. As such, Alliance Française Ottawa is a Canadian association founded in 1905.