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Restaurant 18

3.8 (58 reviews)
Open 4:30 pm - 11:00 PM

Restaurant 18 Photos

Business Info

RESTAURANT 18 ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Moderate noise
Intimate
Classy
Happy hour specials

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Recommended Reviews - Restaurant 18

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Steak tartare
Anita C.

My husband and I went a while back and we are returning customers! We've been a few times already and each time the experience has been great. The atmosphere, food, and service has been great! This restaurant is a great place for date night. The appetizers are my favourite and I'd try them all if I had the money haha. I highly recommend the steak tartare and grilled octopus. It's definitely a more expensive venue but worth the treat.

Tomahawk steak
Sean B.

From start to finish this was definitely a experience to remember! Felt like a king, would definitely recommend giving 18 a try. Everything was cooked to perfection and drinks were on point Thanks again to the team at 18

So awesome and nice touch 18! Complimentary Happy Birthday dessert
Lee R.

Classy. Friendly staff. High end menu you wil pay for, and still love the experience. The ribeye was succulent and perfect medium rare 5 stars, complimentary dessert for birthday yay, awe shucks the oysters were top notch, and the duck was OMG. Only reason gave this gem of a restaurant 4 stars is smaller portion sizes, and wine list was OK, but profit margin a little too much compared to competitors and lacking in single glass variety. Either way, will definitely be back for the amazing food and ambience... not everyone is a wine snob.

Victoria E.

I really was surprised by the portion of the steak. It's huge. And the squid was delicious. Came here after a very long day. Had meeting with the government and I was staying at the Sheraton, which is not very far away, but considering it was 3 degree weather, it was worth packing your gloves. I liked the winter cold as it's crisp and it makes you want to eat warm food. I understand this is one of the top end restaurants in Ottawa and was glad to come here for a quick meal. The service was impeccable. The wine selection was beautiful, and I was very happy to enjoy a very large size steak on a very cold winter snowy day. I would absolutely recommend business travelers to come to this restaurant to dine. A great local favorite sine 2001.

Seafood pasta dish.  Flavorful and filling

Wife and I ate at this gem in Ottawa Canada. The Lamb leg was cooked well with lots of flavor. Also enjoyed the Canadian Shirley Temple. Wife enjoyed her Seafood pasta dish. It was a large portion. Beautiful restaurant and excellent service.

Fantastic steak tartare!
Jana T.

Fine dining in Ottawa has come a long way since I lived there in the late '90's... and one of the stars of the show is 18. I go to Ottawa once a year for work and it has become a bit of a tradition for our group to have a big dinner here at the end of the meeting. The restaurant is in the byward market and is a beautiful modern space with high ceilings and stone walls. Service is always top notch, and they are very patient with us as we tend to be a rather disorganized group constantly changing our group number and seating arrangements. Cocktails and wine are very strong here, they have an encyclopedic wine list and knowledgeable staff to help you navigate it. I have spent far too much money on excellent wines here and never regretted it for a second. Last time I was here I started with a very nice French 75, nothing out of the ordinary but well done. For appetizer I had the steak tartare, which was amazing, one of the best I've had. Great presentation and flavour. Definitely the star of the night and quite filling. I might actually get this as a main course next time as it is a very generous portion. Quite full from the tartare, I nevertheless continued with the duck duo, which was very nice but paled slightly in comparison to the tartare. We had an excellent bottle of Oregon Pinot noir for the table. Looking forward to continuing the tradition next year!

Raw oysters!
Maria B.

This place is worth breaking the bank for! The food is delicious and beautifully present it. Everything is fresh! In all honesty the place is expensive but worth every penny. The service is extraordinary! Parking: well it's the market, good luck! Hehe

Bone-in veal chop...... simply fantastic
John D.

I have been to 18 countless times over the last decade and it was my wife's and my go to Valentines Day destination for years but we started trying other places around town for variety. We popped in for drinks and I brought my work posse there for happy hour (yes, they have a deadly cocktail bar) bur we took the whole family there for the kids' grads.... 12 of us. The service was outstanding excellent given the size of the group, the server gave me some fantastic wine choices, and the food was - as always- simply phenomenal. This is easily one of the finest restaurants in the city. We will be back.

Our spread!
Mimi J.

I came after work with 3 other girlfriends to try out their Happy Hour! Note that to partake in happy hour, you cannot sit in the regular dining area in the lower portion of the restaurant; you have to sit at the bar or at the upper area, so we were seated at a high table. The entire bar menu is half off the price that is posted, and they also had $5 drink specials (white wine, red wine, and beer; ask your server as these are not listed on the menu)! Two of us got the Chardonnay, and the other two got the Riesling. The Riesling was fine, but could have been sweeter. We each had a beef tartar and a tuna tartar, and shared the remaining bar menu items. The beef tartar was by far the better one; we all had difficulty finishing the tuna tartar as sadly, it tasted and smelled very fishy which was a turn-off; the texture was not in chunks like the beef and was more like a spread...not recommended at all! Fries with aioli: the fries were well done and not too soft, and the aioli was surprisngly garlicky which was delicious! Beef chimchurri: the fried strips of beef went really well with the sauce and we finished this fairly quickly! Good portion for the price as well, considering it was half off! Charcuterie: this was a major disappointment; "charcuterie" consisted of two slices of what seemed like paté with olives; it was much too salty, and the paté tasted like mock meat so all of us left it almost untouched after trying a bite. They need to get better meats such as sausages and sliced meats! Cheese plate: the cheese chosen which I believe was a goat/sheep one was very delicious and I enjoyed it. Presentation: all of the dishes were put on the exact same plate...it would be better if they used different plates so pictures of the food could be prettier. :P Last time I came to sample all 4 desserts, I recall each plate being different which elevated the experience. Price: overall, it was about $25 for a drink, two tartares (slightly small), and sampling all the other bar menu items, which was fair. I hope they come up with new innovative menu items as that would increase the value. Service was attentive and professional, and the atmosphere is comfortable and feels upscale. Enjoyable experience, but I would stick with the higher quality food items from the bar as it's really a hit and miss! As such, I would recommend for happy hour: beef tartare, fries, beef chimchurri, and the cheese. Therefore, 3 stars because it did not blow me away and I left feeling the experience was average given the hits and misses.

Salt Roasted Beets - beets, ricotta, toasted granola, & maple vinegar
Amanda B.

This restaurant/lounge is very intimate - small space, but upscale with stone accents and soft lighting. I came here for a wedding and thought it was a perfect venue. The food was selected by the couple, so I can't comment on their regular menu, however, the quality and flavors of the dishes we had were fantastic, and I suspect the same would go for other similar items. To start my meal, I chose the salt roasted beets with ricotta, toasted granola, and maple vinegar, and the BC albacore tuna tartare with avocado, a yuzu emulsion, and puffed rice. Both were fresh and had fairly simple ingredients but great tastes and textures. Portion size was just right. I chose the roasted Alberta beef tenderloin for my main, with Le Coprin mushrooms, truffled potato, and demi-glace. I originally thought the size of the steak and amount of potatoes were a bit small, but it ended up being more than enough. Full of flavor and on the rarer size of medium-rare, which I love. Overall fantastic meal and warm atmosphere. Would love to come back here for a date night or special occasion!

Jieyi R.

Went here last Dec for my birthday. We didn't know what to order, so we did the Tasting Menu. The best decision of my birthday! Everything is very spontaneous. They just kept coming. Different meat, cheese, salad, refreshments, desserts... We were overwhelmed, the good ones. They have very classic services and waiters. We enjoyed them veey much. The manager even come to greed us and chat for a bit. Best place to enjoy creative cooking and classic environment.

Erik D.

I brought my partner here for her birthday and we were not disappointed. It was such a treat, from the ambiance to the service to the food. Definitely a dress up kind of place. Would go again!

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15 years ago

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12 years ago

Food is great but service was a little slow. Management were responsive. Overall a good experience that could have been amazing.

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Play Food And Wine - Lingcod ah mazing

Play Food And Wine

4.2(262 reviews)
0.1 km
$$$

TL;DR/The Short Version: Delicious food at popular…read morerestaurant in the Byward Market. The beef cheek was melt-in-your-mouth. The Long Version: I was at Play Food and Wine Bar for a professional event that was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company. We were a group of about 30-40 people and had a section of the restaurant to ourselves. We had a set menu with a choice of mains (beef or vegetarian). We started off with a few hors d'oeuvres served on spoons. Servers were going around with them and I got to try two different types. One was a shrimp on a dollop of wasabi cream and the other was a gnocchi. Both were tasty and prepared us for the delicious meal to come. We all had the mixed salad, which was a spring mix with grapes, candied pecans, and whipped goat cheese, in a cucumber and mint vinaigrette. I loved the different textures and even though the salad came pre-dressed (I always prefer dressing on the side), the dressing wasn't heavy, so I didn't find it too overdressed for my tastes. For my main, I chose the beef cheek (the vegetarian option was gnocchi). The beef cheek was so tender and literally fall-apart. I didn't even need a knife. It was so flavourful too. It came with mushrooms and mashed potatoes. There was an olive and sun-dried tomato sauce on the beef that I found a too potent and overwhelming in flavour, but overall I still enjoyed the main. For dessert we had the chocolate tart. It had salted caramel on it and under the layer of chocolate was a layer of white chocolate fudge. It was very rich and decadent...overly so. I finished it nonetheless, lol. Service was excellent. We had several servers assigned to our group and they were attentive. They kept our water glasses and wine glasses full. Although I enjoyed the Pinot Grigio, I was driving, so had to limit myself to a glass and a half. Play Food and Wine Bar is owned by Stephen Beckta, who is a bit of a local celebrity, lol. His first restaurant is Beckta, which I have been to and while it's more upscale than Play, I actually enjoyed the food at Play more. His other restaurant is Gezellig, which is in my neighborhood (Westboro) and I've been to it a couple of times, and I definitely like Play better. I'm glad I was introduced to Play. The room we were in was lovely. It was long and narrow and had a bar. As with all restaurants in the Byward Market, parking is paid parkade parking or paid street parking only. Review #139 (2025)

Our server was awesome. In fact the staff here were so friendly and fun. She didn't rush us and…read moremade sure everything was to our liking. We had such a great experience here.

Photos
Play Food And Wine - Inside the restaurant

Inside the restaurant

Play Food And Wine - Shrimp hors d'oeuvres

Shrimp hors d'oeuvres

Play Food And Wine - Inside

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Inside

Soif Bar à vin de Véronique Rivest - Assiettes de fromage

Soif Bar à vin de Véronique Rivest

4.3(23 reviews)
2.4 km
$$$

"Soif: A Wine Bar That Forgets About Dinner" I understand…read morethat Soif is primarily a wine bar, but if food is on the menu, the portions should at least resemble a proper meal. Last night, I ordered the fish with vegetables. What arrived was honestly insulting: two tiny, sad slivers of fish perched on a bit of kale -- for $22. I'm not exaggerating when I say it couldn't have been more than 10 grams of fish. Imagine going out for dinner and your "main course" looks more like a garnish. My friend didn't fare any better. She ordered the crab guédille, which turned out to be served on what was essentially a hot dog bun. For the price and the setting, that choice felt lazy and downright ridiculous. Soif may be a place to enjoy wine, but the food should not feel like an afterthought or a joke at the customer's expense. Unless you plan to eat beforehand and only sip here, I cannot recommend Soif for dinner.

Was looking for a wine bar and wanted something different. What sets this spot apart from other…read morewine bars is that they specialize in organic wines. The selection is huge so getting recommendations is very important. I decided to go with a good wine pairing so I could try many different wines. I was not disappointed with the selections. The staff knew so much about every bottle and had a story to go along with it. Service was impressive. The food was good. The highlights were the charcuterie board, pork belly and Brussel sprouts. Ambience was casual and low key. It was a good experience especially having the opportunity to learn and try so much.

Photos
Soif Bar à vin de Véronique Rivest - Vin rouge

Vin rouge

Soif Bar à vin de Véronique Rivest - Tartelette au chocolat et noisettes

Tartelette au chocolat et noisettes

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Médaillon de wapiti

Restaurant 18 - seafood - Updated May 2026

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