Ottawa eats like a border town: Québécois poutine and tourtière on one side of the river, Ontario farm cheese and craft cider on the other, plus a Lebanese shawarma scene per-capita richer than any other Canadian city. Three days, one fork.
Outdoor stalls run daily May–October (roughly 8:00–18:00) along George and York Streets: Ontario sweet corn, Niagara peaches, honey, and maple butter from Lanark County producers. The 1827 market is Canada's oldest continuously operating.
Ottawa has more shawarma shops per capita than any Canadian city, and this Lebanese counter is the benchmark: chicken carved off the vertical spit, garlic toum whipped to a paste, pickled turnip, wrapped and pressed on the grill. Open late.
Family-run Italian alimentari on George Street since 1972: 200-plus cheeses including Quebec raw-milk Pied-de-Vent, house-cured porchetta, imported olive oils and a deli counter that builds sandwiches on their own focaccia.
Hintonburg's craft anchor in a converted industrial space on City Centre Avenue, pouring Pink Fuzz grapefruit wheat and rotating hazy IPAs. Food trucks park outside most evenings; the taproom is bare concrete and long communal tables.
Kevin Mathieson's bakery inside a working warehouse loading bay produces Ottawa's best sourdough, laminated croissants and a Big Bacon Benny brunch. Bread ovens run beside the seating, so the room smells of steam and crust.
The bakery-café where Barack Obama bought a maple-leaf cookie in 2009 — now sold as the 'Obama cookie' by the thousand. Also strong on quiche, tarte au sucre and Québécois-style meat pies at a marble counter facing William Street.
A 30-minute drive east into rural Ottawa: cold-hardy Ontario hybrids like Frontenac and Vidal grown on sandy loam, plus a maple-infused fortified wine. Tastings in a farm building surrounded by the vines themselves.
Stephen Beckta's fine-dining room in the 1875 Grant House on Elgin, built on Ontario and Québec producers: Perth County pork, Lac Brome duck, Rideau Valley cheeses, with one of Canada's most-awarded wine lists behind it.
Cross the Ottawa River into Québec for sugar-shack culture: pea soup, oreilles de crisse (fried pork rinds), baked beans, ham in maple syrup and maple taffy poured onto snow troughs. Peak season is March–April when the sap runs.
Ottawa's chip-wagon tradition dates to the 1930s, and the Sparks Street and Confederation Park trucks still fry twice-cooked potatoes, ladle brown gravy over squeaky Québec curds, and serve them in a paper tray, eaten standing up.
Ottawa's fair-trade roaster since 1981, now with a glass-walled roastery café in Hintonburg where you can watch the Loring roaster work. Direct-trade Ethiopian and Peruvian lots, plus flat whites and house-baked morning buns.
Southern-leaning kitchen on Somerset West with fried chicken, cornbread and pickled everything, above a hidden basement bar reached through an unmarked door. The whiskey list leans Canadian rye; live music most weekends.