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There’s an old joke regarding the Ottawa food scene that goes something like this: when someone asks, “Where should I go out to eat in Ottawa?” the quickie comeback is, “Montreal.” Ba-dum-ch!

I know, I know — not nice. But for a while there, it was pretty accurate. I last spent time in the capital over a decade ago, when my search for a good restaurant came up with Domus Café (which closed in 2014), the original Beckta (more on that later) and not much else. Of course, a decade is an eternity in the restaurant business, and while Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver continue to dominate Canada’s food scene, smaller cities like Calgary, Saskatoon and that hotbed of Canadian gastronomy St. John’s have steadily built their foodie cred.

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To that list I’d now add Ottawa, which, combined with the Gatineau region, has become quite the funky dining destination. I don’t think I’d recommend a Montrealer make the two-hour drive down the 40 West exclusively for dinner, but it’s certainly worth it in combination with all the other great things to do in the capital. Besides visiting the Parliament buildings, one can soak up the magnificent exhibitions at the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum of Nature or the National Gallery of Canada. In winter, an afternoon skating on the Rideau Canal is about as Canadian an experience as you can get.