The vegan food scene in Ottawa is pretty decent in terms of little bakeries and some health food stores, but is somewhat lacking in terms of restaurants. However, my recent discovery of Café My House has shown me that the vegan food scene is expanding and is not just limited to a few concentrated neighbourhoods.

I first found out about Café My House when I randomly stumbled upon on of their Instagram posts as I was searching through vegan hashtags. And I was really surprised to find out that it was located in Ottawa, since I had never heard of it before and I go to Ottawa many times each year.

I decided to go for Saturday brunch, although it was a very difficult to decide between brunch and dinner as I really wanted to try the butternut squash gnocchi and some of the fabulous-looking cakes that are posted all over its Instagram and Facebook.

We arrived at the restaurant at about 10 am and I was surprised to see that it was located in a strip mall. So I definitely was not expecting to be met with charming décor and a pleasant atmosphere when I walked in the door.

There were so many dishes I wanted to try on the menu, so my dad and I opted to get a side dish to share in addition to our mains. I ordered the tempeh cheeseburger with miso gravy, which was delicious. I don’t usually eat the bottom and top buns on burgers, but this bun was too good to pass up. It also would have been impossible to eat open face, as the delicious, rich, and thick miso gravy and melted Daiya cheese would have been everywhere. The burger also included some crispy kale, which was a nice, fresh addition.

My dad ordered the tempeh benedict, which I of course sampled, and the vegan hollandaise sauce was outstanding. And he really liked it, which is always a good sign, given his firm carnivore status.

Finally, when I first looked at the Café My House menu, I was intrigued by the omega-3 waffles with earl grey salted caramel. So I was really happy that we could order it as a side dish to share. The waffles were amazing. They were dense and “rustic”-tasting and I really enjoyed the earl grey caramel. It had a really nice flavour, but wasn’t as sweet as regular maple syrup, which gives me migraines.

Next time I’m in Ottawa, another visit to Café My House, hopefully for brunch again, but definitely for dinner, will be on the top of my to-do list. I hope that more places like this one start popping up to make the city more vegan-friendly!