Ciccio Cafe and Le Panache Cafe

Ciccio's on Preston and Panache on Somerset. The former to be laid to rest soon and the latter... is already semi dead.

As for Ciccio's, that's the last time I go there... I woke up at 1:40am and had that same sinking feeling as I did from Le Panache... think it's the msg again. I get a reaction from drinking red wine with msg.... was awake the rest of the night!

Too bad that these restaurants are all falling by the wayside with retirements and old age.... Speedi, right? Think he used to work at La Strata way back and then moved to Ciccio's. He's the one they wrote about in the citizen and my friend loved the bread he baked fresh every morning and the tiramisu that was one of the best in Ottawa. Apparently Speedi passed away in the fall. The bread was cold and rock hard; and the tiramisu was passable. I had the pork roulades ... msg city, but just tasted over-salted at the time. Friend had the raviolis ... which was not bad. 1/2 litre of wine, a salad to share and the bill was $50 a person. And no speedi to sing for us and no osso buco, one of my favorites at this place.. with none in sight... I was told. It was fairly full though so the word hasn't gotten around yet.

Le Panache on Somerset... awful amount of msg, empty on a Saturday night... think msg was used as a preservative here because of the lack of business. Mama and papa waiting to retire... best turn it back into a chinese restaurant... it was so bad... Or as the saying goes, 'they shoot horses, don't they?'

Small wonder that people in Ottawa would rather eat at home.... I am only going to waste my time writing about really good places or really bad places from now on. These two are the ones that would rate 0/5 on my 6 point scale. Metropolitain based on the one shot... 2/5. (I wasn't going to write about it, but my son insisted...) Beckta's, the benchmark 3/5. Heard Benitz on Somerset is supposedly good... almost afraid to waste my money.....

2007 12 22.