Spanish-Canadian Solitude: Navarra

While I've gotten over being the only vegetarian at most dinner tables, I've still never enjoyed traveling alone. No doubt there are times when one needs to be by themselves, but I definitely do not feel that way when being away from home. Whether it is for work or pleasure, I try and avoid solo travel as much as I can. Besides walking around and having to visit places by yourself, the additional major side effect is that you end up needing to make dinner reservations for one. Not only does it make for a very quiet dinner, it usually puts a big crimp in the ability to try "everything on the menu". Notwithstanding, there will always be times when circumstances necessitate such travel and I found myself heading up to Ottawa on one such occasion a few weeks ago. Making the best of the situation, I scoped out Ottawa Magazine's 2012 list of top restaurants and landed upon Navarra.

Navarra occupies a small space in the popular Byward Market area of downtown Ottawa (that I later discovered was previously occupied by the Black Cat Bistro - my other very good meal of the trip). There is a small bar upfront and a line of tables in the main dining room whose orange and red hues make for a warm and inviting, albeit slightly cramped, atmosphere. The backyard, however, is the place to grab a table if available and I settled down to my meal on a very pleasant fall evening.

The menu at Navarra describes itself as modern tapas and is full of some really interesting sounding dishes including Oaxacan Snacks, Salt Roasted Beet Salad and Mexican Bricklayer Dip. Given the aforementioned solitude, I limited myself to just two choices - the Classic Chimichurri Mushrooms and the Cast Iron Baked Corn Arepas. The dishes come out in the order that they are prepared, but the first thing on the table was my cocktail (a fantastic ginger gimlet that you can read more about at Books & Libations by my friend JE) and some amazing sweet potato bread with herbed butter. The bread itself was so creamy  and flavorful, I ended up requesting some more even though I am always wary of filling myself up with bread. 

And I should have been rightfully worried because the best dish of the night was still to come. The plate of Chimichurri Mushrooms was beautifully presented and almost didn't deserve to be disturbed, but the wafting aroma was extremely hard to ignore (even for one of the diners at a nearby table). Full of potatoes, onions, chiles and all sorts of assorted mushrooms, perfectly cooked and tossed in a flavorful chimichurri sauce and topped with shaved pecorino cheese, this dish was as hearty as they come. I even used the remaining sweet potato bread to wipe the remnants of the sauce and black corn paint left on the bowl. If you ever needed a vegetarian dish that can describe umami, this was it. I almost wished I had a never ending bowl of the stuff.

The arepas clearly had a tough act to follow and took their time getting to the table. I suspect that was primarily due a substitute being prepared for the black bean sofrito that normally came with the dish -  the waitress had warned me that the sofrito was made with lard but offered to have the dish prepared without. And in the end, I think that was what left the dish feeling a little incomplete. The arepas themselves, even if a little dense and heavy, were relatively tasty and topped off nicely with a freshly made tomato salsa and thinly slice jalapenos that added a nice touch of heat. I did miss having some black bean spread to pair it with and the chef clearly had thought that through when conceiving the plate. The other main component of the dish though was a chunk of buffalo mozzarella that left me feeling like the cheese had lost its way and somehow found its way onto the plate. The attempt at fusing cuisines almost went a touch too far and some sprinkled cotija might have served the plate a lot better. To be fair, I still ended up finishing most of the plate and left myself absolutely no room for dessert (even though there was a Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brulee on there that was really calling to me).

Navarra is named after a small autonomous region in Northern Spain, the capital of which is Pamplona. I almost made it down there once for my friend CC's bachelor party (and yes, the running of the bulls). It was disappointing to have to cancel that trip, but I somehow was able to find a taste of the region up in Canada, even if it was just by myself. It's not one I will be forgetting anytime soon.

Navarra is on 93 Murray Street in Ottawa, Canada. Expensive. Veggie Friendly. Recommended.
www.navarrarestaurant.com