Pinoy resto hailed as one of Ottawa's best

A Filipino-owned café and restaurant has been selected as one of the best restaurants in Ottawa by a noted food critic in Canada.

In an article on Ottawa Citizen newspaper, food critic Peter Hum described Tamis Café as among the “more humble [sic] but worthy mom-and-pop joints” in Ottawa.

Located in Ottawa's historic and elite Glebe neighborhood, Tamis Café is owned by the Sare family — Lito and his wife Liza, and their daughters Jessica and Jiselle. The family came to Canada in 2001.

In his article which came out last year, Hum noted how "Tamis Café brings [the] sweet, savoury tastes of Manila to the Glebe."

He praised the restaurant for its "simple, home-style savoury dishes that have been consistently well-made, tasty, generously portioned and bargain-priced."

Particularly, Hum found the vegan chocolate pâté at Tamis Café very likeable, and confessed that it is a dish that he craves for, according to a news release from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Tamis Café also mixes its own unique blend of organic tea and coffee. Among their popular beverages is ube (purple yam) latte. They also bake their own pastries and cakes– including pandan (screwpine), ube desserts, leche flan (crème caramel) and the venerable pandesal bun. For the winter season, the café has recently begun to offer bulalo (beef soup) and lomi (thick noodle) soup.

Their unique take on Filipino food staples such as the classic and ube brazo de Mercedes (dessert roll), okoy (shrimp fritters), kare-kare (peanut and ox stew) and bistek (beef steak) have been featured in various diplomatic and government functions and receptions of the Philippine Embassy and the Canadian Parliament. —KBK, GMA News