Not a review, a reason to eat at Agave

Agave remains my favorite Ottawa eatery.* Those who have been will keep going back, I've never had a less than stellar experience with both food and service. This southwest restaurant is not afraid to tweak their menu when necessary, plus they have the best margaritas (I've had) north of real Tex-Mex country. (Peco's Mex-Mex restaurant in Houston.)

A revamped enchilada platter, the Mexican Flag dish benefits from the recent menu changes. Three of any combination of chicken, beef or cheese enchiladas, now in a corn tortillas instead of it's flour version, no longer topped with jack cheese, and the chipotle sauce replaced by three classic sauces making up the the Mexican flag: salsa Verde, cilantro cream sauce and pico de gallo salsa I think. Served with a side of corn salad, Mexican rice, and baked cheese covered beans, accompanied by two different heat levels of fresh homemade hot sauces, all of which goes superbly with salty lime margs.

At least I imagine it would.. I wanted to try the updated veggie enchiladas (spinach and cheese replaced roasted vegetables?), but I can't have the outstanding cilantro cream sauce or the cheese, so I opted for a milkless Mexican flag with specially requested substitute sides of roasted vegetables and roasted potatoes. Simple and filling, the fresh ingredients are always prepared right. I'd break off into a spiel about other restaurants' unsuccessful attempts at this simple task, but only important bit of info is that Agave does it right time and time again.


I noticed another change, you went from small brightly coloured oblong plates who always seemed overstuffed to big round Texas sized plates where items can be pushed around and free from touching the others (for you freaks out there who obsess about such things) . I'm not complaining, white plates always make you pay close attention to the fun colours of the food.

Thank you Agave for the liquid licorice kiss goodnight, if one day I can have milk again, I'll run to try your deep fried ice cream, which I also imagine goes well with a margarita.


*trailing behind as my next restaurant pick is The Works, partially for squeezing you in the tightest quarters, forcing you to get lost in your own conversation enough to ignore the tables at each side who are no more than a foot away, partially for the ability to cram more stuff on their tiny tables than imaginable, and partially for their off the wall burger toppings, some of which surely haven't been tried. (I kid, I kid, they're all good but they secretly make me wonder!)