Hum: Ottawa restaurant Ember serves affordable, fire-grilled dishes

92 Clarence St., emberottawa.com

Open Tuesday to Sunday 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., closed Monday

Price: Most dishes are between $18 and $28, up to striploin steak for $68

Access: Steps to the dining area, washrooms downstairs.

Sometimes food porn is just as much fire porn.

After all, at restaurants such as Quetzal or Alder, both in Toronto, watching the flames jump above a wood-burning grill in the open kitchen builds anticipation for a beautifully grilled steak or a roasted femur bone filled with bubbly marrow, or simply some Brussels sprouts charred until they’re crispy.

At Ember, which opened in mid-June on Clarence Street, live-fire grilling is one of its selling points. But to watch the flames dance above the restaurant’s Argentinian-style charcoal grill or in its wood-fired pizza oven, you’ll either need to enter the kitchen or have to peer through a long cut-out in a wall on the restaurant’s bar side. Oh, well.

But even if the kitchen theatre of cooks toiling over an open fire isn’t on display at Ember, we still enjoyed some by and large satisfying dishes at an attractive venue that pitches itself as a more affordable date-night destination.

Chef Kyle Wilson and mixologist Cody Nicoll are managing partners at Ember, which also falls under the Ottawa Venues group that includes nearby ByWard Market businesses Bar Ocelli and Lowertown Brewery.

Previously, Wilson and Nicoll worked at Mati and Savanna Lounge (now Rosalia), two pricier restaurants where seafood towers and steaks priced as high as $350 can make for a wallet-emptying night out.

Ember is more affordable — most dishes are under $30 — but it’s also a notch or two up in terms of vibe and food from the business that it’s replaced on Clarence Street.

To make way for Ember, the Cornerstone Bar and Grill was completely gutted (although it did contribute its pizza oven). Gone is Cornerstone’s sports-bar ambience. Now, Ember seats about 105 people, split evenly between a spacious, minimally adorned dining room and a bar side with a lounge area, an impressive horseshoe bar, and no televisions.

During two visits, we tried roughly half of the items on Wilson’s concise, 18-item menu, which he said would change twice a year, in the fall and the spring. We had some straightforward but elevated winners that we’d gladly eat again, as well as some dishes for which the live-fire element was either too faint or over-played.

On our first visit, three dishes were clear hits. The pizza ($28) topped with braised beef cheeks, prosciutto meat sauce, braised beef cheek, herb mushrooms, rosemary, and parmesan, was a rich indulgence. Salmon crudo ($22), which leaned into an Asian flavour profile with accompaniments that included miso aioli, ponzu, sesame, garlic oil, and orange-soy glaze, had also been “charcoal-kissed,” and was all the better for that brief, smokey encounter. Summery pesto pappardelle ($24) made for a pretty, flavourful plate, while its grilled asparagus reminded us that there was a fiery grill in the kitchen.

The charred Caesar salad wasn’t bad, and its grilled radicchio and charred bread set it apart from Ottawa’s other Caesar salads. However, I did think it went a little heavy on its crispy prosciutto and very light on the anchovy billed in its dressing.

Only a plate of coal-roasted eggplant ($26) clearly stumbled. While the plate was nicely composed, it was also out of whack flavour-wise due to a bed of smoked yogurt that was far too smokey. I say this even as an inveterate backyard smoker who practically salivates at the scent of smoke.

On our second visit, we shared some more substantial plates. But first, we whetted our appetites with the combo of a fairly classic beef tartare and bone marrow ($26), which was well-made and well-seasoned, if not as over-the-top unctuous as some bone-marrow dishes can be. I wondered if the mash-up of two good dishes was better than two separate, but great, dishes.

We also had the simple but good starter of grilled halloumi ($20), its salty cheese set off chiefly by figs, honey, and lemon gremolata, and a salad of stone fruit, and heirloom tomatoes with feta, tomatoes, and cucumber ($20), which was a summery twist on a Mediterranean staple.

Then the four of us plunged into the menu’s pricier end, splitting a 12-ounce char-grilled striploin ($68), a whole roasted branzino ($46) and a roasted half-chicken ($36). These three well-made items all delivered, and the tender beef and moist, crisp-skinned chicken came with lots of sumptuous, crowd-pleasing sauce — a classic bordelaise for the steak and a miso-enriched demi-glaze for the bird.

Those proteins needed sides, and we ordered baby potatoes flavoured with pesto, dill, and yogurt ($12), grilled asparagus ($15) and Brussels sprouts ($15) that ought to have been more crispy.

Of several desserts, we tried the lokma (Mediterranean-fired dough balls, $10) and the tiramisu puff ($9). The latter outshone the former, but I regretted not ordering the Basque cheesecake.

Nicoll’s bar offers seven cocktails ($14 to $18), plus three mocktails (all $12). The matcha milk punch and sesame old-fashioned struck me as refined, subtle, and balanced. My companions praised their drinks as well.

In an interview, Wilson and Nicoll told me that the decision to work together came first, followed by their embrace of live-fire cooking. They had also thought about opening an explicitly Mediterranean-themed restaurant, only to nix that. They felt that the market segment was a little crowded, and rivals such as Med Supper Club, Anabella’s Kitchen, Alora, and Persis Grill might agree.

Ember may be more modest than its deluxe competitors. But its fare is admirably priced so that people who like it might become regulars rather than special-occasion guests. Thanks to some distinctive drinks, dishes that measured up well, and pleasant service, I can recommend Ember, even if I couldn’t see the fiery show in its kitchen.

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