Category: Living in Ottawa-Gatineau

Salsa Dancing In Ottawa At Amigos!

While at first glance, Amigos might seem like a typical sports bar, it offers much more than meets the eye. As you step inside, you’ll encounter a dive bar-like atmosphere, and just beside it, there’s a hall that transforms into a lively Salsa dancing spot!

Timings and Ideal Hours

Usually the salsa dancing events happen on a Tuesday however occasionally Amigos might host additional Latin dance events on the weekend.

Dance lessons for the event usually start around 7:30 pm. Their peak time however is around 9-10pm on a Tuesday night and the place can get very crowded!

There are other salsa dancing places in Ottawa to consider if Tuesdays at Amigos doesn’t work for you.

Cover Charges and Entry Fees

There might be a cover involved at this venue. On my last visit, I paid around $10 which seemed reasonable as it had good music and crowd.

Sometimes, when I have showed up late, there wasn’t any cover involved however when I have showed up early I have had to pay an entry fee.

Dance Lessons

The event usually starts with intermediate level dance lessons followed by the social where you are free to practice your moves and dance with people.

I would recommend the dance lessons if you have never danced to salsa before as they can help you later in the night during the social.

The Crowd

Usually for the Salsa Night, the event attracts a mixed crowd. While it’s primarily younger demographic, you would definitely see older crowd as well at the venue.

Don’t be surprised or intimidated to see well experienced people dancing during the event.

Genre of Music

Since they are doing Salsa Nights on Tuesdays, the venue primarily plays Salsa Music. After every few songs, they try to switch to Bachata as well.

During the night, sometimes the DJ might end up playing other genres like Reggaeton and Merengue as well.

Salsa Dancing at Amigos Ottawa

Entertainment at Amigos Sports Bar

If you don’t feel like dancing, you can always head to their dive bar area where they have a bunch of pool tables, slot machines as well as juke box machine!

Make sure to bring some change with you as the pool tables are not free. You might be able to obtain change from the server.

They also have a few TV screens if you are a sports fan!

Unfortunately Amigos doesn’t serve food but you are free to order food from other venues and bring it to the bar. Usually you will see people order food from Domino’s Pizza.

Pool Tables at Amigos

Social Hangouts at Amigos

I think this could be a really good place to have a social event! There are a bunch of things to do at the Sports Bar to keep everyone entertained! They also have a decent sized patio as well.

Address: 858 Merivale Rd, Ottawa, ON K1Z 5Z4

Rating – 8/10

Where To Rent Washing Machine In Ottawa/Gatineau?

Not many companies in the Gatineau-Ottawa area offer rental of laundry units (washer and dryer). While some companies will charge you outrageous prices, there is only one company I found that offers reasonable prices for rental of washer and dryer.

EL Appareils

Also known as Electro-Loc, the company offers rental, delivery and installation of their rental units in apartments and housing units around the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

Washer/Dryer Rental Pricing in Ottawa
Pricing for rental of washer and dryer combo starts around CAD $50 per month.

You would get a brand new washer/dryer for rental when you use their service. Additional service and tax charges apply so give them a call and confirm if they have any specials going on.

The company also offers buying packages for single-family and multi-family units.

Electro-Loc Contact Details

Washer/Dryer Delivery Times
Depending on the time of the year, it can take weeks or months for your appliances to be delivered by the company, so I highly recommend that you make your reservation as soon as possible by giving them a call.

Is it worth renting an appliance?

The answer really depends on how long you are planning to reside in the unit. If you are just looking for appliances for maybe a few months then renting might make sense from a convenience standpoint.

However, if you are staying for a long period, I would recommend that you buy whatever appliances that you need. There are many stores in Gatineau that sell used appliances at affordable prices. These stores offer 90 day guarantee on the appliances and can save you quite a bit of company when compared to buying a new washer/dryer.

Never go for rent-to-own options!

I found that there are certain companies that offer you to rent an appliance and if you complete the lease period, you get to own the appliance. DO NOT DO IT! It usually ends up costing multiple times more than if you had just purchased the appliance upfront.

5 Best Dance Bars For Salsa Dancing In Ottawa-Gatineau!

Here are some of my favorite salsa dancing dance bars that I think are worth visiting in Ottawa-Gatineau region. If you are looking primarily for lessons then I recommend these Salsa Dancing places instead which do lessons followed by social events.

Latinos Resto Bar

Address: 665 Bronson Ave, Ottawa, ON K1S 4E7
Business website: https://latinosrestobarottawaon.com/

Latinos Resto Bar

I found Latinos Resto Bar to be the best place in Ottawa for hangouts. Not only do they have Latin events on weekends, but occasionally on weekdays as well. Sometimes they also do Spanish Karaoke really late into the night. The crowd is very friendly and you can even ask people to dance here. Though I must say that the dance floor is a bit small.

  • Latin Dancing on both Fridays and Saturdays.
  • No cover if you arrive early.
  • This venue attracts both local as well as hispanic crowd.
  • Serves both food and alcohol.

Latin Saturdays at Le Forum

Address: 815 Rue Jacques-Cartier, Gatineau, QC J8T 2W2
Business website: https://leforum.ca/

Latin Dancing at Le Forum 888

Le Forum restaurant has Latin nights on Saturdays and they have a variety of music playing – primarily merengue, salsa, and reggaeton. They also play a bit of line dancing music so you will see people going crazy. Unlike other places, people at El Forum show up really late. The dance floor only starts to get busy after midnight.

  • The place is ideal for groups, not if you are seeking people to dance with.
  • The place attracts more of a Hispanic crowd.
  • Crowd is relatively less friendly than other places.
  • Cover charge always applies.

Mill Street Brew Pub

Address: 555 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON K1R 1C5
Business website: https://millstreetbrewery.com/

Mill Street Brew Pub

Mill Street Brew Pub does weekly events and is surprisingly packed on a Monday night. They also do beginner lessons if you have never done salsa or bachata before. I have heard that if you spend on food at this place then you might be able to get free entry to the event.

  • This place is ideal for individuals.
  • Cover charge always applies.
  • Large dance floor
  • Attracts primarily local Ottawa crowd.

Speakeasy Tapas Lounge

Address: 55 York St, Ottawa, ON K1N 9B8
Business website: https://speakeasyottawa.com/

Speakeasy Tapas Lounge

The Speakeasy Tapas Lounge is a Spanish restaurant; however, on Friday nights, their basement gets converted to a salsa dancing spot. Even though it has a small dance floor, you are going to have a blast as it has live musical performances.

  • Latin nights on Fridays
  • No cover charge (usually Free)
  • Live music
  • Plays salsa, merengue, bachata and reggaeton music
  • Attracts a mixed demographic
  • Located in Byward Market

Amigos Sports Bar

Address: 858 Merivale Rd, Ottawa, ON K1Z 5Z4

Live performance at Amigos Sports Bar

Amigos does occasional salsa/bachata events as well. Usually they do the Latin nights on Tuesdays and sometimes the place can get quite packed. I did like that they have a huge dance floor and a sports bar section as well with pool tables.

  • Salsa/Bachata socials on Tuesdays
  • Pool tables and slot machines
  • Large dance floor
  • Dance performances
  • Lessons before socials

Other places for Salsa Dancing –

Mavericks (Address: 221 Rideau St, Ottawa, ON K1N 5X8) does do Latin nights often on weekends. This place might be convenient for those who are around the Byward Market area However, I found the place however too crowded to be able to dance.

Chez Putters (Address: 181 Principale St, Gatineau, Quebec J9H 6A6) occasionally hosts Latin nights where they play salsa/bachata music. It’s a really large bar that has multiple pool tables, a virtual golf simulator, and other game machines. Usually Latin Nights take place on Saturdays.

How To Dispute Parking Ticket in Ottawa?

If you have received a parking ticket by the City of Ottawa, but believe you should not have been ticketed, you can actually dispute your parking ticket and avoid paying any fines!

Ottawa Parking Ticket Header

You can only dispute the parking ticket if you have not paid the fine, cause if you have paid the fine then it would mean that you have pled guilty for the violation.

There are two ways you can dispute the fines –

Request a review of your Parking Ticket

You can ask the City to review your parking ticket. There can be reasons why you believe you should not have been ticketed. For example – You had to park the car during an emergency and had no option to move the car.

For your parking violation to be considered – you would need to provide your infraction number (from the ticket), date of infraction, license plate number, country and a brief description of why you are requesting a review. You would also need to provide your name, and address.

Request a Trial

You could provide a notice of intent to appear at the Tribunal. For your request to be considered, make sure you provide all the necessary details including your infraction details, and attach all the evidence documents.

  • When you request a trial, you can also have someone else represent you.
  • It is recommended that you request a review before going for a trial.

You can request review of parking ticket here or trial using their notice of intent form – https://forms.ottawa.ca/en/form/ics/service-ottawa/notice-of-intention-to-appear

How successful would your review request be?

Personally, I have had my parking tickets reviewed before by the city and have been able to get half off. In my case, I had paid for the initial parking however due to delays at the health clinic, I wasn’t able to get back to my car on time.

Fine reduced after review

If it’s your first infraction, they might reduce your parking fine by half even if you were at fault. Chances of getting the parking ticket completely waived are less but really depends on what evidence you provide and how strong is your case.

Places To Try Sri Lankan Cuisine In Ottawa!

While there are only a few Sri Lankan restaurants in Ottawa, it doesn’t mean that they lack in terms of quality and service. I was very impressed with the restaurants I visited and here is my review on some of the restaurants offering Sri Lankan cuisine that you must visit if you are in Ottawa!

Something to remember!

  • Sri Lankan food is delicious but can be very spicy. You can always ask the server to reduce the spice for you and they might be able to accommodate the request.

Ceylonta – Best Sri Lankan Restaurant

Address: 403 Somerset St W, Ottawa, ON K2P 0K1
Business website: https://ceylonta.com/

Roast Beef at Ceylonta

Out of all the restaurants in Ottawa that I have been to so far, I was really impressed with the service at Ceylonta. The manager made really good recommendations and the food was just next level delicious! This one might be the best Sri Lankan restaurant in Ottawa.

If you are wondering what I ordered – it was their roast beef and coconut sambal, both dishes were absolutely delicious. They also have a wide variety of mocktails and I think if you are looking to try a non-alcohol drink then definitely ask them what’s on their menu because my drink was great.

  • Sri Lankan and Indian Cuisine
  • Fine dining experience
  • Great cocktails
  • Great mocktails
  • Great for dates
  • Vegan options available

Dhruvees

Address: 18 Beechwood Ave., Vanier, ON K1L 8A9
Business website: https://www.dhruvees.com/

Jaffna Chicken Curry at Dhruvees

Dhruvees comes as a fine dine restaurant perfect for dates or family gatherings. In terms of dining experience, they have done a really great job and I was very impressed with their décor. The chicken curry that I ordered had really soft and tender chicken, and food was served hot. The servers did put effort as well checking on me if I wanted anything else. While Dhruvees does offer Sri Lankan food menu items, they also have Indian and Indonesian food items on their menu as well.

  • Sri Lankan and Indian Cuisine
  • Upscale Fine dining experience
  • Great for dates / special family occasions
  • Vegan options available

Kothu Rotti

Address: 408 Dalhousie St, Ottawa, ON K1N 9J9
Business website: https://kothurotti.ca/

Combo meal at Kothu Rotti Restaurant

Kothu Rotti is a takeout oriented restaurant that offers Sri Lankan cuisine at a relatively affordable price. I was able to get a combo meal containing chicken, beef, rice and vegetables for a great price. The portion sizes were huge and the combo meal was more than enough for two people. Though I must say that the food was very hot/spicy.

  • Takeout oriented

Other options for Sri Lankan Cuisine in Ottawa –

Ayini Restaurant (Address: 605 Longfields Dr Unit 5, Ottawa, ON K2J 6T7) – While Ayini has a somewhat nice dining area, I think the food was a little below my expectations from this place. The Kothu Rotti I tried was good but I felt that it was missing something even though it was my first time ever trying the meal. They also offer South Indian cuisine, out of which I ended up trying Idli and Mutton Rolls. The Mutton Rolls were really good so I recommend you to try those at this place but they are spicy.

Hot Duck Wings And Indoor Golf At Mulligans Golf Bar!

Whether it’s too hot, raining, or snowing, you can still play Golf in Ottawa whenever you want really! Mulligans Golf Bar offers Indoor Golf Simulators where you can rent a bay and play golf in a very comfortable, air conditioned area! The bar is located right in the downtown Ottawa area on Queen Street.

Each Bay has an Indoor golf simulator that has a big flat screen, a small floor where you put your golf ball and hit it using an actual Golf Club! Using the cameras in the Bay, the simulator is able to detect the speed, and direction of the ball and is able show you on the screen where the ball went!

Play indoor golf at Mulligans Golf Bar

While the Bays are usually used for playing indoor Golf, you can also watch movies or play videos as well! This might be useful if you are having a private event for work related purposes or want to watch some special sports event.

While it’s fun playing Golf at this place, I wasn’t impressed with the food. I had ordered Hot Duck Wings and while they were cooked properly, I didn’t find the flavor that enjoyable. So my recommendation would be to eat at another place and then head to Mulligans!

If you have your own Golf Club at home, then you should bring it as the place charges you extra for renting Golf Clubs! You can save quite a bit of money if you plan to go to play regularly at this place!

Address: 201 Queen St, Ottawa, ON K1P 5C9, Canada

Rating: 8/10

Business website: https://mulligansgolfbar.com/

Spicy Rice Noodles In Ottawa At Yunshang Rice Noodle!

I think I have found another restaurant that I will be visiting often in Ottawa! The restaurant is called Yunshang Rice Noodle and it’s a Yunan (Chinese) cuisine restaurant. It’s a small chain of restaurants founded in Toronto but now has a restaurant in Ottawa as well!

Spicy Rice Noodles at Yunshang Rice Noodle

I was specifically attracted by their special for the day where they were offering their Signature Rice Noodles for only $6 when they are usually priced at $14. I also ordered some additional slices of Beef that I wanted to have with my rice noodle.

Service is quite fast here and my order came within 5-10 minutes. My order of Spicy Rice Noodles consisted of a boiling pot of broth, rice noodles as well as a plate consisting of assorted seafood, vegetables, as well as meat sauce.

Eating rice noodles with meat sauce

How to eat rice noodles?

People have different approaches to eating rice noodles but here is one way –

  • Put all the vegetables/seafood/meat except meat sauce in the boiling broth.
  • Put the rice noodles afterwards
  • Wait a few minutes till everything in the pot is cooked.
  • Using fork/chopsticks, take some of the cooked stuff out in another bowl.
  • Take a little bit of meat sauce and eat it with your meal!

I think the Spicy Rice Noodles turned out to be great and is probably one of the best Chinese noodles I have had in Ottawa! If you are not into spice, they do have an original (non-spicy) as well as tomato flavored broth!

This place is really good and would be something I would recommend anyone to go to!

Address: 275 Bank St Unit 101, Ottawa, ON K2P 2L6

Rating – 9/10

Business website: https://yunshang.ca/

Classic Milk Tea At Meow Tea

Meow Tea is a small cat themed bubble tea store that is located on Elgin Street. I found about this place through AMEX Small Shop which lets you explore small businesses around your area and also AMEX sometimes gives you discount if you shop through them.

Bubble Teas at Meow Tea

I ordered a Classic Bubble Tea with the following –

  • Normal Ice
  • 100% Sugar
  • Tapioca Pearl

I also ordered a Mango Slush with cheese cream to try out something different.

I think both of the Bubble Teas were below my expectations. The Classic Bubble Tea seemed to have less flavor despite having 100% Sugar. Also, the Mango Slush didn’t seem to taste that great. Despite being one of their most expensive offerings. Between the Classic Bubble Tea and Orange Slush, I think the Classic Bubble Tea tasted a bit better.

Address: 279 Elgin St, Ottawa, ON K2P 1M1

Business website: https://meowtea.ca/

Rating – 6/10

Fiery Malaysian Food At Chahaya Malaysia!

My love for Spicy Food took me to Chahaya Malaysia in Ottawa! While the name suggests it’s a Malaysian restaurant, they do have a number of Indonesian as well as vegetarian options. The restaurant was a bit of a drive for me since it’s in Gloucester (a suburb of Ottawa).

Chahaya Malaysia

Here’s what I ordered from their menu –

  • Shrimp rolls (appetizer)
  • Chef’s Special Chicken (main item)
  • Basmati Rice (side item)

The shrimp rolls (4 pieces) came with ketchup and while I have seen a number of restaurants serve spring rolls with chicken/beef/vegetarian, this is the first time I was going to try shrimp rolls at a restaurant. The rolls come with ketchup dipping sauce and makes them even more enjoyable to eat.

My main item was the Chef’s Special Chicken which is also called Ayam Istimewa in Malaysia. It’s their most popular item and consists of fried chicken with carrots, pepper, mushroom, broccoli and chili. It’s recommended that you go with a side item like rice with your main item. The chicken turned out to be hot and spicy. I think it has just the right amount of spice and the rice went well along with it!

Food portions for the menu item are decent; and the service was reasonably fast. I didn’t have to wait too long to get the item. Overall very happy with the food, and I would like to try more Malaysian/Indonesian food items off their menu!

Address: 1690 Montréal Rd, Gloucester, ON K1J 6N5

Rating: 9/10

Business website: https://chahayamalaysia.ca/

Late Night Latin Dancing At Latinos Resto Bar!

There are a couple of places in Ottawa that only start to get busy really late into the night! Latinos Resto Bar is one of them where you will start to see people coming in when it’s close to midnight! I have been to this place a few times now on weekend and that appears to be always be the case. If you came here early and notice only a few people, don’t worry – it will get busy for sure late in the night.

While entrance is usually free, a cover charge of $5/$10 might apply on certain days for this place.

The drinks are priced alright as well. I ended up ordering a pitcher and that was more than enough to get two people buzzed. Even though it felt like it didn’t have alcohol, it actually had a real good amount in it! So be careful!

The venue plays Salsa, Bachata and Merengue mostly however they might play a little of Carribean/Reggeaton music as well during the night. The last time I was there, there were people playing chess late at night and also people doing karaoke as well for a while!

Friday Night At Latinos Resto Bar

This is one of the few places in Ottawa which attracts a lot of regulars so don’t be surprised if you see people just walking in and knowing everyone in the bar! Atmosphere is friendly in general.

If you are looking for a free place to dance, then you should definitely checkout Latinos Resto Bar. Highly recommend this place if you are with a group. If you come early it won’t be hard to find seating for a large group.

Address: 665 Bronson Ave, Ottawa, ON K1S 4E7

Business website: https://latinosrestobarottawaon.com/