222 Lyon Tapas Bar

How odd that some people had a problem with the service because I think the ladies that work here are lovely. The service is very folksy, that may be unexpected is all I can think. The food is quite good, I’m a sucker for everything with mushrooms. I’ve been several times and I will keep going back.

The absolute rudest, most insulting waitress I have ever encountered in my entire life. Would never go back based on that, even if the food had been utterly delicious (and it was not).

Being a spaniard, 100% born, raised and feed in Spain, I am always looking out for Spanish restaurants outside the country. We take great pride in our cuisine and it is commonly known that Spain is in the Top 3 of the countries to eat in.
My previous experience in Ottawa was not very pleasant, so I decided to give it a try and we went to the Tapas Bar in Lyon Street.
It is quite a small place (it’s actually a house), so I don’t see them being able to have big groups of people. On the other hand, it gives it a cozy atmosphere, perfect if you go with your significant other.
We ordered calamari, a cheese platter and Spanish tortilla (potato).
The calamari were good. Not fresh, but good. I come from a region where you can get calamari freshly fished out of the water the very same day, but that is not common here so it is not their fault.
The cheese platter was good. The selection of cheeses was interesting, but the portions were too small (again, that comes from me living the real thing in the north of Spain, where the portions are way bigger than anywhere else in the world).
What was really a downer to me was the tortilla. It was not Spanish at all. it was French. Too much egg and too little potato. I politely made that observation to the waitress and she admitted that the Chef was french, not Spanish.
She said that if she knew I was Spanish they would have made it the real way, which is not really an excuse. If you are a tapas bar, you should be a tapas bar for everyone, not only for Spanish people. You are a representation of our country and you should take proud on that and act and cook accordingly, if you ask me.
The wine selection was correct, I encourage people to ask for Albarinho wine, typical from the North of Spain, a type of wine that probably fell from Heaven at some point of History, because it is too good to be true.
The service we received was extremely good. The waiter took my comments in a very friendly way and she was fine with the criticism, which is more that you can say about other places. We left her a very generous tip, because tips should be related to the service you get, no matter how you liked or not the food.
In general I feel disappointed because I left with the feeling that my country is not 100% represented for what Tapas bar has to offer to the public. We can do much better than that. We can change people’s lives when it comes to food. This is not really done there, so far.

If i could give less stars i would, the service i received at this restaurant was disgusting, rude, and insulting before we even sat down the waitress pushed one of our guests on the way to the table because she wasn’t «ready» when sat down she pushed drinks on us before we even looked at the menu. When the rest of our party arrived she full on yelled at us because we moved a table and we apparently «took over her restaurant». Worst service i’ve ever received. We got up and left before any other horrors could occur. Never coming back. Hopefully that waitress is fired and banned from the service industry

I was excited to try this tapas bar with my best friend. I was taking her out for her birthday and some cheering up while visiting her in Ottawa this week. I made reservations and then by chance found out there was a Groupon for them as well. (SCORE)
We came earlier than our reservations but there were a few tables open and after some weird conversation about how she wrote my name down as Janelle but oh well that’s close enough we were seated. I didn’t think this was necessary to share with the diner, and made me feel kind of awkward and like my name is unimportant. Not a good start.
The place is small, maybe 20 diners at most with seating around the bar in the middle. We heard most of our neighbor’s conversations during dinner and they joined ours at one point because thats how close the tables were. At one point another diner almost sat on my friend and he tried to get to his seat.
After seating us, we tried to order a bottle of Malbec, but then was told it wasn’t available. After ordering another recommendation that our server told us was similar to the Malbec and tasting it, we were very disappointed. (Not similar since Malbec is normally very robust and used to create a very intense wine and the one we had was light and had fruity under tones… not a good wine)
After sitting for a bit the server came back and we ordered, as i ordered because of the louder atmosphere i made sure to point at everything I ordered as she wrote them down. I picked both the mushroom crostini and beef crostini.
GOOD
Lentil Soup (Delicious, not grainy and very well balanced)
Green Salad (Fresh and well dressed)
Artichoke dip (Should come with more than 4 small pieces of bread, had to order an extra basket to finish the dip.
Mushroom Crostini was warm, and maybe a little salty (But i enjoyed them very much)
Mussels (Very plump mussels in a clear but flavorful broth, the server suggested us to remove all the shells and make a broth and keep them warm as well)
BAD
SPICY CHORIZO (Horrible… over cooked, almost like jerky. cut into slices that were dry and just didn’t look appetizing) For $ 13 it was a frustrating waste of money. We each had a piece or 2 and couldn’t stomach anymore.
Beef Crostini: Just meh, couldn’t even tell it was beef and flavors were bland.
None of this warrants a 3 star rating, if anything the atmosphere and house that the restaurant is located in would definitely be a 4. But, after our server brought out the mushroom crostini she tried to put down 3 tiny prosciutto wrapped dates, I stopped her and said I didn’t order this. She said oh ok, and brought them away. This is as far as it should have went. Nope, she came back with her trusty note pad and pointed out dates and said, I wrote it down. At this point I was a little miffed… I said I didn’t order these. I specifically pointed at mushroom and beef crostini (which she hadn’t written down beef). Again at this point, the mistake was clearly on her part and was obvious but she retorted with I write things down so I don’t get things wrong. It’s written down so you ordered them, that’s what the writing is for.
I was extremely thrown off by her accusations after she wrote the order down, even though i pointed out every dish on the menu while I was ordering. Also, it doesn’t matter… she should have walked away and handled it with grace.
Put a sour note on the whole experience that wasn’t all that pleasant to start with. The owner (maybe…) was very nice and did come by several times during the dinner and added a personal touch. Wanted to like this place so much but after paying $ 90 for that experience… I’m left feeling less than satisfied.

I’d give this place somewehre between three and four stars
It’s a bit pricey but then again most Tapas places are. The food was tasty and the service was friendly. They even split the bill by guest «0.25 Sangria» :)
Even though it was a nice place with good food, i don’t think i would return.

My first trip to 222 Lyon, and I’ll be back.
This little place is a converted house. Only the main floor of the this turn of the century house is used as the restaurant. There are maybe 10 seats around a bar, and then approx 15 – 20 more seats at tables that are reminiscent of how close tables are in a Paris café. This place is quaint and comforting.
The Menu has a varied selection of tapas, but not what you’d expect from traditional tapas. The choices are a fusion of different influences, such as Prosciutto Wrapped Dates — stuffed with goat cheese (which by the way were delicious). The menu is divided into Pinchos and Tapas. The pinchos being smaller bite sized starters. We had ordered 3 items from the pinchos, and 3 from the tapas. I have to admit the pinchos were far tastier. Not saying that the tapas were bad either. My preference was for the items on the pinchos side of the menu.
222 Lyon does have a limited selection of wines. Primarily from Spain. The wines were good, but I think they could use a bit more variety.
If you are going, make a reservation. I was there on a Monday evening, and even though there weren’t that many people in there, it was almost completely full.
The service was a bit on the slow side, but the server was very pleasant and was also very helpful. I would have given this place 5 stars, but due to limited wine selection and a bit slow service, it earns a solid 4.
This is not your ordinary run of the mill restaurant, nor your run of the mill tapas type place. The food was wonderful, and the atmosphere made it very conducive for having a wonderful conversation.
Give it a try if you want to try something a bit different.

This place is absolutely delicious, but man is it ever expensive!
So I was here recently celebrating a friend’s birthday. We were a group of five, so we got to sample a number of things.
I’ll start off my saying that the service was excellent. The servers are very attentive and the owner treats you like a friend. She even hugged and air-​kissed me when she greeted me (!) but this may be because my friend (the birthday boy) is a regular. The place is a converted house, so it is very cozy inside.
So on to the food. All the portions are quite small for the prices. We had Calamari ($ 11) which was superb. Quite possibly the best calamari I’ve had in Ottawa. They were lightly dusted and then deep fried. They were nice and tender and not rubbery at all. We also had the Chef Style Mussels ($ 12). They were in a light tomato sauce and were very flavourful. The Chinata Shrimp ($ 14) were very large shrimp and came with chorizo sausage, mushrooms and green and red peppers. We had one other dish, which I think was the Chicken Cazadora ($ 12). These were the items we all shared. Then we ordered our own dishes. I ordered the Ham Croquettes ($ 10). They were tasty but I was disappointed with the fact that they were extremely small and there were only 4 of them. Also, they tasted like they were mostly potato and breading with very little ham. I felt that $ 10 was incredibly expensive for this dish (I would equate it to paying $ 10 for an egg roll or a samosa). My husband had the Chicken al Ajillo ($ 12) which had large chunks of chicken and prosciutto in a wine sauce. I had a taste of it and the chicken was moist, tender and very tasty. I didn’t taste any of the items that the other 3 people in our group ordered as their own dish, so I can’t comment about any other dish.
So everything I tried was delicious, but since it’s tapas, the portions are very small. I left the party still very hungry. I think for me to have a satisfying meal I would have had to have at least 4 dishes all to myself (and for the record, I am 105 lbs and a girl). Which would have been about $ 50 not including drinks, taxes or tip — so really closer to $ 85 all in. So as delicious as everything was, I think paying $ 85 for 1 person for a meal is quite steep.
So if you have the money to spend, you should definitely try this place, as the food is exquisite. Or maybe if you have a very small appetite you could get away with not spending too much. As much as I loved the food, I unfortunately cannot afford to frequent this place :(

We visited 222 Lyon for the first time tonight with a Groupon, but we’ll be back. It’s a really cool space with great ambiance. The servers were extremely friendly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the food.
For dinner plan on two-​to-​three tapas dishes per person. We split the spicy mussels (the star of our meal — spicy, creamy… really tasty) along with the scallops of the day, mushrooms and Mediterranean squid, which was cooked perfectly. The only thing that would have made our meal better and pushed this into 5-​star territory would have been fresh, crusty bread. The bread we did have was fine and the servers were very attentive when it came to refilling it, but it was such a big part of the meal that a nice bread would make a big difference.
After four dishes we had room for dessert so he had the chocolate pecan tart (ordered in) and I had the Pears St. Georges (made in house), which was very tasty. The coffee was also very good, which was a nice surprise. (I’m picky about my coffee.)
Definitely give this place a try.

I remember the first time I found this hidden gem, I had a great meal and was excited to come back in the future. I’ve been back on numerous visits and I don’t look forward to coming back here anymore. I really liked it but the subsequent visits seems to have fallen off.
It’s not that the food is terrible or the staff is bad… I’ve had some fun and fantastic conversations with the bar staff sitting at the bar but the food imo is far from what it used to be. At one time I would go as far as saying this place easily had the best calamari in town but those days are long gone. It’s still good but far from really good and I feel this way about a bunch of dishes that I had once really enjoyed. Like I said, the food is still good but it’s a significant drop from how I once felt about it.
The staff is always great and I do still enjoy the cheesecake with the baked in fruit!
I’d come back if I had friends recommend it but not somewhere I’d have as a top choice… which is how I felt about this place just 2 years ago.

Went here last Friday night because we had a groupon. Excellent wine, tapas very good and (dessert) cheese plate awesome! Staff very helpful and friendly, knew we were going to a Senators game and moved us and our meal ahead at a fast, yet comfortable pace.