Olive & Chili

Avoid this place at any cost. Food quality is low, service is terrible and treat customers like crap. Do not recommend this place at all. Don’t respect the lineup, customers are confused and management charged me twice the same item. When I challenged that to the woman she rolled her eyes at me like if I asked for food for free.

I love Olive and Chili. What an amazing gluten free little gem in Ottawa. Every time I go, I am in awe of all the pastries and food they prepare. They even have some frozen dough and gf puff pastry you can buy and take home! Amazing! The staff are very friendly and have come to recognize us, which is really sweet. The pastries are delicious and their buns and white bread tastes like my mom used to make (but the glutinous kind). I was so impressed with this place that I asked them to do our wedding cake. We decided to go with a Croquembouche (tower of cream puffs with spun golden sugar) and it was to die for! All gluten free as well! The price– very reasonable too! Cheaper that a traditional cake (that no one eats anyways) that’s for sure. I highly recommend stopping by this little shop. Be sure to stop in early as they sell out of a lot of things by the end of the day. I know I will be back again soon, as always when I’m in the neighbourhood.

Another great spot in the Byword Market, I think it is slightly more pricey than some other places you can go to, but this place has a continental feel to it. It is like a Parisian deli. There are all kinds of prepared goodies you can buy and pay by the weight or pieces. There are tables where you can eat in there too.
I went for a café au lait and a croissant. The café was served like in Paris — in a bowl. There are almond milk, soy milk… vegan choices.
Staffs are friendly. It is good for lunch, dinner and drinks.

Went again with my poorly behaved dog… he obviously couldn’t come in and was beside himself when i went in. One of the staff came outside without being asked and took my order, payment and brought me the sandwich outside, which was awesome: I didn’t even ask if they could do this! Love this place, and the customer service consistently impresses me.

So this place is 100% gluten-​free.
Most places that advertise as «gluten-​free» are actually only gluten-​friendly (meaning they make both, so all gluten-​free items may contain wheat).
It’s kind of expensive. But then when you look at other bakeries, it’s pretty on par, and is actually the cheapest of all the fresh-​made gluten-​free pastries I have ever seen.
The food is actually delicious. And unlike most gluten-​free places, this place is ONLY gluten-​free, and doesn’t try to accommodate every single known allergy, so there are real ingredients — like eggs and butter — in all the products, which provides for a taste that is barely unrecognizable from gluten pastries.
Also, the staff here are pretty friendly and chill.

Everything is gluten free. I’ve never been able to safely eat anything I want at a restaurant before, but I was here. I came here as an American tourist and the employees were very patient with me as I tried to convert to Canadian dollars.
I ate the lasagna and the chocolate croissant.
DELICIOUS.

Dedicated gluten free bakeshops are so few and far between, each one is noteworthy, but Olive and Chili is actually really good, and that is even more rare.
The entire store is gluten free, so I can enjoy everything from the prepared meals to the bakery items. They have a few rarities in the GF world — croissants and puff pastries! I don’t know when I will be back in the neighbourhood, so I stocked up on just about everything. Baguette, vol-​au-​vent, cakes, it’s all good. The only caution is with the breadcrumbs — they make them from the leftovers, including some of the sweetened products, so taste before you cook or you could get an unwelcome surprise.
I could go on and on about the yummies here, but let me leave with just one suggestion — opera cake. Wow!

Great baking — pastries, desserts, cookies — and a la carte salads and mains — pasta, lamb, fish, lots of salads. Good food, but my rating is based on its being all of it 100% gluten free.

had a delicious sweet… café…excellent service from the Brazilian owner… would go back.

Meh. I really wanted to love this place but all the food we ordered LOOKED amazing but unfortunately TASTED gross.
There was kind of a lack of direction inside as well. We ordered food at one counter and had to pay at another and no one really stepped up to tell us where we were supposed to be. One person told us to wait outside (we were sitting on the patio), another told us to pay first but the cashier had no idea what we had ordered so we stood there awkwardly and watched while he served everyone except us.
We ordered a sausage wrapped in pastry, two pieces of cheesy bacon bread, and a side of bean salad. We waited 10+ minutes for them to heat up our food and when it finally came, the sausage was still ice cold in the middle. Nothing tasted good, we actually left more than half of our food on our plates. At a price tag of $ 35 it kinda stinks to throw away most of your meal :(
We were going to try out a few of their desserts after lunch but decided to opt out after our crappy meal and visited the place across the street instead.
With all the great places downtown, I’m not sure I’ll give this one a second chance!

I wanted to love this place! But I’ve been twice now and unfortunately both times the baked goods I tried tasted so heavily of baking soda I couldn’t finish them.
Also, I found out the very hard way that they don’t take Mastercard! After I ordered and had picked up my food! Had to scrounge around for cash as I didn’t have my full wallet with me – just my MC. I haven’t come across a restaurant in a touristy area that doesn’t take all forms of payment in many, many years.
I wish they would change up their recipes a bit so the bread/​scones/​muffins and cookies tasted better. It would be so great to pick up a sandwich for lunch when I’m at work, but until they stop overdosing with baking soda, I’ll be staying away…

Be warned that this is a VISA (or cash) only place US visitors. If your debit card is a master card it’s not going to work.
This is a very confusing restaurant. Order, sit down, wait. Ask for ketchup and water once your food arrives 15 minutes later. Ask for ketchup 5 minutes later after it appears to have been forgotten. Ask for water again.
Then you pay. Thankfully I had pulled a few CAD from the cash machine at the airport otherwise I’m not sure what I could have even done since they don’t accept MC.
Pros:
Gluten free offering
Fries (you need to add salt to your taste, I like less salt so these were delicious to me)
Cons:
Dry bland burger
Small glasses, no refills so get multiple glasses of water to start.

I came in with some friends on Canada day as we were all hungry and it was the first place we saw. I’m unable to eat gluten, so it was a very good surprise to just magically find a place that was 100% gluten free.
Unfortunately, the food wasn’t that great. There was a lot of oil used on all the dishes we each had: pork sandwich with potatoes, and various salads. I would give it another chance if I was downtown and was hungry, but I wouldn’t make a special trip to go there.

Great to have an all gluten free restaurant in the market. Cappuccino and brownies are good. My wife had the seafood paella. She said it was great. Try it out!

great people and good food the meals are $ 10 — $ 11 the service was very good everybody was moving fast to take care of our orders we were very surprised to meet people from Venezuela (manager) Mexico and Brazil (both Chef) great ideas and presentation after our dinner we got some croissant they were super fresh like the once at the bakery across the street this place is nice good luck