Aiana Restaurant

We had a fantastic experience at Aiana. We enjoyed the tasting menu with wine pairing and every course was amazing. The food and wine just kept coming! Sometimes a tasting menu can be scant but we walked out pleasantly full. Our server was attentive without being overbearing. It was a special evening and they sat us in what I would consider the best table. What’s more, as we were finishing up, they brought us the chef’s signed cookbook and a takeout box with treats to go home with. It really was a memorable night, thanks to everyone who treated us so well.

I recently enjoyed a wonderful dinner experience in Ottawa that truly deserves praise. From the moment we walked in, the ambiance was refined and inviting—elegant without being pretentious. The service was exceptional, with Oliwier as our waiter. He was attentive, knowledgeable, and genuinely warm, adding a personal touch that elevated the entire evening. The food? Absolutely divine. Each dish was beautifully presented and bursting with flavor. Everything from start to finish felt carefully curated, and it was clear the kitchen takes pride in both taste and artistry. Highly recommend for anyone looking for an upscale dining experience with charm and grace.

Top place to eat. The flavors are perfect. We did not do the tasting menu, but it looks like something that should be done. Each course was better than the last. The lobster bisque was awesome. The oysters have caviar on the., adding to the flavor and saltiness. Again excellent meal. The service was great. Very attentive and knowledgeable about the menu. Great place for date night or taking clients. I will be coming back many times. The location is great also. Able to walk downtown to see parliament and all of the government buildings all are a quick walk from the restaurant.

I had to change my wedding venue last-minute, and Connor and his team helped us create something extraordinary. The restaurant was the perfect setting, and comfortably held our 100 guests. The interior was elegant and beautiful, and the food was delicious. Highly recommend AIANA for your next event or dining experience.

Aiana gives the air of a Michelin aspiring restaurant, which is not a bad thing. They live up in number of ways. They start with a complimentary amuse bouche, and end with complimentary chocolate bites. I ordered the ribeye. It was a delicious perfectly medium rare, but not what I expected. Elevated I guess, not a full sliced ribeye, but it was cut with into a few slices of lean meat only. The accoutrements were tasty - I particularly liked the lentils. The service was friendly and professional. The only issue I had was with the wine menu. The waiter suggested a wine - a Pinot noir that would go well at the table with my steak, a salmon dish, and a mushroom risotto. It was about $180. We indicated we were looking for something less expensive, perhaps a Canadian Pinot. He replied there were none but found us a French one priced about $80, which was quite nice. The wine menu was on a tablet, and I asked the waiter to leave it so I could have a closer look. I did a search for Canadian red wines under $100. There were none. The small selection of Canadian wine were $160+ . A wine menu should have a good selection of wines at different price points - Michelin star included. Needles to say I was very disappointed in the wine menu.

Fantastic restaurant in the heart of downtown Ottawa! We had the tasting menu, which was delicious, and well crafted. They had to modify for my allergy, and for the most part accommodated well. Highly recommend going for the cocktails and atmosphere alone! Lots of space at our table, and the care taken place for all of the food was easily noted.

Had an exceptional time and perfect meal at Aiana tonight. Oliver our server was attentive, friendly, and very well informed in the menu. The food was absolutely perfect. And incredibly attentive to food allergies. Thank you for a perfect evening and we will be returning!!

Dined here Saturday night for the tasting menu with the wine pairing. It was an exquisite experience. The staff were attentive and gracious. The attention to detail, creativity, flavours and bold choices leave your palette begging for more. If you are looking for an elevated dining experience from a passionate chef , Aiana is a must try.

What a wonderful amazing experience at this new gem in Ottawa. From the greetings, to our customized yummy mocktails to our super kind and professional waiter! We had the bread and butter to begin with, fresh and delicious and the butter and jam were a sweet start for sure. Then we moved the the 3 sisters soup, it was a broth based soup so we weren't a big fan, we said nothing about it, but at the end of dinner the waiter kindly said " I saw you guys didn't finish the soup and you weren't a big fan so I took it off the menu" wow! Honestly sometimes we get this when we complain but to get it off without saying a word that was extra! We had their candied pecan salad , delicious.. for mains we had the duck and the fish , both were superb with really sophisticated and cool compliments on the plate.. Dessert was an amazing ending to this feats, between saffron and Cardimom and pistachio the flavours took us back home and was a great ending! Then we got chefs compliments to celebrate my husbands birthday, it was a maple fudge like we never had before! Definitely we will back, the decor is nice the place is chic and it's worth visiting for a special occasion!

Pretty damn goon food, under the guidance of chef Yannick LaSalle, formerly of LesFougères.

Having never been to Ottawa and not knowing where to go I explored near my hotel and stumbled across Aiana. I wasn't sure what to expect. All I knew was I was hungry and it looked nice. The ambiance glamorous. It wouldn't have been out of place in a Las Vegas resort like the Vdara or Cosmopolitan. Everyone was very polite and professional. I sat at the bar and had a great experience. The service being fabulous I do recognize what other reviewers have said. The portion sizes aren't large for the price point. For me it was a perfect size but I am not a large eater. The steak was amazing! It was prepared perfectly, was savory and delicious! The drinks were incredible as well - nicely balanced and made to order. It was a slow night when I had dined there so the bartender had some opportunity to make the drinks. I am sure on a busy night the bartender choice may be a bit of a challenge. All in all it was a very good experience!

We tried this restaurant for dinner on our trip to Ottawa here and the experience was bad. The food was quite pricy with small portion here ($100 per person), with hits and misses. The service was terrible. We ordered the waffle and trout as appetizers, waffle dish tasted weird. Trout was not bad and refreshing. For mains, we ordered quail and halibut. It was served super slow although we told them that we needed to catch up a show afterwards and left two hours for dinner time which should be fairly enough. The portion of the quail was super small and it didn't taste very yummy. The halibut dish was interesting though with the creativity of using carrot sauce. Given the portion being too small, we were still starving after the mains. So we ordered a dark chocolate dessert, the flavour of which was okay. However it took us forever to grab someone to order and long wait for the dish, and it came with ants crawling on top. They also gave out some extra snacks at the end which was way too sweet, and we were late for our show at the end even when we ran to the theatre. It was overall unpleasant experience here.

Aiāna treated me like I was makin it rain with Michelin stars. Perfect cuisine, sumptuous cocktails, and elegant wine selections - but most of all, attentive and kind service throughout. First, bar aces Greg and Meghan were great hosts, expert cocktail mixers, and fun companions for the evening. Word up y'all. Robert, the sommelier, was a great guide and suggested perfect pairings. A joy to chat with about wine. Chef came out a couple of times to check in, which gave me a chance to say how perfect and adventurous the food was - I started with duck croquettes with foie gras and mushrooms. Amazing. My main was venison (quinoa, Brussels, chicory, pine, mustard, savory jus.). The meat was so tender and full of flavor, and the accoutrements were sharp and bright. World class. Can't wait to come back. Thanks again to everyone who made a wild and lonely night warm and filling.

Excellent prix fixe dinner! It was a bit expensive, but well worth it. There were a large number of courses, ranging from single bites to small-to-medium sized dishes. I did the wine pairing add-on and it was great, with 6 pours of a range of wines that paired incredibly well with the food. The service was great and ambiance was nice. The food ranged from super fancy versions of "simple" dishes (mushroom risotto with truffle, smoked salmon with asparagus [& caviar], halibut) to very fancy and nice (foie gras in chocolate, wagyu beef, seafood one-bites). The desserts were quite good too, with multiple kinds of bite-sized petit fours and some lovely matcha/lime cheesecake and multiple interesting fruit sorbets. One of the best "fancy meals" I've ever had!

Came here for dinner on my weekend trip to Ottawa and I must say I am far from disappointed. The food here was exceptional and I cannot wait to be back. I asked for Lemons for my water to several servers and finally received it the third or fourth ask however that is my only qualm about this place. We started with a bottle of the Method Cabernet Sauvignon which was Smooth and sweet. Definitely now one of my favorite wines. Oysters: Topped with caviar, what I believe is creme fraiche, a horseradish oil and gold dust, nothing short of luxury. I think 3/4 per person is perfect. Tomato Salad: Delicious but I just had the tomato burrata salad from Riviera the other day and this would be a close second. Ontario lamb: We got the Lamb with an accoutrement of Foie gras and it was exceptional Wagyu striploin: Cooked to a beautiful medium rare and absolutely delicious Fungi: The fettuccine was cooked to a perfect al dente. We got an accoutrement of extra Truffle on top Malt & Milk: Absolutely delicious and would definitely go back for this Elderflower & Strawberry sorbet: A tad too tart for my taste

A few weeks ago a friend and I took a random flight to Ottawa for some R&R. We ended a lovely Saturday evening at Aiāna (pronounced as 'eh-ah-na'). The origin of the name is of native heritage and it means  "everlasting bloom"--as our waiter told us, it represents the ever changing menu reflecting the different flavours and nuances from the vast diversity amongst Canadian people. Special thanks to ottfoodie who recommended this gem thank you!!! What stood out as well is that it is a 'collective' where, "People who work in this business are professionals and they deserve more respect. It is our intent not to be a minimum wage employer and we'll be paying a living wage...permanent salaried positions to our entire staff. Service charges will be included in our prices and there will be no tipping."  What we ate: Appetizer : Tomato Salad Seared Foie Gras Main : Brome Lake Canard Ontario Lamb Drinks: Fieldbird Cider Stratuswines, Rose (2020) I highly recommend giving this new Canadian restaurant a try.

This is a true fine dining restaurant with everything you expect from it. Amazing service, amazing environment, amazing selection of food and drinks. I had a great business meal and I would definitely recommend!

I had the change to go back with a group of my dearest friends and we had a great and memorable experience. Chef Raghav and his team were simply amazing. Everybody was raving about the food and the presentation of all dishes. Nothing is more satisfying than hearing your friends raving about the food and trying to find out that special ingredient that elevate the dish presented. Robert and his serving staff were "hors pair" and efficient. Not an easy task with a group of 18 people. Everyone's expectations were reached. Definitely the best choice to celebrate a milestone event with friends and loved ones. Gratefully, Roberto L.

I was looking for a sophisticated, high end dining experience as a surprise for my partner for Valentine's Day and decided to try Aiāna.. unfortunately it ended up being one of the worst dining experiences I've ever had. I made the reservation in advance for the fixed course tasting menu and twice communicated my partner's dietary restrictions, of no meat or diary and it was confirmed to not be an issue. We were excited to try this new restaurant.. and when the first amuse buche arrived it included fois gras and another item my partner couldn't eat as well as oysters - which she could. We called over the waiter, I explained the email correspondence and the dietary restrictions.. they apologized and took away her plate. After a significant delay they brought back two crackers with basil leaves on them. Disappointing already, and my partner wished she could've just taken the oyster! We also had pre-ordered the wine paring, but wasn't sure if it should've started. We informed the waiter and yes, we should've had a champagne with the first course.. so missed the pairing but then they brought us both pairings for the next course. I was also expecting a sommelier to explain the pairing, describe the wine and why it was selected... but it seems the wait staff wasn't even old enough to be legally allowed to drink. All we got was, this is the "Italian" or this is the "French".. which would've been amusing if this was the only complaint. The next course was a truffle infused soup. Firstly, for a three course fixed meal.. I would expect the appetizer to be a bit more creative and consist of variety of flavours and textures. It seems a bit lazy to just serve a basic generic blended soup - although much easier for the restaurant to serve in bulk. Regardless, it was dairy based and of course, my partner again could not eat it. We again flagged the waiter, went through the same explanation, more apologies and the soup was taken away. At this point, we were feeling all the feels we weren't expecting for a sophisticated and indulgent night out. We had our first and second wine pairings that we finished, I had a cold soup as I waited and we were frustrated, disappointed and anxious about the inevitable future blunders. After a 30 minute wait, the waiter returned with a tea cup filled with brown liquid and explained that it was "mushroom broth". This was probably the pinnacle of disappointment. We were expecting a culinary adventure, but felt like we were getting short changed in addition to being an after thought - my partner just looked dejected. I feel like the chefs on the show "Chopped" could've come up with a better substitution with a box of hamburger helper and a package of tofu. And of course, the waiter explained that my partner's main contained lobster poached in butter.. but she just relented and decided not to risk another big disappointment. By the time dessert came, they made sure our accommodations were met! She got flavoured ice and a jujube. Even in the best circumstances, it seemed they were trying to have the volume of a chain restaurant with the guise of fine dining. This was reflected in the in-experienced (although very courteous) staff, and the uninspired menu selection.. but everything else was a disaster as well. We were comped one of our $25 cocktails, and received apologies until it got uncomfortable, the final bill with pairings was over $500 for an unacceptably disappointing experience.

I believe that this was the best lunch I have ever had. Exquisite corn fritters--who knew that corn fritters could be exquisite. Bannock and brioche with a delicate honey butter and berry compote to which these appellations cannot do justice. Mushroom toast and tea that was unlike anything you might imagine. Decadent tortellini. Incredible dessert. Do try it; it is worth your time and resources.

Discovered this spot downtown yesterday. Great Athmosphere, outstanding cuisine and attentive staff make for a fantastic lunch experience. Can't wait to return for more!