Little café, big flavours For nearly two decades, strip-mall jewel has served delicious Indian food
Anne DesBrisay
Citizen Special
Thursday, September 16, 2010

Little India Café
22 Wylie Ave., 613-828-2696
Littleindiacafe.com
Access: easy access, but restaurant and
washrooms are very small
Price: Starters, $3 to $10; mains, $10 to
$16. Lunch buffet $12
Open: Brunch/lunch, Sunday to Friday,
dinner daily

The Little India Café is an Ottawa West institution.
For nearly two decades, chef Ram Chander and his family have been running this snug, always-bustling 30-seater, serving delicious and familiar Indian food. The office crowd has long flocked to its noon buffet, the Britannia neighbourhood pops in for takeout, and the movie-bound wolf down curries and rice before heading across to the Coliseum Theatre to doze through a blockbuster. The room is plain and pink -- pink in curtains, tablecloths, chairs and candles. It's also cramped -- at lunch with the buffet queue, at dinner with a steady stream of those waiting for a table, and still others waiting to pick up a meal. (If ever there were a restaurant that could use a separate take-away counter, this would be it.) But no matter. The Little India Café remains a very satisfying little restaurant, somewhat a happy victim of its own popularity. The service may be a bit distracted, but prices are fair and the standard of cooking is well above average.