Moxie’s Grill & Bar

Went to moxies for dinner.
Was seated in a booth on the lounge side. I found the overall lighting for the restaurant to be very dim. It would be nice to have it a little brighter.
The waitress was extremely amazing ! Very attentive and friendly.
With Four of us eating in the booth the table was wayyyy too small. There was no room for our dishes so they were overhanging the table.
Ordered a shareable that was amazing: chili chicken bites — they’re slightly crispy but sooo tender.
For my main I got the steak salad which has fresh greens, Quebec goat cheese, grape tomatoes, spicy vinaigrette with a hint of Clamato, goat cheese crostini. The steak was medium and cooked nicely, the spicy vinaigrette was very very good. The greens were ok — nothing too fancy it just looked like a like of vegetables — it could be better IMO.

:) Had a great time there with my boyfriend on our date night. He made reservations a few hours before since there is always a line.
We asked our waitress just for drinks at first. My boyfriend said that their rum and coke’s always taste differently every he goes here (yet This time it was just way the he liked) Those peach Benti’s are great.
We had one appetizer. Came with these two really tasty dipping sauces.
Our main courses:
Seafood linguine with jumbo shrimp and a lobster tail: try this. if your a tomato person and like red peppers and onions.
Mushroom steak with quinoa: they did an nice job on the Medium rare.
Overall the dinner was great. Stayed about two hours. We were given a $ 50 gift card for our anniversary so our bill after drinks, app and main was pretty penny.
Would go again after our wallets recover. :)

Tonight was my first time at a Moxie’s. I can say it won’t be my last. It is quite dark in this location (I haven’t been to any others but I assume its similar) but its nice because its intimate and quiet. We waited about 15 minutes for a table, which was great for a very popular restaurant on a Saturday night! The staff were very professional!
I had a Bard’s gluten free beer & a whiskey sour for drinks, and for my entrée I had the sirloin with a salad.
SOOO good!!! I can honestly say that the food is high quality, and you get what you pay for. There was a bit of a mixup with me getting the potatoes that came with my meal. I didn’t really mind all that much to be honest, but the manager came over without a prompt and offered us a free dessert to compensate. Great customer service!
Their gluten free dessert is a pecan crushed cheesecake. It was to die for!
All in all, I’m always impressed with a restaurant that is conscious of Celiac disease by stocking gluten free items, and their products of choice were delicious. I didn’t feel like I was eating «different» food because I can’t have gluten. And that’s a great but rare feeling.
I will be back, and I will be bringing more people with me!

If you are not familiar with chain put your initial thoughts away. Daytime it is good for families, if they are used to eating out. It looks like an up market place, and it is. Food is good for the price and plenty to choice from. Pizzas good and desserts to die for. At night the place becomes upmarket posh. Top marks for the sturdy change table for babies in the men’s disable cubicle. Server was kirk and he was great. Just the right amount of attention.

The Hunt Club and Riverside Moxies location in Ottawa is the one I frequent most often. I have to say, I’ve never had a bad experience here. I also have to admit, I’ve never had an experience which would warrant a rating of more than three stars. Because as this restaurant goes, it is indeed A-​Okay.
If you’re looking for a restaurant where you will find a large variety of food to choose from, and a crisply clean atmosphere with mood lighting, this would be the right place for you. It is the restaurant my family will choose when we’re arguing about where to go because we all have different tastes.
There are two sides to the restaurant — the bar side and the lounge side. The chairs aren’t particularly comfortable in either, but the drinks are equally delicious in both. (I especially recommend their Bellinis and Mojitos, truly top notch and delicious. Mojito Mondays are fantastic.)
The hostesses and waitresses are almost intimidatingly pretty, but the length of their skirts always make me worry they’re cold and the height of their heels make me wonder if they’re more prone to dropping glasses than waitresses wearing flats at other establishments. My greatest congratulations does go to them though — I’m a visitor who makes a lot of alterations and asks a tonne of questions about her meal, and I have never once had any trouble getting an answer I needed or an ingredient switch or omission I requested.
I almost must mention the feeling of trepidation I always get when I open the bill. I would not say their prices are unfair, I’m just always a little taken aback. I would say $ 30 – 45 per person is what you would expect to spend (entrée + drink + dessert or appetizer).
All that being said …
I recommend coming early. Dinner time rush will find you getting roadblocked. You will wait. You will become impatient. And while the appetizers are delicious and always arrive before your entrée, the wait time will get to you.
I recommend ordering dessert. I have never met a Moxies dessert I didn’t LOVE. And now that they offer smaller sized (and smaller priced) portions of the majority of their delectable choices, it makes the decision an easier one for you.
I recommend you avoid this place for a first date. (Take my word for it.)
I recommend making a reservation for a party greater than five.
I recommend this location more highly than the others in the city.
If it’s winter, I recommend you leave your largest coat at home. (You’ll see why when you get there.)
Moxies might not be the most notable, the most exclusive, the most ecclectic, but it most certainly will get the job done when you’re hungry.

We called this location wanting to come back with a group of family for the Christmas season. We were amusingly offered only two possible «slots» for our reservation: dinner at 4:30pm or 9:15pm! And that was it! They were very unaccommodating or would not explain why they could not possibly fit us in around dinner time. Very poor service.

While I find the Moxie’s experience a hit or miss affair, I’ve always had a good meal an overall pleasant dinning experience at this location

This is the first time I have been to this moxie’s! Setup and décor is better than the Bayshore location, but does not beat the Kanata Centrum location.
The hubby and I came here on a Friday evening around 6:00pm, and thought that the wait time would be 45 minutes at least, just from experience at other Moxies location.
Surprisingly upon arrival, the hostess opened the entrance door for us, and then asked if we would like the dinning side or bar side. We chose the dinning side, and were seated right away.
We were seated in a little one seater booth, which was not that comfortable and was not roomy at all, but after a couple peach bellini’s, I was having the time of my life.
Our server was lovely and explained the menu to us, and we ordered our apps and mains.
Apps ordered:
–BROCCOLI SOUP for the hubby. He said it was good.
–MED BREAD, with four dips; salsa, olive bruschetta, dill mayo, & garlic dip. It was AMAZING and I would come back just for this app. The bread was soft and warm, and the garlic dip was amazing! A must get appetizer!
Mains ordered:
–TOP SIRLOIN; with a double baked potato, and a ceaser salad. Steak was ordered medium rare, and the hubby said that it was just OK, and was not melt in your mouth. The hubby notes: «After eating at the Rose Bowl on Carling, its tough to eat a Moxies steak.»
–VEGGIE BURGER; with fries. I got the veggie burger topped like a beef burger; with lettuce, onions, and a pickle, instead of the pesto and goat cheese. It was served on a whole wheat kaiser bun. The veggie burger itself was not that flavorful, but it was moist. Would not get again and a def skip. Fries were OK.
*SIDE NOTE* – trying to find the best veggie burger in Ottawa!
The service was very quick tonight, drinks were served within minutes, apps were served quickly. Mains were served right after apps left the table, which we would have preferred at least 5 – 10 minutes between apps and mains.
We skipped on desert, but would recommend the white chocolate brownie, dark chocolate mouse, and sticky toffee pudding; they are all delicious.
Great night out! Will be back for apps and drinks and desert, mains not so much!

We’ve only been to this Moxie’s twice. Our first visit was a good experience and lead us to go a second time to celebrate my Son’s birthday and graduation from college… what a let down for such a special occasion. It’s not that the meal was bad, but it was certainly sub par, as was the service.
As a busy family, we don’t get to eat out together that often, and when we do, we expect decent food and good service, neither of which were the case at Moxie’s.
Here’s just a few key points from our recent Moxie’s experience:
First, why is getting water and keeping a glass full such a difficult concept, especially for a restaurant like Moxie’s? We had to ask for water, and when it ran out, it was never refilled, even after asking repeatedly.
If one person orders diet coke and the other regular, the waitress should be able to get the order right and note which is which, but we got 2 diet cokes, and even after telling the waitress, she brought diet coke again. We all felt she was too
busy flirting with the male diners in the bar area to really care about us and our order. I’ll take service over cleavage any day.
My son ordered a steak and asked for it medium rare. What he got was medium well and to make matters worse, he was not given a steak knife. In fact, it took about five minutes to get anyone’s attention to get a steak knife, and when we did, it wasn’t our waitress, and it was as if it was an inconvenience to ask them… not impressed.
My chipotle mango chicken was devoid of any chipotle or mango flavour, and the texture of the breasts was like they were frozen from M&M as was my stuffed potato.
I could go on, but I’ll stop there. I think you get the point.
We are not the kind of people who complain in restaurants, so we ate, paid and left, but I can say for certain, none of us will be back, nor will we recommend them.

I’ll agree with the others, this is one of the better Moxie’s that I’ve been too. It looks nicer, a lot more lounge space and very attractive servers. Yes even the men. I saw one server who looked like he was cut out of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad.
Our server was great. He helped out a lot, was very talkative and aimed to please. He offered us choices, gave us time, attended to us in a very timely manner and overall I was happy with the service. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t been to a Moxie’s in a while now but last time I went I felt like my experience was a tad more expensive so I have to ask, did they lower their prices? Because this experience of mine here seemed like the prices were fine.
The food: I got the Korean Pork Tacos with a Cesar Salad side and their house beer Euro I think it was called, my girlfriend got the Tandoori Salmon Salad with a mojito and my cousin got the Chicken Enchiladas. We all loved our food, serving sizes were fair (Enchiladas was pretty big though) and everything tasted fresh. My girlfriends mojito seemed a tad light on the alcohol but she liked it that way. My beer tasted like a lighter version of Stella. My tacos weren’t bad but I was expecting pork belly since they were «Korean tacos.» The only thing that made this somewhat Korean is the spice that the pulled pork is bathed in: Red pepper paste. With added sugar. For me personally, I think they could have done without the sugar and just kept the spice but I do know some Koreans that add sugar to this, just not many. Beyond that it was a fairly normal taco that I would expect minus the cheese. Not even Kimchi in it. Still, it was delicious and for $ 11, you get 3, hell, no complaints here.
My girlfriends salad was a huge piece of salmon dusted with the common curry spices and accompanied with 3 quarter pieces of naan bread with melted brie cheese on them. The salad part itself had a very light and very mild sauce on it that I couldn’t quite figure out but had a bit of vinegar in it. My girlfriend dislikes brie but she had it together with the fish and salad and loved it. Damn, I was hoping I would get to eat those pieces of naan.
My cousins dish, like I said was huge. It had nachos on it and though she offered me a piece, I had to refuse as I was already full. All I know was, she was happy with it and dominated all the guac that accompanied the enchiladas (with nachos too).
If I come back to Ottawa, would I go back here? Probably not but that’s not because of the place. As far as Moxie’s goes this is one of the better ones I’ve been to. I won’t go back because being a visitor to Ottawa, I guarantee there’s something else out here I should probably try. I will however, recommend this place. If you’re in the area and looking for something that makes you feel fancy (It makes me feel fancy), then yes, check this place out.

I’ve been traveling to Ottawa for business more than I would prefer and my biz partners couldn’t stop raving about this place so I was looking forward to the experience. Great place/​environment, great presentation, and very friendly support staff/​ladies but the food was disappointing. I had steak and shrimp dish. I will try this place once more in the near future and hopefully it was just an off night.

Nicely decorated place with attractive servers (dim lighting has it benefits!). Most of the tables are in small pods, so for a larger group of 12 we had to wait awhile. Overall neat place to hang, but the food is nothing memorable.

Had a business lunch here on January 6^th with four Canadians I was visiting from the States.
I had the teriyaki bowl with beef. It was very tasty, and beautifully presented, and garnished with string-​shredded carrot and beet.
The atmosphere was fancyish, and the employees were very attentive and very attractive. I wonder how long it’ll be before they get sued by some average-​looking job-​hunter for not getting hired ;-)
Nice place, good food.

This is one of the nicer Moxie’s restaurants in Ottawa, though there aren’t very many, and none of them are very conveniently located, either. This one seems fancier because of the darker décor and lounge space and overall feel, but I find the lighting to be a little too dim.
I came here with a couple of friends for some appetizers and drinks. I ordered a Moxie size bellini, which, although had an extra shot in it, was SO large, like a fishbowl. It was very colorful, with bright pink and orange swirls, but just tasted kind of like sugared ice. It ended up giving me a brain freeze and if you let it sit for awhile to melt a little bit, you end up with watered-​down, alcoholic sugar slush. if that’s what you’re into.
I also ordered the Wasabi Tuna Tartare starter, which sounded fantastic on the menu. It was described as seared tuna with fresh salsa, avocado, and crostinis. The tuna, though raw, was actually frozen in the centre! There were six small pieces, each placed on half of a fried wonton wrapper, with a small drizzle of wasabi mayo and green onions. There was no avocado at all, and what was supposed to pass as «salsa» was actually about five small chopped pieces of tomato scattered in the middle of the plate. I was incredibly disappointed! The presentation was terrible, as was the taste, and on top of that, it was way overpriced! No, thank you.

I went here for Brunch/​Lunch on a weekend. The place was busy and we were lucky to not have to wait. The greeter and the server were friendly and the service was very attentive. The décor of the place is fancy and much better than some of the other Moxie’s locations in town. There is a lounge with a few tv’s and quite a bit of space. The restaurant is very cozy yet open and airy.
I had a Moxies size (extra ounce) ceaser to drink which was well made. I had the pancetta & peppered havarti benedict with hollandaise, potatoes & fresh fruit which is absolutely delicious. I couldnt resist the desert menu from which I picked white chocolate brownie with warm chocolate sauce, french vanilla ice cream & real whipped cream.
Overall it was a good dining experience and we lingered around for quite sometime after our meal with no pressure to leave. Although it’s a chain, I think this place is a welcome addition to this part of town.