Dhruvees delights with exceptional South Asian dining

UNIT 101 and 103, 18 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa ON K1L 8L9

Dhruvees delights with exceptional South Asian dining

It’s rare, but it does happen that I receive invitations to experience dinner at a restaurant and I’m always happy to disclose that to our subscribers.
Recently I was invited to dine at Dhruvees (North Star). It’s a restaurant I’d seen in my exploration of other eateries in the Beechwood neighbourhood, but with its multiple cuisines under one roof, I was reluctant. Did this restaurant even know what it wanted to be?
Fusion restaurants seldom work out well. It’s a signal that the ownership is either cynical or new to the industry and wants to capitalize on what’s perceived as popular in the absence of a vision distinct to them.
Clearing the deck: Dhruvees is not a fusion restaurant. It doesn’t engage in mash up cooking but presents distinct cuisines from along the spice route. Any preconceptions I had going in were quickly put aside and soon I was delighting in the tastes of India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Owner Donald Wingell has worked in hospitality his entire life and has seen much of the world. With Dhruvees, he brings three cuisines under one roof, with chefs from those countries in his kitchen.
On this evening I opted for dishes from all three countries and began with the tandoori wings.
As one would expect at a proper sit-down restaurant, they had seen the tandoor oven in a fresh state and were moist, tender and nicely seasoned. A bargain at $8.99 for six.
Yet that wasn’t all. They came served with a small chopped cucumber, tomato, sweet onion salad and a bowl of perhaps the nicest roast potatoes this year. Whatever that seasoning was, Donald may want to consider bottling that. For smaller appetites, this wing dish could act as a meal in itself.

For those who appreciate Indian cuisine regularly, you know that the pakora is a very hit-and-miss affair. Often, the batter isn’t mixed properly, creating doughy lumps, or there’s simply too much oil remaining, or they’re hard as stone.
The pakoras had been recommended and I was happy to tuck into these smaller bites. Not over-fried, they were tender and moist with spinach and onion and came alongside a tamarind and a cilantro-mint chutney.

Donald was proud to share that Dhruvees is the first Ottawa restaurant to serve Maka, an Indian red honey ale.
It’s on the sweeter side with a distinct honey note and a robust malty mouthfeel courtesy of the 7.2% alc. An ideal foil for spicier dishes. The label however stands alone as one of the craziest I’ve seen. What to make of that?

Vegetarians will find their main dish with flavourful vegetable pulao. Plenty of colourful veggies fleck this basmati rice that’s been simmered in a very nice vegetable broth.
It’s a substantial portion and enough for six to share as a side dish.

As it is with so many foods, when you’re first exposed to something badly prepared, it stays with you for a very long time. So it was with me and eggplant. I couldn’t stand the stuff as the astringency literally left a bad taste in my mouth.
Years later, I understand that it can be properly prepared and this Matale eggplant dish is one of the standout meals of the year. With it, you have your choice of either steamed basmati or two pieces of chapati bread.
It’s one of the dishes from Sri Lank,a and if you look up a recipe, you may find that it can be prepared in a variety of ways. Here the tender, young eggplant came served in a luscious coconut cream. It was mild but immediately as emotionally comforting as a tub of Haagen Dazs Dulche de Leche. Only (perhaps?) healthier.

I can only recommend this as an essential part of dining at Dhruvees.
One thing is certain, the experienced chefs have their sauces down. Each feels more delicious than the last and the spices such as curry leaves let you know that this is not straight out of the jar cuisine.
The menu tells you that balado sauce is a type of “bumbu” which is the Indonesian word for a blend of spices (ex: nutmeg, pepper, ginger, galangal, turmeric) or pastes. Balado itself is a type of sambal, but here it’s not as spicy as we typically associate with sambal.
It is packed with that mouth-watering umami and marries nicely with the fresh and firm basa fillet beneath. It is a different fish experience from the usual and one worth repeating, although my one quibble here: not enough of that fab sauce to use with the pilaf rice.

It was time to put aside the cutlery and get into the messy business of the chili crab. You may have noticed that when eating with your hands, food simply tastes better. That phenomenon is examined in this New York Times article.
You are given a tool for cracking the crab and a pick for extracting the meat but your hands are a more efficient tool and you’ll think nothing of acting like a barbarian as you enjoy the sauce from your fingers.
I’ve thought about how I would best describe the flavours and sensation that coursed through me as I enjoyed this and it would only be through primitive groans of appreciation. All in keeping with the primal nature of this eating.
Half of the whole crab has been kept intact while the other half of the meat has been added to the sauce for texture and sweet brininess. It’s served with Pol (toasted coconut) and Seeni (caramelized onion) sambols and Paan bread (almost like a more dense sweet brioche), as traditionally done in Sri Lanka.
The crab was very enjoyable but that sauce had me in a stupor.

After this feast I wasn’t much in the mood for dessert, but Donald insisted I try another specialty from the Sri Lankan side of the menu.
He presented a pillowy rice flour crepe rolled around lightly toasted coconut and drizzled with honey. I wasn’t expecting a crepe made from rice to be so pliable and fluffy, but there you are, always learning something when you least expect it.
It was simple yet flawless but it did inspire me, since it was so enjoyable, to offer alternative flavour directions to Donald. For those of you who can’t have gluten this will be something you need to try.

During the day the Dhruvees crew offer a lunch buffet for $25 ($30 on weekends) and I admit I did find that the buffet tables did interrupt the flow of the space and were, to me, a distraction. I was sufficiently intoxicated by the food however, that I was soon able to put that aside.
Dhruvees also operates a cafe right next door, so they share one kitchen. Not content to offer delicious only South Asian fare however, later this coming spring Donald will operate an evenings-only Korean eatery out of his cafe space. It will be named The Seoul Station.
His manager, Nicole Kim will act as chef, working from her native South Korean family recipes.
From the wonderful gentle jazz playlist to the warm, professional service to the outrageously delicious and reasonably priced food, it’s a joy to close out 2024 on such a high note.
This is not just for experienced foodies who’ve travelled the world but an education for curious palates.

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18 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa ON K1L 8L9 +1(613) 744 7888

UNIT 101 and 103, 18 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa ON K1L 8L9