Frequently Asked
Questions

Click Add a Restaurant and fill in your details. Listings are reviewed manually and typically go live within 24 hours. Restaurant data — hours, address, photos, ratings — is pulled automatically from Google Places once your listing is approved.

Yes — listing your restaurant is completely free. OttawaEats is an independent, unsponsored directory. Listings are ranked by quality, not by who pays. That's not changing.

Typically within 24 hours. If your listing hasn't appeared after 48 hours, contact us and we'll look into it.

Go to your restaurant's listing page and click Claim This Listing. You'll be asked to verify ownership. Once claimed, you can update your hours, photos, and contact details.

Hours are sourced from Google Places and kept current automatically. That said, hours change without notice — especially around holidays. We recommend calling ahead for special occasions or late-night visits. If you spot hours that are wrong, use the Suggest a Correction button on the listing page.

Star ratings and review counts are pulled from Google Places. We also display reviews submitted directly through OttawaEats on each listing page.

Yes. The Restaurants page has filters for Halal, Vegan-friendly, Vegetarian-friendly, Gluten-free, Nut-free, Keto-friendly, and Lactose-free, among others. The Halal filter also includes spots that the community has flagged as serving halal meat — even if they don't advertise it themselves.

Each listing has a "Know something about this place?" section where anyone can flag things the directory can't always detect automatically — like whether a non-halal-branded restaurant uses halal meat, whether there's a kids menu, if dogs are welcome on the patio, and so on. Once enough people flag the same thing, we review it and add it to the listing permanently. Flags currently available: ☪️ Halal, 🌱 Vegan-friendly, ♿ Wheelchair accessible, 🧒 Kids menu, 🐾 Dog-friendly, ✡️ Kosher, 💵 Cash only.

The homepage shows a live section of restaurants that are open at the current moment, filtered to 4★ or higher. You can also filter the full directory by open status on the Restaurants page.

Browse by neighbourhood from the homepage, use the neighbourhood filter on the Restaurants page, or explore the interactive map. We currently cover 34+ neighbourhoods including Vanier, Orléans, Barrhaven, Kanata, Gatineau/Hull, and more.

Go to any restaurant listing and scroll down to the Reviews section. Fill in your name, rating, and review — no account needed. All reviews are moderated before they go live.

Yes — use the Add a Restaurant form. You don't need to be the owner. We'll add it to the directory and the owner can claim it later.

On any listing page, scroll down the sidebar and click Suggest a Correction. You can flag a wrong address, phone number, hours, cuisine category, permanent closure, and more. We aim to fix errors within 48 hours.

OttawaEats is an independent local project built by one person — an Ottawa resident who got tired of SEO-farmed "Top 25" listicles recycling the same ten downtown spots. It's a proper, browsable directory covering Ottawa's full food scene, from Barrhaven to Vanier to Gatineau. Learn more →

No. OttawaEats is free, unsponsored, and rankings are based purely on quality — not who pays. A few people flagged concerns about paid listings getting pushed to the top in our early days. That feedback was heard: the advertising page has been removed entirely. The directory stays neutral.

It's currently self-funded and built in spare time. If you've found it useful, there's a voluntary donation link at ko-fi.com/ottawaeats — no pressure at all.

Use the contact form and we'll get back to you.