Ottoman or Waters Edge?

I think a brod burger would be a better bet and spend some of the savings on really good wine.

Waters Edge, great food and service and AWESOME view.

on red all the way! (not affiliated either) Great views, fantastic food and service!
Don’t like Ottoman (vego) and water’s edge? I’ve been to France – ruined water’s edge for me!

Both are great in terms of menu and similar in terms of cost. If you want to impress the O/S visitors, the Waters Edge has a fantastic view over the puddle while the Ottoman looks out over a Barton carpark.

Sorry, that ‘neither’ wasn’t very helpful. But Ottoman is overpriced for what you get. Watersedge’s food is so so, wouldn’t call it amazing or brilliant. One hat is nothing, any man and his dog can get one hat.

I’ve been vegan for six years and never had a bad meal at Ottoman.

Neither.

The Ottoman has been our favourite since it was upstairs in a poky little space above Franklin St in Manuka (must be at least 16 years ago). Have enjoyed one meal at Waters Edge, but not enough to go back.
As for vegetarians at the Ottoman, we normally start with many entrees (the vast majority of which are veg), and if we even have any room left to fit in a main, I *have* to have the veal, but you could just run through the whole entree menu and have salads and rice to supplement. They encourage you to share the dishes, so it is very easy to manage the whole entree list with no mains when you go with a few people. In fact, it’s harder to have the ultimate Ottoman experience when you just go as a couple. Take some friends, and enjoy yourselves.
If you’re concerned, just call ahead and ask what they recommend. The service has been consistently brilliant & they clearly like their customers to enjoy the experience.

I know you asked specifically about those two

but if you want some great views of Canberra to show your O/S visitors you could try On red

http://www.onred.com.au/

Please note I am not affiliated in anyway with them, just had some great experiences there. Found it much nicer then Water’s Edge.

Stay away from ottoman if you have any vegetarians in your group. They literally do not have a single veggie main on the menu. They had said over the phone they can do vegetarian food… it turned out they did this by piling together bits and pieces of veggie items from other dishes, and then charging us 1.5x the price of a normal main because they had to specially prepare it.

Watersedge on the other hand has been excellent every time. If you can get past the pretentious language on the menu (Horseradish foam anyone?), they make really tasty stuff. And you can’t beat the outlook over the lake if you can grab a window table.

Ottoman Ottoman Ottoman!!!

For small VIP functions I refuse to go anywhere other than a private Ottoman dining room. The service is so unbelievably fantastic that you will want to live there.

I’d still pick the Ottoman public dining room over Water Sedge though, but that’s because I can’t stand French style restaurant food (I’ll cook French peasant dishes but Haute Cuisine is just awful). I don’t usually go to restaurants for the food but it should at least be tolerable and the Water Sedge a la carte menu looks like it was written while the chef was high on a salad of wilted coca leaves, fresh cannabis buds, magic mushrooms and reindeer wee viniagrette!