Most kitchens that call themselves Italian reach for the whole country. North & Navy reaches for one corner of it. The cooking is rooted in Northeast Italy — the Veneto and the regions around it — and runs that narrow inheritance through Eastern Ontario's seasons, so a spring menu turns on ramps, asparagus, and morels while later in the year it leans on squash and sea buckthorn. Cicheti, the Venetian tradition of small bites eaten standing with a glass of wine, sets the register for everything that follows: precise, regional, and uninterested in the red-sauce shorthand most diners expect from the cuisine.
The menu moves in the classic order — antipasti, primi, secondi, dolce — and rewards a table that follows it. The opening stretch runs to Polpette, Vitello Tonnato, Frico & Smoked Fish, White Asparagus & Pecorino, and a Braised Leek & Smoked Scallop, small plates built for sharing before the meal turns substantial. Pasta is treated as a course that matters rather than a bridge between courses: Smoked Char Agnolotti, Shortrib Raviolo, Corzetti con Rucola, and a spring ramp risotto finished with La Sauvagine. The secondi carry the weight — Halibut with morels and asparagus, Quaglia with polenta, Tournedos Rossini, and the Bistecca alla Fiorentina, a large-format steak built for a table to gather around. Dessert holds up its end too, from the Zeppola alla Tiramisu to a Sea Buckthorn Tart and a Gianduja Budino. The kitchen is open about the menu shifting with the season, and notes that gluten-free and vegan pasta can be made on request.
North & Navy is strongest when it stays regional: cicheti, Bacaro framing, pasta and risotto, and secondi that read like a deliberate Northern Italian meal. That focus gives the restaurant more definition than a broad Italian catch-all.
The restaurant has two useful entry points. You can read it casually through the Bacaro and small bites, or give the night over to the six-course tasting menu when the occasion calls for a complete arc.
Current local coverage still ties the restaurant to Christopher Schlesak and Adam Vettorel, with Vettorel named as executive chef and co-owner. That continuity helps the place feel authored rather than merely themed.
North & Navy suits a planned night because the menu has a clear progression, the townhouse setting carries a sense of occasion, and guests can choose between à la carte pacing and the tasting-menu path. It feels made for dinners that deserve structure.
The restaurant’s current menu is presented as ingredient-led and changeable, with asparagus, ramps, morels, sea buckthorn and other seasonal markers doing real work. Repeat visits have a reason beyond ordering the same favourites.
The six-course format gives North & Navy a complete-kitchen route for guests who want the restaurant to set the pace. It matters because the same menu can also be ordered à la carte, so the tasting menu feels like a choice, not the only way in.
Adam Vettorel is still part of the restaurant’s current public identity as executive chef and co-owner, while Christopher Schlesak remains tied to the ownership story. That gives the restaurant an authored feel rather than a concept pasted onto a room.
The room works for couples because the meal has built-in pacing: a small-bites start, a serious pasta course, a shared main if the night calls for it, and dessert with personality. It is polished without forcing every visit into the same formal script.
Share the nuances of your visit to North & Navy in Ottawa — the standout dishes, the room, the service.
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