Malone’s Lakeside Bar & Grill

Nice view, smiling waiter (not smiling waitress at the beginning), large choice of food, maybe too large ! You can eat burgers, pizzas, wraps, poutine… So no food speciality in this pub but a large choice of drinks. I had a veggie wrap with salad (no fries because it doesn’t look homemade), it wasn’t crazy but it was ok. My friends took mushrooms burger. The cheese and mushrooms were tasty but not the industrial bread neither the meat. Too bad for a burger ! It’s the most important I guess. Anyway the view on the canal is very nice, particularly at night with all the lights of the city. I could recommend it just for a drink and maybe for some simple «tapas» to share (nachos or humus but not the burger or the fries and obviously not for an industrial pizza).

Great location but not an exceptional menu. But their breakfast is pretty good. And they have beaver tails in the winter. Convient place but wouldn’t make a reso for a special occasion.

Malone’s is decidedly average, which is a great shame given it’s location. I went there with some coworkers for lunch on the patio overlooking Dow’s Lake, which is a very nice patio. The service was good, not amazing, but good, and the beer selection is pretty good, but not amazing. (Can you see a trend here?). My manager had a glass of white wine which she desciribed as «nearly un-​drinkable» without putting an ice cube, which is marks off for wine drinkers.
In terms of food, I had a club sandwich which was (everybody sing along now) good, but not amazing. At least my co-​workers liked their Swiss mushroom burgers while the others had food that were good but not amazing.
I know I am harping on about the averageness of Malone’s but for me, being average is just not good enough for the quality of the location. I really feel as though they should stand out from the crowd but sadly they seem to be happy just floating along in the land of mediocrity, expensive mediocrity at that. For me to want to go back they really will need to step up their game because in the Little Italy area average just doesn’t cut it anymore.

From what I understand, this place may be under new ownership. The food was much better than what I was expecting based on the reviews on this site. I had the Montréal Smoked Meat sandwich, which was quite tasty. No one else in our large groups had any complaints about the food quality. Service was excellent, with no complaints. And great view from an outstanding patio!

Wow. *Wow*. How does this place even stay in business? I’m stunned to find them with an average 3 star rating here on Unilocal — I think that’s high — and here’s why:
On Victoria Day holiday — our first one in Ottawa — we wanted to go see the fireworks. We planned a nice picnic, brought things to do — and it rained. Thankfully the rain tapered off and it looked like we were still going to get our fireworks — but the picnic spirit had been washed out of us — so it seemed like a different kind of spirits was in order — a beer! Having admired the pavillion setting for some time — but typically not willing to deal with the crowds, decided to give Malone’s a try.
I walked up to the door, with hubby behind me. Before I could even open my mouth to say we like to sit at the bar for a drink, the gentleman ‘guarding’ the door looked at me, and told me in no uncertain terms that they did not have public bathrooms, that bathrooms were only for their paying customers — to which I replied «how sad for you, because I had wanted to be a paying customer, but now I’ve changed my mind», at which point, he bowed and pointed us in. I declined noting that his customer service was lacking and I didn’t wish to spend my money there any longer. Clearly he has *no* concept of what it means to make a customer for life, net promoter or any of that other customer service lingo that boils down to «treat your customer well». There were so many other ways to determine if my sole purpose in life was to use his restaurant’s bathroom. For example «Good evening — are you interested in drinks, or dinner tonight?». «Well gee, I’m scum off the street and I really just wanted to use your bathrooms.» «Oh, I’m so sorry, the public bathrooms are over there».
To assume he knows my intent by looking at me smacks of judgement, a poor quality for a service business. By the way, he proceeded to yell at me from across the lobby as I discussed his poor service with others. And as talked with others I heard other examples of his poor customer skills — however, since they aren’t first hand experiences, I’ll skip them. Suffice it to say we will *never* go there again, we will never recommend the place. This business does not deserve to exist, if that’s the type of service they feel they can provide.
By the way — we went to Guadalaharry’s, got seated right away, got great service, had our two drinks with a quick table turn, and left a 30% tip for the waitress.
Would I return? No way.
Would I recommend. No, No, No. No one who disrespects the people they serve this much deserves anyone’s business, good location or not. Let them go out of business, and let’s get a more deserving business in there. Power to social media.

This is located upstairs on the right hand side of the Dow’s lake pavillion boat rental area.
Malone’s offers quick service, a great view and decent live music. I found the place to be a little crowded considering how many tables are packed in the small place. The service was a bit of a miss too. We specifically asked for our food to be not cleared while we step away for a couple of minutes. Upon our return the table was cleared.
The biggest I have with the place is the quality of food, I had thier $ 25 steak and it was honestly a 2 star steak. I’ve had 3 other steaks from other chain restaurants around the same price and 2 of them were worlds better. With the type of environment and restaurant Malone’s is, they should not have steak on thier menu. If they nsist to keep the Steak they should deliver a $ 25 dollar steak and not a over done, rubbery piece of meat. I would give it 2 stars but they get an extra star for location.

Malone’s has a lot of potential. The location is pretty striking — it’s on the top level of the Dow’s Lake Pavilion with a great view of the water and lots of park area surrounding it.
The restaurant is quite popular with tourists and some boaters. However, I’ve never found the service at this place to be great. The last time I was there they had an older gentleman playing the keyboard on the patio and the sound system was really terrible and you could tell most people sitting around the jammed patio were more interested in being able to hear their lunch companions than the music.
I split a really good mediterrian pizza the last time I was there and overall I’ve never had any complaints about the food. They have a large bar inside the restaurant as well as an outdoor bar on the patio.
I’m not really stuck on this place and frankly if someone asked me to meet them in the Dow’s Lake/​Preston Street area for a bite to eat I’d probably pick several other restaurants ahead of Malone’s. With Little Italy bordering Dow’s Lake, the competition for good eats is fierce in this part of town.
If Malone’s didn’t have the water setting I’d probably rate it lower.

Located at the Dows lake Marina. Great place for a beer on a hot humid day over looking the boats and the lake. Great natchos. Good spot for breakfast before continuing on your journey.

This restaurant has huge potential. Very large patio section and tiny bar outside. Great view!
However, the Greek wrap that I had ordered was not very good. The lettuce was soggy and I was able to squeeze a large amount of water out of my wrap. Service was slow when ordering drinks, even though the restaurant did not have many customers.
I really hope they improve the menu, because the location and atmosphere are fanatastic!

Malone’s is a decent restaurant located on Dow’s Lake that could be so much more.
It’s undoubtedly aimed at tourists that come to Ottawa and walk, boat and bike the Rideau Canal. It has a huge patio that can fill up on nice summer days.
The food is pretty normal family restaurant food with a slight Greek theme sprinkled into some dishes. It’s decent food, but nothing too special. If they used a bit more imagination when making the menu, they really could have made something special.
There is a limited bar on the patio which would be great for nice summer nights on the patio. Sadly, there isn’t much of a nightlife at Malone’s so the outdoor bar doesn’t reach its true potential.
There is an inside to Malone’s, although it isn’t anything compared to the patio. I’d only venture in if it is raining.