World Exchange Plaza - Sälinkää

The food court at the World Exchange Plaza has a Subway, a sushi place, Middle Eastern food, a pasta/pizza bar, a Thai Express, and more. My favourite vendors are Shakey's and Soup Guy. Shakey's makes amazing burgers, especially if you are looking for a veggie burger (and good ones are hard to come by). Soup Guy has amazing soups but they also make amazing sandwiches. They make a vegetarian one that is one of the best I've ever had. They also offer some different salads, which are good if you want to get those. If you get a chance, when you see the giant oatmeal or chocolate chip cookies they have, grab them while you can because they are bakery quality amazing. I haven't tried their muffins yet, but I have no doubt they would also be delicious. The soups taste like they're homemade and feature quality, wholesome ingredients that make them so savoury and so worth it. They're so much better than the bigger name franchises that sell salty water and call it soup.

There's some nice stores in here and a small food court with some nice lunch time foods. But mostly it's offices. The building is pretty clean overall and has free parking underground on weekends which is great! Has a couple coffee shops and lots of seating options. Shoppers drug mart is in here as well as a smaller store and also a small lcbo! Free parking on weekends :

I love food courts, but not the usual food courts that contain mostly chains like New York Fries, Sbarro, Thai Express, Manchu Wok, etc. I 'm talking food courts that are mostly independent vendors. I mean some of the people making food at these places are just as skilled and talented as the chefs at restaurants; they just don 't have the resources or perhaps they don 't have the desire to open a restaurant, but still have the passion to feed others with their food. Admittedly, not all independent vendors serve good food, but I do like supporting the little guys by giving them a chance. Toronto has Village by the Grange, Markham has Pacific Mall, and First Markham Place, and Montreal had the Faubourg I 'm talking in it 's heyday (circa late 1990 's) not present day where there are only 2 vendors left and the place is essentially a ghost town [sniffle, sniffle]. Man, I loved that place, but hey, sentimentality is for chumps [wipes away tears] and I am digressing... Anyway, all this is to say that the food court at the World Exchange Plaza is probably the closest thing to a cool food court that Ottawa has. While it has a mix of chains and independents, the independent vendors do outnumber the chains. The World Exchange Plaza is an office and retail building. Once upon a time it also had a movie theatre, but that has since closed. It 's actually quite pretty and has a huge atrium in the middle (with sculptures of narwhals and beluga whales hanging from the ceiling). The eastern side looks a bit like The Roman Colosseum. The outside has steps leading down to it where people like to sit during nice weather to eat their lunches. There is also an outdoor amphitheatre. When I went by today there was a group playing music for the lunch crowd. The main retailers are Shoppers Drug Mart, and the LCBO. The food court is on the second floor and the vendors are: Muffin Plus/The Soup Guy, Asian Gourmet, Shakey 's, Kebob Kebob, Tasha 's, Cheesy Pizza Pasta, Booster Juice, Subway, Thai Express, Sushi Shop and Second Cup. The eating area is kept very clean and there are seats that are a bit secluded that over look the street and seats that are more central that over look the atrium. The washrooms are also very clean. At lunchtime it 's full of office workers. There are very few babies, kids, and tourists. Overall, a good place to grab a quick bite in a nice environment.