Banquet Halls in Ottawa: What Each Hall Includes and What You Bring
The Short Answer
Short answer: Ottawa banquet halls run from a 40-guest room on Preston Street to event centres that take 1,000 guests and more, and size is the least useful thing to compare them on. Three questions separate them. Does the hall’s kitchen do the food, or can you bring your own caterer? What does the hall put on the tables, and what do you carry in? And when can a decorator get into the room, and what is allowed to touch the walls and the floor?
Every fact below was read on the hall’s own website on September 23, 2026. None of it comes from a directory or a review site.
Written by Heba Alfarra, Owner & Lead Designer at Sparkle Events · Last updated
Start Here
Nine Ottawa banquet halls, from their own websites
These nine publish enough to compare. They run from a parish hall and two Legion halls to purpose-built banquet centres, plus one museum across the river in Gatineau. Guest numbers are the hall’s own. “Not published” means the website does not say, which is different from “no”.
| Hall | Guests | Catering | What the hall supplies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Elias Centre, 750 Ridgewood Ave, across from Mooney’s Bay | 50 to 1,000; the hall divides | Its own kitchen (Canadian and Lebanese), or your caterer | Staging, an in-house AV system, over 400 free parking spaces |
| Santo Cristo Banquet Hall, 1100 Kenaston St | About 450 banquet style, 700 theatre style, plus 150 standing in the reception area | The hall’s own sit-down menus (100-guest minimum) and buffets (120-guest minimum), priced on request | A two-sided bar, one event per day, free parking |
| Sala San Marco, 215 Preston St | Chandelier Room up to 300; Amadeo and DaVinci rooms up to 80 each | Food prepared entirely on site | Round tables for up to 12, microphones and podiums, a projector and screen |
| OLV Banquet Hall, 5338 Bank St | 150 for a reception with head table and dance floor; 200 theatre or mingling | Licensed outside caterers, approved in advance | Tables and chairs, set to your floor plan; the bar and the kitchen at no charge. You bring all linens, cutlery and dishes |
| Ottawa Conference and Event Centre, 200 Coventry Rd | 10 to 1,200, across 37 meeting spaces including two ballrooms that divide | Full-service catering on site | Skirted tables, chairs, white linens and napkins, plates and cutlery, all complimentary |
| Royal Canadian Legion, Orleans Branch 632 | Main hall 150 seated or 200 standing; upper hall 80 | Prestige Catering only; your own cake is allowed | Tables and chairs, a microphone and podium. No tablecloths |
| Royal Canadian Legion, Kanata Branch 638 | Up to 140 | Not published | Round or rectangular tables. $625 Friday or $750 Saturday, 5 pm to 1 am, plus HST |
| KLAS Studio, 180 Preston St | Up to 40 | Bring your own food or any caterer | Tables, chairs, plates, cutlery and cups. $1,500 plus HST for five hours |
| Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau | Grand Hall 600 to 1,000; Canadian History Hall 150 to 200 | Caterers from the Museum’s approved list | Room fee $6,000 for the Grand Hall, $3,500 for the Canadian History Hall |
Banquet Hall or Party Hall
It comes down to who feeds everyone
A banquet hall is built to seat a large crowd for a meal, and it usually runs the kitchen. Santo Cristo on Kenaston Street seats about 450 banquet style. Its sit-down menus start at 100 guests and its buffets at 120.
A party hall, or party room, is a smaller space you rent for a block of hours and fill yourself. KLAS Studio on Preston Street is the clearest example on this list. It takes 40 guests at most and rents for $1,500 plus HST for five hours. You can bring your own food or hire any caterer. Plates, cutlery and cups come with the room; servers, bartenders and alcohol do not.
Legion halls sit in between. Kanata’s Branch 638 publishes a flat rate for one hall of up to 140 people, and the Orleans branch has a 150-seat main hall with an 80-guest hall upstairs. If you are planning a birthday rather than a banquet, we compare what smaller rooms let you put up in birthday party venues in Ottawa.
For decor, the difference is scale. A backdrop that fills the end wall of a 40-person room shrinks to a postage stamp at the far end of a hall set for 450. In a banquet hall the decor has to carry three places: the entrance, the head table, and whatever stands behind the couple or the guest of honour, because that is where every photograph gets taken.
Catering
Who does the catering, and can you bring your own?
This one question rules halls in or out faster than any photograph of the room.
Your caterer is welcome.Saint Elias Centre has its own kitchen, with two cooks who specialize in Canadian and Lebanese food, and it also welcomes external caterers for any event. In the Centre’s own words, the decision is entirely up to you. KLAS Studio lets you bring your own food or any caterer you choose.
Licensed caterers only, approved first. OLV Banquet Hall on Bank Street does not cater. It welcomes outside licensed caterers but has to meet and approve yours before the event, and it does not allow food prepared at home. Homemade desserts are the one exception.
The hall’s caterer only. The Orleans Legion works exclusively with Prestige Catering, though you can still bring your own cake or desserts.
A list to choose from.The Canadian Museum of History offers a choice of caterers from its approved caterers list, all of them familiar with the Museum’s event logistics.
Food made in house. Sala San Marco prepares its food entirely on site, and Santo Cristo sells its own buffet and plated menus. Neither website says whether an outside caterer can come in, so ask before anything else.
This matters most for cultural celebrations. If the menu has to come from one particular kitchen, a halal caterer or the restaurant your family always uses, then a hall with an exclusive caterer is off the list before you look at the room.
A hall without its own liquor licence also hands the bar to you. OLV requires a Special Occasion Permit from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, and Smart Serve trained servers at one for every 100 guests, supplied by your caterer or by the hall at a charge. The AGCO explains the permit on its special occasion permits page.
Tables and Linens
What the hall puts on the table, and what you bring
The same guest list means a different amount of carrying at each hall.
- The Ottawa Conference and Event Centre includes skirted tables, chairs, white linens and napkins, plates, cutlery and serving utensils at no charge.
- OLV supplies the tables: 72-inch rounds that seat 8 to 10, and 72 by 33 inch banquet tables. The renter brings all linens, cutlery and dishes.
- The Orleans Legion supplies tables and chairs and no tablecloths. You bring your own linens.
- KLAS Studio supplies tables, chairs, plates, cutlery and cups.
- Sala San Marco sets round tables for up to 12, with microphones, podiums, and a projector and screen available.
Here is the gap a decorator fills. None of the nine lists a head-table backdrop, a styled cake or dessert display, or a statement piece among what it supplies. That is the part we build.
On the guest tables, our guest table styling covers the cloth, the chair covers and sashes, the runner and the centrepiece. We quote it by table count rather than guest count, because a room of twelve tables needs twelve of everything. At the front of the room it is a draped head-table backdrop, and for the cake a sweet cart or a three-tier display table at $130 each, or marquee numbers at $80.
We rent the table your cake sits on, not the twenty your guests eat at. If you need banquet tables and folding chairs in bulk, a general party rental company is the better and cheaper fit.
Access and House Rules
When the decorator can get in, and what can touch the walls
This is where halls differ most, and where a decor plan drawn before anyone asked falls apart.
| Hall | When decor goes in | Walls, floor and flame |
|---|---|---|
| OLV Banquet Hall | Up to 3 free hours, usually the afternoon before; $75 an hour beyond that. Rental day runs 1:00 PM to 1:00 AM | Free-standing only. Nothing on walls, doors, curtains, windows or light fixtures. No confetti, thumbtacks or staples. Candles in glass, never on the floor. Nothing, carpet included, placed or fixed on the floor. No removable stages |
| Royal Canadian Legion, Orleans 632 | On the day of your event only; everything out by the end of your rental | Not published |
| Ottawa Conference and Event Centre | Deliveries accepted 24 hours before the set-up day, labelled; everything removed within 24 hours after | Not published on the pages read |
| Saint Elias Centre | Not published | Outside decor vendors welcome |
| Santo Cristo Banquet Hall | Its FAQ lists “What time do my vendors have access to set up my decor and floral?” Get the answer from the hall in writing | Not published |
| Royal Canadian Legion, Kanata 638 | Rental runs 5 pm to 1 am on Friday and Saturday | Not published |
Three hours the afternoon before, which is what OLV gives, is enough to build a backdrop and dress a room of 2,200 square feet without racing the guests. A same-day hall like the Orleans Legion puts the install and the arrival on one day, so the design has to go up in the hours before the doors open and come down before the rental ends.
The floor rule at OLV is the one that catches people. No aisle runner, no rug under a lounge set, and no portable riser under a head table. The candle rule changes the flowers too: a floral bank with taper candlesticks, the way our draped head-table backdrop is photographed, has to switch to candles in glass there.
Walls are the easy part. Everything we build stands on a free-standing frame, so nothing is fastened to a venue wall, and a hall with a strict no-fixing rule is the normal case for us, not a problem. There is more on that on our flower wall and backdrop rental page.
Cultural Celebrations
Henna nights, Eid, baptisms and family celebrations
Some halls are built around these events. Saint Elias Centre calls itself a favourite venue for Lebanese and Eastern Orthodox weddings in Ottawa and hosts baptisms, first communions and cultural celebrations, with Lebanese food from its own kitchen or your caterer. Sala San Marco pitches its Amadeo Room, 1,591 square feet for up to 80 guests, at baby showers, baptisms, engagements and birthday parties.
A henna night is laid out around a raised seat for the bride or the couple and a procession, not rows of dinner tables. So the stage matters as much as the room. Saint Elias has a mobile, full-size theatre stage in its main hall. OLV does not permit removable floor stages, so a henna seat there has to hold the room’s attention without a platform, with the height coming from the backdrop and the arch instead.
For a family Eid party of 60 to 80, the smaller rooms fit best: the Legion’s upper hall in Orleans takes 80, and Sala San Marco’s Amadeo and DaVinci rooms take 80 each. Leave floor space for the procession and a henna corner when you count chairs.
We style henna nights and cultural celebrations in English and Arabic.
Cost
What an Ottawa banquet hall costs
Only a few halls publish a number, and those numbers are worth having:
- Kanata Legion Branch 638: $625 on a Friday or $750 on a Saturday, 5 pm to 1 am, plus HST, for up to 140 people. Weddings are on its list of events, and it offers discounts to branch members, charities and community groups.
- KLAS Studio: $1,500 plus HST for five hours and a $500 refundable security deposit, for up to 40 guests.
- Canadian Museum of History: a room fee of $6,000 for the Grand Hall, which holds 600 to 1,000, and $3,500 for the Canadian History Hall, 150 to 200.
- OLV Banquet Hall: rates sit in a separate document, but the terms are on the page: a $500 deposit holds the date and comes off the rental fee, a $500 refundable damage deposit is due with the final payment, and you must buy $2 million in liability insurance.
- Saint Elias Centre and Santo Cristo price on request. Saint Elias says its wedding pricing is built around your guest count, catering choices and bar service.
The cheapest room is not always the cheapest wedding. At OLV the linens, the dishes, a licensed caterer, Smart Serve staff and the insurance all come on top of the room. At the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre the linens and dishes are included. Compare the whole list, not the room fee.
Before You Book Decor
Six questions to send a banquet hall
Ask them in one email. The answers decide the design.
- When can the decorator get in, and is that the day before or the day of? OLV means the afternoon before. The Orleans Legion means the day itself.
- What may touch the walls, the ceiling and the floor? At OLV the answer for walls and floor is nothing, carpet included.
- Are candles and confetti allowed, and in what form? At OLV the answer is candles in glass and balloons with no confetti inside.
- Is the caterer yours or theirs? Ask this first if the menu matters to the family.
- Who supplies the linens and the dishes? At OLV you bring them. At the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre they come with the room.
- When is the floor plan due? OLV sets the room from your floor plan, and wants it a week ahead.
And read the answers on the hall’s own website or in its own email, not on a directory. Directory listings lag behind a hall’s rule changes, and sometimes behind whether it is still open at all.
Questions
Ottawa banquet halls, answered
What is the difference between a banquet hall and a party hall?
A banquet hall seats a large crowd for a meal and usually runs its own kitchen: Santo Cristo seats about 450 banquet style and its sit-down menus start at 100 guests. A party hall is a smaller room rented for a block of hours, where you bring the food: KLAS Studio takes up to 40 guests for five hours at $1,500 plus HST. Decor has to be sized to match, because a backdrop that fills a small room gets lost in a large one.
Which wedding venues in Ottawa allow outside catering?
On their own websites, Saint Elias Centre welcomes external caterers for any event, OLV Banquet Hall accepts licensed caterers it has approved in advance, and KLAS Studio lets you bring your own food or any caterer. The Orleans Legion uses Prestige Catering only, and the Canadian Museum of History offers a choice of caterers from its approved caterers list. Sala San Marco and Santo Cristo cook in house and do not say whether outside caterers can come in.
What are some affordable wedding venues in Ottawa?
Of the halls here that publish a rate, the Kanata Legion is the lowest for an evening. Branch 638 rents its hall for up to 140 people at $750 on a Saturday, 5 pm to 1 am, plus HST, and lists weddings among its events. Budget for what the room leaves out, too: at a hall where you bring the linens, the dishes and a licensed caterer, the room fee is only the first line.
What are some good venues in Ottawa for adults to have their birthday party?
For a smaller adult birthday, a room sized for it works better than a banquet hall. KLAS Studio lists milestone birthdays for up to 40 guests, Sala San Marco’s Amadeo Room takes up to 80, and the Orleans Legion’s upper hall takes 80. What each venue lets you put up is a separate question, and we set it out in our guide to birthday party venues in Ottawa.
How many tables does a banquet hall need for 150 guests?
At 72-inch round tables seating 8 to 10, which is what OLV Banquet Hall supplies, 150 guests need 15 to 19 tables before the head table. The number matters for decor, because centrepieces, runners and chair sashes are all counted per table.
Can a decorator set up the day before at an Ottawa banquet hall?
It depends on the hall. OLV Banquet Hall includes up to three free decorating hours, usually the afternoon before, and charges $75 an hour after that. The Orleans Legion allows setup only on the day of the event. Ask before you book the decor, because it decides how much can be built.
Where This Came From
Every fact, from the hall itself
Each detail above was read on September 23, 2026 on the hall’s own website, not on a directory or a review site. Halls change their packages and rules, so treat this as a starting list for your questions and confirm the current version with the hall.
- Saint Elias Centre: Home page
- Saint Elias Centre: Weddings, including the FAQ
- Saint Elias Centre: Special events, including the FAQ
- Santo Cristo Banquet Hall: Home page
- Santo Cristo Banquet Hall: FAQs
- Santo Cristo Banquet Hall: Sit-down menus
- Santo Cristo Banquet Hall: Buffet packages
- Sala San Marco: Wedding services and rooms
- Sala San Marco: Receptions
- OLV Banquet Hall: Rental information
- OLV Banquet Hall: FAQs
- OLV Banquet Hall: Public rental rates (PDF, February 2024)
- Ottawa Conference and Event Centre: Our facilities
- Royal Canadian Legion Orleans Branch 632: Hall rentals
- Royal Canadian Legion Kanata Branch 638: Hall rentals
- KLAS Studio: Venue rental
- Canadian Museum of History: Facility rental options
- AGCO: Special occasion permits
Once the Hall Is Booked
Booking decor for a hall you have already chosen
Sparkle Events works from a studio in Nepean at 99 Ralph Erfle Wy and installs across Ottawa, Kanata, Barrhaven, Orleans, Gloucester and Gatineau. In a banquet hall that means the head table, the guest tables, the cake table and the entrance, built free-standing inside the hall’s access window and taken down when the night ends. For galas and fundraisers in the same rooms, see our gala decor page. If you are still comparing wedding venues, we set out what each one includes in what Ottawa wedding venues include.
Sparkle Events was named a Winner of the 2026 Canadian Choice Award in the Event Planning Services category for Ottawa. We work in English and Arabic.
Tell us the hall and the date
Send the hall, the date, and whatever it has told you about access times, walls and candles, and we will tell you what can be built in it.