Hino-style

There's nothing wrong with Ottawa's restaurants. People just don't eat in the good ones. And with people like Chris Knight touting the sorry likes of Social and The Wellington Gastropub, it's no wonder that Ottawa eaters choose style over substance. But if, like me, you're a little more London, England and a lot less London, Ontario, you'll love Hino -- a smallish spot whose decor is so bad it's good. Combine this with a handful of loyal barflies and made-to-order home-style Japanese food, and you may quickly become a regular.





Best: Thick Japanese curries cooked with fat shrimp and ladled over bowls of warm sticky rice; a tangle of skinny noodles; 'Hino-style' chicken; thickly-cut fried potatoes, homemade salad dressing over shaved carrots and crisp iceberg lettuce; two-layer chocolate cake doused in rum and frosted with the smoothest dark chocolate buttercream my tongue has ever tasted.

Go there.