The Hintonburg Public House — Restaurant in Ottawa

I went to HPH for my friend’s birthday dinner. Unfortunately we didn’t have a very good experience. The food was way overpriced for the quality of what we got. Out of the 8 of us, I think only 1 or maybe 2 of the people were somewhat happy with the food, while the rest of us were disappointed with our meals. How can you screw up a poutine?? Most of us “upgraded” from fries to a poutine. That was unfortunately a bad decision. The fries on their own, were pretty decent (tried some from my bf’s meal), but all of us that got the poutine were even laughing because we couldn’t believe what was happening. The veggie burger was also pretty bad. Again...nobody that got it, enjoyed it. It was dry, and didn’t really taste like anything. I don’t understand how they have good reviews when the food is expensive and disappointing?! Also, the service was horrible! She barely ever came to talk/check on us. My bf and I arrived a little bit late, and when we got there, we had to wait about 15/20 minutes before we even got asked if we wanted water. And that’s because I got fed up, and went to call her over! Once that was finally dealt with, she asked if we were all ready to order; we told her to come back in 2-3 minutes if possible, and she came back about 15-20 minutes later. Like someone else said in another review, we felt like we were a burden to the staff. Anyways, once our orders were in, it was probably about 45 minutes until we started getting our food. But our meals didn’t even come out together! I definitely will not be returning there, and I would certainly not recommend it to anyone!

One more thing, on a side note...the menu on their website is not very easy to use. They use pictures for everything, and when you click on the picture, you get the name and info. Having pictures of the food is awesome, but it should be shown once you click on the name of the menu item, so you actually know what you’re looking at. Especially if you want to...

I live in the area and visit the HPH occasionally. I noticed that I reviewed it 5 years ago with a high rating. My wife and I went there this evening 4 Dec 2024, and had a pretty abysmal experience. We started with the pumpkin hummus that was nice except 4 slices of mostly burned bread were provided. Not enough bread for the amount of hummus. We asked for a few more slices and they came burned black as well.

Then our burger and fish and chips came out. The burger was barely okay with a massive dry bun. I pulled the top of the bun off so I could taste the "burger". My wife's fish and chips were deplorable. The cut of fish had been pounded out so much that the fish was about an eighth of an inch thick with a massive amount of greasy batter. My wife tried to soften it and add flavor with the coleslaw but gave up after poking and prodding looking for fish.

It really is sad that the HPH has gone downhill this much and it would take a considerable amount for us to go back. Our two hot apple ciders were the highlight and were barely warm. With a just over $100 bill, I would go to the Third, the Senate, the Oyster House, or anywhere else in the...

I had a really disappointing experience recently, trying to visit their patio. My partner and I were greeted by a server around 8:25 PM, with glasses of water, the QR code menu, and friendly conversation. Of course they left us briefly to make our choices… we knew it was a busy evening (inside, that is - we were the only guests on the patio) and there might be a bit of a wait.

But we waited for fully an hour with no follow up at all, and we could see our server bringing drinks to the tables just inside the window. It was really confusing to be forgotten in what seemed to be plain sight, but maybe the patio is hard to keep an eye on from indoors?

We felt sheepish leaving but the sun went down and it was getting chilly. It's just a shame. Whatever happened, hopefully next time I visit I can write a...