222 Lyon Tapas Bar

Size matters: Best small plates in Ottawa

Laurie Jones’s neighbourhood institution introduced Spanish tapas to Ottawa when it opened in an old brick house in 2003. It still serves tapas and pinchos at a marble-topped bar seating 10 — big with the middle-aged, after-work crowd — or in a dining room that seats another 20. The stained glass windows and terracotta walls seem the right setting for such treats as marinated olives, beef-stuffed piquillo peppers and shrimp with chorizo and peppers. Two or three full-entree daily specials are offered. A list of a dozen wines by the glass is, naturally, heavy on Spanish labels.