IY restaurants are kind of an expected thing out on Ossington. Foxley, for example, has been serving upscale pan-Asian dishes in a low-budget space to the locals, and the sensational fare at Delux is luring downtowners to its space in a pleasantly decaying building. At Crooked Star and Dakota Tavern you can drink, on very little cash, 'til the cows come home.

But Alice's Restaurant, a new eatery tucked into a glassed-in office-building space near College and Ossington, is the most unassuming DIY-intensive restaurant anywhere: With a diner-esque exterior and stainless steel signage, you might wander in expecting it to be a breakfast diner (there are a lot of those in these parts). But inside awaits a stark, little dining room, which is already – still in its infancy - in need of a make-over.

The genuinely old space that has been mildly tricked out, complete with simple wood tables and chairs and a severely aged and chipped floor tiling. It is the smell of sizzling, garlic-rubbed meat, though, that lures you to your seat. Like many home-spun restaurants, meat is the focal point, and Alice's menu doesn't disappoint.

A restaurant that is defiantly, refreshingly unhip, Alice's Restaurant, which is the creation of chef John Pekka Woods – who has done time at Toque, Rundles, N44 - puts all its attention on its plates. Consider an appetizer of shrimp risotto ($12.00). The risotto comes with an unexpected dose of wilted spinach and Parmagainno Reggiano. There's a tad too much sweetness for this version, and some might consider the dish over the top. But it is not fussy, and the medley of flavours and textures - fatty and crunchy - is satisfying to the core.