Restaurants in Hilliard

Unlike a pirate-ship kitchen, The Shrunken Head lets its visitors munch on a variety of veggie-friendly, locally sourced, and organic items that aren’t served with a side of gunpowder. Breakfast is served on weekdays until 11 a.m. and until 3 p.m. on weekends. Start the day off with an organic cappuccino ($3.25, $3.75) and The Big Lebowski's platter of two buttermilk pancakes topped with eggs ($5.50), which provides much more energy than you'd get sucking on a D-cell battery. The lunch and dinner menu features local farm meats, organic milk, local bread, and space spices that are delivered daily via teleportation. Try a fiery volcano burger with jalapeños and Montezuma chipotle-barbecue sauce ($8.75), a French-brie bagel sandwich ($6.50), or a hummus plate with olive oil and pitas ($6.25). Patrons can also soak in The Shrunken Head's tiki-bar vibe and kick back on a scenic outdoor deck that doesn’t encroach on the borders of any local jungle tribes.

W.G. Grinders puts hearty oven-baked sandwiches, hot pizzas, and crispy salads into on-the-go hands, mouths, and bellies. For the lightest level of W.G. Hunger, sink your fork into a signature salad ($5.99), including the meaty original Italian, chock-full chef, tangy buffalo chicken, and aptly located Southwest chicken salad. If flat topography eases your fear of toppling off a mound of greens, choose the single-topping 12-inch personal pizza ($7.99), which spreads sauce and sprinkles cheese over a thin crust and includes your choice of bacon, ham, sausage, green peppers, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, or banana peppers. For some Italian flair wrapped in Italian dough, grab a stromboli ($5.99). Your meal also includes a side—choose from chips ($1), side salad ($2), or deli salad ($2–$2.50)—and a 22 oz. fountain drink ($1.49).

For 10 years, Wholly Joe's has provided the Columbus metro area with made-to-order Chicago-style eats and treats, saving residents a trip to the eerie, ghost-laden terrain of northeastern Illinois. Joe's uses authentic Chicago-sourced ingredients (including Italian sausage, Italian beef, sport peppers, and Turano Bakery breads) to capture the Windy City's savory, meat-packed cuisine. While Joe's does offer traditional Italian and grill fare—burgers, chicken and fish sandwiches, and pastas—its commitment to the mythic triumvirate of deep-dish pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs, and Italian beef is what keeps visitors' salivary glands replacing their th's with d's. The hand-shaped deep-dish pizza ($14.99 for 12", $16.99 for 14") is made from scratch (Chicago's most abundant commodity after political corruption) and can be topped with Second City staples such as Italian sausage, bacon, and hot peppers. Encased-meat enthusiasts can sample an original all-beef hot dog ($2.75) or Polish sausage ($3.35) with mustard, relish, chopped onions, sliced red tomatoes, cucumber, kosher pickle, and sport peppers—all stuffed into a steamed poppy-seed bun like so many cans of beans in a hobo's bindle. The Italian-beef sandwich ($5.39) features a pile of succulent, thinly sliced roast beef on French bread, soaked in the natural juices of its own delicious iniquity, and can be partnered with a side of crinkle-cut fries (regular, $1.89) or a Chicago-style tamale ($1.99).

Dough flips through the air, releasing a cumulonimbus of flour as it lands softly in the hands of chef David Zadnik, who crafts the crucial ingredient each day with help from local ingredients and family recipes. The heritage of the eatery doesn’t just shine through in culinary formulas; the walls at both locations shimmer with old family photos from David's basement and glossy sports memorabilia. Strains of Frank Sinatra spread out smoothly behind conversations in dining rooms dappled with warm wood accents, occasionally spilling out to an outdoor patio or across the Westerville location's outdoor bocce-ball court. Guests sit down for pastas, sandwiches, and suds from Great Lakes Brewery and Peroni, often unaware that these tables held a victory dinner for pugilist Buster Douglas when he returned from defeating Mike Tyson in Japan, but before he picked up his victory dry cleaning.

Inside New India Restaurant, chandeliers illuminate plates of enticing Indian fare dusted with spices and herbs, lighting up taste buds with anticipation. Around the dining room, guests dig in to cuts of chicken roasted in a tandoori oven, chick peas tempered with ginger, and thali, a traditional Indian meal of lamb curry and chicken pakora served on a silver platter.