72 Best Restaurants in Canada

Located in a former firehouse at the east end of Duckworth Street, this trendy beer and coffee bar makes an ideal place to chill at the end of your downtown explorations. The architecture features industrial elements like exposed beams and massive glass garage doors that open to an outdoor space in summer. The atmosphere is friendly and calming, a choice spot for work or for fun.

This culinary diamond shines with innovative yet hearty food, whether you're dining in the sit-down restaurant or grabbing something from the take-out deli. With so much perfect meat, seafood, and vegetables tucked into one tiny building, this is more than just a hidden gem. If the pork theme seems heavy, be assured the handling of flavors is light and responsive. With a small enough group, you can sit at the bar downstairs and enjoy delicious tapas.

Chef/owner Konan Mar's passion for cultural diversity and his talent for fusing Canadian and Asian cuisine with a distinctly European flair shape this restaurant's regularly changing menu (think pork and kimchi potstickers and stout-braised duck shepherd's pie). Based in one of Golden's oldest houses and decorated with local art, the space is cozy.

Open for breakfast and lunch, this café makes the perfect spot to take a break from touring and enjoy a variety of options like shrimp pad thai, roast cauliflower soup, or any number of daily changing specials crafted by one of the most versatile chefs in Newfoundland. Under the umbrella of the nonprofit Stella's Circle, all revenue from the restaurant goes back into helping the most vulnerable in the community.

Following standards set by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN), Piatto’s pizza chefs (pizzaiolos) have been trained to prepare authentic Neapolitan pizza. The midtown location offers a contemporary setting that makes a popular lunch stop. Using choice ingredients, including a low-gluten flour, their classic and updated pizza treatments are delicious when enjoyed in-house, but you can also buy their make-at-home kits to enjoy the same fabulous pizza in the comfort of home.

This easygoing diner does a bustling lunch service in large part due to the personality and creativity of its owner, locally known as an innovative and improvisational chef. Enjoy casual fare with surprising ingredients in a space decorated with an eclectic mix of family photos, bottled preserves, and tabletops repurposed from old furniture and signage. Vegan, gluten-free, and meat-based options are available in generous portions.

The name belies the menu at this cozy spot on Duckworth Street where you can get excellent food for any meal of the day. Generous breakfast offerings bring local ingredients to traditional dishes. The with eclectic decor and soft lighting, the atmosphere is both relaxed and intimate. 

Offering everything from curry ramen and poke bowls to mushroom risotto and smoked bison flatbread, this small eclectic downtown tapas bar mixes Asian influences with local flavors. Both large and small plates are served in an intimate space with rough-hewn wooden tables, colorful artwork, and bare-bulb lighting. The drinks menu is equally varied, featuring wines, sakes, craft beers, and creative "blocktails."

An authentic cowboy restaurant with great Alberta steaks and terrific burgers, Buzzard's serves up good western food amid rustic country-style decor and cowboy artifacts. If you're feeling brave, this is one of the few places in Calgary where you can sample prairie oysters, otherwise known as bull testicles. The place is renowned for its annual "testicle festival." There's a sunny outdoor patio, and Bottlescrew Bill's Old English Pub next door serves Calgary's largest beer selection, including Buzzard's Breath Ale house brew.

Entrées are as colorful as this complex’s buildings, and the deck is the best place to sit on a sunny day. Dishes are all over the map: French onion soup, pepperoni pizza, grilled merguez sausage, barbecue ribs, fish-and-chips, New York–style cheesecake. Poutines are just as varied—one is made with shrimp, another with lobster, yet another with spaghetti sauce; special poutines might feature smoked salmon sausage or General Tso’s chicken. Stick around for live music. Emerging talents, some of whom have gone on to fame, take the stage year-round, usually on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

Come to this fab spot to grab breakfast where they serve authentic Central and South American dishes in a cozy location.

The magnificent patio, with its view of the ocean, is the place to sit while enjoying regional specialties. Sample seafood the way locals eat it, say codfish brandade, codfish balls, smoked fish or sausage, and seafood gratin. Flank steak and rabbit tartare are other possibilities. Desserts are homemade. Blond wood panels the open-space dining room, making for a cozy setting where the whole family feels welcome. The attached, nonprofit Centre culturel Le Griffon works to preserve local maritime culture.

Sip a house-roasted coffee or nibble a bright shrimp salad while pondering art that decorates this colorful café at the heart of the town. The owner's intention was to create a delicious place that helped support local artists. Paintings, stained glass, and other objects decorate the sunlit space, where timbers support high ceilings. Generous salads and sandwiches characterize the menu. Homemade soups and desserts are available, too. For a nightcap, try a spiked coffee.

This restaurant has been serving fish-and-chips to a steady stream of customers since the 1950s. They come from all walks of life to sample the flaky fish fried in a batter whose recipe the owner keeps under lock and key (literally). The decor is strictly laminated tabletops and plastic chairs, but the fish is hot, fresh, and delicious.

This large pink-painted restaurant with a wall of windows overlooking Chinatown draws so many dim sum devotees that on weekends and holidays the lines can go down the stairs to the first floor. Waitresses parade with carts bearing everything from shrimp done innumerable ways to sesame balls. Or you can select from the regular Cantonese menu, including shark fin soup with crab (C$30) and Peking duck (C$32). There are also some Szechuan dishes, such as Yu Hsiang scallops in spicy sauce.

This lively restaurant is a favorite among locals and visitors alike for its rustic Italian food and charming ambience. Set right on the harbor, the lovely views complement the warm, cozy interior. Drop in for a great mocha milk shake, or go for nibbling food like jumbo shrimp cocktails or garlicky crostini appetizers served on homemade bread. Entrées include everything from grilled tenderloin to copious pasta dishes like seafood linguine or spicy spaghetti marinara. Desserts are not to be missed.

A small restaurant decorated with log beams and bathed in warm Santa Fe colors, Coyotes serves healthful Southwestern-style dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Scrambled eggs and salmon, stuffed French toast, and warm seven-grain cereal topped with fresh berries, pecans, and yogurt stand out among the breakfast offerings. Lunch and dinner favorites include the black-bean burrito, polenta with ratatouille, pan-roasted honey-glazed salmon, and several vegetarian selections.

Calgary's oldest restaurant started as a milk bar in the 1950s serving organic food before it was trendy; today it's best known for breakfast, which is served until 3 pm, but it’s a fine place for lunch and supper too. While this gem is not technically in Kensington, it's certainly worth the short walk. 

Tasty sushi, fresh sashimi, feather-light tempura, gyudon, and teriyaki are among the authentic Japanese dishes that are artfully presented here on the extensive menu. Seating is available both inside the pint-size eatery and, in summer, out on a small street-front patio, and takeout is another option. Vegetarians should note that meat-free dishes may include fish broth, so make your requirements known.

A local institution, this seafood market and restaurant serves the freshest seafood with a no-frills attitude. Nothing gourmet here, just straightforward, well-prepared fish and (crispy) fries, along with other deep-fried favorites: halibut, shrimp, scallops, and smoked salmon. For those who don't like it fried, the crab cakes and chowders come highly recommended. They even offer gluten-free selections. Although there are one or two pricier options, like a whole Dungeness crab at $39.95, most prices are reasonable across the board, with a $5.95 children's menu that's hard to beat. While early dinner is served, the restaurant closes at 8 pm.

This wine bar has a small but well-chosen wine list, but the real focus is the food. A broad selection of small plates are on the menu including items like goat cheese-stuffed dates, potato latkes, and warm shrimp dip, while entrees range from prime rib and chicken cordon bleu to Moroccan lamb tagine. Save room for chocolate lava cake, cheesecake, or sticky toffee pudding for dessert.

Fire-roasted Neapolitan-style pizzas made in a real bell oven are the specialty at this small pizzeria in the upper level of a downtown building. Although you seat yourself and order over a counter, servers bring the food and drinks to your table. The pizzas range from a classic margherita to interesting combinations like cavoletti (brussels sprouts, prosciutto crisps, Gorgonzola cheese, dates, and walnuts) or prosciutto with arugula. Enjoy a gelato for dessert.

This pine-finished, second-floor dining room has great views of the railway station, downtown Jasper, and the mountains. The Canadian seafood, wild game, and Alberta beef dishes are classic and delicious, and daily specials are noted on a chalkboard menu. This is a good place to sample halibut or lobster from Atlantic Canada or enjoy Alberta game meats like elk or bison. The wine list includes some noteworthy Canadian wines.

Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the restaurant is known for locally sourced ingredients that are used in their delicious wood-fired pizzas and house-made pasta, creative salads, seafood and chicken dishes, and Alberta beef steaks; there's also an excellent breakfast buffet. The dining area includes a long bar, an open kitchen, and expansive windows with gorgeous mountain views along one side of the restaurant. A few vegetarian and gluten-free options are available and children under six eat free.

Enjoy your vegan meal in this relaxing atmosphere with hardwood floors and natural lighting. This casual eatery offers plant-based fare with most elements made from scratch with ethically sourced ingredients. 

You can't miss this beautiful timberframe restaurant located right next to the roaring Kicking Horse River in downtown Golden. They serve Canadian Rocky Mountain cuisine with Asian/European influences.