116 Best Restaurants in Alberta, Canada

Ask for a table on the engaging patio or inside near one of the dining room's walls of windows to enjoy some of Banff's best views while dining on dishes made from fresh local ingredients like prairie berry stuffed waffles (brunch); burgers, salads, and flatbreads (lunch); and pan-seared duck breast or the daily butcher's cut (dinner). Many dishes can be made gluten-free, vegetarian, or both.

With wooden walls and ceilings, this small 28-seat restaurant has a cozy, homey feel. There isn't a lot of selection on the menu, but it's innovative and very well done like elk tartare, Wagyu meatballs, and the coffee-braised bison short ribs; breakfast ranges from French-style omelets to buttermilk pancakes with a blueberry compote. The veggie and pasta dishes should not be overlooked and there are options for kids. There's also a nice selection of coffees, teas, craft beers, cocktails, and wine to accompany meals, and if you're staying at the resort, the Kumama canteen has everything you'll need to stock your kitchen.

The smell of Illy coffee and French baked goods makes La Boulangerie feel like a little slice of Paris in Cowtown. The cappuccinos and lattes are works of art, and the fresh-baked baguettes, pastries, and house-made crepes make this a perfect stop for breakfast, an afternoon snack, or to take a break from shopping.

This cafeteria-style café located just off Maligne Lake is a great spot to get a picnic to go or to relax and eat in. The regionally sourced menu has a wide variety of sandwiches, salads, soup, chili, hot dogs, and three different kinds of poutine, a Canadian indulgence made with potato wedges, cheese curds, and gravy. There's also a small children's menu.

The all-day bar menu at Lucke's Lounge features bison burgers, sandwiches, salads, and appetizers alongside yet another great lake view. They also serve a nice selection of Montana microbrews, wines, and craft cocktails.

Offering panoramic views from the top of an otherwise nondescript office building, Major Tom is one of Calgary's perennially popular and lauded restaurants, where reservations are essential almost year-round. The wide-ranging menu offers Alberta lamb and beef, but also excellent pastas, and perhaps the standout dish, a crispy roast chicken. Cocktails are taken seriously here, and the bar menu is longer than the food menu, including some interesting dessert cocktails. If you were ever tempted to try that 1970s favorite, the Grasshopper, this would be the place.

At the edge of Castle Provincial Park, this place has a funky deli and bakery with hot and cold sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, and an impressive coffee and tea menu. The store also sells ice cream and fresh baked goods and you can pick up food, liquor, camping, and fishing supplies in the mercantile. Gas and diesel is also available.

Named for the former dairy it now inhabits, Model Milk serves upscale comfort food (think burgers, fried chicken, and roasted cauliflower) beneath chandeliers made of glass milk bottles and brick walls, concrete floors, and steel beams that recall the building’s industrial heritage. This trendy restaurant has been on every best restaurant list since it opened in 2011; don't miss the small plates to share like the Savoury Fry Bread and Organic AB Beets. Some Sundays, the chef whips up prix-fixe three-course meals served family-style.

When in Calgary, do as the Calgarians do and enjoy the bounty of the land. Alberta is famous for its beef, and this restaurant has perfected the fine art of steak; they only serve fresh, ranch-specific Alberta beef, and they grill it at 1800ºF to make the outside crispy and the inside juicy. The menu also offers Alberta rainbow trout and seafood options, and a couple of vegan options. Dine upstairs for a more formal setting, or downstairs in the cocktail lounge for a more casual experience. Wednesday is date night, so two can wine and dine for C$80.

This good ol’ Canadian steak-house chain always gets top marks from its regular customers. There’s two options: a family-friendly restaurant with a laid-back vibe and the more adult urbanLODGE that serves the same great steaks in a more festive atmosphere.

The theme of this upscale pub is “come in good, leave better,” and a meal here will only improve your day. Award-winning burgers, the best Caesar in town, and an outstanding weekend brunch are just three of the reasons to visit the Next Act Pub. For a more carnivorous experience, visit its sister restaurant next door, where Meat serves up excellent barbecue.

This casual little restaurant serves all-day breakfast, sandwiches, snacks, baked goods, house-made donuts, salads, and picnic lunches to go. It's a great place to stop for a hot dog, French fries, poutine, ice cream, house-made ice pops or house-made marshmallows for ultra special camping s'mores. They also offer a wide variety of beverages including coffee, tea, kombucha, craft sodas, craft beer, and wine.

This vegan-friendly spot lives up to its name with intricate and diverse plant-based cuisine. Twenty different ingredients power the explosion of flavors in each bite of Banff's most intriguing nachos: strawberries, toasted quinoa, smoked blackberry sauce, garlic gherkins, six kinds of beans, Monterey Jack, and nine more items. Other inventive dishes include the kimchi burger; vegan mac and cheese made with quinoa noodles and a coconut-based sauce; and wild mushroom ravioli with garlic, red pepper, and lavender cream sauce.

This is not your average diner as OEB offers creative riffs on brunch classics—try the Get Shorty Philly Rib poutine or the cold-smoked salmon scram-blette—in a hyper-modern setting. Locals know to use the Yelp app to check wait times and have your name put on the waitlist.

This is slow food at its best, with just one chef and one server and patrons sitting either at tables along the perimeter or at the small bar, watching the sushi as it's prepared à la minute. Tatsuhiko Okazaki, the owner and chef, is famous for fashioning tantalizing combinations from the freshest ingredients. Try the Jasper Roll, made with crab meat and shrimp and served with a spicy sauce. Sapporo beer and sake complement chef Okaki's creations perfectly. Only about a dozen people can fit in this sushi bar at once. Reservations—only possible for the earliest seatings, at 6 and 6:30—should be made well in advance.

A go-to Canadian staple, especially for families with kids, the Old Spaghetti Factory offers a large and varied menu with an emphasis on pasta dishes. Whatever main you order, you also get soup or salad, ice cream for dessert, and coffee or tea.

Original Joe’s is a local favorite that has been part of the Kensington scene for decades. Recently renovated, it boasts a bright and fun pub atmosphere with one of the best patios in town. Classic pub fare served by some of the friendliest servers you will ever meet.

Get a taste of northern Italy while enjoying one of the best views in the Canadian Rockies; on warm evenings, you can dine on the heated patio while enjoying the vistas of Lac Beauvert, Mount Edith Cavell, and Whistlers Mountain. All the pastas are house-made, and the produce is locally sourced. The menu features shellfish from Atlantic Canada; steelhead trout from British Columbia; and Alberta beef, chicken and lamb. There are also good vegetarian and gluten-free options. Be sure to save room for tiramisu for dessert. Children age five and under eat for free; those 12 and under can order from a special menu or, for half price, the regular menu.

Close to the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market, this shop features a selection of local beers, craft cocktails, and delicious hot or cold sandwiches. Popular options include the Meatball Sub and the Veggie Sandwich. If you're on the move, Pals offers a take-out option.

With water from six Canadian Rockies glaciers and grain sourced from high-altitude family farms, Park Distillery produces spirits with aromas and flavors like no others. Its restaurant features a fun campfire-cuisine theme with classic coleslaw, warm potato salad, or mac and cheese served alongside rotisserie chicken, salmon, ribs, burgers, or steaks. There's a nice selection of vegan and gluten-free options as well. Sprawling over two floors, the restaurant has picnic tables and wall decorations that look right out of a kids' summer camp, though the lively main-floor bar reminds patrons of the grown-up pleasures to be enjoyed.

Located in the historic Simmons Building, the café at Phil and Sebastion's headquarters is the perfect stop before or after a stroll along the RiverWalk. Pop in for a caffeine fix and a pastry from Sidewalk Citizen Bakery or something more substantial, like one of their Middle Eastern--inspired breakfast and lunch items. The space is also home to their roasting facility, which you can peer at through floor-to-ceiling windows; tours of the space are occasionally offered.

If you’re looking for authentic Neapolitan pizza, look no further than Pulcinella, one of only a few Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani--certified pizzerias in North America. Chef Domenic Tudda, whose parents owned an Italian restaurant in the same location for decades, trained in Naples, and locals rave about the pizza, as well as the fabulous wine list, calamari fritti, and caprese salad.

This intimate dining space combines delicious with nutritious, using regionally sourced seafood, beef, pork, and game to create Mediterranean-fusion fare. Consider the seafood pot, with ingredients simmered in a broth made with tomatoes, coconut, and kaffir lime and served over sweet-potato noodles with Asian vegetables; just save room for the delicious chocolate-pecan tart (surprise . . . it's vegan and gluten-free!). Creative cocktails are served at the large wooden bar, where there's also a nice selection of wines by the glass.

This award-wining restaurant serves authentic prairie cooking from wood-fired ovens. Chef Blair Lebsack’s focus on sourcing fresh local ingredients according to best practices and sustainability means the food served is the best it can be. The attached Butchery provides the restaurant's meats, as well as uncooked versions of their house-butchered meats and other foodstuffs like premade foods and baked goods. The wine selection won a wine excellence award in 2024.

Inspired by the natural surroundings of Prince's Island Park, on Bow River, this restaurant has the look of a fishing lodge. The exquisite regional Canadian cuisine includes Northwest Territories caribou, British Columbia oysters and Pacific salmon, Alberta Black Angus beef, and Alberta lamb. The wine list has earned Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence since 1997. With 24-hours advance notice, the restaurant can prepare you a picnic basket to enjoy in the park.

Neapolitan-style pizza baked in a stone-fired oven is the specialty of this local pizza place that serves their pizzas with their own secret finishing oil. The menu also features calzones, lasagna, salads, and tiramisu for dessert. You can pair your meal with a selection of local craft beers and ciders, wine, or a cocktail.

Every night bakers at this establishment make between 60 and 120 dozen artisan "Mountain Style" (cooked in a steam-injected oven and then baked) bagels in nine different flavors as well as muffins, cinnamon buns, and scones. Flavored cream cheeses, soups, cookies, and squares are also on the menu and everything is served with a nice selection of coffees, teas, and juices. There are two locations in Canmore.

This award-winning family pizza chain began in Canmore and now has locations in Vancouver and Calgary as well. The secret to their success is local organic produce, free-range organic meats, and Ocean Wise seafood on the flatbread pizzas, pastas, and salads. You can watch the pizzas being made in the open kitchen and then baked in an artisan wood-fired pizza oven. There are gluten-wise, vegan, vegetarian, and nut-free options on the menu as well as a nice selection of craft beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic beverages to enjoy with a meal. There's also a good children's menu.

This saloon-style pub restaurant is themed around the Prohibition era when rumrunners frequented the Crowsnest Pass. The open kitchen prepares Canadian and European-style pub food like burgers, pizza, fish-and-chips, appetizers, and salads. There's a seniors menu and a gluten-free menu. They also serve a wide variety of beverages to accompany a meal and their display of local nostalgia is impressive.

The cozy main-floor lounge serves casual comfort food. The top-level restaurant serves more elaborate dishes—perhaps maple-rosemary braised short rib with Saskatoon berry sauce or grilled arctic char with beetroot risotto—in a modern dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows, wood-plank walls, and dark-wood tables. The nightly, three-course, "trust me" menu is a good value for adventurous eaters who don't mind letting the chef decide what's for dinner. There's a nice selection of reasonably priced wines (by the glass or bottle), cocktails, and craft and draft beers.