Cape Breton Island Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Cape Breton Island - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Cape Breton Island - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
This fabulous bakery opens at 7:30 am for breakfast, great coffee, and tasty treats. Their sandwiches and soups are excellent, and stocking up on cookies and oatcakes to take with you is highly advised. At peak times there can be long lines, but it is worth the wait.
Located in a conference center on the Membertou First Nation's urban reserve, this spacious dining room serves up inspired global cuisine using fresh, local ingredients with many dishes having an Indigenous twist—and you can order a prix fixe three-course First Nation menu (CA$45) that changes with the seasons. Regular menu items range from lamb chops perfectly cooked with a pistachio pesto to a delicately spiced curry paella. The food is excellent, portions generous, and the space both inside the restaurant and in corridors outside features Indigenous art and artifacts.
Classic French cuisine with Acadian heart, this beautiful restaurant is filled with antiques and raw wood, with views out over the crashing ocean. Every carefully prepared dish is spectacular, from Acadian fricot to salt cod gratin to their upscale burger. L'Abri has a well-stocked selection of Nova Scotia wines and beers, as well as great cocktails. Be sure to save room for dessert. Bookings highly recommended.
More than a mere pub, this Cape Breton institution has evolved into an attraction, in part because it is owned by four of the Rankins, Canada's most celebrated singing siblings. Expect the usual pub favorites: fish-and-chips, pulled pork sandwiches, grilled salmon, and mussels steamed in ale, garlic, and bacon. There's music here most nights, and sometimes during the day (occasionally with a cover charge of C$10).
This beautiful café filled with art and vintage furniture serves tasty breakfasts, sandwiches, and delectable baked goods, as well as perfect espresso drinks. With a focus on fresh and local, you'll find snowcrab and lobster rolls on the menu, as well as produce from the gardens out back. The attached gallery next door sells lovely crafts, art, and jewelry from local artisans.
For superfresh seafood and views overlooking Bras d'Or Lake, head for this former legion hall. There are just four options on the main-course menu—lobster, planked salmon, snow crab, and grilled steak—each of which can also come as a fixed-price feast with unlimited mussels, seafood chowder, homemade rolls and biscuits, desserts, and nonalcoholic beverages (yes, all of these items are unlimited). The space can seat 100 diners inside, and more on the deck, but it gets busy, particularly when a tour bus unloads (though these are by reservation only so you can call to check whether one is expected). Unlike some similar spots, this one is fully licensed so you can wash all that down with a cold brew. Dinner service starts at 4 pm.
Perhaps the best place on the island to grab a slice of pie, this bakery always has a huge selection of sweet treats as well as excellent sandwiches and decent coffee too. The café is pretty tiny, but there's a patio and picnic tables outside.
This fun and funky coffee house is the perfect spot for an expertly prepared latte, fresh-baked goods, and a little conversation with the locals.
In a city where deep fryers reign supreme, this small eatery is a welcome find. The haddock is poached, the scallops seared, the prawns tossed in pesto sauce—and Flavor's flavors shine through. The menu is broad: house-made pastas are popular, as are the inventive sandwiches and all-day breakfasts. Brunch is served on Saturday, and there's a small patio in summer.
Sydney's first mayor, Walter Crowe, once lived in this Victorian home, built in the late 1800s. The restaurant, with hardwood floors, a fireplace, and high ceilings, is known for fresh seafood and hand-cut steaks, though there are lighter options such as salads, wraps, and burgers. Desserts are all house-made. Both the restaurant and the pub upstairs have large patios that overlook Sydney Harbour. There's regular live entertainment.
The owner-chef is fixing up this old clapboard building, but it's the treats that await within that really matter. A well-constructed menu features specialties like shrimp and scallop flambé, pork tenderloin in a red onion wine sauce, and maple-glazed salmon, and there's a less fancy but equally enticing comfort food list and kids' menu. Local wines, beers, spirits, and cocktails fill out the beverage list.
This cozy café is Cape Breton's first vegan eatery and serves up inventive and tasty dishes.
This fun locals' favorite serves tasty and well-seasoned fried and roasted chicken, burgers, and fried foods. There's also an attached ice-cream parlor.
There's usually a parking lot full of cars outside this popular hangout for Cape Bretoners, which also draws "come from away" diners with its long lunchtime menu of hearty salads, creamy chowders, deep-fried seafood plates, and homemade desserts. After 5 pm (and all day on Sunday), the dinner menu goes more upscale with dishes like scallops in white-wine and cream sauce and lemon-chicken supreme. At peak times, reservations are recommended.
Besides an excellent selection of beers brewed on the premises, this eatery serves up a seafood-heavy menu that truly hits the spot whether you're going for perfectly battered fish-and-chips, chicken burger, or poutine. The dining room is bright, modern, and airy, and the vibe is fun. There's a small store attached where you can grab cool branded Route 19 merchandise as well as craft beers to go.
This bright and airy diner specializes in seafood dishes, steaks, and casual dining favorites with a cozy, down-home style. There aren't many options for dining in Louisbourg, but this place makes up for that.
Fresh local seafood is what this waterfront eatery is known for, but they also do a great breakfast, hearty burgers and various other entrées. Prices are a little high, but that's common for Baddeck and the food is well prepared and tasty.
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