1031 Best Restaurants in Canada

Delicious and authentic Indian cuisine is expertly cooked and artistically presented here and gets rave reviews. The long menu includes vegetarian and vegan dishes as well as chicken, beef, lamb, and seafood---all prepared using traditional recipes, with varying degrees of spiciness. 

Founded in 1984, Nami is one of Toronto’s first authentic Japanese restaurants, continuing to serve fresh sushi sourced both locally and from Japan to a dedicated clientele. The kimono-clad servers and cozy wood booths evoke the charm of an older Kyoto. Along with its regular menu, Nami features daily specials and seasonal promotions, ensuring there’s always something new and exciting to try.

A five-minute drive from Clifton Hill, this local joint manages to be both casual and refined. Sit in the back room where exposed-brick columns and black-and-white photos of Naples on the walls set the scene for the southern Italian pasta dishes and thin-crust pizzas. The extensive menu includes 10 pizzas with wafer-thin crusts and generous dollops of tomato sauce, and plenty of pasta dishes and hearty meat dishes to choose from.

Head here for smashing pub grub. You can opt for fish-and-chips, or a classic cheeseburger, but they also offer more gourmet options such as a garlic and brie or maple bacon burger. The Narrows is a great spot to sip on local brews and chow down on wings. 

This is another five-star coffee shop to visit in St-Roch, either for a roasting lesson or a warm macchiato respite from the Québec winter. Known for its ecological and humanist approach, Nektar works closely with its fair trade producers in Brazil to produce the Para Ela blend, which means "for her" and is harvested by hand and processed exclusively by women who are paid 50% more than the regional average. With its beautiful packaging, Nektar's coffees are also a perfect travel gift for yourself or for friends.

Located on a quiet side street, the beloved café is known for its quality coffees, teas, and seasonal, Japanese-inspired fusion pastries. Since opening in 2015, the shop’s beautiful space has seamlessly blended Japanese and Scandinavian design, featuring warm wood finishes, concrete surfaces, and minimalist furniture, earning it design accolades. Beyond its aesthetics, it serves as a cozy, hip community hub with a loyal clientele, thanks to its friendly service and commitment to using high-quality, organic ingredients. Popular menu items include the matcha latte, roll cakes, and a rotating selection of seasonal drinks and pastries. There are several other locations across Toronto.

Whether you're in need of an espresso, a hojicha tea latte, a sandwich, or a gorgeous slice of cake, this modern Japanese café has you covered.

Come here to savor generous slabs of sashimi and just-sticky-enough, well-seasoned rice. Enjoy the view from the upstairs dining room overlooking the water and Corner Brook's iconic paper mill or get cozy in the downstairs booths where you can watch the chef/owner at work. There is also a small bar upstairs.

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.

Overlooking the bay with seating inside or out on a rustic deck, this 1926 former meetinghouse now houses a fine restaurant. Everything is top quality, from the simple but expertly produced lunchtime options—seafood chowder, sandwiches, frittata—to more substantial dinner selections such as traditional cedar-planked salmon with a ginger glaze, flank steak with chipotle hollandaise sauce, or herb-crusted lamb loin chops.

Known for hefty, soft-centered cookies, from Oreo and s'more to Filipino-inspired delicacies, this bakery also ships its wares across Canada and the United States (in case you get a craving once you're back at home).

This adorable café serves excellent coffee and a range of baked treats that you can enjoy in their antique-furniture-filled parlor or leafy backyard patio. 

The dining room is small and not much to look at, but no matter—the food here is the main attraction, and locals come in droves for the homemade noodles and dumplings. If you time your visit right, you might see the staff through the huge kitchen window working on the dough. Noodles with spicy vegetables and pork are popular—either for one, or to share. Traditionalists take note: the General Tao chicken is one of the best in the city (you can also order it with tofu instead).

Noodles, whether Indonesian-style with peanut sauce, thick Hokkien in teriyaki, or Thai-style chow mein, are scooped straight from the open kitchen's steaming woks into bowls or cardboard take-out boxes. Malaysian-, Singapore-, and Thai-style curries run from mild to scaldingly hot. Gluten-free, vegan-, and kid-friendly options are all available. There are half a dozen "boxes" around town; most are loud and busy spots.

Serving elevated pub grub with a focus on what's fresh and local, this spot right on the waterfront is always a good bet for classics like fish and chips, juicy burgers, and tacos. They serve their own craft beer, as well as a range of ciders and beers from other local brewers. 

A little off the beaten path, this intimate Italian eatery can be easy to miss. The restaurant's head chef Dmetro Sinclair emphasizes simple, seasonal dishes using techniques and ingredients outside the classic Italian canon yet feel more attuned with the true essence of Italian cooking than what you find in most other Italian restaurants.

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.

In hotly debated "best pizza in the city" barroom discussions, this local pizza chain is one of the top contenders. This location is a top spot in the Village for a tasty and crispy pie, slice, or handful of garlic knots.

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.

Hipsters head to this laid-back ’70s diner for one thing: delicious, classic greasy-spoon dishes with a modern twist. A close second is the décor; think cheap wood paneling and vinyl seats. The Palace Hamburger (Palais Burger) is gaining a reputation among Montrealers as one of the best in the city, and the sweet-potato pie for C$6 also has fans. On Friday and Saturday the bar is open until 1 am.

This adorable locals' favorite café is filled with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and housed in a heritage building. They offer a fun selection of tasty caffeinated drinks named for literary characters, decadent baked goods, sandwiches, and salads. Lines can be long, but this place is worth the wait. 

Because Vancouverites don't live by coffee alone—they're also tea drinkers—look for this tiny Yaletown tea bar that serves 60 of its own blends, including rich, milky "Lat-Teas." If you're feeling under-the-weather, order the "Cold Blaster," a rejuvenating blend of tea, orange juice, honey, ginger, and cayenne pepper.

A cut above the rest, The Oar entertains guests with its beautiful pinewood floors and rustic cabin-like interiors. Burgers and steaks are offered, but the upscale tavern menu has been known to include more interesting specials like lobster mac 'n cheese and pan-fried locally caught pickerel, plated with root veggies and pecans. Expect live music from locals and even an occasional Canadian star like Jim Cuddy. 

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.

Tucked down a tiny alley in the middle of the island, this espresso bar and bistro offers a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the busy public market. The ethos here is all about organic, sustainable, and local ingredients. Try a pistachio latte or lavender white hot chocolate to-go, or grab a seat on the garden patio or in the upstairs loft for a hearty sandwich or breakfast offering from the bistro menu. Everything is made from scratch in house.

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.

Lunenburg is riddled with seafood restaurants, but this one stands out for its location inside a former fish-processing plant at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, overlooking Lunenburg Harbour and with wharf-side dining in summer. Seafood is the specialty, of course, but you can also opt for chicken, steak, or vegetarian pasta. The Ice House Bar has 16 beers on tap and summer rum tasting events.

The classic alpine-chalet lodge exterior and interior of this restaurant provide the perfect backdrop to enjoy traditional Austrian dishes like schnitzels and bratwurst. The menu also includes a variety of steak dishes and a B.C. salmon filet. A stone fireplace adds ambiance in the cooler seasons, and the front patio is the perfect place to enjoy an ice-cold pint of on-tap Austrian Stiegl beer when the sun's shining.

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.

This contemporary eatery at Quails' Gate Winery is open throughout the year, making it a good choice for off-season visits. When the weather is fine, you can dine on the patio overlooking the lake. Menu choices are a balance of seafood, meat and options for vegetarians, too. The staff is attentive and knowledgeable about wine pairings.