Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2008

Five weeks, 12 cities, three dozen restaurants and one order of whipped pork fat later, we are proud to reveal our annual list of Canada’s best new restaurants. From a converted dairy in Southern Ontario to a Montreal pleasure dome and a room with a view in Vancouver, we traversed the nation from coast to coast looking for exciting, memorable cooking. We found updated versions of childhood favourites (chicken noodle soup, chocolate chip cookies!), saw Latin flavours employed in ingenious ways and enjoyed local ingredients best when they were served simply, giving us a true taste of each region. Because the overall level of cooking has never been higher, mixologists and maître d’s, sommeliers and servers proved as invaluable to a restaurant’s success as chefs and their kitchen brigades. As much as we want to congratulate the Top 10, we’ll let you in on a little secret. This year’s biggest winner is the person holding the fork: You.

Our mandate Each year, enRoute publishes its list of Canada’s best new restaurants that advance the country’s culinary identity. They are all places where we deem that the overall dining experience will have a lasting and significant impact on our restaurant culture. The restaurants considered for this year’s survey, which all opened between July 2007 and July 2008, were chosen with the help of our coast-to-coast panel of foodies.