Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2008

N˚6

 The Only on King
172 King St.
London, 519-936-2064
theonlyonking.ca

Considering all of the foie gras and caviar, lobster and oysters that are consumed on this trip, you may be surprised to know that the single best dish of the year may well be the simple vegetable salad at this former dairy in London, Ontario. If the kitchen can do this much with a salad, imagine what it can do with vitello tonnato (the classic Italian preparation of braised veal in a tuna sauce) or braised beef cheek (which shows up alongside fingerling potatoes and Cheshire blue cheese in its superb rendition of poutine). Chefs Paul Harding and Jason Schubert, local lads and childhood friends, source out the best products – ranging from Far Ben Farms lamb to Mario Pingue’s antipasti and Field Gate Organics ham – to bring a sophisticated sensibility to their hometown.
 

N˚7

Lucien
36 Wellington St. E.
Toronto, 416-504-9990
lucienrestaurant.com

Leather wallpaper and heavy crimson drapery suggest a kind of specialist bordello, but one that caters to a more familiar kind of appetite. Chef Scot Woods brings some of the lessons he learned from a recent stage at Chicago’s avant-garde Alinea restaurant to bear on his whimsical, adventurous menu. The kitchen might turn olives into jerky by drying them and serving them alongside spoon-tender grilled octopus and wafer-thin slices of house-made chorizo. Bison strip loin combines flavours of root beer with cheese and bitter Treviso. Alongside, a crisp hominy cake tastes exactly (i.e. deliciously) like a fast-food hash brown. The chocolate complex is anything but: Pure chocolate from various regions is offered like a flight of wine to showcase their various qualities. Such wanton displays of gastronomy satisfy even the most particular desires.
 

N˚8

Fraîche
2240 Chippendale Rd.
West Vancouver, 604-925-7595
fraicherestaurant.ca

This is what a simple neighbourhood restaurant in one of Canada’s wealthiest postal codes looks like. There’s free valet parking, of course, gold as an ingredient and “Happy Birthday” sung by a professional opera singer. It also means familiar, traditional dishes cooked with finesse and imagination by a chef with a reputation as one of Vancouver’s finest: Wayne Martin knows his audience and understands how to cater to them. A solitary crab cake rests atop smoked-salmon slices and a hash of seasoned corn at the bottom of a deep soup bowl. The waiter pours a creamy, aromatic broth overtop. Chowder never had it so good. A fillet of Arctic char is paired with lemon-ricotta gnocchi, English peas and a nutty brown-butter sauce. As for the gold flakes, you’ll find them generously scattered over a caramelized banana and rum galette. Living well is the tastiest revenge.