Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2022 Longlist
A GIF of rotating food images from eight different restaurants in Canada's Best New Restaurants 2023
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Every year, we send a top food critic out on a top secret mission: to travel the country in search of Canada’s Best New Restaurants. These 30 hot spots represent the most noteworthy openings in our nation’s dining scene — and they’re all in the running for a coveted place on our annual Top 10 list (to be announced later this fall). You will discover seaweed beignets overlooking a marina on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, a perfect chicken parm on the shore of Lake Erie and a sumptuous Newfoundland blueberry cheesecake, with serious sky-high seafood towers in between. So, join us at the table, we saved you a seat.
9 Tail Fox
Montreal, QC
This packed Korean tapas spot is like a glass of its orange wine: different, a little unstructured, but ultimately delicious. Chefs move around the open kitchen like the Blue Man Group, crisping tempura oyster mushrooms, and banging pans of kimchi-bacon fried rice and wok hei-tinged duck hearts with garlic scapes. Legend has it the kumiho, or nine-tailed fox, represented here in pink neon above the corner lot door, was sent to seduce. The story checks out.
+ WebsitePhoto: Tim Chin
Anemone
Montreal, QC
It’s a Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. and there are two couples making out at the bar. The music is pulsing indie pop by Bon Enfant; an open garage door leads to twinkly string lights on the backyard patio. Order a bottle of natural Vin Nouveau l’Orange, a few temaki rolls filled with delicious things like beef topped with crispy little frites, and warm roasted bone marrow stuffed with a cool salad of Matane shrimp and spring onion. This place is a whole vibe.
+ WebsitePhoto: Beatrice Minner
Bar Chouette
Calgary, AB
At this Beltline beauty by Duncan Ly, formerly of Foreign Concept, drinks and food share equal billing. A rosemary brown butter fat-washed bourbon makes for a rich and balanced Old Fashioned, while the gin-based Violette Haze is a lovely sour with a kiss of Crème de Violette. There’s a mini cheese soufflé, a magical rice cake topped with gently smoked side stripe shrimp, and îles flottantes of frozen coconut mousse and cardamom crème anglaise, with warm roasted pineapple. A star is born.
+ WebsiteBrassica
Gibsons, BC
This Sunshine Coast hot spot by husband-and-wife team Jack Chen and Hilary Prince is all sleek beechwood and marina views — fitting for the land of The Beachcombers. The chef duo, known from spots like Vancouver’s L’Abattoir, now welcome guests for cocktails fragrant with elderflower and sea buckthorn. Shared plates include SpongeBob-worthy beignet rolled in toasted seaweed with a creamy nutritional yeast dipper, a kohlrabi carpaccio, and Fanny Bay pink scallops Rockefeller, caramelized, small and sweet, broiled with miso butter and pickled spruce tips. Bruno Gerussi could never.
+ WebsitePhoto: Pauline Holden Photography
Casa Paco
Toronto, ON
It’s not quite Spain, it’s not quite Canada; more like Barcelona by way of Toronto’s Little Italy. We’re sitting around tables on vintage Thonet-style chairs, surrounded by a perfect forest green, munching on marconas, house G&Ts in hand. Chef Rob Bragagnolo sees to it that tomato bread with piquillos and scallops on squid ink rice have just the right amount of Spanish élan. Then wood-charred octopus and greens with a bottle of mineral-lime Blanc del Terrer and all is right with the world — on Clinton Street tonight, anyway.
+ WebsitePhoto: Chuck Ortiz
Dotty’s
Toronto, ON
It’s walk-ins only (so go early), but should you find an open table you will be rewarded with a menu that is simple and superb: pimento cheese with Ritz crackers, Caesar salad, a striploin with Worcestershire butter, and who can say no to a perfect little cheeseburger and fries? It’s all the things you want to eat and chef Jay Carter, of the late cult hit Dandylion, knows this. Now he’s at the top of his game pulling salt-finished chocolate soft-serve, and life has never been so deliciously uncomplicated.
+ WebsiteFawn
Halifax, NS
The menu seems scattered, but our friendly server explains it’s comfort food because whatever you’re craving, they’ve got it: “Sometimes you feel like a shrimp cocktail, sometimes you want a burger.” Or a burbling cheesy crab dip with Ritz, an equally relaxing American Negroni, and who knows how they got the chicken Milanese so crunchy? The pretty room by Bricks + Birches is a wash of windows, airy pinks and rust. Lemon meringue pie has the fun frills of a Vivienne Westwood design, so don’t skip dessert.
+ WebsiteFortuna’s Row
Calgary, AB
Am I in Lima? Or Mexico City? Latin America meets the East Village at this 10,000 square foot former textile factory reimagined by Mera Studio Architects in weathered wood, lush greenery and concrete, glowing amber by night. Time for a little street party. The Jasmine Sour is a beguiling shakeup of pisco, sake, coconut and jasmine. Ceviche sees sole and sweet potato in a rhubarb leche de tigre, while braised beef empanadas have an implausibly tender crust, which we happily swipe through spicy guasacaca sauce.
+ WebsitePhoto: Kris Andres
Lao Lao Bar
Toronto, ON
There’s a golden glow in this multitiered space near Yorkville, cocktails on most tables, with bowls of authentic Laotian food. Pungent, sour, savoury and spicy; papaya salad with pork rinds, signature curries and sticky rice with lemongrass- and galangal-tinged Laotian sausage. Every now and then people fan their mouths, as if putting out little stovetop fires. Purple tapioca dumplings are filled with a sweet and salty radish-shiitake mix. You wrap them in lettuce leaves with cilantro, fried shallots, peanuts and chilies. Oh, what a bite. Oh, what a night.
+ WebsiteLes Mômes
Montreal, QC
Your bottle is immediately placed in colourful tabletop silicone chillers at this vintage-inspired BYOB spot, run by a couple with an eco-friendly ethos. Enticing combinations of local ingredients show up in beef tartare spun with the gentle tang of sea urchin, and tuna seared and served in a bright sauce vierge. Homey pan-seared gnocchi is the house specialty, tossed with braised lamb and pops of cherry tomatoes tonight. In this lively Villeray atmosphere, staff act like nice neighbours as they drop off a sweet religieuse for dessert.
+ WebsiteMelba
Quebec City, QC
A dapper room done up in Dijonnaise hosts young Québécois who take sidewalk smoke breaks between courses of eggplant and goat cheese gougères, smoked bison carpaccio and perfectly poached halibut petal-garnished like a Vogue spring 2023 colourway. Little wonder it’s from the team behind Battuto, our Top 10 winning restaurant of 2017. The sidewalk crew hurries in for îles flottantes, which sees two types of meringue and vibrant rhubarb surrounded by a luscious moat of crème anglaise.
+ WebsitePetit Socco
Winnipeg, MB
One chef, one server, one menu, 10 seats: Is this the Littlest Restaurant on the Prairie? Adam Donnelly, formerly of local favourite Segovia, cooks in a teensy open kitchen while partner Courtney Molaro leads the drinks and charm offensive. Tonight, we’re all eating tempura shishitos with berbere-spiced mayo, a giant tostada heaped with prawns, fresh tuna and a tangle of Salvadoran curtido slaw, and a panzanella of Donnelly’s own sourdough with nectarines and unctuous pork belly. Cue olive oil cake with strawberry-rhubarb ripple ice cream. Small but mighty.
+ WebsiteRizzo’s House of Parm
Crystal Beach, ON
Star chef Matty Matheson reimagined an abandoned restaurant into an airy Old Spaghetti Factory done right, near the Lake Erie waterfront. Nostalgia rules. Homemade mozzarella sticks have a death-defying cheese pull, Matty’s Salad is an old-school Italian triumph — and during summer the vegetables come from his Blue Goose Farm. Crispy Parms (chicken, eggplant or veal) are sided by spaghetti with a fresh tomato sauce, but definitely order Matty’s Bolognese, too. (Actually, order anything with the name Matty in it.) Each hot, saucy, gooey dish is the ultimate expression of a classic.
+ WebsiteSimpl Things
Toronto, ON
Friends gather in the Creamsicle-coloured room on a Parkdale side street for owner and legendary bartender Evelyn Chick’s cocktails, like fig- and pepper-infused rye with smoked maple and peaty bitters. Italian by day, regional Asian after dark, shared plates include porky homestylelu rou fan, and silken tofu with century egg and lots of gochujang. Our kind – and astute – waiter asks if we’d like a side of rice to sop up the sauce. For dessert, the tender, ube-swirled hat tip to the cinnamon bun is better than finding candy.
+ WebsiteUgly Duckling
Victoria, BC
The seven-course tasting menu opens with peeled Saanich cherry tomatoes and silken tofu in a bright fermented tomato vinaigrette. This is about B.C. ingredients inspired by Canada’s oldest Chinatown. Cutlery changes to chopsticks. Chow mein sees local Manila clams tossed with homemade squid ink noodles. The music gears down, the lights dim. Lightly smoked Fraser Valley duck with blackberry hoisin is intoxicating paired with a smoky Blasted Church red. A couple plays footsie under the table. Could have been the food, could have been the wine.
+ WebsitePhoto: Dominic Hall
Acre Through the Seasons
Richmond, BC
A plate of one-bite snacks looks like a Lilliputian cocktail party: foie gras mousse on a dehydrated rhubarb-strawberry teardrop, a teensy spot prawn taco, a weensy potato nest with trout and caviar, a roti popper filled with Neufchâtel cheese. That’s just course one in the plush modern botanical room, where Pacific Northwest tasting menus showcase ingredients from Acre Lavande – the restaurant’s own farm on Cortes Island up the coast. Acre is part of a private club in an upscale boutique hotel in Richmond. But make a reservation, and you’re in.
+ WebsitePhoto: courtesy of Acre Through the Seasons
Bar Accanto
Winnipeg, MB
Saint Boniface is set at the confluence of Winnipeg’s Assiniboine and Red rivers, a fitting district for this petite wine bar where, if you take a wrong turn, you end up at sister restaurant Nola. A tight, bright shared plates menu matches the low-intervention wine list. Sweet and sour kiwi-cucumber salad has a hemp heart dressing and pecorino. Vegetable bonbons, braised carrot nubs wrapped like penny candies in turnip sheets, come tossed in fermented-carrot brown butter and fresh mint. Sip on Gérard Bertrand Orange Gold as you snack away.
+ WebsiteBonheur d’occasion
Montreal, QC
Bonheur d'occasion (The Tin Flute) was a novel of urban social consciousness set during WWII in Saint-Henri. From the vantage point of this whitewashed bistro, the neighbourhood’s grit is mostly gone — it has the happy feel of talented friends pursuing a dream. Snow crab sandwiches on homemade buns have a gentle whiff of Maritime Quebec, a platter of juicy roast duck and crushed olives arrives with fragrant shiso leaves in lieu of Peking pancakes. Wafer-thin phyllo dough, maple sugar and gobs of sweet clover cream are a modern masterpiece.
+ WebsitePhoto: Peter Currie
Cabaret l’Enfer
Montreal, QC
Sprinkled with fresh pink rose petals, the fish course is a mindbender, the aroma more Dior than wild striped bass. With its sauce of locally grown saffron and stinging nettles, what it shares with the other six courses is chef Massimo Piedimonte’s urban take on terroir. Charlevoix lamb is cured and fire-roasted; lobster-stuffed cappellacci tastes like the essence de homard. Asparagus is prepared five ways in one tiny bowl, and there are two playful desserts (parsley sorbet, skull meringue), every bite a Montreal moment.
+ WebsiteDarlings
Bloomfield, ON
The 3-D cartoon menu cover is a portal into a gloriously off-kilter Mexican-inspired red sauce joint, with woodfired pizzas, housemade pastas, handmade stracciatella and sugar pie with preserved Prince Edward County cherries. A former co-owner of Toronto’s Superpoint, Jesse Fader quit the city for greener acres with his family in PEC. And he created a place where the Spicy Paloma has mucho personality, Cressy Farms turnips come on a deeply satisfying salsa macha, and Laura Branigan sings “Gloria” from on high. Bloomfield is one lucky town.
+ WebsiteEspace Old Mill
Stanbridge East, QC
The agrarian dreamscape — a grand project by Eastern Townships star farmer Jean-Martin Fortier — is best enjoyed from the wraparound porch: There's a greenhouse and garden beds, rain showers and bonfires. Let’s eat warm brioche rolls brushed with honey, and drink local Domaine l’Espiègle pinot noir with hand-chopped beef tartare tossed with spring onions and sweet baby turnips. Choose from three cuts of pasture-raised Large Black pork: Juicy sirloin with a crisped fat cap, butt or tenderloin. Then fight over a little roasted strawberry sundae drizzled with pork fat caramel.
+ WebsitePhoto: Éric Gendron
Folke
Vancouver, BC
This plant-based food is so good it tastes like Mother Nature doing a death drop on RuPaul’s Drag Race. A salad featuring Hannah Brook Farm greens is revelatory—this what lettuce should taste like. Roasted chopped beets and hazelnuts are served like tartare along with puffy gnocco fritto for scooping. Garden-fresh carrots come tossed with warm panisse batons and a delicate elderflower vinaigrette, and grilled zucchini is set around a radiant yellow squash purée with chili crunch and lime. Turns out you can make friends with salad.
+ WebsiteKappo Sato
Toronto, ON
This is lusty cooking drenched in tradition. Entering a calming space of Kappo cooking, where a skilled chef prepares everything in front of you, is an experiential food journey for the ages. Tokyo-trained Takeshi Sato shaves bonito flakes for a gentle dashi, fries tempura one piece at a time, prepares seafood rice in a copper hagama pot, grills unagi over ceramic briquettes and churns soy milk into ice cream. He also smokes Nova Scotian toro, so sweet and fatty it’s like a roasted Atlantic marshmallow.
+ WebsiteLe Molière par Mousso
Montreal, QC
An A-Team of Quebec chefs – Antonin Mousseau-Rivard and Daniel Vézina – rolled up to the Quartier des Spectacles and created a Parisian-style brasserie for the ages. Édith Piaf plays on repeat as grandes dames enjoy glasses of rosé with their Doré meunière, couples slurp back Veuve and oysters at the bar, and proud grandparents treat their granddaughter to spit-roasted chicken. A giant craquelin-topped profiterole, stuffed with thick cream and vanilla ice cream, is drenched in warm chocolate sauce. Instant classique.
+ WebsiteMarilena Café & Raw Bar
Victoria, BC
They are draping the table in crisp white linens as if preparing for a black-tie gala. But really, it’s for jumbo shrimp. Oysters first, creamy and deep, from Cortes and Vancouver islands. Then aburi sablefish, pressed, miso-marinated and kissed by the torch. The icy shrimp cocktail is the platonic ideal, a salad of urban-farmed Topsoil greens has dukkah for crunch, and spaghetti vongole has just the right amount of everything. Toptable Group spent millions launching this bacchanal of a restaurant, and it shows. Victoria is forever changed.
+ WebsitePhoto: Allison Kuhl
Milpa
Calgary, AB
The room is a wow. Elia Herrera, third-generation Mexican chef, channels her beloved grandmother’s home in Veracruz — all whitewashed arches and terra cotta. Architecture firms BOLD and Sturgess turned her photo inspiration into a matrix of wood and azure. Cocktails are equally stunning – the Saturn is passion fruit heaven – while shared plates include the Tres Marias salsa tasting with guacamole, pumpkin seed and black bean. Look for Herrera’s creamy young coconut ceviche, rajas poblanas and her abuela’s two-toned (blue and yellow masa) tortillas— soft and warm, like a grandma’s love.
+ WebsitePortage
St. John’s, NL
Mauzy weather is the time for tucking into Ross Larkin and Celeste Mah’s local takes on dishes from away. Pork dumplings come with homemade XO sauce, donair spring rolls with famous sweet, garlicky sauce, this morning’s lobster is served on thick garlic Texas toast, and a bowl of whipped Newfoundland blueberry cheesecake with crunchy meringue comes dusted with local pineapple weed. “May be normal to you, but we can’t get anything like this here,” says my St. John’s dining companion. We can’t get this back home either.
+ WebsiteSalt & Ash Beach House
Halifax, NS
Behold Halifax’s latest big development, the glassy Queen’s Marque on the waterfront, where Florida meets Nova Scotia. Hostesses in matching mom jeans and cable-knit sweaters march you along pale oak flooring past the wood fire in the open kitchen. Seared scallops with crispy sage, grapes and capers, over cauliflower purée, is a plate-licker. Fire-roasted Brussels sprouts, glazed in honey and mezcal, are as smoky as a 1950s pool hall. Duos in cocktail dresses and families in sweatshirts define something for everyone.
+ WebsitePhoto: Hector Vasquez
Suyo
Vancouver, BC
There are flames and excitement in the open kitchen as pisco cocktails and aji-spiked ceviches hit the table. Suyo means homeland in the Incan language of Quechua, and Ricardo Valverde brought favourite childhood flavours with him from Lima and gave them a modern spin. Skewers of grilled beef heart dressed in chimichurri and sided with fondant potatoes are the ultimate dine-in street food. Arroz con pato – tender duck with cilantro-and-beer rice – comes with a seared foie gras upgrade. Some shaved truffle on those yucas fritas?
+ WebsitePhoto: Chelsea Brown Photography
Wild Blue
Whistler, BC
A warm Whistler welcome puts you at ease in the dauntingly polished room. Gabriel-Glas glassware and a wall of Okanagan and international wines are waiting. Watch as a delicate habanada-ginger dressing is poured tableside on North Shore tuna tataki with cucumber blossoms. Sablefish, roasted with maitakes and served with a broth made from its bones, is smoky, fatty and scrumptious. So too is the Prime New York Cut steak with pommes purées and yakiniku (like Japanese HP). Expert chicken fingers for kids, toffee pudding for many, a perfect night for all.
+ WebsitePhoto: Leila Kwok
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