Every year, Air Canada enRoute magazine publishes a roundup of the country’s best new restaurants.
And every year, I am thoroughly stoked about it. Because if there’s one thing I love spending money I don’t have on, it’s food. New food. The best food, which is also new.
enRoute sent highly enviable writer Nancy Matsumoto from coast to coast – 17 cities in all – to taste-test her way through Canada’s most buzzworthy places that opened between late spring 2018 and June 2019. The publication enlisted 30 industry experts to field candidate restaurants for Matsumoto to check out. And picked up the tab, of course. Did I mention she is enviable?
Ok, enough saving the best for last. Let’s get to the goods.
According to enRoute‘s research, Canada’s best new restaurant is Arvi, in Quebec City. No argument here. Nope, none whatsoever.
Runner-up on the list is Vancouver’s ¿CóMO? Taperia. A few months ago they posted the below on Instagram. Full support on my end.
Rounding out the top three is Donna’s, in Toronto, which looks just damn great.
Spots 4 through 7:
4. Pluvio Restaurant and Rooms, Ucluelet, B.C.
5. Nowhere *A Restaurant, Victoria, B.C.
6. Dreyfus, Toronto, ON
7. Wayfarer Oyster House, Whitehorse, YT
8. Pastel, Montreal, QC
9. Dispatch, St. Catharines, ON
10. Ten, Toronto, ON
And that’s the top 10. You can check out all 35 spots which were in the running here.