Every year, in a shameless but effective ploy to get people to travel across the country, Air Canada publishes a list of the best new restaurants. They’ve just unveiled their longlist of 30 new spots, and we’d like reservations at all of them, please.
This year’s contenders include Japanese, Thai, Mexican, Filipino, Argentinian, Moroccan, French, Italian, Indigenous and local cuisine, and they’re scattered across the country in big cities like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary as well as more unexpected places like Jordan Station, Ont. and Saint-Benoît-de-Mirabel, Que. Take a look at the list below.
British Columbia
1909 Kitchen, Tofino
Cuisine: Seasonal
Chef: Paul Moran
We want to try: Pacific crab boil, featuring dungeness crab, mussels, clams, bacon banger sausages, corn on the cob, nugget potatoes, foot hills butter and lemon.
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
St. Lawrence, Vancouver
Cuisine: Québécois-French
Chef: J-C Poirier
We want to try: Grilled hanger steak with bone marrow, sauce aux poivres and frites
The Courtney Room, Victoria
Cuisine: Seasonal French
Chef: Sam Harris
We want to try: Beef tenderloin Oscar, made with seared beef tenderloin, dungeness crab, béarnaise sauce, pomme purée and wilted greens
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Alberta
Biera, Edmonton
Cuisine: Canadian
Chef: Christine Sandford
We want to try: Peas on earth spinach grilled over charcoal, with black sesame, hazelnut and smoked buttermilk cheese
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Bread and Circus Trattoria, Calgary
Cuisine: Italian
Chef: Kayle Burns
We want to try: Housemade ricotta gnocchi with garlic scape and basil pesto, parmigiano reggiano and toasted pistachios
Bündok, Edmonton
Cuisine: Seasonal
Chef: Kyle Hotchkiss
We want to try: Grilled apple tartine with oka cheese and honey
Cruz Tacos, Calgary
Cuisine: Mexican
Chef: Troy Fleischhaker
We want to try: Crispy fish tacos with gluten-free batter, mint cabbage and preserved lemon slaw, Cruz sauce, pickled onion and smoked feta
Donna Mac, Calgary
Cuisine: Canadian
Chef: Justin “Tino” Longpre
We want to try: Donna “Mac & Cheese” with cavatelli, burrata, bacon and parmesan
Kanto 98 St. Eatery, Edmonton
Cuisine: Filipino
Chef: Edgar Gutierrez
We want to try: Attila D’hen bao, made with Kanto’s fried chicken tossed in hot sauce with onions, sili and sesame.
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Saskatchewan
Avenue, Regina
Cuisine: Canadian
Chefs: Dale MacKay and Nathan Guggenheimer
We want to try: Confit duck leg with orange compote, fresh orange, fennel, basil, and almonds
Manitoba
Passero, WInnipeg
Cuisine: French-Italian
Chef: Scott Bagshaw
We want to try: Charred octopus with black romesco, nduja, creme fraiche and white radish
The Oxbow, Winnipeg
Cuisine: Seasonal
Chef: Sean Bernard
We want to try: Pork belly served with grilled flatbread, ginger slaw, and apricot BBQ
Ontario
Aloette, Toronto
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Patrick Kriss
We want to try: Tuna tartare on toast with green goddess, yuzu kosho, rice pearls, and lime
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Atlas, Toronto
Cuisine: Moroccan
Chef: Doug Penfold
We want to try: Chicken tagine with apricots, pine nuts, and spinach
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Giulietta, Toronto
Cuisine: Italian
Chef: Rob Rossi
We want to try: Swordfish served with braised chickpeas, senise peppers, heirloom tomato and salmoriglio
Il Covo, Toronto
Cuisine: Italian
Chef: Ryan Campbell
We want to try: Stella di ricotta in brodo (roasted buffalo ricotta and thyme in aromatic hen’s broth)
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Kiin, Toronto
Cuisine: Thai
Chef: Nuit Regular
We want to try: Khao Yum, made with jasmine rice. rice berry white turmeric, long beans, lemongrass, sawtooth coriander, kaffir lime leaves, cucumber, toasted coconut, pomelo, fried chilli, sunflower sprouts, edible flowers, tamarind and soy bean sauce
Kū-Kŭm, Toronto
Cuisine: Indigenous-French
Chef: Joseph Shawana
We want to try: Pan Seared seal loin, seal paté and seal tartare served with a bannock crostini and house-made preserves
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Omai, Toronto
Cuisine: Korean-Japanese
Chef: Edward Bang
We want to try: Sunomono, a Japanese cucumber salad served with octopus, wild shrimp, zucchini, buckwheat, and ikura
Sand and Pearl, Picton
Cuisine: Seafood
Chef: Suzanne Barr
We want to try: Oysters with fresh horseradish, lemon and mignonette
Seedlings, Bloomfield
Cuisine: Seasonal
Chef: Michael Portigal
We want to try: Hemp Garganelli served with summer squash
Skippa, Toronto
Cuisine: Japanese
Chef: Ian Robinson
We want to try: Their menu isn’t available online, but please take a look at the grilled black maitake mushrooms with thyme and mizuna leaves in a miso sauce pictured in this Toronto Life piece (which names Skippa the city’s best new restaurant of the year.)
Tanto, Toronto
Cuisine: Argentinian
Chef: Julian Iliopoulos
We want to try: Pork shoulder served with with pecan salsa macha and turnips
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
The Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station
Cuisine: Seasonal
Chefs: Daniel Hadida and Eric Robertson
We want to try: The menu isn’t available online, but the rose hip ice cream with spicebush meringue, beet and rose thyme sauce photographed in this Globe interview with the chefs looks mouthwatering.
Quebec
Bistro Rosie, Montreal
Cuisine: French
Chef: Jérémy Daniel-Six
We want to try: The menu changes weekly, but the wild boar served with onions and fiddleheads in the photo below looks pretty damn good
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Elena, Montreal
Cuisine: Italian
Chef: Emma Cardarelli
We want to try: The Mr. Fun-Guy pizza with mushrooms, celeriac and taleggio
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
Hopkins, Montreal
Cuisine: French
Chef: Liam Hopkins
We want to try: Bone marrow creme brûlée, made with torched bone marrow flan, smoked duck magret, crispy duck skin, and veal jus
La cabane d’à côté, Saint-Benoît-de-Mirabel
Cuisine: Québécois-French
Chef: Vincent Dion-Lavallée
We want to try: The menu isn’t available online, but the fact that this Montreal Gazette reviewer ordered a second bowl of classic pea soup modernized with smoked bacon, foie gras and gratings of aged cheddar is pretty telling
Vin Mon Lapin, Montreal
Cuisine: Seasonal
Chefs: Marc-Olivier Frappier and Jessica Noël
We want to try: The menu isn’t available online, but the eel carbonara mentioned in this review sounds pretty appealing
Atlantic
Bar Kismet, Halifax, N.S.
Cuisine: Seafood
Chef: Annie Brace-Lavoie
We want to try: Tomato leaf spaghetti with duck yolk and bottarga
Instagram that makes us want to cry:
The 10 finalists will be announced at a ceremony in Toronto in October and will appear in the November issue of enRoute magazine. Happy eating!
CORRECTION – AUG. 10, 2018: An earlier version of this piece listed Edmonton, Alta. as the city in which Donna Mac is located. It is located in Calgary.