Like most places in the world, the cuisine in Canada has its roots in the people and the landscape. Canada is a vast country, with such varied climate, geography and terroir for growing crops and raising animals that each region has its own specialty. The east coast is famed for lobster; the Niagara region for apples, peaches and wine grapes; the vast central plains for wheat, barley, canola and cattle.
Of course, the first Canadian cuisine is the indigenous food of our First Nations: the salmon, oysters and oolican of British Columbia’s coastal waters; the bison and wild Saskatoon berry of the Prairies; the moose and elk of the Canadian Shield; the seal, whale and caribou of the vast northern tundra.
Over the last 125 years, the waves of immigrants who have settled in pockets throughout the country have further defined the style of cooking and local specialties. In “Irish” Newfoundland and Labrador, it’s boiled corned beef and cabbage dinners. In Vancouver, BC, it’s sushi and killer Cantonese. In Edmonton, AB, it’s the best perogies and cabbage rolls—thanks to the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the land.
Canada is a country of regions, and regional cuisine is all the rage here. Here’s a taste of what to expect as you cross from sea to shining sea to shining sea:
Atlantic Canada
The Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick all have their own unique culinary charms, but they take many of their culinary cues from the sea. Commercial fisheries run the gamut from Digby scallops in Nova Scotia to Malpeque oysters in PEI to sweet Coldwater shrimp in Newfoundland. There’s also cod, mussels and lobster all around, and lush growing regions like the Annapolis Valley, NS, known for wonderful apples and now vineyards featuring the Maritime grape, L’Acadie Blanc. As in all parts of the country, the best chefs are using fresh, seasonal and local ingredients—from seaweed to PEI potatoes—in creative new ways.
Whether you tuck into a meal from a top chef or a lobster roll on the street, fresh seafood is always on the plate. In port towns like St. John’s, NL, and Halifax, NS, the pub culture runs deep, with some of the best places in the country to raise a pint accompanied by a casual meal and lively Maritime music.
Typical tastes:
- Crispy cod tongues and scrunchions in St. John’s, NL
- Rappie pie on the northeast Acadian shore of New Brunswick
- Seaweed pie in PEI
- Lobster (lobster suppers and lobster rolls)
- Fish & chips
- Rum cake
- Chowder
Hot spots:
- Tempest in Wolfville, NS
- Chives Canadian Bistro, Halifax, NS
- Fid Resto, Halifax, NS
- Le Caveau at Domaine de Grand Pré, NS
- The Battered Fish, Halifax, NS
- The Rooms Café, St. John’s, NL
- Bianca, St. John’s NL
- Claddagh Oyster House, Charlottetown, PEI
Quebec
La belle province is a massive place, stretching from the salt-lashed coast of the Gaspé Peninsula and tiny islands of Îles de la Madeleine, down the St. Lawrence River to historic Quebéc City, and further south to cosmopolitan Montréal. The northern reaches of the province are a wilderness of lakes and forests, filled with game such as deer and moose. The famed sugar bush comes alive from February to early spring—maple syrup season. Along the south shore, you’ll find the country’s best cheesemakers.
The culinary vibe takes much from the old-fashioned French cooking transplanted by some of the earliest Canadian immigrants more than 400 years ago—which is why you’ll find excellent French wines in the government-operated liquor stores—and restaurants in Old Québec serving pea soup and cassoulet. But the cities are cosmopolitan, and thanks to centuries of immigration, you’ll find excellent Jewish delis, Vietnamese bakeries and star chefs creating superb French-Canadian cuisine.
Typical tastes:
- Tourtière, a classic double-crusted meat pie made with pork (and sometimes game meats)
- Iced hard cider, a sweet dessert wine similar to icewine, but pressed from frozen apples
- Smoked meat sandwiches
- Poutine, French-Canadian fast food created by topping French fries with gravy and fresh cheese curds (and now all manner of other things from beefy meat sauce to curry)
- Maple syrup on snow, a sweet n’ chewy snack found at sugar shacks, or maple sugar pie and even maple wine
- Local cheeses
Hot spots:
Ontario
Ontario is the heart of the country, home to the national capital of Ottawa, with its international embassies, and Toronto, the metropolitan area that is Canada’s most densely populated region. Stretching along the Great Lakes, there are temperate growing regions such as Niagara and Prince Edward County, both known for vineyards, apples and other tree fruit. From the lakes are pickerel and whitefish, and from the northern forests wild mushrooms, ramps and game.
While Ontario’s British history may be seen in local favourites like butter tarts and peameal bacon sandwiches, its capital, Toronto, is truly an international city with a multicultural past and present. This includes Greek restaurants along the Danforth, locovore charcuterie made on site at places like The Black Hoof, and pupusas and Chinese roast duck in funky Kensington Market. You’re never far from a great cup of coffee, an authentic Jamaican patty or a wine bar in Toronto. And with superb chef schools—like the Stratford Chefs School—nearby, the city lures some top Canadian chefs to its upscale dining spots.
Typical tastes:
Hot spots:
Gilead Café, Toronto
Buddha Dog, Picton
Dine @ Vineland Estates, Niagara
Le Cordon Bleu Bistro @ Signatures, Ottawa
SOMA Chocolatemaker, Toronto
Black Hoof, Toronto
Canoe, Toronto
North 44, Toronto
Anything to do with star-chef Michael Stadtländer.
Prairies
Once you get off of Ontario’s rocky Canadian Shield, you’re into the prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Manitoba, with massive Lake Winnipeg and a connection to Hudson’s Bay, was a historic transportation hub, the end of the line for pioneers who set off from Winnipeg by wagon train and Red River cart to populate the west.
Fish and fishers factor into Prairies cuisine—Icelandic immigrants populated areas around Gimli on the namesake lake—fishing pickerel or walleye and smoking Winnipeg goldeye. From the land, game birds like duck and geese migrate through this region’s marshlands and end up in family freezers, and there are many shallow lakes where wild rice is produced. Grain is grown across the Prairies—wheat, barley, oats, canola, even Manitoba Harvest hemp—and other famous field crops like mustard, lentils and beans.
Saskatoon berries are also eaten across the Prairies (the dried berries plus bison make pemmican) and now there are U-picks for berries and even prairie sour cherries. Beyond pickerel, there’s sustainably farmed trout and Arctic char, birch syrup and enough malted Canadian barley for lots of good artisan beer labels and brew pubs. There’s also a strong Eastern European community in these two provinces, with many immigrants from Ukraine, Poland and Romania. The local ingredients and ethnic traditions influence chefs, so you’ll find things like crispy pickerel fillets and wild-mushroom perogies on some of the best menus.
Typical tastes:
- Red Fife wheat
- Saskatoon berries
- Smoked Winnipeg goldeye
- Wild rice
- Pickerel
- Prairie cherry spreads and chocolates
- Perogies
Hot spots:
- Janis and Remi Cousyn’s Calories restaurant and Souleio, Saskatoon, SK
- Weczeria, Saskatoon, SK
- Baba’s Perogies, Saskatoon, SK
- The Willow on Wascana, Regina, SK
- Current Restaurant and Lounge, Winnipeg, MB
- Smokin’ Okies BBQ, Regina, SK
- Bushwakker Brewpub, Regina, SK
Alberta
Alberta is both a prairie and mountain province, its foothills (where cattle ranching is king) the physical transition from one kind of geography to the other. Alberta farmers produce most of the country’s barley—to feed that cattle—so beef and beer are big on menus.
But Alberta is also a wealthy, oil-producing province with lots of jobs and corporate head offices, so you’ll see a kind of upscale, cosmopolitan cuisine here that is typical of larger centres. Wine bars with small plates to share are popular for downtown dining, and there are plenty of sushi bars, noodle houses, plus Italian, Indian and Tex-Mex spots.
In the mountain parks—from Kananaskis north to Banff and Jasper—a kind of unique Canadian Rocky Mountain cuisine, featuring wild game such as elk and bison, and foraged foods including mushrooms and berries, has been developed by chefs at Buffalo Mountain Lodge in Banff and other regional spots.
Still, the cowboy lifestyle is alive in Alberta and that beefy ranch and prairie farm vibe runs through many big city establishments, whether it’s nose-to-tail dining at Calgary’s CHARCUT or steak at Open Range. Top chefs feature local free-range meats and poultry—from Spragg’s pork and Sunworks Farm chicken to Driview Farms lamb—on their locally inspired menus, with wood-fired grills and rotisseries popular for cooking the meaty fare.
Typical tastes:
Hot spots:
- CHARCUT, Calgary
- NOtaBLE, Calgary
- Rouge, Calgary
- River Café and Boxwood, Calgary
- FARM, Calgary
- Spolumbo’s, Calgary
- The Bison, Banff
- Canadian Rocky Mountain cuisine at Buffalo Mountain Lodge, Banff
- Hardware Grill, Edmonton
- Culina Highlands, Edmonton
- ECOcafé at Pigeon Lake
British Columbia
British Columbia has a strong British past (especially evident during afternoon tea in the province’s capital, Victoria), but it’s also been a magnate for immigrants, including gold miners, lumberjacks, and the Japanese and Chinese immigrants of Vancouver and Richmond (the largest Chinatown in Canada).
On the food front, BC offers a wealth of riches—from beef and seafood to tree fruit and wine. The coastal communities are fishing communities, and BC is known for its wild sockeye, pink, coho, and Chinook salmon, deep-sea halibut and sablefish (a.k.a. black cod), Fanny Bay oysters and the wild spot prawns—some of the only sustainable shrimp around.
Delta is famed for growing cranberries and other vegetables, especially greenhouse tomatoes. The central Okanagan region, sprawling north to south along a chain of massive lakes, has peaches, apples, plums and wine grapes for making some of the country’s most intense and awarded wines.
Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands are microclimates of their own, producing fresh fruit, wine grapes and woodlands bursting with chanterelle, morel and other wild fungi. In Whistler, Haida Gwaii and points north, look for smoked salmon, Matsutake, and coastal other First Nations cuisine.
Like the rest of the west coast, Vancouver is at once laid back, cosmopolitan and cutting-edge when it comes to cuisine. Here you’ll find some of the world’s top chefs—Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten—with satellite restaurants, and some of Canada’s top culinary talents, including James Walt at Araxi in Whistler, Robert Clark at C Restaurant and David Hawksworth at Hawksworth. It’s here where forward-thinking culinary concepts start: Ocean Wise sustainable seafood, charcuterie, local culinary tourism (see Edible BC), wine and creative cocktail bars.
Tour around the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island or hit Vancouver’s Granville Island Public Market to see what fresh Canadian food is all about.
Typical tastes:
- Sockeye salmon
- Sushi
- Dim sum
- BC wines (especially pinot gris, chardonnay, riesling and pinot noir)
- First Nations cuisine (bannock with smoked salmon)
- Fanny Bay oysters
- Nanaimo bars
- Wild chanterelle mushrooms
Hot spots:
- Blue Water Café + Raw Bar, Vancouver
- Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca, Vancouver
- Salt Tasting Room, Vancouver
- Silk Road Tea, Victoria
- Araxi, Whistler
- Barefoot Bistro, Whistler
- Red Fish Blue Fish, Victoria
- KINGYO IZAKAYA, Vancouver
- Sun Sui Wah Seafood, Vancouver and Richmond
- Campagnolo, Vancouver
- RauDZ, Kelowna
- JAPA DOG (creative street food), Vancouver
- Tojo’s, Vancouver
- Sooke Harbour House, Vancouver Island
- Spinnakers, Victoria
