The Top 16 Restaurants Near The Dorian
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An art deco dining room wrapped in velvet and brass sets the stage for chef Asher Wilson's tasting menus, where Canadian ingredients—wild mushrooms, Maritime lobster, bone marrow—receive the French fine-dining treatment. The wine program and craft cocktails reinforce the sense of unapologetic luxury, though the real draw is the kitchen's restraint beneath all that glamour.
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Rank 2. River Café
New American
River Café sits isolated on Prince's Island, its rustic dining room anchored by a fireplace and commitment to Albertan ingredients. Chef Kristen Livingston executes rural flavours—halibut with two sauces, crab ravioli in corn bisque—with urban precision.
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Rank 3. Paper Lantern
Vietnamese Cocktail Bar
A basement speakeasy beneath Chinatown serves tropical cocktails inflected with Vietnamese flavours—burnt sugar milk punch, pandan pain killer, Vietnamese coffee spiked with coconut and banana. Red lanterns cast a warm glow while bánh mì and charred skewers emerge from the kitchen, anchoring drinks that feel both playful and purposeful.
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Rank 4. Eight
Japanese
You phone from a lobby, descend through a maintenance corridor, and emerge into a gilded parlour for cocktails before slipping through a hidden door into a dramatic room where eight stools face an open kitchen across a Douglas fir bar. This is theater as much as dinner—intimate, orchestrated, and operating just four nights weekly.
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #9 · Best Restaurants
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · Canada's Best Restaurant
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In Calgary's Chinatown, a French bar where cocktails and cuisine trade equal billing under low light and wood-lined walls. Bartender Nate Wry constructs drinks with precision while chef Garrett Martin sends out lobster rolls touched with lemongrass, steak frites, Bayonne ham over honeyed potato—each component deliberate, nothing casual.
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- Air Canada 2022 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Restaurant Bar – Canada
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Rank 9. DOPO
Tuscan Italian
A subterranean Tuscan tavern where Tony Migliarese channels his late father's warmth and David Leeder's precise hand (fresh from Per Se) elevates rustic Italian into something luxe without pretense. The grilled bread with whipped ricotta and house-made pasta speak to restraint, but the veal milanese—saffron, capers, butter—insists on abundance.
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A new-build tavern styled after vintage New York, all tight quarters and photograph-lined walls, where linen tables and a serious kitchen justify the period affectation. Baked scallops wearing pepperoni butter, fried chicken with 'nduja aïoli, and a wagyu-cross burger that earns its prominence on the menu suggest ambition beyond nostalgic décor.
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