The Best Places in Canada

The nham ngeaw, a tomato broth tangled with pork ribs, vermicelli, and dried red cotton tree flowers, is the kind of bowl that makes you question why you ever eat anything else. Fat Mao is a noodle shop in Chinatown serving Thai-style soups in a no-fuss room where the food does all the work. Chef Angus An keeps the menu tight and the broths deeply considered, which is a polite way of saying this place is far more serious than its vibe lets on.

Swarovski built this Okanagan Valley resort, so yes, there are crystals everywhere, but the focus lands closer to kale than to chandeliers. The spa menu runs from standard massage to vitamin infusions and nutrition counseling, which is either reassuring or a lot depending on your vacation philosophy. Rooms are large, with floor-to-ceiling windows framing the mountains or the lake, and the restaurant leans into locally sourced cooking with the same views.

The fridges here run deep with natural, low-intervention, and unfiltered wines from B.C. and further afield, and the staff will pop a cork in your direction before you've even settled in. Bar Tartare is a wine bar tucked inside the Birds and the Beets cafe on Alexander, with a short food menu anchored by the tartare the name promises. Guest chefs rotate through on nights, so the kitchen is never quite the same twice.

The original Yonge Street location is a cozy cave of a cafe where De Mello first started roasting, before the brand grew into a multi-city operation run by two Korean-born, Melbourne-educated brothers who came to Toronto and decided the coffee scene needed fixing. It's a specialty coffee shop serving the company's own blends, single origins, and seasonal drinks, with pastries alongside. Small enough to feel like a neighborhood secret, even if that ship has long since sailed.

A turquoise bay-and-gable house in Kensington Market, Fika is a Nordic-inspired coffee shop where the owner roasts his own beans in the back room on a machine he describes as "a toy." The cardamom cinnamon buns and Dala horse ginger snaps are the kind of baking that makes you linger, and the hygge aesthetic earns its name without trying too hard.

A Mavam undercounter espresso machine anchors the bar while bicycle mechanics work the wings, which tells you everything about this coffee bar and bike shop tucked into The Well. Beans rotate through a roster of Canadian roasters, snacks arrive by cargo bike from the original Little Portugal location, and the whole setup manages to take both coffee and two-wheeled transport with equal, unironic seriousness.

A floor-to-ceiling latte art mural greets you at this homey coffee shop near Emily Carr, where students and profs tend to stake out a corner and stay awhile. The loft upstairs has a long counter built for exactly that. Single-origin beans, espresso with a chocolate-leaning sweetness, and a chocolate chip cookie that earns its reputation round out the picture.

The coffee shop that bloomed from an architecture firm's rose-petal vision sits beside Emily Carr University, which tells you something about the crowd. Inside, birch plywood and a fabric fin installation dropping from the ceiling give it the feel of a gallery that also pulls excellent espresso. Beans are sourced from farms the team has visited in person, and pour-overs and lattes are brought to your table. The paved plaza out front fills up fast on sunny days.

The building itself stops people mid-pedal: a wood-based rose-petal structure designed by Perkins & Will, sitting next to Emily Carr University in False Creek Flats. This coffee shop roasts beans sourced from farms across Central America, South America, and India, with pour-overs and lattes brought to your table. On sunny days, the brick plaza fills with art students who clearly have better taste in coffee shops than the rest of us.

The wood-and-rose-petal structure here bloomed from the minds at Perkins & Will, which tells you something about the coffee shop before you've ordered anything. This is a specialty cafe that takes its sourcing seriously, roasting beans from farms the team has visited across Central and South America and India. Pour-overs and lattes arrive at the table. Croissants from Dope Bakehouse change with the season. On sunny days, the brick plaza fills up fast.

Baristas here share tasting notes from their own in-house brewing, not whatever the bag says, before your cup even arrives. This sleek coffee shop sits below grade in Arthur Erickson's Waterfall Building, just outside Granville Island, with concrete floors, light-wood benches, and a single pop of royal blue holding the room together. The featured beans rotate through roasters from Edmonton to Amsterdam, and the Tokyo loose-leaf teas are worth your attention too.

Copper pendant lights hang over the coffee bar, and the roastery sits right behind it, so you watch the whole operation while you order. Pallet is a bright, roomy coffee shop with high ceilings, exposed trusses, and enough varied seating that you can actually stay a while. The pastry case runs to things like raspberry lemon loaf. A long black with single-origin espresso is the move if you can't decide.

Spun copper pendants hang above the coffee bar at this Railtown roastery cafe, with a 60-kilogram Joper roaster from Portugal visible behind it. Pallet has several Vancouver locations, but this one is the source, and the bright, plant-lined room draws a neighborhood mix of loft dwellers and laptop workers in equal measure. The single-origin long black is the move, and the raspberry lemon loaf makes a solid case for staying longer than planned.

Copper pendant lights hang above the bar, and behind it sits a Portuguese roaster the size of a small car. Pallet is a bright, airy coffee shop on Kingsway, part of a roaster group with several Vancouver outposts. The beans lean Ethiopian and Colombian, a long black with single-origin espresso is the move, and fresh pastries cover the basics. The open industrial room with high wood-truss ceilings fills easily with laptop workers and actual conversations alike.

Spun copper pendant lights hang above the coffee bar, and behind it sits the roastery with its Portuguese-built drum roaster, which does a lot to explain the smell when you walk in. This is a bright, airy coffee shop with high ceilings, exposed wood trusses, and enough varied seating that you can have a real conversation or quietly work through your afternoon. Fresh pastries round things out when you need something to eat.

Spun copper pendant lights hang above the coffee bar, and behind it sits the roastery with a Joper roaster imported from Portugal. This bright, airy coffee shop on Oak Street is one of several Pallet locations around Vancouver, each with its own personality. The high ceilings, exposed wood trusses, and a wall of plants set a mood that's industrial but welcoming. Fresh pastries round out the single-origin espresso program nicely.

Copper pendant lights hang above the espresso bar, and behind it sits a roaster big enough to make a point. Pallet is a coffee shop with several Vancouver locations; this one on Melville draws the laptop crowd and the lingerers alike into a high-ceilinged industrial room softened by trailing plants and blown-glass lights. Single-origin long blacks are the move, and the raspberry lemon loaf holds its own.

The entrance is half-hidden behind a concrete and rusted metal cylinder on a busy stretch of East Hastings, which keeps the right people curious and everyone else moving. Inside, this coffee shop goes full cave: moss walls, dark wood, angular mirrors doing their best stalactite impression. Four small in-house roasters mean tight batches and serious room to experiment, and the staff will ask your flavor preferences before they recommend anything.

The entrance is buried inside a concrete-and-rust cylinder on a busy street, which sets the tone: this coffee shop rewards the curious. Inside, moss-covered walls and mirror angles that suggest stalactites make it feel like a very good cave. The team roasts in small batches on four compact roasters behind the bar and tailors drink recommendations to your flavor preferences, so let them lead. Waffle donuts rotate through glazes like pistachio spice.

The pain au chocolat in the glass case is close enough to the queue that resisting it becomes someone else's problem. This Yaletown coffee shop splits its identity evenly between serious cafe and in-house bakery, with pour-overs from Canadian roasters and bread baked on the premises. Wood beams, marble tables, and brass-rod geometry on the walls give it a look that earns its following of counter-sitters who never quite leave.

The sign above the door reads "Non-conforming since 1992," which sets expectations correctly for this dark, low-key coffee bar on Commercial Drive. Regulars settle in at the community table or claim a two-top for an hour of work, while foot traffic drifts over from Grandview Park across the street. The beans come from Milano Coffee, roasted to the original Conca d'Oro blend. The art on the walls depicts the neighborhood; so does the room itself.

Rooftop hot tubs overlooking the Columbia River set the tone at this boutique apartment-style hotel on the northern edge of Revelstoke. Units run from micro studios to six-bedroom spreads, so it works equally well for solo skiers and groups who want a kitchen and room to sprawl. Shared BBQs and communal space give it the feel of a well-designed base camp, which, to be fair, is exactly what it's advertising.

Floor-to-ceiling glass frames the golf course and the forests beyond, which is the point of being in Campbell River at all. This resort sits close to the docks where boats leave for whale-watching and grizzly tours, so the outdoors is the real agenda. Sustainably sourced wood and stone, Art Deco leather chairs, a cocktail bar downstairs, and an indoor-outdoor pool and firepits for when you come back muddy.

Neapolitan pizza from a chef who spent fifteen years in someone else's kitchen before opening his own casual spot on Edmonton Trail. The dough is certified by one of Italy's leading associations, and the wood-fired results show it. Ranked 81st on the 50 Top Pizza World list, which for a Calgary neighborhood pizzeria is a fairly extraordinary number. The staff has the easy warmth of people who are genuinely glad you showed up.

The whitewashed facade on Main Street gives nothing away, but inside, tall tropical plants and plush seating set the mood for modern Peruvian fine dining done without a trace of fuss. The kitchen runs citrus-bright ceviches and tiraditos alongside bolder, earthier plates, and the bar program is the kind that earns its own reputation. A Michelin Selected restaurant with a AAA Four Diamond rating.

A neighborhood bistro on Victoria Avenue where the menu leans hard into comfort, the kind of place that makes halloumi and a burger feel like they belong on the same page as steak frites. The chef here seems genuinely unbothered by trends, which in Westmount reads as a quiet act of confidence. Regulars fill the room early and often, and the mousse de foie, when it shows up, tends to overshadow everything around it.

Chouchou is a tiny takeout storefront in Limoilou doing smash burgers and sandos, with a menu that borrows freely from across Asia and doesn't apologize for it. The chicken comes with gochujang on a potato bun and requires a stack of napkins, while the katsu sando rides on milk bread from a nearby bakery. The pandan iced tea glows a color not found in nature, and there's a fried ice cream sando if lunch needs a second act.

Emmaline's is a small sit-down pizzeria in Victoria that bakes Trenton-style tomato pies, the kind with a crackly edge, a puffy middle, and pepperoni that curls into little cups of orange grease. The room looks like an antique shop with good light. On Tuesdays the kitchen swaps in a snack bar menu, so a smashburger can arrive with a pile of supermarket chips, and pie is still available for dessert.

Friends & Family Bake is a small Filipino bakery on Fan Tan Alley, the narrowest street in Canada, which is a fitting address for a shop that's mostly a counter and a case. You grab a tray and tongs and help yourself to whatever's fresh. The pandesal smell reaches the sidewalk before you reach the door, and the ube pastries leave purple evidence on your fingers. Cheap, casual, and strictly a bakery run, not a sit-down.

Goodside is a Fort Street pastry shop where the croissants have been given ideas, including one piped with coffee custard and a crème brûlée finish. The case also holds sculptural mousse blobs, and the focaccia sandwiches come wrapped in parchment, which is practically an invitation to a park bench. Chunky old television sets sit in the window, and you'll leave wearing a fine dusting of laminated dough.

Hortus is a Modern European restaurant on rue Saint-Jean, wedged between trinket shops and pubs, with a rooftop farm and bees whose honey you can sample for free. The menu runs from a thick beef burger to a duck confit poutine that outclasses its neighbors, and it handles gluten and nuts without fuss. The daily table d'hôte suits a lunch or dinner when you've seen enough fortifications.

A hotel restaurant near the airport that manages not to feel like one, Kokoma has tall ceilings, oversized woven chairs, and wide windows that make a long layover almost pleasant. The kitchen leans into Ivorian staples, turning cassava, fresh seafood, and palm nut stew into what the menu calls Afro fusion, though the food argues the case more quietly than the label does.

Le Mezzé is a family-run Greek taverna on the edge of Montcalm, boxy and comfortable in the way a place is when the family would rather spend their effort on the food than the decor. The menu goes well past the Greek salad and moussaka, and the wine list leans toward retsina and bottles from the Peloponnese and Limnos. Regulars order lamb chops or a whole fish by the pound, then finish with baklava made in-house by one of the owners.