The Best Places in Canada

Some rooms here were designed by Lenny Kravitz, which tells you roughly what you're getting: a 96-room boutique hotel in the Entertainment District where the interiors swing between opulent and rock-and-roll. Four bars and restaurants run from a casual Parisian café on the lower floors to a California-Baja rooftop on the 44th. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Blinds, curtains, and the fleeting Vancouver sun: all managed from the bedside panel without disturbing your sheets. This contemporary luxury hotel occupies fifteen floors of a mixed-use skyscraper, which means it plugs into the city rather than sealing itself off from it. Rooms run large, suites have balconies over West Georgia, and the bathrooms come with mirror-mounted screens and multi-head showers. A Michelin Key, a spa, and a northern Italian restaurant round things out.

A Coal Harbour boutique hotel in a sleek glass tower, the Loden holds a Michelin Key and earns it partly through geography: this corner of downtown sits like stadium seating for the Burrard Inlet panorama. Rooms run from understated to a suite with a wraparound terrace for serious mountain-gazing, all tied together by mid-century touches, a muted regional palette, and deep soaking tubs that make sense the moment Vancouver's famous drizzle sets in.

Eight seats tucked at the back of the main room, twice nightly, all ingredients flown in from Japan. Sushi Yūgen is a kaiseki-influenced omakase counter where the chef builds around 18 courses and occasionally lands something like okoze, the devil scorpionfish, which is either thrilling or alarming depending on your disposition. The wine list leans toward white Burgundy, and the Japanese whisky selection includes bottles that don't surface anywhere else in the country.

Two celebrity chefs with serious Montreal pedigree, David McMillan and Derek Dammann, opened this fire-driven steakhouse in the West Island with a soft spot for vegetables and seafood alongside the expected meat. The sprawling room has real character, the bar is genuinely welcoming, and the wine list goes in unexpected directions. It landed on Canada's 100 Best list, which tracks for a place this confident in what it is.

A sushi and pan-Asian restaurant that comfortably wanders into Italian and French territory without apologizing for it, Peacock landed on Canada's 100 Best list in 2026. The chef layers flavors across cuisines with a clean, unhurried hand, moving from sushi classics to charcoal-grilled fish with black-bean marinara without it feeling like a concept pitch. The room on Grant Avenue draws a crowd that follows cooking, not categories.

A red-brick former mill on the Brome-Missisquoi wine route, this restaurant runs a single set menu built almost entirely from the kitchen garden just outside the window. Jean-Martin Fortier, celebrated in farming circles long before anyone plated his vegetables, grows over 40 varieties on site. The food is quietly serious, local to a degree that borders on a philosophy, and selected by the Michelin Guide.

Hand-folded dumplings that change with the seasons set the tone at DaiLo, Nick Liu's New Asian-French restaurant on College Street. The menu is built around sharing, with dishes that are generous, boldly seasoned, and clearly personal. Whole fried trout with nam jim and Hainanese chicken with black truffle under the skin suggest the kitchen's register. The cocktails are taken seriously, and the wines are well-chosen. Come with people you like feeding.

Six seats wrap an omakase bar where 17 to 20 courses lean on sustainably sourced, mostly Canadian fish and produce some of it grown on the chef's own farm. Darren MacLean runs Japanese technique through an unmistakably Canadian larder, and the daikon "steak" alone makes a case for taking vegetables seriously. The sake list is long and thoughtful, the cocktails herbaceous. Canada's 100 Best puts it at number 75 in the country.

Briana Kim's intimate tasting menu restaurant on Somerset runs nine vegetarian courses that lean hard on fermentation, and the results smell more like a forest than a salad. House-made sesame tofu arrives in pine-smoked tea broth with seaweed mole, a sentence that shouldn't work but does. Preserved figs in black-garlic oil show up somewhere, and you're glad they did. Wine pairings or house-made non-alcoholic drinks round out an evening that is quietly, stubbornly its own thing.

The city skyline arrives like a third course at this long-running fine dining room tucked into the South Hill neighbourhood. Chef Keith Froggett has kept the kitchen classically French for decades, which means foie gras terrine and rabbit loin without apology or quotation marks. The coconut cream pie has its own fan club among regulars who have been making the reservation since before you were born.

The dining room at Fogo Island Inn sits on stilts over the North Atlantic, which sets the tone before you've even ordered. The kitchen runs a locavore menu built almost entirely from what the island provides, so the fish on your plate may have been swimming that morning. The Michelin Guide awarded three Keys. Getting here takes real commitment, but the island is closer to the eastern seaboard than most maps make it feel.

A neo-Renaissance mansion in the Golden Square Mile, built for one of the city's 19th-century power brokers and now operating as a luxury hotel. The bones of the original residence are hard to miss: grand proportions, ornate stonework, the kind of architecture that communicates wealth before you've touched a door handle. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. It sits well outside the old port's hotel cluster, which is either a selling point or a cab ride depending on your mood.

The smallest room here is 500 square feet with a gas fireplace and a soaking tub, which tells you exactly what kind of ski resort this is. The Four Seasons sits a few minutes outside Whistler's main village, which is either a slight inconvenience or the whole point, depending on your tolerance for après-ski foot traffic. A shuttle runs to the mountain, where a ski concierge meets you with your gear already sorted. It holds 2 Michelin Keys and a Forbes Four Star.

The menu goes up on a blackboard each morning and comes down when the kitchen's done, which tells you most of what you need to know about this 40-seat modern French bistro tucked inside Moncton's Aberdeen Cultural Centre. Michel Savoie cooks Acadian ingredients, local seafood, pork, and pasta, through a French lens, and the cavatelli with scallops has its fans. Canada's 100 Best lists it among the country's top restaurants.

If you've seen a single photo of Québec City, you've already seen this hotel looming over it, green copper roof and orange brick against the St. Lawrence. The Château Frontenac is a sprawling, century-old castle of a property, six wings and around six hundred rooms ranging from cozy old-world to the more indulgent Fairmont Gold floors. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Bring your appetite for ornate antiques and printed fabrics.

A nine-course tasting menu anchors this intimate fine-dining room on Rue Bélanger, though à la carte keeps things from feeling too precious. The chef came up at Joe Beef and Paloma, and the cooking carries that pedigree without showing off about it: seasonal, tightly composed, precise enough that sea urchin in a butter evoking Sunday roast chicken lands as a coherent idea rather than a stunt. Canada's 100 Best named it among the country's top restaurants.

Dishes that look like small color-pop paintings arrive in a 36-seat French restaurant tucked into the Saint-Sauveur neighborhood, where the decor is sleek and the staff seem to enjoy themselves. The kitchen earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand and closes strong: the desserts are a genuine reason to pace yourself through dinner. Reservations are advised before someone else takes your table.

Named for Oscar Wilde's famously vain antihero, this Autograph Collection hotel in downtown Calgary leans into the reference with Art Deco lines, Victorian flourishes, and enough knowing winks to keep an English Lit graduate busy. The rooms are thoroughly modern underneath all that period cosplay. Restaurants lean on Alberta beef, which is the right call given the address. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

The Gold Experience is a hotel-within-a-hotel tier at the Fairmont Banff Springs, that sandstone castle the Rockies have been posing behind for well over a century. Gold guests get a private courtyard entrance, dedicated fifth-floor lounge with all-day refreshments, and a concierge who actually books things. The Forbes Four Star property's golf, spa, and mineral pools are still yours; you're just skipping the lobby scrum to get there.

Sticky rice is the organizing principle here, turning up beside papaya salad, tapioca dumplings, and Lao barbecue chicken across a menu rooted in Laotian cooking rather than the Thai-leaning stuff the team used to run across town. Lao Lao is a cocktail bar with a kitchen that takes the food seriously, tucked onto St Joseph in a way that rewards people who actually read menus before they go out.

The fish tanks near the entrance set the tone: this is a grand Cantonese seafood restaurant where the crab you're eyeing is still very much alive. The dining room runs to white tablecloths and banquet-scale celebrations, but the kitchen handles a casual dim sum lunch with equal care. Vancouver Magazine named it Restaurant of the Year, and it holds a Michelin Guide selection. Regulars know to call ahead for off-menu specials that never quite make it onto paper.

You arrive by seaplane or not at all, which sets the tone immediately. Clayoquot is a canvas-tent wilderness resort on Vancouver Island's Pacific coast, where 25 furnished tents on cedar walkways split the difference between a British expedition and a genuinely comfortable bed. The Cookhouse serves open-fire meals built around coastal ingredients, a snooker table waits in its own tent after dinner, and spa tents handle the rest. It holds a Michelin 3 Keys distinction.

The bar at Botanist sits just inside the Fairmont Pacific Rim, intimate and posh enough that dressing up feels like the point. This is fine dining with a serious cocktail program, and the drinks lean into a nature-obsessed identity, including a glass-fronted lab where the team produces things like a martini built with kombu and sea asparagus. North America's 50 Best Bars placed it at number 38. The kitchen behind it runs hyper-local West Coast tasting menus alongside à la carte.

Daniel Boulud's fine dining room inside the Ritz-Carlton takes contemporary French cooking and runs it through a quietly New York sensibility, the kind of place that manages to feel grand without feeling stiff. The glass fireplace softens things considerably, and in summer the garden terrace pulls you far enough from Sherbrooke that the city politely disappears. Jackets are optional; the foie gras and pâté en croûte are not.

A shimmering chandelier and a floor-to-ceiling wine wall set the scene at David Hawksworth's eponymous fine dining room inside the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. The crowd looks freshly styled, and the cooking matches the room's composure: contemporary and precise, built on simple luxuries done with care. You can enter through the hotel lobby or slip in directly from Georgia Street, which suits both the suits and everyone else.

A custom wood-fired grill anchors the room at this Yaletown steakhouse and bar, open flame flickering against warm wood tones while the kitchen runs tartares alongside Canadian and wagyu cuts. The butcher shop next door feeds the kitchen's sourcing philosophy. It holds a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list and took Vancouver Magazine's Restaurant of the Year. Dress up a little; the room expects it.

Lipstick-red banquettes and white tablecloths in Yorkville signal a Chinese restaurant with more polish than your usual regional spot. MIMI is the fancier sibling in its family of restaurants, leaning into refined technique and good ingredients rather than homestyle comfort. The menu moves across regional Chinese classics, and the four-foot belt noodles have a way of commanding the table. Groups do well here; portions are built for sharing.

Marcus Samuelsson's Canadian debut sits inside the Four Seasons Montreal, but the terrace restaurant earns its own look. The menu moves from crudos and seafood towers to robata-grilled cuts and whole fish, the kind of progression that suits a long, leisurely dinner rather than a quick bite. Expense accounts are comfortable here; personal ones survive happiest at happy hour. AAA Four Diamonds.

A Syrian and Armenian mezze restaurant on Jean-Talon, run by two sisters whose family heritage shapes every dish on the table. Shared plates of labneh, hummus, and fattoush arrive with grilled pita, and the beef kebabs come seasoned with fléflé, a Syrian red pepper condiment that quietly runs the show. Save room for the mehalabié, a rosewater and orange blossom pudding that earns its place at the end. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand.

An old-school institution on Avenue Laurier where the service is formal enough that you'll sit up a little straighter without quite knowing why. This French tasting restaurant offers both a multi-course menu and à la carte, so you're not locked into an evening-length commitment. The kitchen treats fine ingredients with a light hand, and the wine list has some genuinely adventurous choices tucked in among the classics.

Stone walls, wooden beams, and leather armchairs make this Old Montreal French restaurant feel like a private club where the membership requirements are a reservation and good taste in wine. The menu rotates with the seasons, leaning on local ingredients and the kind of sauces that remind you why French cooking got famous in the first place. The vibe is dim, intimate, and quietly romantic.

Antique furnishings, crystal chandeliers, and only 25 rooms give this Forbes Four Star boutique hotel the feel of a small English country manor that happens to be a short walk from the Stratford Festival. The contemporary restaurant leans into locally sourced Canadian cooking, the indoor pool works year-round, and the English gardens are the kind of thing that makes a post-dinner stroll feel like a reasonable life choice.

Ski-in, ski-out at the base of Blackcomb, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler is a castle-sized resort hotel that somehow avoids feeling like one. Rustic wooden beams cross the lobby ceiling, guest rooms lean traditional rather than antiseptic, and the soaking tubs are sized for people who've actually earned them. The heated outdoor pool stays open all season, and a Robert Trent Jones Jr. golf course handles the summers. Michelin awarded it 2 Keys.

Reservations for this tiny Italian trattoria's 24 seats vanish within minutes of dropping, and have for years, which tells you something. The Michelin Bib Gourmand goes to the kind of cooking where the ciabatta is grilled in-house, the cold cuts are made in-house, and the pasta and ice cream are too. Counter seats put you right at the action, the wine list leans Italy and France, and the whole room feels like someone's very good dinner party.

Vikram Vij built his reputation working the room personally, stopping at tables each night in a dining room that takes Indian cuisine seriously without taking itself too seriously. This is an elegant sit-down restaurant where the cocktail list is designed to hold its own against heavily spiced food, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand keeps showing up for a reason. The lamb popsicles in fenugreek sauce have their own devoted following.

A blue neon sign salvaged from the family restaurant that stood here for a generation anchors the bar of this sleek, midcentury-modern Vietnamese spot on Main Street. The brother-and-sister team behind it treat the menu as a love letter to Vietnam, running from pho to softshell crab salad to grilled prawn mousse with fresh herbs. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.

Storm-watching is practically a scheduled activity here, which tells you everything about what kind of resort the Wickaninnish Inn is. Perched between old-growth rainforest and Chesterman Beach on a remote stretch of Vancouver Island, it holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star. Rooms face the Pacific, with fireplaces, deep tubs, and balconies built for watching twenty-foot swells roll in. The spa draws on the surrounding rainforest; the restaurant leans hard into local seafood.

A stone building near Place Royale in Old Quebec, where the terrace tables go fast once the weather turns. This is a tasting-menu restaurant sharing its address with the more subterranean Tanière³ below. The chef's creative menu leans heavily on vegetables and local sourcing without making a religion of either, and a vegan version is always available. The Michelin Guide has selected it, and AAA gives it Four Diamonds.

Pendant lights warm up an otherwise industrial dining room at this French restaurant on Yonge, where the kitchen's glass partition lets you glimpse the brigade without quite committing to a chef's table. The menu reads classically Gallic with a contemporary lean, and even the cocktail list has a French accent, which feels either chic or on the nose depending on your mood. AAA Four Diamonds.

Dim sum that never stayed in its lane sits at the center of this fusion restaurant on Spadina, where MasterChef Canada winner Eric Chong and his mentor Alvin Leung run a menu that pulls from French, Korean, and Chinese kitchens in the same breath. Bao stuffed with kimchi and galbi, flaky pastry hiding foie gras, butter-poached lobster over dashi, the whole thing feels like a cooking competition that nobody stopped. A Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Natural light and blonde wood keep things calm at this small, counter-forward sushi shop on Main, where the focus is squarely on the fish. The chef's approach is classic: beautifully cut sashimi, seasonal ingredients, and just enough acidity to lift the sweetness of top-notch seafood. Easier on the wallet than the city's omakase circuit, and a Michelin Bib Gourmand. One judge called it the first place they'd send an out-of-towner, which tracks.

Pull back the velvet curtain and you're inside the world of nhậu, the Vietnamese tradition of drinking and eating with friends until things get blurry. Good Thief is a cocktail bar and restaurant on Main Street, the self-described rebellious younger sibling to Anh and Chi next door. The drinks lean boldly Vietnamese, the food runs from binchotan skewers to Dungeness crab garlic noodles, and the whole menu is designed to share. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

The Vancouver Stock Exchange's 1929 shell now anchors a skyscraper hotel in the financial district, and the Art Deco bones are very much still flexing. EXchange Hotel Vancouver is a full-service luxury stay where the interiors read glamorous without tipping into theatrical, and the rooms work equally well for a romantic weekend or a polished work trip. The Martini Rooms come with in-room self-serve bars, which either sounds like a perk or a liability depending on who's paying.

Once the tallest building in the British Empire, the Royal York now plays underdog to the glass towers crowding Front Street. It's a grand old railway hotel with all the ceremony that implies: sweeping public rooms, a spa with a 50-foot pool, and enough dining options that you never have to leave. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels. Modern comforts are there; the bones are clearly what people come for.

Fireplaces come standard in most rooms, which tells you something about where L'Hermitage sits on the downtown Vancouver hotel spectrum. It's a small luxury hotel on Richards Street, clean-lined and coolly styled without reaching for anything avant-garde. Marble baths, king beds, and suites with full kitchens and in-unit laundry make it feel less like a hotel stay and more like borrowing a very well-appointed friend's apartment.

Getting here requires a seaplane over Desolation Sound or a boat past seal colonies, which sets the tone nicely. This remote, seasonally open luxury resort is the only property on Sonora Island, a cedar-and-stone collection of timber lodges with mineral pools, fly-fishing ponds, and a spa. Rooms have picture windows over the sea, and a few villas perch directly on the rocks. Bald eagles turn up at dinner without being invited.

A private floor inside Ottawa's grandest castle hotel, the Gold Experience trades the main lobby's grand theater for a quieter check-in, a dedicated lounge, and rooms where some windows frame Parliament like a postcard that never gets old. Breakfast and evening canapés arrive without fanfare. The Château Laurier holds a Michelin Key, and this tier is where the building's storybook scale starts to feel personal rather than ceremonial.

Stone turrets rising against the Canadian Rockies make the Fairmont Banff Springs look less like a hotel and more like something a railway baron commissioned to intimidate guests. This grand 724-room resort sits inside Banff National Park, with a golf course, a full-service spa, several restaurants, and enough seasonal outdoor activities to exhaust anyone who came to relax. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

A casual Thai restaurant on East Broadway where the green curry beef shank reportedly stops conversations cold. Song holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and Vancouver Magazine's gold for best Thai, and the room feels built for lingering over pomelo salad and lemongrass wings with a group that shows up hungry. The menu runs deeper than the familiar standards, though the pad Thai earns its place on the table without apology.