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Eight
Japanese
You start with a phone call from a white handset in a hotel lobby, then follow someone through a maintenance corridor to a gilded parlour for cocktails, then slip through a hidden door to eight counter seats facing an open kitchen. That is the whole restaurant. Darren MacLean runs a Japanese-influenced tasting menu of around twenty courses built on hyper-seasonal Canadian ingredients, and photographs are forbidden. It holds a spot on North America's 50 Best Restaurants list.
Three honors, in evidence:
The record strongest first
- 50 Best #2 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best #9 · Best Restaurants
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · Canada's Best Restaurant
One number, weighted & current 92
How we scoreThe dishes from the writeups
- Veal sweetbreads with kohlrabi kimchi 50 Best
Nearby in the record closest first
- Nupo Omakase Japanese Eat · 79
- Alt Hotel Calgary East Village Stay · 74
- Deane House Eat · 58
- Fortuna's Row Eat · 77
- Francine’s French Eat · 67
- Paper Lantern Vietnamese Cocktail Bar Drink · 80
- CHARCUT Eat · 41
- The Nash Eat · 52
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