Air Canada's enRoute magazine announcesCanada's Best New Restaurants 2010

October 28th 2010, Montreal – One writer. Over 200 dishes consumed. After a grand tour of the nation with fork in hand, enRoute magazine and its contributing food writer, Sarah Musgrave, have come up with an exciting taste of the country’s Top 10 new restaurants for its 9th annual survey, Canada’s most respected restaurant honours. The winning restaurants (opened between summer 2009 and summer 2010) offered diners a whole new approach to eating out, from a star chef’s hand-crafted restaurant in rural Ontario to a next-generation Chinese restaurant in Vancouver. Air Canada’s enRoute magazine is proud to honour the winning restaurant.

enRoute names
Haisai (Singhampton, Ontario)
Canada’s Best New Restaurant 2010

“Dinner here is a fairy tale, the kind with a very happy ending.”
Sarah Musgrave on Haisai, Canada’s Best New Restaurant 2010.

The Top Ten Best New Restaurants in Canada on enRoute’s 2010 list are:

2. Bao Bei Vancouver. “…chef Joel Watanabe…homespins ingredients from close by with flavours from far away, irreverently and intelligently reminding us that comfort food doesn’t have to be white-bread.”
3. Cava Montreal. “…Greece isn’t all shoreline. And if Cava is anomalous in being a Greek steakhouse, it’s also a showcase for the country’s mainland cuisine.”
4. Local Kitchen & Wine Bar Toronto. “The earnest energy and post-pretentious attitude – down to the name – belies the finely tuned offerings: scratch food so close to the heart, they wouldn’t dream of writing ‘homemade’ on the chalkboard.”
5. Stone Soup Inn Cowichan Valley, B.C. “The scent of ocean-dashed cedar emanates in little huffs and puffs from a bentwood box … the wooden container cooks the seafood in no time, caressing it with the essence of land and sea. Eaten plain, it’s elemental. With duck-egg mayo, it’s elevated.”
6. Charcut Roast House Calgary. “In a city of steakhouses, Charcut is a meathouse. Their version of the Cowtown standby, the prime rib special, sees locally sourced, range-fed beef strung up, smoked, spit-roasted and dripping with jus.”
7. Quatrefoil Dundas, Ontario. “…that’s where Quatrefoil’s skill lies: in reconstituting French classics with just enough regional sensibility to repatriate rather than replay them..”
8. EdGe Sooke, B.C. “EdGe’s rare combination of back-country cool and culinary chops suits Sookies and travelling foodies alike.”
9. Buca Toronto. “The funghi pie is superlative... Cut the rectangular crust with scissors. Add something green – wild dandelion salad with figs – and something salty – delicate coppa or crispy-chewy fried pigs’ ears. When less is this good, who needs more?”
10. Le Quartier Général Montréal. “Yes, that’s right, the Stanstead rabbit loin is stuffed with rabbit confit and rabbit chorizo – three ways in one. Suckling pig encased in the faintest of phyllo comes on black quinoa, the goth version of the grain. Food here is, above all, pretty.”

Air Canada’s enRoute magazine looks for new restaurants that advance the Canadian culinary identity; they are places where the overall dining experience will have a lasting and significant impact on our restaurant culture. Pick up a copy of enRoute’s November issue or visit the magazine at enroute.aircanda.com to read the full article and also discover the latest trends in Canadian dining. You can also follow us on Twitter at enRouteOnline. These new establishments from Canada’s best chefs and restaurateurs are changing the way we will dine in 2011 and beyond.