11 Restaurants That Work Wonders With Canada’s Fall Harvest
While Canada is world-renowned for its fiery fall foliage, the bounty of the country’s harvest season may be more enticing to gourmands.
Many of the country’s most talented chefs celebrate summer’s passing by crafting sophisticated dishes that highlight the freshest of fresh local produce: velvety butternut squash and whipped parsnips; roasted sweet potatoes, beets and Brussels sprouts; apples, pears, and cranberries to add tart sweetness, and on it goes.
Here, we explore 11 Canadian restaurants where unique fall menus make sweater weather especially sweet.
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station, Ontario
While the meals at this rural boutique winery draw inspiration from French cuisine, the dining experience is modelled after the Japanese “omakase” style. Instead of a traditional menu, guests are charmed with courses crafted using locally sourced and organic ingredients. Each day’s offerings are unique, pairing fresh dishes with organic wines, making every visit a special experience. Last fall’s harvest tasting menu, for instance, inventively combined local celeriac, chestnuts, late-harvest oyster mushrooms, goose, very ripe pears, kale, and rosehips.
Botanist, Vancouver, British Columbia
Botanist, Vancouver, British Columbia
Botanist, Vancouver, British Columbia
Botanist, Vancouver, British Columbia
Botanist, Vancouver, British Columbia
Tucked into the luxurious Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel, Botanist celebrates the biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest by blending locally sourced ingredients with contemporary techniques mastered by executive chef Hector Laguna. Autumn menu ingredients, sourced from the nearby Local Harvest farm in Chilliwack, star in seasonal dishes. A foie and beets crepe, for instance, features cured egg, cultivated cream, and northern divine caviar; and fermented tomato water with koji oil and salt-roasted root vegetables. The Botanist Bar, meanwhile, opens onto a glass-enclosed garden, with its terroir-driven wine list supporting small-batch sustainable and biodynamic practices.
The Prow, Banff, Alberta
The Prow, Banff, Alberta
The Prow, Banff, Alberta
The Prow, Banff, Alberta
Set on the scenic slopes of Tunnel Mountain in the upscale Buffalo Mountain Lodge, this stylish Banff eatery served a three-course seasonal menu last fall that plated hot-smoked B.C. steelhead trout with caramelized onion rillette before a hearty serving of elk osso bucco. The Prow’s menu highlights include bison, elk and pork meatballs topped with spicy arrabbiata tomato sauce, fresh basil and parmesan Reggiano. Local brews and creative cocktails are also front and centre, with Banff Ave. Brewing’s Black Pilsner providing a cleansing chaser for a “Carabeaner” martini of espresso, house-infused espresso tequila, Park Distillery vanilla vodka, Kahlua, cacao, Baileys, and almond milk.
The Inn at Bay Fortune, Souris, Prince Edward Island
The Inn at Bay Fortune, Souris, Prince Edward Island
The Inn at Bay Fortune, Souris, Prince Edward Island
The Inn at Bay Fortune, Souris, Prince Edward Island
The Inn at Bay Fortune, Souris, Prince Edward Island
The Inn at Bay Fortune, Souris,, Prince Edward Island
Led by Food Network celebrity chef Michael Smith, this luxury bayside inn’s four-hour “Fireworks Feast” dining experience kicks off with unlimited Colville Bay and Fortune Bay oysters before moving on to six ever-changing courses featuring ingredients from the on-site farm and prepared using a 25-foot-long wood-fired oven that includes a smoker, hearth, grill, rotisserie, and oven. If the heat from the fire-cooked cuisine gets too intense, guests can cool off with selections from a sommelier-curated “Wine Library,” with every Feast including a sabre toast with sparkling wine and house-made marshmallows roasted over — you guessed it — an open fire.
“The Farm Tour” at the Bruce Hotel, Stratford, Ontario
“The Farm Tour” at The Bruce Hotel, Stratford, Ontario
“The Farm Tour” at The Bruce Hotel, Stratford, Ontario
“The Farm Tour” at The Bruce Hotel, Stratford, Ontario
Starting at 9 a.m., this next-level culinary experience helmed by The Bruce’s chef de cuisine sees guests embark on a chauffeured journey to explore three local farms. At each, Nick Benninger shares the history and workings of the property. He introduces guests to farmers, who will often demonstrate their work and encourage guests to lend a hand. Throughout the tour, the culinary team offers up dishes featuring ingredients sourced from each visited farm. Further refreshment takes place at Perth County’s First Winery, the Perth Farmhouse, in the form of a wine flight tasting. For a worthy encore, guests can book a seat at one of the luxe hotel’s long-table dinners, which are cooked over an open fire under the stars.
Deer + Almond, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Deer + Almond, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Deer + Almond, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Deer + Almond, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Mandel Hitzer’s creative cuisine combines local prairie ingredients with global flavours in a cozy space filled with warm wood touches and lively artwork. Deer + Almond dishes range from Winnipeg goldeye with potato pancakes and whitefish roe to pierogi with French-style steelhead trout in brioche with manzanilla and yuzu kosho. The dining room offers a four-course prix fixe where duck with Szechuan spätzle salad shines, with the wine list featuring small producers and uncommon grape varieties. The bar’s Silver Queen cocktail, meanwhile, blends Bombay Gin with Cointreau, fresh lemon juice, egg white and vanilla simple syrup.
Portage, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador
Portage, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador
Portage, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador
Portage, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador
Newfoundland cuisine goes global in this relaxed, welcoming setting enhanced by expansive windows and a lively open kitchen helmed by the husband-and-wife team of Ross Larkin and Celeste Mah. Portage’s menu stands out with dishes like bibimbap beef tartare with gochujang, classic pork dumplings with sweet soy, and cured char with cream cheese and crispy capers. Local autumn vegetables shine in creations like rutabaga with Thai curry and parsnip with miso. Desserts include mango pudding with cardamom milk and wild bakeapples, while drinks highlight Old World wines, local beers, and inventive cocktails.
Frilu, Thornhill, Ontario
Frilu, Thornhill, Ontario
Frilu, Thornhill, Ontario
Frilu, Thornhill, Ontario
Frilu, Thornhill, Ontario
Before becoming one of the first restaurants in Canada to earn a Michelin Star, the team at Frilu launched Willowolf Farm to provide fruits and vegetables that would set the dining room apart — not just in fall, but in every season. Three years later, Michelin’s incognito inspectors note that Chef John-Vincent Troiano “cooks to his own rhythm,” with “smoke, game and refined sauce-work figure prominently on what might be the only tasting menu for several kilometres. A tiny space packed with talent, the sparsely decorated nook leaves everything on the plate, with high-quality product from their own farm coupled with an intriguing Japanese element that feels natural.”
Mon Lapin, Montreal, Quebec
Mon Lapin, Montreal, Quebec
Mon Lapin, Montreal, Quebec
Mon Lapin, Montreal, Quebec
Nowhere in Canada is better at balancing casual and fine dining than this Little Italy gem. Since opening in 2018, chefs Jessica Noël and Marc-Olivier Frappier have developed a menu that earned Mon Lapin the top spot in the most recent “Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants” list. Locally sourced dishes like canned leeks, stuffed habanada peppers, and strudel with Samuel le Bleu offer creative twists on familiar flavors, with autumnal ingredients such as buckwheat and corn coming together in a unique take on polenta. The similarly creative wine list, curated by Vanya Filipovic and Alex Landry, only adds to the experience with bottles from regions like Jura, Campania, Champagne, Randazzo, and Andalusia.
LOUIX LOUIS, Toronto, Ontario
LOUIX LOUIS, Toronto
LOUIX LOUIS, Toronto
LOUIX LOUIS, Toronto
For locavores awaiting fall’s white truffle season, the good news is that autumn menus from this dazzling downtown eatery on the 31st floor of the St. Regis hotel tend to lean into the pricey subterranean fungus while also incorporating the best of Ontario’s fall harvest. For example, last autumn’s “Royal Brunch” featured coffee-rubbed filet mignon topped with scrambled eggs and shaved truffle. At dinner, the Whole Truffle Chicken was served both roasted and fried, accompanied by a rich truffle jus. At the bar, the Dirty Truffle Martini blended Cambridge Truffle Gin and a house-made brine of Maldon sea salt, black pepper, and Parmigiano rind. Other truffle-forward dishes included lobster risotto and a creamy Ontario mushroom velouté.
Tanière³, Quebec City, Quebec
Tanière³, Quebec City
Tanière³, Quebec City
Tanière³, Quebec City
Since 1977, Tanière³ has consistently sought to redefine authentic Québecois cuisine. Two distinct dining experiences, both featuring a blind tasting menu inspired by the region’s history and natural bounty, are offered: one in the cellar dining room, the other at chef François-Emmanuel Nicol’s counter. Numbering 15 to 20 courses, the menus are ever-changing and hyper-local, with recent dishes ranging from foraged daylily shoots set in edible soil (fashioned from mushrooms and cheese) to venison carpaccio with nettles and grilled fiddleheads.
