Where Magazine
December 18, 2008
Where Magazine Honours Canada's Top Ten New Restaurants for 2008
The regional editors of Where magazine today announced their top ten new restaurants for 2008. Each year Where editors visit hundreds of new establishments from coast to coast. After sampling scores of menus, they have come up with their selection for the year's top new offerings.
Nota Bene: One of Canada's Top Ten New Restaurants of 2008
A citrus-coloured stripe along the windows is all that alerts you to the welcome arrival, for foodies and arts lovers alike, of Nota Bene. The high-end resto—a sleek, expansive space by KPMB, the starchitect firm behind Toronto's Gardiner Museum—is in waving distance of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Executive chef David Lee, already celebrated for his Splendido restaurant, firmly sets the culinary boundaries: "No tapas, no bistro, no molecular." Instead, the superlative Canadian cuisine ranges from verdant-hued, beautifully garnished chilled courgette soup to wild Digby sea scallops to a menu section called "David's Private Stock," featuring top-quality steak and beef tenderloin selections. The popularity of the cheese course has not gone unnoticed here—fromage expert Cole Snell offers a carefully curated spread from Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, as well as Italy and Holland.
Established in 2003, Canada's Top Ten New Restaurants is an annual award program devoted to celebrating and raising awareness of Canada's top chefs and innovative restaurateurs. The top ten new restaurants are comprised of one new establishment chosen in each of the following Where magazine regions: Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Mississauga, Muskoka/Parry Sound, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria and Winnipeg.
Canada's Top Ten New Restaurants of 2008 are (in geographic order):
Aura - Victoria, British Columbia
Boneta - Vancouver, British Columbia
Olives - Calgary, Alberta
Wildflower Grill - Edmonton, Alberta
Pizzeria Gusto - Winnipeg, Manitoba
Bliss - Mississauga, Ontario
Nota Bene - Toronto, Ontario
North - Muskoka, Ontario
Navarra - Ottawa, Ontario
Cut Steakhouse & Urban Grill - Halifax, Nova Scotia