A guide to Winnipeg’s nationally celebrated and award-winning restaurants

By Mike Green

Winnipeg’s culinary scene continues to dish out hits.

We’re the only Canadian city that has seen both a counter service and brunch spot named one of the country’s best restaurants, while our wine bars and chef-driven joints continue to be perennials on the big national lists too. (And while that’s all well and good, we’d also like to point you to some of our top spots by category, because we have so many family run restaurants that will impress when it comes to Filipino, Vietnamese, Mexican and Indigenous cuisine).

Here’s some sure bets for your upcoming Winnipeg stay –– all certified by national publications spanning the last five years.

As found on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants (and Canada’s 50 Best Bars)

Since 2015, a massive panel that now features 150 food writers, chefs, restauranteurs, media personalities and sommeliers have come together to vote on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants (C100). Overseen by editor-in-chief and former food critic with the National Post, Jacob Richler, the list is compiled, “based on the complete dining experience: service, décor, the depth of the cellar — and, above all else, food quality.”

On the current C100, three Winnipeg chefs have retained their place.

Chef Mandel Hitzer’s deer + almond (opens in new window), the city’s mainstay on the C100 list, landed at #50 (opens in new window) this year after its highest placement ever for a Winnipeg restaurant at #34 in 2025. Hitzer, who also runs and is the co-creator of RAW:almond with architect Joe Kalturnyk, has also been instrumental in bringing in so many chefs from this year’s C100 list to Winnipeg, including chef Daniel Hadida (opens in new window) of #1 restaurant, Pearl Morissette.

After only a few months in business, chef Ed Lam and Esther Lo’s new concept Peacock (opens in new window) has impressively landed at #68 (opens in new window) on the C100. Previously, their former celebrated Japanese restaurant Yujiro was #92 in 2024 and #65 in 2025. Peacock is located in Yujiro’s former space at 1822 Grant Ave., and was singled out by C100 for flavours that are “layered, clean and complex.”

Chef Emily Butcher’s Nola (opens in new window) (300 Tache Ave.) is sitting at #88 (opens in new window), after making the list for the first time in 2025 at #86 (opens in new window). The Saint-Boniface restaurant, by Mike Del Buono’s Burnley Place Hospitality (opens in new window), has garnered much acclaim since opening in 2021, including being named by The Globe and Mail as the #1 new culinary concept on the Prairies in 2022 (this, after garnering a rave-review (opens in new window) from the paper in May that same year).

Butcher is also the chef of its sister restaurant Bar Accanto (opens in new window). Her award-winning CV includes winning bronze at the Canadian Culinary Championships in 2020 (along with a solid placement again at the same competition in 2025), and making an impressive run on television’s Top Chef Canada during her time as the chef de cuisine at deer + almond.

SNACK HäUS, chef Dustin Pajak’s small plates concept in Low Life Barrel House — which we covered in spring’s New & Notable with Peacock (opens in new window) — also received a special mention in the new C100 Best Recommends (opens in new window) section. Pajak had previously helmed the now-closed Close Company (which is now home to nationally celebrated (opens in new window) Petit Socco at 256 Stafford St.) when it was listed at #83 in 2022. Before moving back to Winnipeg from Toronto, Pajak had also worked in the kitchen at 20 Victoria, #10 on this year’s C100 list.

In the 2024 guide, deer + almond (opens in new window) (#39), Clementine (opens in new window) (#74), and Yujiro (opens in new window) (#92) all made the list, while the publication’s Canada’s 50 Best Bars was also released at the same time with The Roost (opens in new window) perched at #39.

While we always said Clementine (123 Princess St.) is Canada’s best brunch spot, the C100 confirmed it, and it remains the only strictly brunch joint to ever make the list. The restaurant — helmed by chef/co-owner Chris Gama, co-owner Raya Conrad and chef du cuisine Paul Eccles — has received much love and acclaim since opening in spring 2016. Even celebrities gladly wait for a table here (they don’t take reservations) and NHL star Jonathan Tavares singled it out to ESPN as his favourite place to eat when he’s on the road.

It wasn’t the first time The Roost (651 Corydon Ave.) made the Canada’s 50 Best Bars list, having placed as high as #27 in 2019. Located on a second floor above the Corydon strip this charming, tiny, cocktail bar is guided by Winnipeg’s cocktail queen Elsa Taylor, who also illustrates the room’s whimsical menus by hand. Taylor and her partners also own and operate Oxbow Natural Wine Bar (opens in new window)–– which was long listed by Air Canada as one of Canada’s best new restaurants in 2018, and Parcel Pizza.

A few other spots that have been featured on the Canada’s 50 Best Bars lists include Patent 5 Distillery – where the gin, vodka, rum and whisky are distilled onsite in a heritage setting, and Langside Grocery –– a hip snack bar also located in a heritage building in West Broadway, which were #34 and #49 in 2020.

Chef and restauranteur Scott Bagshaw has also had several restaurants make the C100 in the past. This includes his flagship wine bar Enoteca in 2020 (which also was enRoute’s #9 best new restaurant in Canada in 2015), and Máquè in 2023 – his Asian small plates restaurant that he closed to focus on the new location of Passero (opens in new window) (774 Corydon Ave). Known for its beautifully executed Italian small plates, Passero has received a glowing review in The Globe and Mail. Bagshaw opened Né de Loup, a decadent French restaurant (opens in new window), in the former Enoteca space in 2024.

Air Canada’s guide to Canada’s best new restaurants and more

Making the Air Canada annual long list for 2025 was restaurant neighbours BabyBaby (opens in new window) and Shirley’s (opens in new window), located at 137 and 135 Osborne Street.

Shirley’s is a delightful (opens in new window) Italian-leaning bistro by Chef Renée Girard (opens in new window), who had been scouted by The Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s next top chefs in 2019. The 35-seat space is named after Girard’s grandmother, and surely that Shirley would have loved it. It’s so welcoming thanks to a staff who are all Girard’s friends, including general manager Ali Vandale (the service is attentive and gentle), the dishes are a continuous delight and the bar program by Christian Lepp is tight (get their signature dirty martini or a classic daiquiri).

There’s walk-in only seating at the 10-seat bar (lunch is walk-in only too), while the fun sunflower-yellow tables are open to reservations for groups of up to six, all serviced by teak chairs and comfy banquettes that have a nice little wood shelf behind them — perfect for resting your elbow. The house-made pastas are a must while vegetables from Girard’s family’s farm are always treated beautifully. Be sure to get the pull apart buns to sop up any remaining pasta sauces. If the dessert involves lemon, don’t be shy.

The city’s most-popular new restaurant (2025), BabyBaby dazzles with eclectic dishes and a jaw-dropping design. Nineties kids will love the restaurant’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness aesthetic, while the owners, chef Chris Gama and Raya Konrad (whom you’ll recognize from Clementine above) have assembled a talented kitchen headed by culinary power couple (and co-owners) Daly Gyles and Nick Gladu, who have plenty of big-name experience in London, UK and Vancouver, BC. The grilled whole sea bass with passion fruit “blanc blanc” is a can’t miss, as is the endive salad, walleye beignets and rice pudding for dessert. Great cocktails too. No reservations, so be prepared to wait for a table –– it’s worth it.

In summer, BabyBaby and Shirley’s also have a patio out back.

Crumb Queen/Andy’s Lunch, which has blown away locals (opens in new window) since opening in early 2024, landed at No. 10 on Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants (opens in new window) list that same year.

The Osborne Village spot serves as both a bakery called Crumb Queen, and a fresh pasta and sandwich joint named Andy’s Lunch. Lines are a regular occurrence when it is open from Wednesday through Sunday.

Owned by chef couple Cloe Wiebe and Andrew Koropatnick, the small space received great praise from 2024 Air Canada head critic Tara O’Brady. In the magazine, O’Brady wrote (opens in new window), “With every bite, we grow more envious of the locals,” while sampling items like Andy’s tagliolini with morel butter and Bianca-bread sandwiches, and Cloe’s famed crullers and sourdough, which O’Brady sites as, “indeed regal.”

It’s a massive achievement for the couple and their crew, as we cannot recall a time in the Best New Restaurants’ 20-year history (opens in new window) when a counter service establishment cracked the top 10. The list is typically dominated by wine bars, omakase counters and tasting menus.

Landing at No. 5 on the list in 2023 was Petit Socco (opens in new window), an intimate two-person operation by chef Adam Donnelly and Courtney Molaro. This tiny restaurant seats just 10 (plus an additional eight on the patio), presenting a new four-course menu every month where reservations – weeks in advance – are a must. Chef Donnelly also won Dish of the Year for his pork belly and nectarine panzanella, which had head judge Amy Rosen stating she’ll, “remember… for another decade.”

That year, Petit Socco was joined by Saint-Boniface’s Bar Accanto (opens in new window)on the Best New Restaurants long list.

Wine Spectator and best hotel dining awards

Oenophiles will be impressed by several of the city’s finest fine-dining restaurants.

Current Wine Spectator award-winners include 529 Wellington, the city’s most acclaimed steakhouse which is located in a former mansion in River Heights on the Assiniboine River. Its phone book-sized selection was bestowed with the Best of Award of Excellence, a title it has received since 2003. A new Best of Award of Excellence has gone to Vida Cucina Italia, the tony Italian restaurant in the Fort Garry Hotel that was co-established by Italian celebrity chef Rosanna Marziale (opens in new window). The hotel’s wine director Christopher Sprague (whom was also instrumental in developing 529’s wine program before joining the hotel) oversees a menu of 360 wines at Vida, with the Fort Garry having an inventory of 10,400 bottles between Vida and The Oval Room (opens in new window), the latter of which was named as one of Canada’s 50 best hotel restaurants (opens in new window) by OpenTable and Kayak.

Both the Fort Garry Hotel and 529 Wellington have lush patios that you need to hit up in the summer.

Another hotel restaurant, The Blue Marble, located within the Grand Winnipeg Airport Hotel by Lakeview, received an Award of Excellence for a second consecutive year from Wine Spectator.