The Niagara Peninsula occupies one of the most unique stations in all of North America, flanked by the Great Lakes to the north and south and straddling the US-Canada border along the iconic falls.
Such superlative geography creates a unique microclimate that fosters extraordinary growing conditions for fruits and vegetables, most notably grapes and other tender fruits. This is Canada’s main wine region and home to ambitious restaurants that turn locally farmed ingredients into fine dining masterpieces. From the thick clay soil and a climate moderated by lakeshore breezes and the Niagara Escarpment’s cliff-like ridge of limestone comes a celeriac that behaves like a steak at one MICHELIN-Starred establishment, cut in a slab and roasted with a panoply of herbs. Then there’s the steak itself that acts like nothing you’ve ever seen before, in the hands of an exceptional butchery team.
Read on for the best of The MICHELIN Guide in Canada's Niagara region.
Restaurant Pearl Morissette, Jordan Station (Two MICHELIN Stars, MICHELIN Green Star)
The view out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of Restaurant Pearl Morissette extends out over the group’s picturesque winery, where some of Canada’s most interesting cabernet francs and rieslings grow in tightly cropped rows. Inside, the stunning A-frame roofline and weathered wood finishings are of a barn design due for its glossy magazine centerfold. This is the domain of Daniel Hadida and Eric Robertson, a pair of Canadian chefs who met while in Europe at MICHELIN-Starred restaurants in France and Belgium.
The tasting menu here is ever-changing in close connection with a network of best-in-class local purveyors, as well as the restaurant’s own regenerative farm. In the spring, Nova Scotia lobster is poached and served in daikon and rhubarb juice from the Garden Pearl Morissette. If you book a garden tour ahead of your prix fixe meal, expect a course of snacks from the farm, like a beautiful cut of raw turnip served in a pool of herby dip.
For super fans of the group – and it’s certainly deserving – the Pearl Morissette winery offers tastings and guided looks into the cellar, where guests can learn about the team’s natural methods. At RPM Bakehouse, the restaurant’s sister bakery and café, a menu of homemade pastries and small plates, like a BLT with greens from the garden, is served from breakfast to lunch.
Fat Rabbit, St. Catharines (MICHELIN Recommended)
Fat Rabbit, a whole-animal butchery that proudly details its suppliers on a full page in its menu, has all the big, heroic cuts of meat you’d expect from such a MICHELIN-recommended place, porterhouse and T-bone included. But you can sense the passion in chef and co-owner Kevin Smith when he talks about the less-celebrated cuts that make their way onto the menu as part of the team’s zero-waste ethos, like the Denver steak, a piece of the beef chuck known for its marbling.
A meal here must start with the house-made charcuterie, crafted with ancient techniques that are as much science as art. Creative servings, like a spicy salami tinged with orange zest, are a key strategy for the butchery team to use up the unused cuts of meat left in the kitchen. To pair with it all, choose from slices of local Ontario sheep and cow’s cheese, sourdough bread from RPM Bakehouse and briny small plates like anchovies, olives and pickles.
In the fall, look out for Les Incompétents, a new “French-ish” bar from Smith and his Fat Rabbit team opening just down the street.
Trius Winery & Restaurant, Niagara-on-the-Lake (MICHELIN Recommended)
Trius has a reputation that precedes it. Its famous red, a Bordeaux-inspired blend, dates back to 1989 and is credited with helping put Ontario wines on the map. But the pastoral winery and restaurant just outside Niagara Falls is no fuddy-duddy tasting room, with a frosé on tap and the kind of style it takes to host a country music band at the launch of their new sparkling wine.
Chef Frank Dodd has been at the helm of the restaurant now for over a decade, offering a two and three-course tasting menu that matches the heft and creativity coming out of the vineyard. An Ontario pork chop with a riesling sauerkraut, locally grown bok choy and a side of homey mac and cheese is a favorite served alongside a cherry-forward Merlot. The desserts are best paired with ice wines, made from hand-picked grapes that froze while on the vine, like a Niagara peach pavlova with a cinnamon custard and an ice wine peach compote.
Hero image: RPM / Restaurant Pearl Morissette
