Canada’s best restaurants of the year have been revealed, with three Ottawa establishments ranking among the best places to eat in the country. The 2026 Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list, released annually, was unveiled on Monday evening. Fine-dining local favourite Atelier ranked highest on the list for Ottawa restaurants, ranking 54th on the list, down from 41st last year. Located on Rochester Street, Atelier features dishes that are “precise, complex, delicious and sometimes strange… in concept but never in flavour,” according to the list. The restaurant opened in 2008. Somerset Street’s Antheia, a new entry on the list this year, ranked 76th. Canada’s Best 100 says chef and owner Briana Kim, winner of the Canadian Culinary Championship in 2023, has created an “intimate destination for her innovative, fermentation-forward artistry.” The five-month-old restaurant features an all-vegetarian, nine-dish tasting menu. Another re-entry to the list this year, Arlo, ranked just behind at 77th on the list. The list described the Somerset Street establishment as one of Centretown’s “busiest dining rooms.” “Customers flock for ever-changing menus that exemplify playful but potent ingredient-focused Canadian cuisine — paprika-roasted cod with white beans, ajo blanco and watercress, or beef tataki and barbecued eel with chili, pickled shallots, crispy sweet potato and aioli,” Canada’s Best 100 said. There were four Ottawa restaurants on the list last year. The ranking was based on 160 voting judges that include food writers, critics, chefs, restaurateurs and other food-service professionals. Each judge is asked to submit a list of their top 10 restaurant experiences from last year, while considering “service, décor depth of the cellar and – above all else – food quality.” “We believe that the 2026 list is an accurate measure of which restaurants excelled in 2025, which makes them great dining choices for today. C100B congratulates all of these restaurants for their exceptional work. And we look forward to visiting again very soon,” Canada’s 100 Best said. For the second year in a row, the list awarded Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Jordan Station, Ont. as the best in Canada.
