Restaurants in Halifax

Rocco Scarola left his hometown of Bari, Italy in 1967 and spent the next quarter century honing his culinary expertise in some of the best restaurants in Halifax. By 1992, he was ready to share his knowledge of Southern Italian cuisine––as well as his mother's treasured oven-baked pasta recipe––with the Nova Scotian masses. Together with his wife Gail and head chef Tracey Cromwell, Rocco finally realized his dream of creating a refined, yet relaxed atmosphere where people could come together to enjoy a good meal, hearty conversation, and an opera-singing wait staff. In 2008, he passed his enterprise to his partners of eight years, Hanna and Robert Gibson, who continue to honor the Italian traditions and excellent service that has made Rocco's a success for almost two decades.

Today, diners can still find Rocco's mother's pasta on the brunch menu, featured alongside Rocco's own coveted pizza recipe, built upon his signature handmade crust. Local seafood and meats from nearby Martock Glan Farms put a modern, sustainable spin on classics such as veal limone and zuppa di pesce dell'aragosta (lobster and fiddlehead bisque), and salads are tossed tableside to prove both the freshness of the ingredients and the existence of gravity. Signature pastas include a spaghetti carbonara topped with garlic and scallops and meat lasagna layered with béchamel and a secret ingredient, though servers make no secret of the fact that all pastas are available in whole grain or gluten-free versions for guests with sensitivities.

The heat that emanates from an open-flame grill warms Ryan Duffy’s Steak & Seafood’s kitchen, where chefs grill steaks in seven different styles—from the flame-caressed “blue rare” to the gently charred “well done.” Winning a Consumer Choice Halifax award for Fine Dining for the past three years in a row, the restaurant's mission to plate the perfect steak begins long before each tender slice of meat hits the flame. The succulent flavour in each bite of the AAA tenderloins and Alberta AAA striploins comes from dry-aging them in a climate-controlled chamber for 28 days. Once the steaks have matured enough, staff members cut and weigh them tableside, where their charred exteriors and warm, red centres stand out among the dining room’s white linen tablecloths.

Comprising an upscale restaurant, several casual kitchens, and a catering team, Mezza wears a few different faces, but all of them are distinctly Lebanese. That is to say, they celebrate fresh seafood, vibrant veggies, and juicy meats, seasoned with olive oil, garlic, lemon, and herbs. At the Quinpool location, chefs craft hot and cold mezzet—small plates—such as baba ghanouj and Lebanese sausages, warming up appetites for lamb and beef kabobs served on plates piled with rice, potatoes, and seasonal produce. Servers help quell the spiciness of the accompanying chili sauce by pouring local beers, Lebanese wines, and colorfully potent cocktails directly into guests' mouths. On some nights, live music from the strings of a traditional oud wafts through the sleek but earthy space.

As for Mezza's other locations, chicken shawarma and all-beef donair can be savored as late as 4 a.m. at the Barrington Street location. It can be sure of drawing a crowd even into the wee hours—Mezza perennially tops The Coast’s readers’ poll for Best Middle Eastern/Persian restaurant. Explaining its streak of wins in 2012, The Coast wrote: “It’s simple—the food is fresh, high quality and tasty.”

Chef Hans at The Vines Pasta Grill pushes the boundaries of traditional Italian cuisine by incorporating regional influences from the American Southwest. He adheres to some Old World traditions, though, such as baking bread fresh every day, using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible, and coating thin-crust pizzas with house-made sauce and a paint roller. The menu gets inventive when outlining pasta dishes, such as linguine with a spicy Thai sauce and fettuccine with blackened chicken, corn, and a twist of lime. The chefs also demonstrate their mastery of saccharine confections by baking gluten-free chocolate cake and weaving fresh napkins out of cotton candy.

Staying true to its name, the restaurant features leafy vines along its dining room's walls and pillars. In addition to adding splashes of green to the rustic wood tones, the tendrils help to replenish the room's oxygen supply between waves of the dinner rush.

According to her recent profile in East Coast Living, Sawadee Tea House owner Mie Mie Sein travels to her native Thailand every year to tour plantations and explore new blends of tea. The fruits of these annual trips are on display at her two-level shop along the Granville Mall, where she constantly replenishes labelled jars with more than 250 loose-leaf varieties from regions as far-flung as Thailand, Kenya, and China. The aromas of black, green, herbal, floral, and specialty teas pervade the shop as they steep, luring passersby in for a calming mug or a rejuvenating splash in the face. Sawadee Tea House also serves as a boutique; beside the neatly stacked rows of jars sit accessories such as stainless-steel infusers and glass vessels for storing tea leaves.:m]]

Discussion of artwork drifts among tables, punctuated by the jingle of silverware at Untitled Eats. Inside the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Halifax, chefs at the eatery craft a menu of international fusion cuisine, all inspired by exhibitions at the museum and the availability of seasonal ingredients. Drawing on experience accrued while cooking at The Armview, they bustle through the kitchen, searing free-range beef on a grill, roasting couscous, and bringing the flavour from summer vegetables with open flame. Designed by Ian Greig, the bistro's understated, contemporary decor includes a stone bar top mined from the same quarry as the gallery's red sandstone exterior and the world’s slowest car. Handmade light fixtures by Bear River master craftsman Chief Greg McEwan shine down on a striped floor patterned off a geological cross-section of Pictou County.