Restaurants in Hamilton

After deciding at a young age what he wanted to do, Red Canoe Bistro’s chef Tobias Pohl-Weary wasted no time getting started. By age 12 he was assisting chef Jamie Kennedy during a New Years Eve meal at the Palmerston Restaurant, and by 17 he apprenticed under chef John Higgins. After managing some of Canada’s finest restaurants, chef Pohl-Weary decided to pour his considerable knowledge and experience into Red Canoe Bistro.

Favouring a hyper-seasonal menu, Tobias builds dishes that give voice to regional Canadian ingredients, wild edibles, and local game. Diners might feast on naturally raised beef and pork belly burgers with wild leek aioli, chuck steak chili with local habaneros, or pan-seared scallops with a spiced carrot puree and goat’s milk yogurt drizzle. Local ingredients mingle with flavours from India, Asia, and Italy to create robust entrees that helped earn Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence for 2012. Tobias and his team of culinary savants are always willing to change their recipes to accommodate vegans, and people with allergies or specialty diets upon request.

Tucked into a downtown Hespeler storefront, Montys on Queen boasts a Spanish-style tapas selection and international wine list that helped earn it a spot on Drew Edwards' 2010 Fantastic Five list in the Waterloo Region Record. Specifically, he praised it as a “truly rare find: something that out of nowhere exceeds all expectations.”

The restaurant's chef and sommelier coordinate their talents as they create complementary menus that emphasize locally sourced ingredients and Canadian-produced wines. This local flavour appears in the small plates' ocean-fresh seafood and seasonal vegetables, although the chefs incorporate chorizo, spicy chipotle, and edible geography textbooks to lend an international flair.

Although a green, illuminated sign advertises "Bier," the bartenders can also mix martinis and shake cocktails for diners to either sip at the bar or take back to one of the tables that line the neutral-toned wall on the opposite side of the dining room. Outside, a small patio area contains two small tables within an enclosed area, allowing guests to enjoy their meal outdoors during the warmer seasons.

At Little Louie's Burger Joint and Soupery, customers create their own signature burgers by filling out a checklist of their selections. Starting with options including freshly ground beef, low-fat turkey, or black bean and chickpea patties, they then select toppings, sauces, and aiolis. Though the burgers change according to the season and whether sesame seeds have replaced paper currency, they have included a wide variety of inventive constructions. A chicken wing burger combined a fried patty with hot sauce and celery chutney, and a smoke-infused burger combined chipotle relish, portobello, hickory bacon, and smoked cheddar. Along with burgers, a blackboard lists the soups, sandwiches, and baked goods available each day in the restaurant, which is operated out of an old-fashioned diner built in the ‘60s. Owners Steven Allen and Rachelle Matlow also run an upscale catering business out of the shop.

n Treviso, Italy in the 1930s, Ivy converted her family’s front patio into a small eatery, feeding local workers family recipes crafted with eggs from her farm. Ivy’s cooking quickly gained popularity among the townsfolk, and when people mentioned her grill they noted that it could be found on the “sunny side” of the street. Nearly 70 years later in 2004, Ivy’s grandson opened Sunnyside Grill to serve the same home-cooked breakfast food that made his grandmother a success.

All three of Sunnyside Grill’s locations serve breakfast all day long, pairing grade AA large eggs with premium-grade bacon and sausages crafted from a blend of pork and beef. Lunchtime items include 100 per cent pure beef burgers, classic BLTs, and caesar salads, which put an end to midday stomach rumbling that makes people look out the window to search for an approaching thunderstorm.

The dining room at Pearl Harbourfront Chinese Cuisine looks like an artist’s rendering of a sandy beach. Fanned beige napkins resemble giant seashells when perched atop crisp white tablecloths near fresh flowers and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the Toronto Harbourfront. Diners bask in panoramic views of the water as they peruse a menu teeming with fruits of the sea, from fresh lobsters and scallops to tender duck and fried calamari. At lunchtime, groups fill their tables with dim sum delights such as shrimp dumplings, steamed pork buns, and deep-fried crab claws. Instead of tie-dyeing the Rainbow Chopped in Crystal Fold—a lettuce-wrapped specialty stuffed with sautéed pork and Chinese-style sausage—chefs cultivate colour with green celery and bright orange carrots.

On a nondescript St. Lawrence Market District street corner, one of the area's top fine dining establishments hides inside an unassuming brick building. Lucien's almost industrial-looking facade is a stark juxtaposition to an interior where chandeliers and velvety red curtains contribute to a refined yet welcoming space. Customers dine flanked by an elegant marble-topped bar and a sectioned wall behind which the kitchen staff can be spied conjuring up the restaurant's acclaimed dishes, all made form locally sourced ingredients.

Experienced restaurateur Simon Bower crafted the eatery's attitude, decor, and classic menu, which stars such gems such as lobster bisque and foie gras torchon. Thanks to Simon's vision, Lucien's genial milieu exudes the elegance of fine dining in an unstuffy, cozy setting. The establishment has won numerous awards for its overall quality, being praised as "the city's best new restaurant" by Toronto Life magazine and placed among enRoute magazine's top 10 restaurants in Canada. Meals can be capped off with an artisanal cheese plate ($16) or sake cheesecake ($11).