Canoe

"Since 1995, Canoe has showcased Canadian ingredients from coast to coast. The fancy enterprise calls the 54th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Centre home, offering commanding views of the skyline and high prices to go with them. Executive chef Ron McKinlay traverses the globe for collaborative meals with other chefs, but on Canadian soil, he executes elaborate, hyper-seasonal tasting menus. The Taste Canoe option is an ideal way to explore the Great North through items like supple scallops — tossed with brown butter vinaigrette, aonori, vermouth, crisp apples, and crunchy hazelnuts — or a technically precise rabbit dish featuring an ensemble cast of saddle, filet, loin, heart, kidney, and liver." - Tiffany Leigh

"Canoe has the best view in Toronto: CN Tower standing to one side, planes landing at City Airport to another, and Toronto's glittering skyline sprawling beyond the horizon. And yes, the food here is just as good as the real estate. The menu at Canoe is an adventurous, surprising, and just-plain-delicious celebration of flavors and ingredients from across Canada. You'll find foie gras from Quebec, the flakiest fresh Pacific fish, and fine Ontario produce and dairy. Start with either the Ontario burrata with birch-pickled cucumbers and prairie seeds or the Quebec foie gras with rhubarb, pink peppercorn, and sumac meringue. The tea-smoked duck breast, which is served with duck-liver mousse, parsnip, and poached Niagara pear, is sublime. Service feels just as top-notch—glasses are filled, tables are de-crumbed, and cutlery is replaced so fast you'll hardly even notice." - Todd Plummer

"In 2025 this iconic restaurant will celebrate its 30th anniversary. The views from its position on the 54th floor of the TD Bank Tower are unmatched in the city and service is as efficient as you’d expect from such a well-oiled machine. Lunchtime is largely the reserve of Bay Street brokers and bankers; the menu is an easily navigable document for those whose business is business and who don’t want to hang around too long. At dinner, the pace slows and the menu expands to reveal the full extent of the kitchen’s capabilities. Wild Pacific halibut is paired with Savoy cabbage and champagne cream; while lamb saddle is accompanied by its braised shoulder. For dessert, look no further than the tarte au sucre." - Michelin Inspector

"Many successful restaurants that populate the city today are helmed by chefs who got their start at this one. Since 1995, Canoe has showcased the provenance of Canadian ingredients from coast to coast. The fancy enterprise calls the 54th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Centre home, offering views of the skyline and demanding high prices to go with it. Executive chef Ron McKinlay (who worked alongside Tom Kitchin and Gordon Ramsay) leads the elaborate tasting and hyperseasonal menus. A portrait of Canada is framed in hedonistic creations like his intricate Pig’s Trotter: a compact porky cylinder stuffed with sweetbreads, lap cheong sausage, and wild shrimp from the North Atlantic, counterbalanced by a relief system of tangy pickled pears, salty spot prawn bisque, and grassy tarragon emulsion. It’s worth saving room for dessert; chef patissier Raffaele Stea offers a tipsy tarte au sucre, a textural love child between a lustrous creme brulee and quivering flan, spiked with a hiccup-inducing slug of Screech rum and served with a heady brown-butter milk sauce." - Tiffany Leigh

"You’ll have to take the elevator up to the 54th floor of the Toronto Dominion Bank tower to reach Canoe, but the food and CN Tower views live up to the journey. When this restaurant first opened in the 1990s, they were one of the first places to really try and define contemporary Canadian cuisine. And while Canadians are still figuring out their culinary identity, dishes like the Ontario lake trout bathed in champagne sauce and aged ribeye with smoked bacon make the absolute most of local ingredients. The chefs are also super accommodating and can prepare pretty much anything (just don’t ask for poutine) to suit your needs, whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, or halal. " - julia eskins