By Andrew Braithwaite Photos by Rush Jagoe

It turns out that the best way to celebrate 15 years spent scouring Canada for its best new restaurants is over a nice meal. In 2016, that meant toasting with crémant d’Alsace over charcoal-grilled lobster in Montreal; breaking bread (and using it to scoop up smoked sablefish brandade) in Victoria; and making new acquaintances over lamb-and-watercress-yogurt hors d’oeuvres on a grassy front lawn in PEI. This year’s cross-country pilgrimage channelled elemental simplicity: fish cooked over live fire; flour and water transformed by alchemy into crusty loaves of bread; organic salads grown out back by families that farm together and feast together. What we’ll remember 15 years down the road is how much fun we had eating out in 2016 – climbing staircases to hidden dining rooms, catching tunes from konpa to the Kinks, and discovering as much art on the walls as on the tables. This country’s finest restaurateurs demonstrate class and creativity from the first amuse-bouche to that last killer cocktail.

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