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The third annual list of Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants, which was released today, includes five from Ottawa, marking an improvement in the representation of the National Capital Region’s dining scene when compared to the previous lists.

Here are the Ottawa-centric details from the various lists.

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2017

46. Fairouz

59. Beckta

60. Atelier

65. Fauna

75. Riviera

2016

69. Atelier

75. Fauna

2015

19.Atelier

79. Les Fougères

80. Beckta

Last year, I was a little cranky about Ottawa’s meagre showing on the list, which otherwise reliably tallied such acclaimed Canadian restaurants as Toque!, Hawksworth and Joe Beef in the top 10, and I wrote this post. I and others posited that the two Ottawa entries correlated in general with there being two Ottawans among the list’s judges. For what it’s worth, there were four Ottawa-based judges this year — food writer Anne DesBrisay, restaurateur Stephen Beckta, Jim Kyte, the dean of Algonquin College’s School of Hospitality and Tourism and Chris Knight of Gusto Worldwide Media.

For those who note that Beckta was a judge and that his flagship restaurant made the list: Be aware that Beckta let me know that judges who are restaurateurs or chefs are not allowed to vote for their own restaurants.

The list proudly notes that 30 restaurants this year are first-time inclusions. All in all, I’d say that things are moving in the right direction, even if I still think the Ottawa restaurants that made the list remain underrated.

phum@postmedia.com

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews