Categories: Food & Drink

Toronto dominates Canada’s best new restaurants list for 2026

Photo via Fareen Karim

Air Canada has unveiled its finalists for its annual ranking of Canada’s best new restaurants, and, unsurprisingly, Toronto and Ontario restaurants dominated the list.

With the 2026 Toronto Michelin Guide right around the corner, talk of Toronto’s top restaurants is at the tip of every foodie’s tongue — and Air Canada, which released its 30 finalists for its yearly ranking of Canada’s Best New Restaurants, just gave us another reason to get excited.

With the shortlist of 10 winners slated to be revealed in November, it looks like restaurants in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario are well-poised to make a big impact among the winners, with 14 Ontario restaurants (of which 9 are located in Toronto) scoring spots on the list.

The finalists come as little surprise to anyone who’s been keeping a finger on the food pulse over the past year: buzzy Toronto hotspots like Bar Eugenie, Sammarco, and Liliana all earned spots among the final 30.

They’re joined by fellow shoo-ins N.L. Ginzburg, Seahorse, Antylia, Oldeseoul Tavern, Radici Project, and Zia’s Place: a tasty turnout indeed.

Toronto restaurants didn’t get all the glory among the finalists, though. The surrounding area also got its due flowers with the inclusion of Ottawa’s Antheia, St. Catharines’ Bar Les Incompetents, Collingwood’s LORE, and the Niagara Region’s Restaurant Capelin and Reve.

We’ll have to wait until the top 10 are unveiled on Nov. 16 to find out the true cream of the crop, but making up nearly half the list of finalists, it’s safe to say that the culinary scenes in Toronto and Ontario at large have already done their residents proud.

Here’s the complete list of Air Canada’s 30 finalists for Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2026.