Four Ottawa restaurants crack 2025 Canada’s 100 Best list

Chef Marc Lepine at work in Atelier’s kitchen. Photo by Jean Levac /Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia NewsArticle content

Four Ottawa restaurants made it onto the highly regarded 2025 Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list released on May 5, down from six in 2024.

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Top-rated among the local selection is Atelier, chef-owner Marc Lepine’s sophisticated tasting-menu destination on Rochester Street. It ranks 41st now, up from 43rd last year.

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Also returning to the list is the Centretown fine-food-and-wine haunt Arlo on Somerset Street, which rose to 49th from 71st last year.

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Alex McMahon, co-owner of Arlo. Photo by Tony Caldwell /PostmediaArticle content

Meanwhile, big-city eatery Riviera on Sparks Street fell to 88th from 28th last year. However, the judges said Riviera had Canada’s best restaurant bar.

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Perch, chef-owner Justin Champagne-Lagarde’s intimate tasting menu restaurant on Preston Street, is back on the list, ranking 95th, after being absent last year. Perch was 85th on the 2023 Canada’s 100 Best list. That year, eight Ottawa restaurants made the list.

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Dropping off the list this year were North & Navy on Nepean Street, which ranked in the mid-90s in 2023 and 2024, Supply and Demand on Wellington Street West, which was 75th last year and 63rd the year before, and Buvette Daphnée on William Street, which ranked 97th in 2024.

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Ottawa legend Stephen Flood, Riviera restaurant’s master bartender. Photo by Lesley ChestermanArticle content

Between them, Toronto (29 restaurants) and Montreal (24) were home to more than half of the list’s restaurants. Vancouver had 14 restaurants while Calgary had five, Winnipeg had three, and Halifax and Quebec City each had two.

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Topping this year’s list was Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Jordan Station, Ont. Last year’s top restaurant, Montreal’s Mon Lapin, came in second this year. Alo, Edulis and 20 Victoria, all in Toronto, were respectively third, fourth and fifth this year.

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“The exceptional ones do linger,” Jacob Richler, editor-in-chief and publisher of Canada’s 100 Best.

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The list was generated from ballots submitted by 177 Canadian culinary experts, including chefs, sommeliers, restaurant owners, bartenders and food enthusiasts. As in past years, this writer was among them. The 2025 judging panel was the largest one assembled for the list, which debuted in 2015.

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Chef-owner Justin Champagne-Lagarde, inside Perch. Photo by Errol McGihon /POSTMEDIAArticle content

Asked about Riviera dropping 60 places, Richler said: “Everybody would rather be 28 than 88 for sure. I used to hear about it all the time when it opened, and people get accustomed to it.