7 Best Winnipeg Restaurants | Where to Eat in Winnipeg, Manitoba

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Whether you’ve had a thought-provoking morning at the Canadian Human Rights Museum, have an evening planned at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, or you’re out exploring the shops at The Forks, sooner or later hunger will hit. With over 1,700 restaurants to choose from, finding the best places to eat in Winnipeg can be overwhelming. Here are our top 8 Winnipeg restaurants. They’re sure to please even the pickiest of travelers in your group. 

While in Winnipeg don’t miss out on activities that will help immerse yourself with the city (hurry while they’re hot!):

• Winnipeg: Haunted City Audio Tour for Smartphone
• Winnipeg Richardson International Airport: Premium Lounge

Visiting other destinations in Canada? Check out our other guides:

• 8 Must-Try Salt Spring Island Restaurants
• 13 Best Things To Do On Salt Spring Island BC
• Canadian Food Guide: The 16 Best Examples of Canadian Cuisine
• 5 Must-Try Pizza Places In Mont-Tremblant
• 15 Must-Try Vancouver Restaurants
• 7 Must-Try Whistler Restaurants
• The Six Best Steakhouses In Vancouver, BC, Canada

Top 7 Best Winnipeg Restaurants

Best French Restaurant in Winnipeg

Resto Gare Bistro and Train Bar

630 Des Meurons at Provencher St. Boniface // +1 204-237-7072

Located in the St. Boniface neighborhood, Winnipeg’s French Quarter, Resto Gare Bistro and Train Bar takes you to Europe over the dinner hour. The Bistro was once a train station, and the décor retains the original wood framing and light fixtures. As a nod to the bistro’s former life, you can even dine in the train car. 

They offer French-English bilingual service that pairs well with their traditional French cuisine. The menu provides your favorite French dishes. We had the Brie Faux Fondue, made with a melted Brie cheese, accompanied by cranberry, dark cherry, and spiced almonds, and a French baguette. Another French favorite of mine is the beef bourguignon. The dish is made with the classic red wine and uses a braised beef short rib as the base mixed with mushroom, bacon, onion, and fresh herbs. They serve it with your choice of roasted or mashed potatoes and the chef’s choice of vegetables.

Resto Gare also offers a tasty take on the classic Canadian dish, poutine. They use hand-cut fries, Bothwell cheese curds topped with house gravy. You can choose to top it with blue cheese, bacon, and red wine gravy.

Pro Tip: 

• During nice weather, the patio offers live music in a pleasant setting.

Best Tapas-Style Restaurant in Winnipeg

Deer + Almond

85 Princess Street // +1 204-504-8562

Located in the Exchange District, Winnipeg’s thriving arts and theater hub, Deer + Almond, offers ever-changing choices that take advantage of fresh local ingredients. Described frequently as tapas-style dining, you’ll be pleasantly stuffed at dinner’s end when you order the tasting menu. The dishes I describe will provide examples of menu offerings, but the menu constantly changes. 

The smoked Lake Winnipeg Pickerel in almond soup, pickled cantaloupe, and cucumber oil is a favorite from the wide variety of tapas on the menu. We also enjoyed the arborio risotto with grilled Manitoba lobster and mushrooms, accented with Parmigiana Reggiano.

Pro Tip: 

• Call ahead if you have dietary restrictions or allergies. This will allow the chef to make advance arrangements for your meal.

Best Latin Dining in Winnipeg

Café Dario

1390 Erin Street // +1 204-783-2813

Off the beaten path in a bungalow on the West End, Café Dario is a casual dining experience with food quality, presentation, and service comparable to any fine-dining restaurant. Colombian-born chef Dario Pineda-Gutierrez’s menu frequently features South American favorites. 

The presentation of their six-ounce beef tenderloin with Argentinean caper chimichurri is a work of art. Roasted vegetables, pickled carrots, and threads of bright red beets make the plate pop with color.

For those who prefer fish, try the corn-crusted six-ounce salmon fillet. The dish comes with a vegetable and starch. The soup of the day and a bread basket accompany all lunches.

Pro Tips:

• Planning dinner with a vegan? If you call a few days ahead, they can customize a meal designed to delight.
• Café Dario only seats about 50 people, so be sure to make reservations.

Dining Rooms with a View in Winnipeg

Prairie 360

83 Garry Street // +1 204-505-2681

Rotating 30 floors above the city in Fort Garry Place, Prairie 360 delivers a bird’s eye view of Winnipeg. Each rotation takes an hour and ten minutes, so you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy your meal and see the city from all sides.

Prairie 360 is an ultra-contemporary restaurant with a scratch-made kitchen. The chef is particularly proud of his 45-day-aged Manitoba beef. If you’re looking for something other beef, try their pan-seared duck over creamy polenta or the roasted rack of lamb. 

One stand-out appetizer: the spicy roasted corn elote with diced pork belly.

Best Breakfast in Winnipeg

Clementine Café

123 Princess Street // +1 204-942-9497

“Eat this – it’ll help” promises this restaurant’s white-neon sign. Indeed, it does! Whatever the dish, it helps.

This globally-influenced menu has a laser-sharp breakfast focus. Only nine entries and nine sides are served. While some menu items are always there, others rotate seasonally. For instance, summer’s black-cherry semifreddo with dark chocolate turns to fall’s apple semifreddo with dulce de leche.

Although Clementine Café is in a basement, the environment feels bright and airy, with potted plants on the window ledges and a retro-industrial vibe.

A Brussels-style waffle, crispy on the outside, yet cake-like within, came covered with blueberry sauce. Then, the middle had a spoonful of lemon-infused whipped cream and a sprinkling of lemon zest. A shallow well held handful of fresh blueberries. Finally, for added crunch, they sprinkled it with frosted pecans.

The house-made maple-glazed bacon cut from pork belly is a beautiful combination of salty and sweet.

Pro Tips:

• They don’t take reservations here; so, call ahead and ask about the wait time. You may have to decide to go another day.
• They close at 3:00 p.m. on weekdays and 4:00 p.m. on weekends. The rush usually ends around 1:30 p.m.

Best Date Night Spot in Winnipeg

SMITH

75 Forks Market Road // +1 204-944-2445

SMITH offers an exceptional dining experience in a comfortable, rustic atmosphere. The restaurant’s name references blacksmiths, with an abundance of black metal in the décor.

SMITH’s menu focuses on Canada’s product diversity. Among the seasonal products obtained from local suppliers, you’ll find Canadian prime Alberta beef, Manitoba rabbit, and Arctic char. The chef’s locally procured pork makes great house-made bacon.

The restaurant’s interior sits at the intersection of hunter and hipster. Modern white antler chandeliers and banquets upholstered in Hudson Bay Company blankets nod to the hunter. Wood horizontal-planked walls and modern fixtures contribute to the hipster feel, as do the artisanal food and craft cocktails.

Our cheese board was a standout appetizer. It included Oka, Cambozola, and a Guinness cheddar. A crisp house-made cranberry almond cracker and buttered crostini accompanied the cheese. The fruit component included strawberry halves, a thinly sliced Granny Smith apple quarter, and Saskatoon berries. The honey and candied pecans provided sweetness.

Pro Tips:

• Saturday nights offer a variety of live entertainment from folk to jazz. Other evenings, The Forks’s river walk is the perfect place for an after-dinner stroll.

Best Comfort Food in Winnipeg

Peasant Cookery

283 Bannatyne Ave. // +1 204-989-7700

Peasant Cookery’s menu features French-inspired home cooking with a twist. Their scratch-made dishes include house-made charcuterie and all sauces and stocks.

Menu highlights included French onion soup, Parisian-style gnocchi, and tourtière, a French-style meat pie. Their peasant cooking focused on accessible, inexpensive ingredients prepared and seasoned to create tasty dishes.

The butternut squash soup made with coconut milk was dairy-free, with curry lightly flavoring the soup. Typically garnished with crunchy granola, when I expressed concern about the nuts in the granola, the server suggested a substitution of toasted seeds, including sesame and sunflower seeds and puffed wild rice garnishes on the beet salad. This was a perfect way to accommodate those with nut allergies without eliminating the texture.

Deconstructed chevre cheesecake contained three separate components. First was a dish of house-made sour cherry sorbet. The tartness provided a nice foil to the ramekin of creamy chevre cheesecake. Two shortbread pig-shaped cookies replaced the typical cheesecake crust. The cutout cookies provided a touch of whimsy, while the bright red cherry sorbet gives the plate a pop of color.

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Which of these Winnipeg Restaurants do you most want to try? Let me know in the comments section below!

   Author Bio:
Amy Piper is a freelance travel writer, photographer, and blogger. A native of Michigan USA, she has traveled to 41 countries and 42 states, most recently adding New Mexico to the list. She aspires to go to Antarctica and finally visit all seven continents. She specializes in food and multi-generational travel, frequently traveling with her husband, daughter, and two granddaughters. Amy has had six-month-long ex-pat assignments in South Korea and Argentina.

She has been chased by bomb-sniffing dogs in the middle of the night in Bogotá (working late), refused boarding for a plane from Buenos Aires to Paraguay (wrong visa), and Federal Marshals once announced her seat number on a flight while looking for a murder suspect (traded seats.) It is always an adventure! She is a member of the International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA), Travel Massive, TravMedia, and the International Travel Writers and Photographers Alliance (ITWPA).  Follow her on Twitter @amythepiper.