This 42-acre destination in the picturesque Niagara region is the full experience. A restaurant, winery, orchard, farm and bakery, Restaurant Pearl Morissette is a powerhouse. With great pride for Canadian ingredients and respect for the seasons, Chefs Daniel Hadida and Eric Robertson make the most of their surroundings to enhance their spontaneous tasting menu's dishes, as in roasted guinea hen with chanterelles, mokum carrot and fig.

Chef Eric Chong has set out to do what few others in the region dare to. Drawing inspiration from across Asia, he taps into his own Chinese heritage and delivers a modern tasting menu that reimagines what is possible with ingredients like abalone, chicken noodle soup, tofu and leeks. Tables run down the length of a stylish room framed with gold-leaf finishes, and a four-seat chef’s counter offers an even closer look at the refined excellence coming out of this kitchen.

On a quiet stretch of downtown Toronto, Chef Julie Hyde is making her talents known in this tiny-but-mighty restaurant. Top-notch local produce, pristine seafood and refined sauce work make for a delicious trifecta on a tasting menu that boasts originality in spades. Highlights included Iberico pork chop with bagna vert sauce, frisee salad finished with fried shallot, and a rhubarb strawberry jam and white chocolate ganache in a beautiful pâte à choux.

Everyone has a good time at Chef Patrick Kriss’s beloved Alo. You can sense this much at the lively bar, where walk-ins are treated like VIPs by personable servers. Basking in the light of the open kitchen, the cozy dining room sees just as much excitement, and the talented beverage team offers spot-on suggestions from the well-chosen wine list. The kitchen team seamlessly merges European and Asian sensibilities onto a single tasting menu.

The Italian menu offers sophistication at every turn; choose from the prix fixe or go for the tasting menu to sample more of the dishes on offer. The seared Muscovy duck menu gets things off to a confident and robustly flavored start, while the vermicelli with mackerel and pine nuts shows this is a kitchen that understands the importance of texture alongside flavor; the similarly delicious porchetta has a honey glaze that glistens seductively.

Chef Quinton Bennett has an international resume and a well-traveled kitchen team, so influences and techniques can range from the Nordics to Nihon. Dishes are delicate, poised and detailed creations – he certainly doesn’t make life easy for his brigade as there’s always plenty of intricacy happening on each plate. Fortunately, the flavors are always complementary, with Atlantic halibut paired with chanterelles and Australian wagyu with bone marrow.

Almost everything on this distinctive menu passes through a battery of roaring wood-burning grills and hearths, lending a primal smokiness that pervades the food and room alike. At the end of the line is a single cook at an earthenware comal, preparing tortillas from heirloom corn nixtmalized and ground in-house. Masa-based items like memela filled with melty quesillo, smoky preserved shiitakes and crunchy chicharron show off the kitchen’s creativity.

Chef/partner Daniele Corona cooks Italian food with a global influence. Choose from a multicourse prix-fixe or a chef's tasting menu to enjoy items such as wild Pacific crab served over thin, noodle-like vegetables, garnished with trout roe, and finished tableside with a Sicilian green olive coulis. Then, house-made basil bottini filled with smoked burrata is nestled in a creamy sauce for a dish that delivers dialed-in flavor.

"Sweet" can carry a slightly disparaging edge, but there’s something quite endearing about this quaint little house, with its warm, yellow-toned interior brimming with assorted bric-a-brac. The set multicourse menu is largely inspired by the Mediterranean, and in particular Spain, focusing on excellent seafood complemented by seasonal flavors and indulgent sauces. Take, for example, Québec snow crab with fennel and rich mousseline.

Minimalist in design, Aburi Hana saves the drama for the plates, using handmade Arita pottery that has a history tracing back to the 1600s. Chef Ryusuke Nakagawa presents a modern take on the history-steeped Kyō-Kaiseki menu. His cooking is personal and intricate, weaving multiple techniques and colors into every dish. The signature maguro flower, a rose made from pieces of akami and chutoro, is stunning, as is the duck breast meatball with foie gras and sliced black truffles.