Ottawa gets called a boring national capital so often that people forget to mention the food. That reputation is out of date. In fact, two rooms in this city now sit on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list, chefs are opening 16-seat counters you have to book weeks ahead, and you can still get a shawarma that ruins every other shawarma for you. Ottawa loves its shawarmas!
With this in mind, these are the best places to eat in Ottawa right now, sorted by the only thing that matters: why you’re going out tonight. Splurge, neighbourhood dinner, or something cheap and iconic. Pick your lane and commit with confidence.
When you’re splurging
Riviera — 62 Sparks Street.
A former bank hall on the Sparks Street pedestrian mall, all soaring ceilings and terrazzo, doing refined contemporary Canadian cooking. This is your dressed-up-dinner room, the one you book when the occasion needs to feel like an event.
Order this: Whatever’s on the seasonal pasta list.
Insider tip: It’s steps from Parliament Hill, so it fills up with a downtown crowd on weeknights. Book ahead.
Beckta Dining & Wine — 150 Elgin Street.
Beckta has been the grown-up in Ottawa fine dining for years, tucked into the historic Grant House in Centretown. The tasting menus are the draw, but the wine program might be the best in the city.
Order this: the tasting menu, with the pairings.
Insider tip: sit at the wine bar if you want the food without the full multi-course commitment.
Atelier — 540 Rochester Street.
No menu, no à la carte, no choices. You sit down for the modernist “Zyre” tasting, about a dozen courses over three-plus hours, and you let the kitchen drive. It runs around $250 a head and it’s the most ambitious meal in the city.
Order this: you don’t. That’s the point.
Insider tip: go hungry and clear your whole evening. This is the meal, not a prelude to one.
Perch — 300 Preston Street.
Perch put Little Italy on the fine-dining map with a nine-course Canadian tasting menu ($160, with an optional $100 pairing). It was named to Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants in 2023 and 2025, and Air Canada’s enRoute named it the fourth-best new Canadian restaurant in 2022.
Order this: the full nine courses. Add the pairing.
Insider tip: dinner only, Wednesday through Saturday. Plan around it.
Antheia — 861 Somerset Street West.
Chef Briana Kim’s newest project is a 16-seat fermentation lab and chef’s counter near Dow’s Lake that opened at the end of 2025 and immediately landed on Canada’s 100 Best 2026. Kim is a past Canadian Culinary Championship winner, and this is her showing off.
Order this: the counter menu, front-row.
Insider tip: 16 seats means it books out fast. Get on the reservation calendar the second it opens.
When you just want a great neighbourhood dinner
North & Navy — 226 Nepean Street.
Northern Italian built on the bacari of Venice, those little cicchetti bars where you graze and drink. It’s warm, it’s intimate, and it’s been a critical darling downtown for a decade.
Order this: a spread of cicchetti, then the six-course tasting if you’re settling in.
Supply and Demand — 1335 Wellington Street West.
The Wellington West anchor everyone sends you to. House-made pasta and a seafood counter, in a room that feels like the neighbourhood’s living room.
Order this: whatever pasta they’re pushing that night, plus something raw.
Arlo Wine & Restaurant — Somerset Street West.
A Centretown newcomer that keeps showing up on best-of lists, doing seasonal small plates against a natural-wine list.
Order this: let the server steer you through the small plates and pour you something orange.
Elise — 381B Winona Avenue.
Westboro’s French room, classic technique meeting local Canadian ingredients with a bit of New York polish. One of the better 2025-era openings in the west end.
Order this: anything with a proper French sauce. They can cook.
Corner Peach — 802 Somerset Street West.
All-day spot leaning hard on local produce, with an artisanal grocery next door so you can take the obsession home. Great for a low-key daytime meal.
Order this: whatever’s built around what’s in season.
When you want cheap, iconic, and Ottawa to the core
Shawarma Palace — 464 Rideau Street.
Ottawa runs on shawarma, and this Rideau Street institution has been the standard since 1996. A family-run institution that does not take itself too seriously, and now offers a few locations around town, but the original still hits hardest.
Order this: the chicken shawarma, garlic sauce, no notes.
El Camino — 81A Clarence Street.
A tacos-and-raw-bar spot in the ByWard Market that’s equally good for a quick lunch or a loud late night. Weekend hours run deep.
Order this: a round of tacos and something off the raw bar.
Pho By Night — ByWard Market.
A family-run Vietnamese spot that’s been slinging pho for more than 26 years. When it’s cold, which is often, this is the bowl.
Order this: a large beef pho. Bring your appetite.
So where should you go?
Depends on the night. Big occasion, book Perch or Antheia weeks out. Casual dinner with people who love food, walk into Supply and Demand or North & Navy. Broke and happy at midnight, or if you prefer cheap and cheerful, it’s Shawarma Palace every time.
The point is that Ottawa gives you all three, often on the same street. Not bad for a ‘government town,’ eh?
Been to any of these? Tell us your Ottawa ride-or-die in the comments on our Facebook page.
