The National Post, The Appetizer
October 28, 2008

enRoute magazine's 10 best new restaurants in Canada

By Adam McDowell

Note it well: Toronto restaurant Nota Bene is at the top of enRoute magazine’s 2008 list of the 10 best new restaurants in Canada.

Food writer Chris Johns travelled to 12 cities and got fed at “thirty-something” restaurants in coming up with the list. Explaining his choice of winner, he wrote: “Chef David Lee and his business partners Yannick Bigourdan and Franco Prevedello have created a restaurant that is both democratic and elite … the kitchen relies on Asian and Latin flavours for its inspiration, filtering and refining them in the process.”

Post restaurant critic Gina Mallet gave Nota Bene three stars (out of four) last August. Read the review here. She dubbed the new resto, which resides in a Queen Street West office building, "Splendido Pop," a reference to the even posher joint further uptown with which Lee and Bigourdan are also involved.

The rest of the list:

2. Le Local, Montreal
3. Harbord Room, Toronto
4. Chef’s Table, Calgary
5. Boneta, Vancouver
6. The Only on King, London, Ont.
7. Lucien, Toronto
8. Fraiche West, Vancouver
9. Liverpool House, Montreal
10. Stage, Victoria

Air Canada passengers — who must make do with those overly chewy Cara sandwiches — can look forward to yearning hungrily for the selected restaurants when enRoute's November issue appears in seat-back pouches.