The Best Places To Eat In Kingston, Canada's Foodie Capital

Once upon a time, Kingston was Canada's capital city. Now it's Canada's undisputed foodie capital! 

Our Kingston, Ontario, Canada travel experience was sponsored by Tourism Kingston and we thank them for their support.
Some links within this blog post are affiliate links, which means we are paid a small commission should you make a purchase .

Do you remember the first time you tried pesto? I do. I had just turned 19 years old and I was living in Kingston, Ontario. I walked into a tiny, narrow, downtown restaurant on Princess Street called "Lukes!" In a few years, the titular Luke himself would turn 15, take over as the restaurant's executive chef, pivot the brand to "Luke's Gastronomy", and become Canada's foodie wunderkind. But in 1999 it was just Lukes! and I was just a student (likely with a coupon in hand...) who ordered the cheapest meal on the menu. Pesto pasta. It cost $9. Or maybe it was $12? In any case, there were long noodles and there was pesto, a deep muddy green mix of silky oils and granular cheese, nuts, and herb stalks. It was like being punched in the face with the most incredible mix of salty earthiness, the pungent herbaciousness of the basil wrestling with its own undertones of licorice and pepper. 

I was a goner. It was love at first bite.

Living in Kingston was like attending a culinary finishing school and I was a rough and tumble debutante who had never once moved past mashed potatoes. It introduced me to flavors, ingredients, and textures that were actually rather commonplace but had never crossed my path before. Things like hummus (smooth, but not too smooth, spread over triangles of firm pita bread and topped with red onion and cucumber), sky high cheesecake with ingredients like blackberry with peaches or Oreo crumble with swirls of Irish cream, scalding hot cafe au lait -too bitter for me to properly enjoy (don't worry - I evolved!) - and large, squishy cubes of tofu, flash fried, coated in a spicy sweet black bean sauce, served with bell peppers that were barely al dente. 

Amazing.

Little did I know when I was indulging on pesto pasta for the first time that I was sitting in the middle of what would soon be Canada's food capital. Today, Kingston, the first capital city of Canada, boasts the highest number of restaurants per capita in the country. It's second only to New Orleans in all of North America. When I had the opportunity to return, this time with student life long behind me, I knew I had to dive into Kingston's food scene once more.

Feasting my way around the city with Kingston Food Tours

This time, I'd have some guidance as I delved into Canada's foodie capital thanks to Kingston Food Tours. Kingston Food Tours operates two tour itineraries - Classic Kingston and Beer & Bites - to give visitors and Kingstonians alike the chance to connect with the city. We couldn't wait to see and taste what they had in store for us!

While we've never had a food tour we didn't enjoy, some are admittedly better than others. Our first hint that Kingston Food Tours was a company that goes above and beyond was when they called us the day before the tour to double check that Ryan's shellfish allergy didn't extend to other seafood.

​This simple gesture made my heart soar. Of course I was glad Ryan would live to eat another day! But I was also thrilled because, in my experience, tours that pay close attention to allergies tend to pay close attention to all kinds of details. I had an inkling that we were in for a very special experience. 

At the appointed hour we met at the Visitors Centre to say hello to company owner Heather, tour guide Jessica, and the other participants. As I gleaned from our preliminary phone call, Kingston Food Tours was organized AND friendly. After quick introductions, which included sharing what our favourite food was (a great way to break the ice), we were off to our first stop.

I'm torn between giving you, my dear readers, a play by play of every amazing stop along the way versus sharing just a few of the highlights. After all - I want you to come and experience the Classic Kingston tour for yourself! But it's really hard not to share every delicious mouthful we enjoyed along the way.

After wrangling with indecision, I settled on sharing our experience at just five different tour stops. Together, they give you a great sense of our wonderful tour experience and the kind of incredible foodie destination that is Kingston. If you can't make it to Kingston to experience the full tour, each of these locations would be a fine choice for lunch or dinner. As a little added bonus, we've also included a list of some extra restaurants and pubs we've grown especially fond of.  

Warning: Don't read any further if you have an empty stomach!

Dianne's Fish Shack and Smokehouse 

I've seen some pretty unique examples of fusion cuisine in my travels, but none can hold a candle to what's happening at Dianne's Fish Shack and Smokehouse, the first stop on our Classic Kingston tour. Dianne's is mixing up the rustic cuisine of New Brunswick's farms and piers with the flavors and texture's of Baja, Mexico. Wait - what? New Brunswick and Baja? You better believe it!

As tour guide Jessica explained, the "Dianne" of Dianne's Fish Shack and Smokehouse was the mom of restaurant owner Katrina, who runs four restaurants and a catering company with her husband Tim. Some of New Brunswick-raised Dianne's original recipes are on the menu, including the chowder and the pickled green tomatoes. They perfectly compliment the flavors of Baja, including avocado, onions, chilies, lime.... and tequila! Bartender Chris is the in-house tequila expert and knows all the subtleties of the 32 different varieties the restaurant offers.

For the first stop on the tour, Dianne's blew our expectations out of the water. We started with a plump, juicy, beer battered haddock taco made with salsa roja and avocado crema. The batter contained beer from the nearby MacKinnon Brother's Brewing Company, a nice local touch. Ryan is incredibly fussy when it comes to fish tacos and he loved these. The haddock was very fresh with zero "fishy-ness" to it at all and the flavors were mild, with a variety of hot sauce on hand for anyone who wanted to amp things up. Nothing compliments tacos quite like margaritas and it's no exaggeration to say that the classic margarita we tried at Dianne's was one of the best we've ever had.

As we were leaving, Ryan turned to me and said "I think this is going to be the best food tour we've ever been on." I think he was onto something! 

PS Remember that organization I spoke about before? I LOVE that Kingston Food Tours starts the Classic Kingston tour right away with their first stop and then they pause between stops number one and two to share a brief history of the city. This is such a nice change from other food tours that make you sit through a long introduction while you're growing hungry waiting for your first nibbles!

Atomica 

Atomica has three important things in common with Dianne's Fish Shack and Smokehouse. First, and most importantly, it's owned by the same people. Tim and Katrina's love of good food continues to shine through here. Secondly, you can find more fantastic MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Company beer - this time, it's red fox ale.  Finally, fusion is happening here too - it leans towards Italian and Mediterranean - and there's a surprise Maritime connection as well. Chef Cass has Halifax roots and they're evident in her signature donair pizza with a phenomenal sweet garlic sauce. 

Between local beer and fantastic pizza, this food tour stop was already a winner but there were two little bonuses that really made it shine. Our tour guide Jessica took us through the long, tangled relationship between Kingston and beer. At one point, the city had 1,300 people and a whopping 150 some pubs and taverns. Um, can you say trouble was brewing in addition to beer?! The city was also instrumental in supplying the United States with booze during prohibition - oh my! 

The other bonus was that Atomica had bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar from the Kingston Olive Oil Company on the table. Not to give away too many spoilers, but this delightful shop is one of the later stops on the tour and I was thrilled to get a sneak taste of their wares at Atomica.

(For detailed oriented travelers like me, you'll be happy to know that many of the Classic Kingston food tour stops, like Atomica, offer a place to sit down while you eat and there are ample bathrooms for tour participants to use.) 

Pan Chancho Bakery

The story of Pan Chancho, and it's sister restaurant Chez Piggy, is the stuff of Canadian food legend.

Founded in 1979 by bona fide rock star, Zal Yanovsky of The Lovin' Spoonful, and his wife Rose Richardson, Chez Piggy led the wave of fine dining, innovative food, and even reviving heritage buildings in downtown Kingston. Pan Chancho was first established to supply Chez Piggy with European-quality bread and grew to become a full service bakery, gourmet take out counter, small cafe, and specialty food shop. Mention its name to any Kingstonian and they're likely to swoon with delight over Pan Chancho's brunch selection, their decadent pastries, and the fantastic cheese choices. 

Pan Chancho also happens to be legendary in my own food evolution. Its current location on lower Princess Street opened while I was attending university in Kingston and, to my innocent 20-something self, it was the most wonderful place in the world. I would go in with $5 to my name and meekly ask for a dollar or two worth of Moroccan mint chickpeas and Asian noodle salad (or, if I was feeling extra blah, the spicy dragon noodles). I'd top it all off with one of their giant lemon-currant cinnamon buns (which at the time was only $1.35!) I thought I was the height of sophistication with these diverse, complex, worldly flavors by my side. 

Returning to Pan Chancho to experience some new flavors on the Classic Kingston food tour was a treat. This stop was especially delightful because we enjoyed our samples behind the scenes in the working bakery. Jessica served us bites of maple "chomeur" pudding (a cake-like dessert from rural Quebec) and slices of Pan Chancho's in-house bread with local mustard, aged cheddar cheese, and summer sausage from a nearby Mennonite community. Ryan loved it so much he bought some of the sausage to bring home - and I of course nabbed my beloved lemon-currant roll. Some things never change! 

(You might have noticed by now that some Classic Kingston tour stops offered samples that were on par with a small lunch - like the slice of pizza and glass of beer at Atomica - while others were more in line with what was served at Pan Chancho, generous bites that were satisfying but not overwhelming. I really appreciated this mix throughout the tour. I was never hungry, nor did I worry that I would be too full to enjoy the next stop along the way.)

Tango Nuevo 

Once upon a time, Tango Nuevo was simply "Tango" - same location, similar name, but with a different owner and a different vibe. But Tango staff member Gokhan Cifci, who earned his culinary chops as a head chef on a luxury cruise liner, had an incredible vision for what the restaurant could be. Now as Tango Nuevo, it's moved from a place with something of a nightclub vibe to one of the city's most sophisticated restaurants, serving worldly, upscale tapas and small plates. Reflecting Cifci's heritage, many of the dishes have a Turkish influence but others have hints of Spanish, Peruvian, French, Lebanese, and even Vietnamese influence.

Having been here before for my birthday some years back, I can attest to their menu being mind-blowingly good. During the tour, we sampled vegetarian empanadas stuffed with potato and roasted red pepper and served with a garlic aioli and they were just as tasty as I hoped them to be. But while I thought I knew Tango Nuevo, I was in for two special surprises.

The first is that Jessica brought us downstairs to Tango Nuevo's gorgeous "Bodega Room", a hybrid wine cellar and private dining room. I'm thinking we have to up the ante for my next birthday celebrations here! The second is that we met Gokhan Cifci himself. Ryan spontaneously asked him for a restaurant recommendation for his native Istanbul, as we'll be there before long. To our delight, he obliged us and even printed off the information we needed! 

Olivea 

Olivea owners Stev and Deanna like to do things a little differently. They didn't back down from the challenge of buying a property that only came on the market because it has suffered a terrible fire and was gutted inside. They didn't hesitate to embrace the idea of family friendly fine dining and they weren't afraid to teach their staff the true value of Tuscan hospitality through a bit of an unorthodox route. Every year, they close down the restaurant and take the staff on a trip to Tuscany. Really! The result is that Olivea's atmosphere and cuisine is as close to Tuscan family food as you can possibly get in North America. 

Like most restaurants, their menu evolves with the seasons and changes over time but the gnocchi with beef cheek ragù, truffle, and Parmesan has been a star for 15 years now. The beef, sourced locally, is braised for 5 to 8 hours. This may just have been Ryan's favourite dish of the day and if the tour hadn't continued on, I swear he would have stayed put in Olivea and ordered an entire bowl. However, Ryan's preferences aside, the small portion of this tremendously rich dish was a smart choice as it was one of our last stops and it made sense to start winding things down.

Of course, given our luck getting a Turkish restaurant recommendation at Tango Neuvo, we had to try again and ask Stev for a suggestion when we're in Tuscany later this year. He was only too happy to oblige. He knew exactly where we were going and not only provided a restaurant recommendation - he event suggested a specific dish! Talk about the true spirit of hospitality! 

Bonus! Extra places in Kingston that we love. 

While we don't want to share all the secrets and stops of Kingston Food Tours, we'd be remiss if we didn't share some more dining recommendations. We've loved Kingston for over 20 years now so we have a lot to say! The following places aren't part of Kingston Food Tours (or at least.... not yet!) but we are especially fond of them. Enjoy!

Curry Original: Our favourite of all Kingston waterfront restaurants, we love the naan bread, the korma dishes, and the vindaloo (which Ryan declares excellent and he is supremely particular when it comes to vindaloo).

Kingston Brewing Company: It's claim to fame is that it's Ontario's first brew pub. Ryan enjoyed their mac and cheese, fries, and pulled pork sandwich (yep, he tried all three!)

Dong Nai: My very first introduction to Vietnamese food and their huge portions and great prices still make my heart sing. That fried tofu with black bean sauce and stir fried bell peppers I mentioned at the beginning? It's still on the menu here! (Update: Sadly, Dong Nai is now closed. I miss them tremendously.)

Bubba's Poutine: Refined, sophisticated, innovative - Bubba's is none of these things. But they make some of the best poutine we've ever had (and we're not exactly amateurs at this game) and the pizza's pretty good too.
​
Northside Espresso: In truth, we haven't actually eaten here -yet. But we have heard so much about it that we couldn't not include it. It's the place to go for fantastic, Melbourne-inspired brunch. And the nearby Stone City Ales also got rave reviews from everyone we chatted with. 

Cooke's Fine Foods and Coffee: Our favourite place to stock up on Maldon sea salt, local cheese, British chocolate bars, and fancy sauces.  When I was a student I loved roaming the displays here, often splurging on just one special treat at a time and it's still hard to resist their amazing products.

Kingston Coffee House: Right next my beloved Kingston Public Market, it's a great spot for coffee and biscotti. 

Tir Nan Og: While it feels a bit more commercial these days than when we were carefree students, we still love the live music and the "nachos" made with waffle cut fries. 

Say "Cheers!" to Kingston

For years, Kingston has held a sentimental spot in our hearts thanks to our university memories. Now, we're discovering the city through new eyes and new flavors, making a new set of memories along the way. We think you'll find it just as delicious as we do!

If you're exploring Ontario, you'll want to check out these posts as well:
Kingston Waterfront Photo Essay  
Wolfe Island's Most Beautiful Travel Spots
The Best Free Things To Do In Kingston