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Air Canada Announces Longlist Of Canada's Best New Restaurants For 2018

Get ready to drool.
Air Canada

Every year, in a shameless but effective ploy to get people to travel across the country, Air Canada publishes a list of the best new restaurants. They've just unveiled their longlist of 30 new spots, and we'd like reservations at all of them, please.

This year's contenders include Japanese, Thai, Mexican, Filipino, Argentinian, Moroccan, French, Italian, Indigenous and local cuisine, and they're scattered across the country in big cities like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary as well as more unexpected places like Jordan Station, Ont. and Saint-Benoît-de-Mirabel, Que. Take a look at the list below.

1909 Kitchen, Tofino

Cuisine: Seasonal

Chef: Paul Moran

We want to try: Pacific crab boil, featuring dungeness crab, mussels, clams, bacon banger sausages, corn on the cob, nugget potatoes, foot hills butter and lemon.

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

St. Lawrence, Vancouver

Cuisine: Québécois-French

Chef: J-C Poirier

We want to try: Grilled hanger steak with bone marrow, sauce aux poivres and frites

Cuisine: Seasonal French

Chef: Sam Harris

We want to try: Beef tenderloin Oscar, made with seared beef tenderloin, dungeness crab, béarnaise sauce, pomme purée and wilted greens

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Biera, Edmonton

Cuisine: Canadian

Chef: Christine Sandford

We want to try: Peas on earth spinach grilled over charcoal, with black sesame, hazelnut and smoked buttermilk cheese

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Cuisine: Italian

Chef: Kayle Burns

We want to try: Housemade ricotta gnocchi with garlic scape and basil pesto, parmigiano reggiano and toasted pistachios

Bündok, Edmonton

Cuisine: Seasonal

Chef: Kyle Hotchkiss

We want to try: Grilled apple tartine with oka cheese and honey

Cruz Tacos, Calgary

Cuisine: Mexican

Chef: Troy Fleischhaker

We want to try: Crispy fish tacos with gluten-free batter, mint cabbage and preserved lemon slaw, Cruz sauce, pickled onion and smoked feta

Donna Mac, Calgary

Cuisine: Canadian

Chef: Justin "Tino" Longpre

We want to try: Donna "Mac & Cheese" with cavatelli, burrata, bacon and parmesan

Cuisine: Filipino

Chef: Edgar Gutierrez

We want to try: Attila D'hen bao, made with Kanto's fried chicken tossed in hot sauce with onions, sili and sesame.

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Avenue, Regina

Cuisine: Canadian

Chefs: Dale MacKay and Nathan Guggenheimer

We want to try: Confit duck leg with orange compote, fresh orange, fennel, basil, and almonds

Passero, WInnipeg

Cuisine: French-Italian

Chef: Scott Bagshaw

We want to try: Charred octopus with black romesco, nduja, creme fraiche and white radish

The Oxbow, Winnipeg

Cuisine: Seasonal

Chef: Sean Bernard

We want to try: Pork belly served with grilled flatbread, ginger slaw, and apricot BBQ

Aloette, Toronto

Cuisine: Contemporary

Chef: Patrick Kriss

We want to try: Tuna tartare on toast with green goddess, yuzu kosho, rice pearls, and lime

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Atlas, Toronto

Cuisine: Moroccan

Chef: Doug Penfold

We want to try: Chicken tagine with apricots, pine nuts, and spinach

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Goat Tagine! A perfect dish to warm you up as the temperature drops. 📷@blogto

A post shared by Atlas Restaurant (@atlasrestaurantto) on

Giulietta, Toronto

Cuisine: Italian

Chef: Rob Rossi

We want to try: Swordfish served with braised chickpeas, senise peppers, heirloom tomato and salmoriglio

Il Covo, Toronto

Cuisine: Italian

Chef: Ryan Campbell

We want to try: Stella di ricotta in brodo (roasted buffalo ricotta and thyme in aromatic hen's broth)

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Kiin, Toronto

Cuisine: Thai

Chef: Nuit Regular

We want to try: Khao Yum, made with jasmine rice. rice berry white turmeric, long beans, lemongrass, sawtooth coriander, kaffir lime leaves, cucumber, toasted coconut, pomelo, fried chilli, sunflower sprouts, edible flowers, tamarind and soy bean sauce

Kū-Kŭm, Toronto

Cuisine: Indigenous-French

Chef: Joseph Shawana

We want to try: Pan Seared seal loin, seal paté and seal tartare served with a bannock crostini and house-made preserves

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Omai, Toronto

Cuisine: Korean-Japanese

Chef: Edward Bang

We want to try: Sunomono, a Japanese cucumber salad served with octopus, wild shrimp, zucchini, buckwheat, and ikura

Cuisine: Seafood

Chef: Suzanne Barr

We want to try: Oysters withfresh horseradish, lemon and mignonette

Seedlings, Bloomfield

Cuisine: Seasonal

Chef: Michael Portigal

We want to try: Hemp Garganelli served with summer squash

Skippa, Toronto

Cuisine: Japanese

Chef: Ian Robinson

We want to try: Their menu isn't available online, but please take a look at the grilled black maitake mushrooms with thyme and mizuna leaves in a miso sauce pictured in this Toronto Life piece (which names Skippa the city's best new restaurant of the year.)

Tanto, Toronto

Cuisine: Argentinian

Chef: Julian Iliopoulos

We want to try: Pork shoulder served with with pecan salsa macha and turnips

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Cuisine: Seasonal

Chefs: Daniel Hadida and Eric Robertson

We want to try: The menu isn't available online, but the rose hip ice cream with spicebush meringue, beet and rose thyme sauce photographed in this Globe interview with the chefs looks mouthwatering.

Bistro Rosie, Montreal

Cuisine: French

Chef: Jérémy Daniel-Six

We want to try: The menu changes weekly, but the wild boar served with onions and fiddleheads in the photo below looks pretty damn good

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Elena, Montreal

Cuisine: Italian

Chef: Emma Cardarelli

We want to try: The Mr. Fun-Guy pizza with mushrooms, celeriac and taleggio

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

Always the most fun-guy at the table #champignonsauvage #naturallyleavenedsevenonseven

A post shared by Elena (@elenamontreal) on

Hopkins, Montreal

Cuisine: French

Chef: Liam Hopkins

We want to try: Bone marrow creme brûlée, made with torched bone marrow flan, smoked duck magret, crispy duck skin, and veal jus

La cabane d'à côté, Saint-Benoît-de-Mirabel

Cuisine: Québécois-French

Chef: Vincent Dion-Lavallée

We want to try: The menu isn't available online, but the fact that this Montreal Gazette reviewer ordered a second bowl of classic pea soup modernized with smoked bacon, foie gras and gratings of aged cheddar is pretty telling

Vin Mon Lapin, Montreal

Cuisine: Seasonal

Chefs: Marc-Olivier Frappier and Jessica Noël

We want to try: The menu isn't available online, but the eel carbonara mentioned in this review sounds pretty appealing

Bar Kismet, Halifax, N.S.

Cuisine: Seafood

Chef: Annie Brace-Lavoie

We want to try: Tomato leaf spaghetti with duck yolk and bottarga

Instagram that makes us want to cry:

❤️🍽🐟🌱🍾🐚🍝❤️ . . 📷 @eatwithjessie

A post shared by Bar Kismet (@barkismet) on

The 10 finalists will be announced at a ceremony in Toronto in October and will appear in the November issue of enRoute magazine. Happy eating!

CORRECTION - AUG. 10, 2018: An earlier version of this piece listed Edmonton, Alta. as the city in which Donna Mac is located. It is located in Calgary.

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