From a no-reservations aperitivo destination in Toronto to a fire-driven tasting menu in Niagara-on-the-Lake and a tiny pasta bar in Collingwood, these new Canadian restaurants share something in common beyond a great meal: they’re all driven by women.

The Judge, Collingwood

Owner Jennifer Bélanger and chef Jonathan Gushue already have one breakout restaurant on their hands. Their modern European spot in Flesherton, The Gate, landed on Canada’s 100 Best‘s Best New Restaurants list in 2025. Their latest project, The Judge, takes a different approach: a 16-seat pasta bar built around a chalkboard menu and a more relaxed kind of night out.

“We were wanting to grow, and we were wanting to be in a more populated area,” Bélanger says. “A lot of Jonathan’s cooking, and a lot of how we eat at home, is Italian.” When a small space came available in Collingwood, the format clicked.

The menu is focused and seasonal, centring on a handful of pasta dishes, salads and dessert. Most of the pasta comes from Tiny Market Co., with a few housemade additions, including tortellini prepared through The Gate’s larger kitchen. The carbonara is both the most popular dish and the most personal: a nod to Gushue’s father, former Chief Justice of Newfoundland, whose time living in Italy helped shape the chef’s early relationship with Italian cooking.

The wine list leans Italian, with Lambrusco and Pecorino alongside a handful of Canadian bottles. The room—done in soft greens, old books and floor-to-ceiling windows—lands somewhere between polished and homey, which suits the food just fine.

Bar Allegro, Toronto

Bar Allegro is the latest College Street project from chef and co-founder Martine Bauer and her team, who previously opened Pompette, Bar Pompette and Bakery Pompette. With Bar Allegro, they’re returning to what Pompette was always meant to be: a relaxed, European-style spot where a drink, a snack or a full meal all feel equally at home. “This is what we wanted to create when we arrived in Toronto, but then the pandemic happened,” says Bauer. Pandemic-era restrictions pushed Pompette toward a more formal dining model than they had originally intended.

Set in the former Pompette space, Bar Allegro embraces the easy rhythm of aperitivo culture, with classic cocktails, martinis and negronis in multiple variations, a concise European wine list, as well as a short menu of sharing-style plates. Dishes include devilled eggs, bone marrow bourguignon, nduja mussels and a citrusy passionfruit tuna crudo that Bauer says shouldn’t be missed. “You can get one drink and some olives, or if you want to stay for two hours and do a full dinner, you can do that, too. It’s more flexible now,” she says.

Revé, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Revé — from the French rêvé, meaning something dreamt of — is the restaurant Nicole Pisarenko and Anna Kruusi spent years imagining before opening it in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The co-owners had worked in hospitality around the world before arriving in wine country with a clear sense of what they wanted to create. Alongside co-owners chef Adriano Cappuzzello and Kevin Gillingham, they built a restaurant that feels both globally informed and rooted in its surroundings.

The 10-course tasting menu draws on live-fire cooking, local farms and Cappuzzello’s Sicilian heritage. But Revé is also shaped by Pisarenko and Kruusi’s approach to hospitality. Both grew up in working-class families where fine dining felt out of reach, and that idea of approachable luxury runs through the experience. “We’ve always had a deep appreciation for beautiful food, thoughtful hospitality and refined experiences,” says Kruusi. “Creating a restaurant where people can enjoy that feeling, without intimidation or excess, is incredibly meaningful to us.”

The dining room is designed around the elements, with dark natural textures and details inspired by fire, earth, air and water, while the wine pairings move between Niagara and Sicily. “Through our stories, our cooking and the flavours on the plate, we hope to evoke moments that resonate personally with each guest, almost like revisiting a place they’ve been before or one they’ve always imagined,” says Pisarenko.

Photography by Christine Reid.