Canoe is one of Toronto's landmark fine dining restaurants, perched on the 54th floor of the TD Bank Tower in the financial district with panoramic views over Lake Ontario to the south and the city in all other directions. The views alone would make it worth visiting, but the cooking is serious: the menu is built around Canadian ingredients — bison, wild game, east coast seafood — and changes seasonally.
The restaurant opened in 1995 and helped define what Canadian fine dining could mean: not European cuisine transplanted to Canada, but food that takes Canadian geography and food culture seriously. Lunch tends to be less expensive and is popular with the financial district crowd; dinner is considerably more formal and expensive.
Reservations are required and should be made well in advance for weekend dinners or special occasions. The restaurant validates parking at the TD Centre. The views at dusk, when the city lights come on below, are genuinely spectacular.