Luxara / Reserve · Field guide
Dining in
Canmore & Banff
Some nights the chef takes the kitchen. For the other nights, this is where to go: the tasting rooms, the group tables, the fondue institution, and dinner up a gondola.
The Bow Valley eats far better than a valley this size has any right to. Two of Canada's 100 Best restaurants sit ten minutes from the house, Banff keeps its institutions and its new rooms twenty-five minutes further, and the closest table of all is a walk across Silvertip.
This guide covers the rooms worth your evenings, who takes a party of fourteen, and how far ahead the good tables book. Every room is verified and linked. And on the nights you would rather stay in, the concierge sends the chef.
The walk to dinner
Rustica, at Silvertip
The closest table to Serenity Point is not a drive at all. Rustica, the steakhouse at the Silvertip resort, does Italian-leaning Alberta cooking over one of the deeper wine cellars in the Rockies, minutes from the front door. It is the arrival-night answer, the no-designated-driver answer, and in winter the walk home under the peaks is part of the meal.
- Drive2 min
- TableGroups welcome
- BookOpenTable
- Price$$$
Two of Canada’s 100 Best restaurants are ten minutes from the house. Dinner at 2,281 metres is twenty-five more.
Ten minutes down the hill
The Canmore tables
Änkôr
Contemporary Canadian tasting menus from chef Danny Beaulieu, on Canada’s 100 Best list three years running. The strongest kitchen in the valley right now.
- Drive
- 10 min
- The room
- Intimate; best for 6 to 8
- Book
- Weeks ahead for a summer Saturday
- Price
- $$$$
Sauvage
Chef Tracy Little’s foraged, wild-ingredient fine dining in a character home on a side street. Tasting menus, early seatings, a room that rewards a small table.
- Drive
- 10 min
- The room
- Best for 4 to 8
- Book
- Tock only; 2 to 4 weeks out in summer
- Price
- $$$$
The Sensory & Wit Bar
Two floors: shareable plates at Wit Bar below, fine dining with Three Sisters views upstairs, and a chef’s surprise tasting menu for the adventurous.
- Drive
- 10 min
- The room
- The big-night pick for the full fourteen
- Book
- Direct for large parties, weeks ahead
- Price
- $$$ to $$$$
Crazyweed Kitchen
The 1997 institution on Railway Avenue: eclectic, globally minded cooking and a serious wine list, still one of the most reliable great dinners in town.
- Drive
- 10 min
- The room
- Handles mid-size groups
- Book
- OpenTable; Wed to Sun
- Price
- $$$
Kept casual. Tavern 1883 for elevated pub fare in a heritage building, the Grizzly Paw for Canmore's own beer (Tank310, upstairs at the brewery, has the views), Iron Goat five minutes from the house with private rooms that take the whole group, and Rocky Mountain Flatbread when the bunk room votes for pizza. In summer, ask the concierge about PD3 by Blake: twenty seats of fine dining on the top deck of a 1962 double-decker bus.
The mornings. Chez François has been Canmore's breakfast for more than thirty years. JK Bakery for the cinnamon buns, Communitea for the healthy start, and Eclipse Coffee Roasters when someone in the group is serious about coffee.
Banff Avenue keeps its institutions and its new rooms, twenty-five minutes west
Worth the drive west
The Banff nights
Sky Bistro
Dinner at 2,281 metres, up the Banff Gondola on Sulphur Mountain. The one reservation guests talk about for years.
- Drive
- 35 min
- Only in Banff
- The gondola is the aperitif
- Book
- Window opens 90 days out; take it
- Price
- $$$$
The Bison
Regional Canadian cooking around an open copper kitchen, Alberta bison on the plate and a rooftop terrace over Bear Street.
- Drive
- 25 min
- The room
- Terrace in summer
- Book
- 1 to 2 weeks ahead in peak season
- Price
- $$$
Lupo
House-made pasta, wood-fired pizza, and proper martinis on Wolf Street; one of Canada’s 100 Best top new rooms.
- Drive
- 25 min
- The room
- Fills fast on weekends
- Book
- Reserve ahead in summer
- Price
- $$$
Bluebird
Wood-fired Alberta steakhouse on Banff Avenue, prime rib roasted all day, and a private dining room built for a whole-house group.
- Drive
- 25 min
- The room
- Private dining for the fourteen
- Book
- Direct for private dining
- Price
- $$$ to $$$$
Grizzly House
The 1967 fondue-and-hot-rocks institution, gloriously unchanged: exotic game fondue, phones at the tables, and the best kind of kitsch.
- Drive
- 25 min
- Only in Banff
- A tradition, not a trend
- Book
- Reservations taken; open late
- Price
- $$$
Good Folk
The hot new room: refined seasonal Canadian cooking in the Otter, Banff’s newest boutique hotel, on the quiet end of the avenue.
- Drive
- 25 min
- The room
- Intimate; the date-night pick
- Book
- OpenTable
- Price
- $$$
Booking the rooms
The tables worth planning around
The window opens exactly 90 days out. Book the moment it does.
Small rooms, national press. Several weeks ahead for a peak Saturday.
The Sensory, Iron Goat, and Bluebird take the whole group - booked direct, weeks ahead in summer.
Tell the concierge the nights you want out. The tables are held before you land.
A week of dinners
Out, in, and up the gondola
Arrive
No driving on night one. Walk across Silvertip to Rustica, or the chef cooks at the house.
Canmore
The big night: Änkôr or the Sensory. Aperitif on the deck first; the town is ten minutes away.
Banff
Make a night of it: the gondola to Sky Bistro, or Bear Street and a nightcap at the Grizzly House.
The house
The chef takes the kitchen, the circuit takes the evening, and nobody has to book a thing.
Tell the concierge which nights you want out and who is in the party. The reservations, the chef nights, and the drivers are arranged before you arrive.
Where to base
Serenity Point, above it all
Six bedrooms, sleeps fourteen, the Three Sisters across the valley, and a private Nordic spa for the nights you stay in. Dinner at Silvertip is a walk, Canmore is ten minutes, Banff twenty-five, and the concierge holds the tables.
Request a stay