Local gems among 150 top eateries

Seven Manitoba restaurants glitter among the 150 best neighbourhood gems in Canada, according to a list compiled by online-reservation service OpenTable Inc.

Winnipeg eateries Café Carlo (243 Lilac St.), Chaise Café and Lounge (271 Provencher Blvd.), Corrientes Argentine Pizzeria (137 Bannatyne Ave.), Peasant Cookery (283 Bannatyne Ave.), Pizzeria Gusto (404 Academy Rd.) and Promenade Café and Wine (130 Provencher Blvd.) and Pineridge Hollow in the RM of Springfield made the list "for serving up delicious food, warm hospitality and friendly atmosphere that keeps the community coming back for more," OpenTable said Tuesday in a release.

The top 150 (created to help mark Canada’s 150th birthday this summer) reflects the combined opinions of more than 480,000 reviews submitted in 2016 by verified OpenTable diners for more than 2,000 restaurants in Canada, the San Francisco-based service said.

It is the sort of accolade Shawn Brandson, owner of Promenade Café, said he’s happy to receive.

"To be in the top 150, based on the positive reviews... it is great to get that recognition, because it is from our customers," said Brandson, who has been using OpenTable since 2006 (with Promenade signing on in 2011).

"We want to be a restaurant in St. Boniface serving the community of St. Boniface, as well as Winnipeg and tourists... a ‘neighbourhood gem’ is exactly what we want to be."

Ontario had the greatest number of representatives on the list of Canada’s 150 neighbourhood gems, with 68. Alberta was next with 37, followed by B.C. (22), Quebec (15), Manitoba, Saskatchewan (two) and Nova Scotia (one).

"The restaurants highlighted on this list illustrate the variety of local tastes across the country as neighbourhoods in Canada become more diverse," Ziv Schierau of OpenTable Canada said.

According to its website, OpenTable (which was founded in 1998) provides reservation services to more than 40,000 restaurants in more than 20 countries, linking them to some 21 million diners a month.