A Niagara Benchlands Pearl Harvests Big Attention
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Restaurant Pearl Morissette offers a fine dining experience showcasing an ever-changing menu of regional ingredients to reflect the European ideal of destination dining in the heart of agriculture. The indoor dining room, perched on the top floor of the Pearl Morissette winery, has floor-to-ceiling windows boasting views of the 42-acre property’s regenerative farm. Guests have the option of adding wine pairings or non-alcoholic garden pairings to the ever-changing prix fixe menu.
When MICHELIN Guide Inspectors descended on Niagara for an inaugural visit to the region in 2024, the meticulously curated food and wine experience at Restaurant Pearl Morissette earned the region its first-ever MICHELIN star, as well as a MICHELIN Green Star for the property’s noteworthy sustainability efforts.
This September, Pearl Morissette received its second MICHELIN star, joining only one other restaurant in Canada to hold this distinction as well as retaining their Green Star. The recognition further cements its reputation as a leader in Canada’s culinary landscape.
Since first appearing on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list in 2020, Pearl Morissette has steadily climbed the ranks and was most recently celebrated as Canada’s number one restaurant on the 2025 list.
Ways To Experience Restaurant Pearl Morissette and Its Partner Properties:
- Reserve a Dining Room lunch or dinner.
- Book a Chef’s Table experience for your group of four to six guests.
- Stop by for a walk-in glass of wine or tasting flight at the Pearl Morissette Winery Bottle Shop.
- Reserve a 60-minute Nucleus Tasting experience at the Pearl Morissette Winery Bottle Shop.
- Visit RPM Bakehouse in Jordan Village, where walk-in guests can enjoy excellent coffee, scratch-baked pastries, fresh plates from the garden, small bites and Pearl Morissette wines indoors or on the patio.
While you’re in the neighbourhood, other nearby Niagara Benchlands foodie favourites to consider adding to your to-try list include Vineland Estates Winery Restaurant, The Bistro at The Good Earth Food Co. and Wine, The Restaurant at Peninsula Ridge, Megalomaniac Food+Drink, Revalee Brunch Cafe, and Inn On The Twenty Restaurant.
A St. Catharines Whole-Animal Butchery Makes The Cut
Back to Top of ListWhether diners choose to think of it as a restaurant inside a butcher shop, or a butcher shop inside a restaurant, Downtown St. Catharines’ Fat Rabbit has food lovers hopping to secure a table. MICHELIN Guide Inspectors were equally as enamoured with the concept following their first visit in 2024, recognizing the restaurant for delivering “flavors in spades,” with a much-revered MICHELIN Guide recommendation.
Proving that this magical St. Catharines restaurant has no intentions of making a disappearing act, Fat Rabbit was selected as a MICHELIN Guide recommended restaurant for a second year in September 2025. That same year, Fat Rabbit also had the honour of joining Restaurant Pearl Morissette as the only other Niagara name on the Canada’s 100 Best Restaurant listing.
Fat Rabbit Chef Zac Smith brings over two decades of experience in kitchens from Vancouver to Niagara, including time at Matty Matheson’s Meat and Three in Fort Erie. In 2025, he opened a new French-inspired bar just down the street from Fat Rabbit called, Les Incompetents. Diners have been wowed by the incredible food and one-of-a-kind vibe being served within this beautifully restored theatre on St. Paul Street.
Ways To Experience Fat Rabbit:
- Pop by before 4 pm to enjoy a daytime menu that includes hearty sandwiches, creative takes on smashburgers, a breakfast plate, house-made charcuterie, and baked treats brought in on weekends from RPM Bakehouse.
- Peruse the thoughtfully curated butcher case, filled with meats sourced from an incredible selection of local farms and butchered in-house. Browse the Bottle Shop, featuring a selection of low-intervention wines from small producers, and shop for take-home treats from an eclectic collection of pantry items.
- Reserve a table for dinner and graze on a selection of shared plates that make lesser-known cuts of meats sing, creative vegetable dishes, cooked-to-order steaks and chops, and more.
Fat Rabbit isn’t the only restaurant generating buzz about St. Catharines as a dining destination. Other outstanding St. Catharines favourites include Odd Bird, Bolete, Wellington Court, Pique-Nique cafe and wine bar, Beechwood Doughnuts, and Brindle.
