New Island restaurants honoured

Enroute magazine shortlists Victoria and Duncan restaurants

Victoria’s Ça Va Bistro Moderne and Duncan’s Hudson’s on First restaurant have been nominated as two of Canada’s best new restaurants by Air Canada’s enRoute magazine.

The two Island restaurants join 33 Canadian eateries included in the 12th annual list.

EnRoute is also launching a People’s Choice Award, encouraging Canadians to vote for their favourite restaurant on the list.

The magazine has created a microsite online at eatandvote.com to help collect the votes.

Ça Va Bistro opened in Fernwood in December last year with chef and owner Fauna Martin blending modern-Australian cuisine with classic French influences.

“This feels great. It’s really more of a validation that I’m doing something right,” Martin said. “I’m not really one of those chefs with a huge ego that thinks everything I do is awesome, so this is really great.”

According to enRoute, the list of the 35 best new restaurants was compiled by a volunteer panel of judges made up of Canada’s food and hospitality industry leaders.

It’s the first time the short list has been announced.

Normally, just the top-10 appear in the magazine.

Each of the top-10 will be featured in the November issue of enRoute.

“To be honest, I’m just so stoked to be in the 35, though I would love to be in the top-10,” said Martin.

Both Island restaurants were visited and judged anonymously by enRoute’s Andrew Braithwaite.

“It was a marathon journey across the country, and, by the end, we’d discovered some great new Canadian talent and confirmed our panel’s endorsements,” said a statement from Braithwaite.

“The food scene in Canada is really humming right now, and we’re so excited to share the story of this year’s contenders.”

EnRoute readers can also win a trip to the magazine’s gala event in Toronto in November, as well as the use of a Jaguar or Land Rover during their Toronto stay.

“We were looking for a way to expand the impact of our hotly anticipated top-10 list of Canada’s best new restaurants — especially since we find many more worthy restaurants each year across the country,” said Ilana Weitzman, editor in chief, enRoute magazine.