Our monthly neighbourhood series goes west this week.
Encompassing St. James, Charleswood, the CF Polo Park Area–an area stacked with local gems–and Assiniboine Park, this Winnipeg West guide will see you brunching, touring the Middle East, eating muy authentic tacos, sports bar-ing, and seated within Canada’s prettiest new building.
As you'll read, there's a lot to cover, so we're saving The West End itself for our forthcoming Central Guide (confusing, right?).
Sunny St. James (as we move west on Portage)
Starting our tour in Sunny St. James, you’ll note how the main drag down Portage Avenue is lined with old school joints, along with numerous new eateries that have sprung up in the last few years.
Yafa Café is one of the first spots to greet you in St. James as you drive west. This bright Palestinian café comes courtesy of Rana Abdulla, who is serving up all manner of Arabic street food along with an impressive drink selection. The coffee drinks are incredible, every dish involving eggplant here will make you marvel (in fact, this is an ideal spot for vegetarians and vegans), and the manakish (flat bread) is all baked onsite.
Keep heading west and you’ll pass a number of gems, including High Tea Bakery which is located directly across from Assiniboine Park. It is noted for elegantly designed cookies and dainties and is affably run by Belinda Bigold, who founded the bakery with her mother Carol. Two doors east, Sargent Sundae is a scratch-made ice cream institution that usually has lines in the summer. We love it in fall, when the famous pumpkin soft serve hits the menu.
Continuing west you’ll be steer-ed (pun intended) toward the retro neon lights and bullish banner of Sliver Heights Restaurant, which remains one of the best spots in the city for oven roasted ribs that are finished on the grill. This family-owned restaurant has been at it for over 60 years!
Further west you’ll find Underdogs, a lively sports bar right on Portage Avenue. This place has created a devout following for its astute pub grub–which includes a strong lineup of burgers, wings and the nearly famous deep-fried cheesy puffs. It also has arcade games, trivia night, multiple televisions for all your sporting needs, a large pet-friendly patio and plenty of local beer on tap.
For one of the best little patios in the city, keep heading west a few more blocks to Olympia Diner. Being a classic Greek establishment, you can expect super crispy fries and calamari to accompany your gyros or souvlaki. The portions are also robust.
Locals just steps from central Canada’s largest mall
One of the city’s newest authentic hidden gems is Manoomin (meaning wild rice in Ojibway), which is located within the stunning new Indigenous-owned Wyndham Garden Winnipeg Airport. Led by Cree chef Jennifer Ballantyne, the menu has been receiving rave reviews for dishes like fried pickerel cheeks, bison tacos on bannock, and smoked bologna and corn fritters. It’s also open breakfast through dinner.
Should you head west from the mall on King Edward Street, you’ll eventually hit La Taqueria, the city’s newest rave-worthy taco shop. The dishes all come courtesy of Cristhel Pipper, who came to Winnipeg from Córdoba, Veracruz, in 2019 after she married her husband Lyle Jackman (a resident of Sunny St. James). Pipper is knocking it out of the park when it comes to slow cooked authentic cuisine, including pozole, Yucatan-style cochinita pibil and a mushroom al pastor that is going to blow you away (take note vegans).
North of Polo Park within a strip mall off St. James Avenue is where you’ll find Queen’s Korean Chicken. It’s a nice spot for group dining so you can try both the ultra-crispy Korean fried chicken (available in a number of flavours), along with the chicken BBQ (dak-galbi) that comes on a sizzling platter with lots of vegetables and a cheese trough that slowly melts as the cast iron dish is heated over a burner right at your table.
Right across the street from Queen’s, shawarma fans will love Les Saj which features saj (the flat bread used to wrap up all the fillings) cooked right before your eyes on a convex dome. The meat spits are piled high here, as are the portions should you go for a platter. They also have a second location across from the University of Winnipeg.
For an eclectic menu that covers all tastes right across from Polo Park, check out Damecca Lounge. It has sushi towers, house made pastas, Japanese sandos, tacos, and steak dinners, along with live DJ sets on the weekend and a fair-sized patio. One Great City Brewing Co (just across the street from Damecca Lounge) also has it all, from a vast selection of sandwiches and burgers, to Korean wings, and entrees that run from butter chicken to pork schnitzel with whipped potatoes. The beer obviously doesn’t get any fresher too.
This area is also home to two of the city’s finest restaurants.
Preservation Hall is located just north of the mall and is run by culinary power couple Tristan and Melanie Foucault. Chef Tristian has worked for the likes of Thomas Keller before opening three successful concepts for WOW Hospitality. At this new venture, the menu contains some of his greatest hits from Peasant Cookery––including the in-house charcuterie and pickling programs––along with luxurious brasserie dishes on a menu that categorizes by water, land, air and garden.
Located on the south side of CF Polo Park, d + a café can be found within EQ3’s flagship Winnipeg store. The menu by celebrity chef Mandel Hitzer (Wall of Chefs, co-founder of RAW:almond) has an elegance that complements its surroundings, with delightful dishes like yellowfin tuna tartare with wonton chips, flake-perfect croissants served with fresh whipped cream and house made jam, and the dreamiest egg souffle breakfast sandwich (when available).
Roblin Boulevard in Charleswood is always up to some good
As soon as you enter Charleswood from the east you’ll see Capital Grill on your left. This original Charleswood location (there's a second location on Broadway, right downtown) remains one of the best spots in the city for well-executed Americana dishes like popcorn shrimp with the lightest batter, fish and chips using BC halibut, and rigatoni with short rib ragu. It has an excellent little wine list too, plus chef Wayne Martin's fries (what is that spice blend?) are perfect. It's also a great spot for pan-seared fish, as he uses his source from his Vancouver days.
Just down the street you’ll find the always busy WOW Hospitality businesses of Blue Stone Cottage and Alena Rustic Italian, which are found under the same roof by two award-winning chefs. Blue Stone is the bustling daytime brunch spot by chef Kelly Cattani, featuring an all-day breakfast menu and plenty of “pretty much lunch” dishes too. They even have a section “for the littles” offering a kiddo breakfast featuring two Nature’s Farm eggs, two pancakes, and local bacon (#adorbs). Alena’s menu is by chef Michael Dacquisto (both chefs have won Gold Medal Plates Winnipeg) with an emphasis on flame-grilled meats and wood-fired pizzas, along with a selection of pastas.
Unfussy Greek diner Taverna Rodos is a local darling, with regulars always filing the dining room for souvlaki platters, spanakopita and breaded veal cutlets smothered in gravy. Another easy going Charleswood institution is White House Restaurant, a strictly takeout rib joint where the racks are slow baked and bathed in the signature WH sauce.
And finally, The Gates on Roblin will see you clear of the strip malls at its converted manor setting. Primarily known as an elegant wedding venue––one where deer will regularly trot across the grounds––The Gates’ dinner menu has all the classics, from gruyere-topped French onion soup to Chateaubriand for two. Local Lake Winnipeg walleye on saffron squash risotto with red pepper sauce remains a staple too.
Park life
Assiniboine Park is stacked with culinary options, from simple takeout windows to busy brunch spots and the city’s newest wow-factor dining room.
The Park Café in the Qualico Centre has endured as one of the city’s busiest brunch spots, and certainly the top destination brunch spot given how deep it is within the park. Your eggs and perfect home fries here come with sweeping views of the Riley Family Duck Pond, while outside there’s a takeout window that pumps out ice cream, hot dogs and iced coffees all summer long.
The Leaf, the park’s newest world-class attraction, is home to Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar. Here, while looking out on the Tropical Biome, you can eat dishes from chef Mike de Groot’s menu that feature ingredients grown in both The Kitchen Garden (located just behind the building) and the Tropical Biome. We highly recommend the seitan tacos (not just for vegans, and a nice homage to tacos al pastor) and the sugar-cured pork belly with black garlic aioli and fig jam on brioche.
For drinks and bonfires, Cargo Bar is situated across the pond from the Park Café. For food at this pop-up bar, look to small but mighty dishes from PoachT food truck.
You can find a full guide to all the dining options in Assiniboine Park here.
Explore our other neighbourhood guides: South Pembina, East Winnipeg, Saint-Boniface, South Osborne and the North End.
