River Café

Cross the Bridge for Dinner

4 of 5

You cannot drive to River Café. You park somewhere downtown, cross the footbridge onto Prince's Island Park and walk through the trees until a lodge appears beside the lagoon. That small inconvenience is the best appetizer in Calgary. By the time you sit down, the office towers have dropped off your shoulders.

The place began life as a seasonal concession stand on the island. Sal Howell turned it into something else entirely, a room dressed like an old Rocky Mountain fishing lodge, with a fieldstone fireplace and fly-fishing gear on the walls in honor of the Bow River outside. Executive chef Kristen Livingston cooks seasonal Canadian food and means it, with an organic garden at Highwood Crossing in High River feeding the kitchen. Order the Arctic char if it is on, glazed with Okanagan peach, or the duck confit with fingerling potatoes. Smoked sablefish and lion's mane mushrooms show up when the season allows.

Canada's 100 Best put it at number 42 in 2026, a respectable thing to say about a restaurant you have to hike to. You will pay for it, and the place is upfront about that. You pay for a kitchen that knows exactly where its food comes from and a setting no developer will ever be allowed to copy. Go for weekend brunch, take the long way back across the island afterward, and watch the fly fishermen work the river.

Order this: Arctic char with Okanagan peach glaze, duck confit with fingerlings, smoked sablefish when it is on, lion's mane mushrooms
The damage: $$$
Go: Weekend brunch, or a summer evening on the lagoon patio
Find it: 25 Prince's Island, Calgary, AB