Best Italian Restaurant

In honour of this year's 10th edition of the Best of Food survey, we are calling special attention to some restaurants that won back in 2002, and also won in 2011 (not to mention winning plenty of prizes in between). Il Mercato is one such restaurant, which has become legendary over the last decade for consistently serving Halifax's Best Italian dishes. In that inaugural 2002 edition of the Best of Food results, we put the burning question to the folks at Il Mercato: Why doesn't the best Italian restaurant in town take reservations? “Customers are always telling us it was worth the wait,” said the manager. “It's not expensive to eat here and we have real quality food. We use real bacon bits and real Parmesan cheese.”

Today, Il Mercato still doesn't take reservations. And clearly Haligonians still agree it's worth the wait.

First Runner-up: Ristorante a Mano
Second Runner-up: Da Maurizio