Best Kind of Restaurant Halifax Doesn’t Have But Should

Halifax has an abundance of eateries; from Anatolia’s to Zorba’s, fast food to slow dining, hearty homestyle cooking to exciting world cuisine. So what more do you want?

Several requests also appear on the Best Restaurants Nobody’s Heard Of list, so your wishes have already come true. The top vote getter was African food, which you’ll find at the Highlife Cafe. You’ll find good Mexican food served up at Mexico Lindo on Dutch Village Road, and Tex-Mex dished out at Mexicali Rosa’s. Taco Bells are in Dartmouth and Lower Sackville, making it a run for the bus, not the border. You wanted an all-day, all-breakfast joint; Smitty’s comes close. Some ideas have come and gone—the Rockaway tried a bread bar, but it was all-you-can-eat-for-free; the place closed shortly after; Hooters-clone Busters was a bust. The number one best idea for a restaurant Halifax doesn’t already have? Cuban: Bring on the black beans and intoxicating spices.

Ethnic food ideas spanned the globe—Bulgarian, Dutch, German, Spanish, Indonesian, Jamaican jerk and Sri Lankan. You also want specific things, like a “place with sticky rice and peanut sauce,” a Hut o’ Baked Potatoes and an Italian veal and meatball sandwich shop—talk about niche markets.

One great idea was a nice restaurant in a park. Perhaps in that little stone house in Point Pleasant where the park keeper used to live but I don’t think he does anymore, and if he did, wouldn’t he like some company? The park would also be the prime location for the Bring Your Dog Spot—spot as in place, not as in your dog’s name has to be Spot, that’s going back to the niche market.

The most original idea had to be for a Vegan HonkyTonk—a bit of an oxymoron, that. Do the guys who mourn lost loves and pick-up trucks with the same sense of despair eat tofu? And would this be the same restaurant that you wanted “people who sing at tables” to be at? Entrepreneurs take note. —Liz Feltham