Prince Street restaurant The Press Gang was named one of Canada's 100 best restaurants in 2023 by OpenTable.

This Halifax restaurant was just chosen as one of Canada’s best

The Press Gang is the lone local entrant on OpenTable’s “Top 100 Restaurants in Canada” list for 2023.

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From The Coast’s reader-selected “Best New Restaurant” honours in 1999 to joining a roster of Canada’s best, The Press Gang restaurant and oyster bar has new reason to celebrate. The Prince Street seafood and cocktail hub was just named one of the “Top 100 Restaurants in Canada” by reservation and review platform OpenTable.

The honours come from a survey of roughly “1.1 million diner reviews” and reservations, according to the booking site. The Press Gang comes as the lone Halifax honouree on the list—and one of three Nova Scotian restaurants, along with New Glasgow’s Tilly’s Kitchen and Annapolis Royal’s Founders House.

Bryan Corkery, executive chef at The Press Gang, tells The Coast it’s a “quite an honour” to make the list.

Founded in 1999, the Halifax oyster bar has been a favourite of Sidney Crosby’s and a member of Eater’s “Essential Restaurants of Halifax.” It has also become popular with visiting actors through the years. (Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson and Kevin Spacey shared a table at the bar in 2001 during filming for The Shipping News and K-19: The Widowmaker. Tom Selleck enjoyed the menu.)

Corkery recalls Ford and his company as “regulars in the dining room,” which the chef credits to the worth-of-mouth The Press Gang enjoys.

“There’s no pretensions; there’s no stuffiness; there’s no stodginess. You’re welcomed with a friendly smile... and the dining is amazing.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story noted that Ford, Neeson and Spacey shared a table in 2016. It was, in fact, in 2001. The Coast regrets the error—and Martin swears he’ll watch K-19 as he dwells on his mistake.

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Martin Bauman

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Martin Bauman, The Coast's News & Business Reporter, is an award-winning journalist and interviewer, whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Capital Daily, and Waterloo Region Record, among other places. In 2020, he was named one of five “emergent” nonfiction writers by the RBC Taylor Prize...