The food in this place is amazing. Every single person in my party enjoyed their dish. I order the…read moreeggs Benny. It had the perfect balance of flavor and amount of food. The egg was perfectly yolkie, and together with the ham and seasonings, made it a fantastic savory dish. The servers was phenomenal. She had a wonderful smile, was kind, quick, and made pleasant jokes/small talk. The place is small, but was pretty busy on a Sunday afternoon. Highly recommend this place if you are in Halifax.

While this spaghettini may look unassuming in the photo, it was hands down one of the best plates…read moreof pasta I've ever had. I arrived in Halifax late tonight for work and had my heart set on a lobster roll. The Canteen popped up on the map with glowing reviews, so I swung by hoping to grab one before they closed. When I arrived, I learned that lobster rolls are only served in the summer. Disappointed but undeterred, I decided to treat myself to their lobster spaghettini instead--after all, a business trip still deserves a good meal. Since they were about to close and I wanted to eat in my hotel room and rest, I got it to go (though I was quietly a little sad--the restaurant is spotless, beautifully designed, and has an open kitchen you can watch). I brought the pasta back to the hotel without much expectation. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary take-out pasta. But that couldn't have been further from the truth. This dish was divine. Every bite was rich with buttery sweetness from the fresh lobster and nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano--two of my absolute favorite ingredients--perfectly balanced by the bright tang of roasted tomatoes. The flavors danced between umami, acidity, and indulgent richness in a way that felt effortless and refined. God, it was good. I can't wait to come back to The Canteen. If this is what their lobster spaghettini tastes like, I can only imagine how incredible their summer lobster rolls must be.

Always a hearty meal and servers that are proud of their jobs and welcoming even if you are not…read moretheir guest of the time you arrive. Steaks are large and well cooked. Fresh seafood is also available at a fair price. Our favorites are usually grilled salmon and baked potato with mashed turnip & carrots for me. For hubby grilled chicken Greek salad.

Always a solid meal at this longstanding institution in Dartmouth on Waverley Road. Mostly…read morefrequented by locals as it's not in a touristy part of town. Lots of eating options but their specialty is steak. Prices have gone up over the years but they are still super reasonable. Pro tip - make sure you get a reservation on Open Table. If you walk in - you'll be waiting even though the restaurant is huge!

If you're new to the city or have just emerged from being frozen in ice ala Encino Man, let me…read morepile on the bandwagon and tell you this: Cafe Good Luck is really, really good. It seemed a fitting location to caffeinate and get a bite before closing on our first house, which officially mades us Dartmouthians! Having just moved back to Nova Scotia within the past couple years, I'd only been to their smaller, pre-renos location once. Since then, they've blessedly expanded into a neighbouring unit, giving a lot more seating and openness, as they were becoming victims of their own success in the small, original space. I'm a lover of all things breakfast, so I snagged one of their breakfast sandwiches, while my wife stuck to the baked goods and went with one of their lovely blueberry scones. Two medium roast drip coffees, black, completed our refueling. Right out of the gate, the scone was AMAZING! The exterior was lightly crisp, but the interior was moist and soft (sorry, Larry David) - cooked to absolute perfection. There must have been a light coating of sugar to get it so crispy, so I don't know how regular scone batter does that on its own! Topped with a blueberry icing, blue sprinkles and edible flowers, it was a beauty! With my appetite whetted, I demolished my delicious breakfast sandwich when it arrived. The egg was of the scrambled sort, and light and fluffy, complemented by the thick and crisp bacon. A tomato-based sauce, be it jam or a house-made ketchup added a mix of sweetness and acidity, and it was helluva breakfast sandwich. After a year and a half in our home and many returns visits for coffee, delicious baked goods, and one coffee tasting event, we came by much more recently for a weekend lunch. CGL is typically very busy on the weekend, but rainy weather made tables slightly more available. I didn't come here with proper food in mind, but seeing the lemongrass chicken banh mi on the menu quickly changed my mind and appetite. This sandwich had a lot (/everything) going for it - tender, flavourful chunks of moist chicken, big and bright flavours from the crisp daikon and carrot slaw, and cucumber and cilantro for yet more crunch and flavour. Not to be forgotten was the perfect French bread, with its shatteringly crisp exterior and a pleasantly dense and pliable crumb. Cafe Good Luck is easily the best cafe in downtown Dartmouth, with an assortment of wildly good coffees that they roast, top notch baked goods, and a small but mighty mix of hot foods when you need something more substantial than a pastry (but still get that pastry!).

Wow! I think I found my new favorite coffee joint in the HRM!!! Located on the end of Portland…read moreStreet in downtown Dartmouth at the bottom of an apartment building this super hipster and cute place with a tulip motif is super cozy. The coffee is smooth - from Have Fun coffee roasters in Burnside Industrial Park. Tried the eggie - what a revelation! Kind of a mix of a croissant with an egg, cream cheese and onions. Super fresh and tasty. The breakfast sandwich was amazing - huge slab of pork as an option! Lots of seating - tables and countertop. As standard utensils they also have chopsticks!!! Apparently gets extremely busy on weekend mornings - glad I got here right at opening! No wifi, parking is on the street.

As I work my way through my list of Dartmouth restaurants to eat at since moving to this side of…read morethe harbour, it was inevitable that I would eat at Pleasant Street Diner. To my never-ending shame, I never made it to PSD's famed spiritual and familial predecessor, John's Lunch, so this was as close as I was going to get. The room is ringed by booths on the windowed exterior walls, tables fill the middle, and an old-school counter is at the back - complete with cushioned, rotating stools. PSD opens surprisingly late for a diner at 11am, and isn't open on Sundays, but it was unsurprisingly bustling when my friends and I showed up for lunch on a Saturday. Given their operating hours, their breakfast options are limited to omelettes and some breakfast sandwiches, so I opted for a different diner classic instead - their club sandwich. I figured I'd be back for dinner another time to have their fish, so a club seemed like the perfect lunch meal. Despite the crowd, our food came out impressively quick and my plate was piled high with wedges of the triple-decker sandwich and fries. The bread was well-toasted and held up against its layers of thick slices of roasted turkey breast, crisp bacon, and mayo-slathered tomato and lettuce. It was a solid rendition of a diner classic! The fries were of the from-frozen variety, but were decently crispy and very, very plentiful. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention their coleslaw. Normally this is just a forgettable two ounce cup scooped out of a Sysco bucket, but PSD goes all-in with a heap of lightly tart, shredded cabbage that covered the better part of a side plate. It reminded me of some of the Quebec-based rotisserie chicken chains that are all (oddly) about their coleslaw. My next time there saw me coming back for dinner with my wife in tow. We arrived around 6:30 on a Saturday, and while the place was full, there was only one other group ahead of us and we got a table after a short wait. I knew I *had* to get some fish, but I decided to splurge and go all-in on the seafood platter. They're a well-oiled machine at PSD, because despite the crowd (and perpetual takeout orders), we had our food in very good time. The menu isn't very descriptive, but given the other seafood options, I was right in my suspicions that the seafood platter would have haddock, clams, shrimp and scallops. With my past experience, I knew there'd be a good pile of coleslaw as well, and because of that heap of seafood and coleslaw, the fries had to come on their own plate, so really, this should be called the seafood platters - plural! I went after the clams and scallops first, as I felt like they have the shortest shelf life. The random twists and swirls of clam meat were tender and lightly sweet, without a hint of rubberineaa, and a good and crisp batter. I never really get why scallops get a light breading since they're never crisp and it adds limited flavour, but they were also cooked to perfection. My shrimp were pleasantly firm, with an amount of breading somewhere in between the dusting on the scallops and the heavier layer on the clams. My piece of haddock was a decent size, but the batter was pushing the border of being too thick and almost tough, with a mushy fish-batter interface. I'm not sure if this is from twice-frozen fish or par cooking, but it was a less than stellar showing for a place as well-known for its fish as they are. Tartar sauce is left at the tables and it's Kraft packets for takeout, so presumably it is at the tables as well. Once again, the fries were wildly plentiful and perfectly adequate, and I ended up taking most of them and some of the seafood home with me. The seafood platter may be the most expensive dish on the menu, but it can also feed two people! Pleasant Street Diner is carrying the torch of a family of restauranteurs, and while there's room for tweaks to become truly legendary (house-made tartar and hand-cut fries, please!), they're still checking a lot of the right boxes and people are definitely voting with their dollars and appetites.

They ran out of chowder and clams but the service more than made up for it. Really friendly, great…read morefood and I went back 2 days later for clams. Delicious!!!