5 Indigenous Restaurants Across Canada Takeout

Written by Davindra Ramnarine

Go to any major city in Canada and you’ll find restaurants serving food from all over the world, but not many that focus on the cuisine of our Indigenous People. Theirs is a cuisine rich with history and tradition, but sadly it’s been kept under the public radar.

Luckily, over the past few years, more and more people have begun to take notice of Indigenous cuisine. In cities across Canada, you can find chefs and restaurants dedicated to spreading appreciation for Indigenous cuisine, focusing on their traditions of no-waste cooking, using ingredients that are in season, making use of foraged ingredients, and avoiding processed foods.

Here are 5 Indigenous restaurants across Canada offering takeout and doing their part both in the kitchen and in the community to keep their traditions alive.

Not only does this restaurant create dishes using in-season ingredients from local Indigenous suppliers but they also make it a point to hire Indigenous employees. Their meats are all certified organic and their fish is wild caught

Owner Inez Cook was just one year old when she was taken from her home and sent to live with a non-Indigenous family. She grew up in a home that appreciated food but still yearned for her own culture so in 2010, after a lot of research into Indigenous ingredients, she opened up Salmon n Bannock, Vancouver’s only Indigenous-owned-and-operated restaurant. The menu is made up of dishes using game and wild-caught fish and are all available for takeout.

Address: 1128 W Broadway #7, Vancouver, BC.

Chef Curtis Cardinal grew up in Northern Alberta and credits his mom and aunts with instilling a love of cooking into him. In 2010, after struggling with homelessness and addiction, he made the decision to pursue the chef life and make it a career.

He started off selling bannock out of his backpack at Pow Wows in the Edmonton area and now he’s focused on catering and takeout as he searches for a permanent space for his new restaurant.

Address: 8424 95 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB. @yegteepeetreats

The Anishinaabe Shack Food Truck owned by Ian Patterson can be found on Highway 115, just east of Toronto. There are a few dishes available on the truck but they’re centered around bannock made from his grandmother’s recipe. The bannock is made to order and comes topped in a variety of ways.

One of the more popular items is the Navajo Taco which is a bannock topped with chili and your choice of toppings such as cheese, lettuce, sour cream, or jalapenos. If you prefer something a little sweeter they also offer a piping hot bannock topped with butter, cinnamon sugar and honey.

Address: Permanently parked at 3005 ON-115, Newcastle, ON.

The Roundhouse Café in Montreal is much more than just a cafe. It’s a social reintegration program managed by Groupe communautaire L’Itinéraire and the city of Montreal. It is also the city’s only Indigenous cafe where homeless Indigenous peoples can work and get paid daily, rather than bi-weekly. It can be found in Cabot Square in the Shaughnessy Village neighbourhood.

Visitors will find coffee, whose beans have been roasted by an Indigenous-owned business, and Tisane Inuit herbal teas on their drinks menu. The food menu features various salads that use traditional ingredients as well as sandwiches, tacos, and sweet treats all made with bannock.

Address: 2330 Saint-Catherine St W, Montreal, Quebec H3H 1N2.