Downtown Bistro & Grill

Order across one table at Downtown Bistro & Grill and the kitchen keeps changing its accent. A warm phyllo-wrapped French brie with Niagara Cabernet jelly sits a few lines above a Creole-seasoned jambalaya, and a panko-crusted pork schnitzel shares the menu with Lake Erie perch tacos. This is a downtown Burlington bistro built on French technique that lets Louisiana and southern Ontario both have a say in what reaches the plate.

Dinner is where the bistro identity sets. The Pecan Crusted Chicken is the kitchen's clearest signature — a buttermilk-marinated grain-fed breast, skillet-fried, finished with a jalapeño maple cream that keeps it honest rather than sweet, over whipped potatoes and seasonal vegetables. A panko-crusted pork tenderloin schnitzel comes with a choice of mushroom-onion demi-glace or gorgonzola cream. Beau's Lagered Ale Short Ribs braise for eight hours in Ontario craft lager until the meat gives, then go out over Yukon gold mash. A sesame-crusted organic salmon arrives with cilantro mango chutney; an eight-ounce AAA sirloin burger comes on toasted brioche with maple bacon, garlic aioli, and house-cut frites; and for the table that came for a proper steak, there is a Canadian AAA beef tenderloin.