Le St. Laurent

In Ottawa's east end, the night that has to feel like an occasion ends up fourteen floors up: in Le St. Laurent's penthouse dining room, with the Ottawa-Gatineau skyline running the length of the windows and carrying across the river into Gatineau. It is a chef-owned modern Canadian dinner house made for the evening that goes on the calendar in advance — the birthday, the anniversary, the client dinner that wants a view to match the moment. The mood is elegant but relaxed, dressed for a celebration without ever turning starchy about it.

The small plates make the kitchen's hand clear before the mains arrive. It is an order-across-the-table list, generous on small plates and restrained on length. Roasted bone marrow comes with toasted country bread, chimichurri, and caramelized onions; a snow crab croquette is set against celery root, fennel, and apple remoulade under old bay aioli; fried octopus sits over black garlic confit potatoes and romesco. The salads are not afterthoughts — a frisée with fried Manchego, roasted almonds, pickled shallot, and apple in sherry vinaigrette, and a beet salad with whipped labneh, pistachios, fried halloumi, and grapes. Even the handmade cavatelli, with roasted chestnut mushrooms, sweet peas, and a wild mushroom cream finished with Grana Padano, is built rather than assembled, and a seasonal soup rounds the opening out.