5 Food Lover Days in St. John’s, Newfoundland

DAY 1: Arrival on Water Street

After a flight of about 2 hours and 30 minutes from Montreal, you can reach the Alt Hotel St. John’s by taxi in less than 15 minutes from the airport. As soon as you arrive, let yourself be carried away by Water Street, a pedestrian area during the summer season: salt air, high-quality restaurants, cute boutiques and heritage houses. From your hotel room, admire the view of colourful boats bobbing in the seaport. The hotel’s restaurants, Terre (one of the best restaurants in the country) and Café Terre, are definitely on the agenda, but more on that later!

After a trip, nothing is more satisfying than cracking open a good beer. Our choice sip is at the Bannerman Brewing Co., a microbrewery located in a former fire station. During our visit, the food side of this experience—at the time—was provided by Namjim, a Thai restaurant with a local touch. We had a delicious Som Tam-style salad with local ingredients (carrots, turnips and dried cod), a pad Thai with northern shrimp from Fogo Island, as well as a tasty pork stir-fry, perfectly spiced, with fresh herbs and red onion. In fact, Namjim made its debut as a pop-up restaurant on the hotel’s terrace before taking up residence at the Bannerman Brewery temporarily.

DAY 2: Sea Fishing

When we wake up, the aromas of Café Terre, located in the hotel lobby, are calling despite the comfort of the room and the picturesque view of the port. Wild blueberry scones, berry squares... It’s the perfect breakfast before a day of adventure.

Afterwards, we head to Quidi Vidi Charters, where they offer cod fishing excursions. On the boat, accompanied by the captain, you are allowed a quota of two cod per person. The line is cast into the water, which reaches the bottom with the help of sinkers, then a back and forth movement is initiated until the fish bites. In less than an hour, we already had 12 for the 6 passengers. Back on dry land, the captain is busy filleting and cooking the cod caught on site so that it can be enjoyed as fish and chips. It doesn’t get any fresher or better than this!

For dinner, we head to Portage, a restaurant located across the street from the hotel. We are immediately carried away by the warm atmosphere and excellent wines that perfectly match the land and the sea. On the menu: burrata with homemade focaccia, poached cod, bibimbap beef tartare with egg yolk, as well as gochujang and Szechuan-style eggplant.

DAY 3: Land and Sea Adventures

To stir that appetite, there’s nothing like a hike through the lush vegetation of Newfoundland. A few metres from the hotel, take a path along steep cliffs to reach Signal Hill National Historic Site, a hill overlooking the city. On the way down, The Duke of Duckworth, a local institution, hits the mark with their breaded cod and fries.

The afternoon is devoted to accompanying a group of divers from the Ocean Quest company who are picking scallops. The scallops are harvested by hand in cold water, and at a depth of more than 18 metres (60 feet). Once the divers have come up, after more than an hour underwater, we get to sample these fresh molluscs which are lightly seared on a small propane stove.

Back in town, dinner takes place at Terre restaurant, the project of chef Matthew Swift (formerly the chef at Joe Beef) and his wife, Clarah Germain (the director of guest experiences at Germain Hotels). The couple moved to Newfoundland from Montreal five years ago, and just two years after opening, the establishment was named "Best Hotel Restaurant among Canada’s Best New Restaurants" by enRoute magazine. We chose the “we cook for you” menu option and were delighted with the potato bread served with shallot and sea salt butter, Murray’s tomato dish with mussels, bacon and breadcrumbs, freshly caught tuna tartare, perfectly cooked halibut, crab mushrooms with lobster cream and fresh vegetable dishes—perfection. And those fritters served with strawberry jam and wild rose sugar...small fluffy clouds.

DAY 4: City Tour

After such a wonderful dinner, we had to come back to Terre for brunch. You can’t leave St. John’s without eating Townie Toast, toasted homemade bread stacked with smoked salmon, cream cheese, beets and capers, and topped with all-dressed bagel seasoning.

With full stomachs, we set out to explore the surroundings by climbing aboard the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, a tourist bus service that stops at the hotel. We start with a visit to the Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site, where there’s a lighthouse as well as hiking trails with magnificent views of the sea and jutting cliffs. The drive heads up to Signal Hill, and ends the tour in Quidi Vidi, where it’s time for an aperitif. The Quidi Vidi Brewery is known for its Iceberg beer brewed with glacier water, but it’s their sour beers that capture our taste buds, well as their terrace perched on the inlet. Feeling peckish again, we check out the Chinched butcher shop to taste some homemade charcuterie.

DAY 5: Eating Well in the Rain

After a morning walk along the port, we start the day with breakfast at Toslow, a café cum warm apartment setting that serves hearty breakfast sandwiches. The Atlantic province's signature rainy weather accompanies us around Quidi Vidi Lake and Bannerman Park, as well as The Rooms, a museum where you can learn more about the history and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador.

As soon as the clouds pass, a pretzel and salted caramel ice cream at The Parlour brightens the mood until it’s time for our reservation at The Rabble, the last restaurant on our list. That evening, they had just received a tuna caught nearby, and the atmosphere was festive. As for the sharing dishes, we tasted the tuna served in two ways: as a tartare with basil vinaigrette, pickled mustard seeds and lovage, as well as in an Otoro crudo, or belly with spicy sauce and ponzu sauce. We continued with Nordic shrimp toast with gribiche sauce, scallop ceviche with ahi vinaigrette, apples and celery, and Parisian gnocchi with mushrooms, ravigote sauce and Gruyère. A perfect way to end the trip; we’ll head to the airport the next day with full stomachs and memories of delicious meals eaten.

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This article is a collaboration between RICARDO and Alt Hotels.