OpenTable Reveals the 50 Most Romantic Restaurants in Canada

TORONTO, Feb. 4, 2016 /CNW/ -- With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, OpenTable, the world's leading provider of online restaurant reservations and part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN), is making it easier for Canadians to find the perfect place for their special meal. Today, the company announced the 50 Most Romantic Restaurants in Canada, reflecting the combined opinions of more than 275,000 restaurant reviews submitted by verified OpenTable diners for approximately 1,600 restaurants across Canada.

The 50 Most Romantic list includes award winners from seven provinces, with restaurants from as far east as Raymonds in St. John's, Newfoundland, and as far west as Bishop's in Vancouver, British Columbia. Twenty-one Ontario restaurants, 10 Alberta restaurants, six from Québec and six from British Columbia made the list.

"Canadians love to celebrate Valentine's Day with a special meal," said Ziv Schierau, Head of National Accounts for OpenTable Canada. "The restaurants on this list have been chosen by OpenTable diners for their ability to provide intimate dining experiences that offer scrumptious cuisine, a sensuous, rich ambiance and memories to cherish all year."

In addition to naming the 50 Most Romantic Restaurants in Canada, OpenTable today released data that reveals how Canadians make reservations and dine on Valentine's Day. These findings are based on reservations made for February 14, 2015 in Canada through OpenTable.

OpenTable Canada Valentine's Day Findings

• Canadians are procrastinators. Forty-five per cent of Canadians wait until the week before Valentine's Day to make their reservation. Ten per cent of Canadians make their reservation on Valentine's Day.
• Canadians are increasingly using their mobile devices to make reservations. In 2015, 34 per cent of Valentine's Day reservations in Canada were made through mobile devices, an eight per cent increase over February 14, 2014.
• Canadians choose to make it a special night with a loved one, as 86 per cent of Valentine's Day reservations were for a table for two.
• The most common cuisines for Canadians on February 14, 2015 were Italian, Steakhouse and Canadian.
• Despite waiting to book, many Canadians do dine out for Valentine's Day. More reservations were made for February 14 than any other day in 2015.

The 50 Most Romantic Restaurants in Canada are amassed from more than 275,000 restaurant reviews collected from verified OpenTable diners who dined at Canadian restaurants between December 7, 2014 and December 6, 2015. All restaurants with a minimum "overall" score and number of qualifying reviews were included for consideration. Qualifying restaurants were then scored and sorted according to the percentage of reviews for which "romantic" was selected as a special feature.  

Based on this methodology, the 50 Most Romantic Restaurants in Canada according to OpenTable diners are as follows (in alphabetical order):

1888 Chop House - Fairmont Banff Springs – Banff, Alberta
529 Wellington – Winnipeg, Manitoba
AG at The Sterling – Niagara Falls, Ontario
Alo Restaurant – Toronto, Ontario
Auberge du Pommier – Toronto, Ontario
AZURIDGE – Priddis, Alberta
Bailey's Restaurant and Lounge – Winnipeg, Manitoba
Bishop's – Vancouver, British Columbia
Blu Ristorante – Toronto, Ontario
Bonaparte – Montréal, Québec
Breakwater Restaurant - Waterside Inn – Mississauga, Ontario
Characters Fine Dining – Edmonton, Alberta
Chez Queux – Montréal, Québec
Cut Steakhouse – Halifax, Nova Scotia
da Maurizio – Halifax, Nova Scotia
Da Vinci Ristorante – Montréal, Québec
Eden - Rimrock Resort Hotel – Banff, Alberta
The Fifth Grill & Terrace – Toronto, Ontario
Five Sails Restaurant – Vancouver, British Columbia
Flor de Sal – Toronto, Ontario
Flour Mill Restaurant – Niagara Falls, Ontario
Hart House Restaurant – Burnaby, British Columbia
Headwaters Restaurant at Millcroft Inn & Spa – Alton, Ontario
HOBNOB Restaurant – Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Il Buco – Barrie, Ontario
La Maquette – Toronto, Ontario
La Ronde - Chateau Lacombe – Edmonton, Alberta
Langdon Hall Country House Hotel & Spa – Cambridge, Ontario
Le Baccara - Casino du Lac-Leamy – Gatineau, Québec
Liv Restaurant - White Oaks Resort & Spa – Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Marilyn's Bistro & Lounge – Niagara Falls, Ontario
Michael's on the Thames – London, Ontario
Old Surrey Restaurant – Surrey, British Columbia
The Press Gang – Halifax, Nova Scotia
Q Haute Cuisine – Calgary, Alberta
Quails' Gate Estate Winery - Old Vines Restaurant – Kelowna, British Columbia
Quatrefoil – Dundas, Ontario
The Rainbow Room by Massimo Capra – Niagara Falls, Ontario
Raymonds – St. John's, Newfoundland
Restaurant at Peninsula Ridge – Beamsville, Ontario
Restaurant e18hteen – Ottawa, Ontario
Restaurant Le Continental – Québec City, Québec
Rouge – Calgary, Alberta
Rustica Steakhouse at Silvertip Golf Resort – Canmore, Alberta
Scaramouche Restaurant – Toronto, Ontario
Sonora Room Restaurant - Burrowing Owl Estate Winery – Oliver, British Columbia
Sterling Restaurant – Gatineau, Québec
Tapas Restaurant – Canmore, Alberta
The Velvet Glove - The Fairmont Winnipeg – Winnipeg, Manitoba
Von's Steakhouse & Oyster Bar – Edmonton, Alberta

The complete list may also be viewed at http://www.opentable.com/m/50-most-romantic-restaurants-in-canada/.

Follow OpenTable Canada on Twitter: @OpenTableCanada.

About OpenTable Restaurant Reviews:
Originally launched in November 2008, the OpenTable Reviews program helps diners find restaurants that best fit their dining occasions.  Only diners who recently honoured an OpenTable reservation are invited to submit restaurant reviews. Visitors to OpenTable can access reviews for thousands of OpenTable restaurant partners across the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan and the UK.  The OpenTable Reviews program has generated more than 36 million restaurant reviews by verified diners, establishing OpenTable as one of the largest and most trusted sources for restaurant reviews. 

About OpenTable:
OpenTable, part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN), is the world's leading provider of online restaurant reservations, seating more than 17 million diners per month via online bookings across more than 33,000 restaurants. The OpenTable network connects restaurants and diners, helping diners discover and book the perfect table and helping restaurants deliver personalized hospitality to keep guests coming back. The OpenTable service enables diners to see which restaurants have available tables, select a restaurant based on verified diner reviews, menus, and other helpful information, and easily book a reservation. In addition to the company's website and mobile apps, OpenTable powers online reservations for nearly 600 partners, including many of the Internet's most popular global and local brands. For restaurants, the OpenTable hospitality solutions enable them to manage their reservation book, streamline their operations, and enhance their service levels. Since its inception in 1998, OpenTable has seated more than 940 million diners around the world and almost 35 million in Canada.  OpenTable is headquartered in San Francisco and available throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, and the UK.

OpenTable, OpenTable.com, OpenTable logos, and other service names are the trademarks of OpenTable, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

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SOURCE OpenTable, Inc.

Jennifer Rideout / Sachin Persaud, StrategicAmpersand Inc., [phone] ext. 438 / 423, [email protected], http://opentable.com