Best Restaurants for Wine Lovers in Calgary
Five restaurants on this list hold Wine Spectator awards. The River Café in Eau Claire, Luca in Downtown Commercial Core, Vintage Chophouse & Tavern in Beltline, and Chairman's steakhouse in Mahogany hold Best of Award of Excellence. Caesar's Steak House in Eau Claire holds Award of Excellence. The River Café's list runs to 5,000 bottles with particular depth in Burgundy and Tuscany, and Vintage Chophouse & Tavern lists over 700 labels.
Teatro in Downtown Commercial Core keeps over 10,000 bottles of Italian and Bordeaux wines, with an exceptional wine program. Centini in Downtown Commercial Core pairs modern Italian cooking with a sommelier-led list. Gatsby's, in the same neighborhood, is exceptional and sommelier-led, with a tasting menu and a set menu. Moonlight & Eli in Bridgeland-Riverside pours champagnes by the glass. The Continental Restaurant in Hillhurst and Buchanan's Chop House in Eau Claire also carry exceptional wine programs.
How this list is chosen: Restaurants with a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award or a deep wine list, listed alphabetically. Updated October 8, 2026.
Buchanan's Chop House
Deep wine list
Buchanan's Chop House occupies a classic position on 3rd Avenue SW in Calgary's downtown core, where the steakhouse tradition meets a business-lunch culture built around Alberta beef. The room draws on the conventions of the genre, booths, white linen, and a wine list weighted toward reds, in a city where chophouse dining carries real civic meaning.
Caesar's Steak House
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence · Deep wine list
Caesar's Steakhouse has anchored Calgary's downtown dining scene from its address on 4th Avenue SW, operating in a city where Alberta beef is less a selling point than a baseline expectation. The room carries the weight of decades of business lunches and celebratory dinners, placing it in a category of steakhouses that trade on provenance and consistency rather than novelty.
Centini
Deep wine list
Centini occupies a prominent address at 160 8th Avenue SE in downtown Calgary, placing it within the city's established fine-dining corridor. The room has long held a reputation among Calgary's business-lunch and special-occasion crowd, operating in the tier of Italian-influenced formal dining that the city's core has historically supported. Plan reservations in advance, particularly for weekend sittings.
Chairman's steakhouse
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
The room sits in a residential district removed from the downtown core, positioning itself as a destination steakhouse with serious cellar credentials. For Calgary diners who treat beef and bottle as inseparable, it belongs in the conversation.
Gatsby's
Deep wine list
Gatsby's pairs modern fine dining with Canadian and global influences, formal service, and an extended dinner pace; Canada's 100 Best places it at No. 74 for 2026.
Luca
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Luca sits on 10th Avenue SW in Calgary's Beltline district, operating at the intersection where European technique meets the seasonal output of Alberta's agricultural corridor. The room draws a crowd that treats dinner as the main event, not a prelude. For a city still sharpening its fine-dining identity, Luca represents a particular strand of ambition: global craft applied to local ingredients.
Moonlight & Eli
Deep wine list
Located on 1st Avenue NE in Calgary's Bridgeland neighbourhood, Moonlight & Eli occupies a stretch where the city's appetite for considered, locally-rooted dining has quietly taken hold. The venue sits within a Calgary restaurant scene that increasingly rewards sourcing transparency and kitchen discipline over spectacle. For visitors curious about where the city's dining conversation is heading, this address is worth tracking.
Sage & Co.
Deep wine list
Sage & Co. sits in Calgary's Southland Drive corridor, a stretch of the city that rewards those willing to travel beyond the downtown core. The surrounding neighbourhood shapes the dining proposition here, placing the restaurant in a quieter register than its inner-city counterparts, the kind of address where the cooking tends to do the talking.
Teatro
Deep wine list
Teatro occupies a landmark position in Calgary's downtown fine dining scene, operating from the historic Dominion Bank Building on 8th Avenue SE. Over more than two decades, the restaurant has repositioned itself through several distinct phases, tracking the broader evolution of ambitious Canadian cooking from continental formalism toward a more ingredient-driven, regionally conscious approach. It remains one of the city's primary reference points for occasion dining.
The Continental Restaurant
Deep wine list
On Kensington Road NW, The Continental Restaurant occupies a stretch of Calgary that has long favoured neighbourhood dining over destination spectacle. Positioned against Calgary's growing tier of New Canadian and European-leaning rooms, it draws from a tradition of considered, ritual-driven dining that the city's Kensington district has quietly sustained for years.
The River Café
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
On Prince's Island Park, The River Café has operated since 1991 as one of Calgary's most critically recognised restaurants, earning consecutive Opinionated About Dining rankings in North America and a La Liste score of 76 points in 2025. The kitchen works exclusively with Canadian and Albertan ingredients, the wine list runs to 5,000 bottles with particular depth in Burgundy and Tuscany, and the setting, river on one side, tree canopy on the other, is unlike anything else in the city.
Vintage Chophouse & Tavern
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence · Deep wine list
Vintage Chophouse & Tavern holds a 2-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine & Lifestyle Awards, placing it among Calgary's more seriously credentialed steakhouse operations. Located on 11th Avenue SW in the Beltline, the room leans into old-school chophouse conviction at a time when the city's dining scene is pulling hard toward New Canadian eclecticism.
Planning restaurants for wine lovers in Calgary
- Which restaurants on this list hold Wine Spectator awards?
- Five restaurants on this list hold Wine Spectator awards. Best of Award of Excellence goes to The River Café in Eau Claire, Luca in Downtown Commercial Core, Vintage Chophouse & Tavern in Beltline, and Chairman's steakhouse in Mahogany. Award of Excellence goes to Caesar's Steak House in Eau Claire. The River Café holds the award for 2025 and 2026.
- Which neighborhoods on this list have exceptional wine programs?
- Exceptional wine programs on this list sit in Downtown Commercial Core, Eau Claire, Beltline, Bridgeland-Riverside, Hillhurst, and Acadia. Teatro, Centini, and Gatsby's are in Downtown Commercial Core. Caesar's Steak House and Buchanan's Chop House are in Eau Claire. Vintage Chophouse & Tavern is in Beltline, Moonlight & Eli is in Bridgeland-Riverside, The Continental Restaurant is in Hillhurst, and Sage & Co. is in Acadia.
- What wine regions and list sizes are named on this list?
- The River Café in Eau Claire has particular depth in Burgundy and Tuscany on a list of 5,000 bottles. Teatro in Downtown Commercial Core holds over 10,000 bottles of Italian and Bordeaux wines. Vintage Chophouse & Tavern in Beltline has over 700 labels. Moonlight & Eli in Bridgeland-Riverside pours champagnes by the glass.
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