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Find a Great Winnipeg Restaurant
for Breakfast or Lunch
Want to find a good Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast? Or lunch?
Looking for cheap, relatively fast, filling fare?
Want a budget meal on-the-run?
Or a pleasant place for a leisurely meal and conversation, along with delicious food?
And also trying hard to please everybody?
Here are the places our family always goes back to and friends enthusiastically recommend:
Many downtown restaurants are closed on the weekend, or only open for dinner.
Best bets for extended restaurant hours in Winnipeg are the ethnic restaurants, particularly the Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants.
A and V Drive-In
Tiny place very popular with people who work in the surrounding industrial area and off the beaten path in Fort Garry, south of Downtown.
But, if you’ve got a car, it’s worth seeking out this family-run diner for the friendly atmosphere (there is a Norm, and he likes the corner stool) and huge platters of diner-style breakfasts and lunches.
Known for chili (ask for it on your hash browns), burger patters (but the fries are only available after 10:30), and the A & V omelette.
Also gyros, Reuben sandwiches and Greek salads.
Open weekdays at 6 a.m. until 3 p.m.
1200 Chevrier Blvd.
Eddy’s Place
This North End favourite is known for the best corned beef sandwich in Winnipeg, sliced ultra-thin, a generous inch or more thick with Eddy’s own mustard.
Or have the turkey sandwich (from grain-fed hens from a local Hutterite colony) or the huge reuben.
Eddy’s is a local landmark, opened by the original Eddy in 1955 and now run by family members.
You can eat well here for under $10 (price of the platters).
Also has perogies and garlicky kulbasa and weekday specials which may be fresh pickerel, roast chicken, meat loaf or meatballs and mash.
Open for breakfast at 7 a.m. until 3 p.. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays (closed Saturdays from May Long to Oct. 1).
Phone ahead for wheelchair access assistance.
669 Selkirk Ave., 582-4768.
Ellice Café
Modest but charming no-frills spot for an inexpensive breakfast or lunch that is popular with locals.
Known for using local ingredients, and for one of the best burgers in Winnipeg.
Find a seat, look at the menu, then go up to the counter to order the tuna melt sandwich – you can have any sandwich as a platter with the incredible yam fries. Everything is priced at a budget-stretching $4.29 to $12.49.
Also really good here: the soups, teriyaki chicken, fish and chips, chili, thin-crust pizza, lasagna and nachos.
For dessert, rhubarb pie. Also unusual – they make their own iced tea and lemonade.
At 587 Ellice Ave.
Pop Soda’s Coffee House and Gallery
Fun and funky place for lunch full of murals, carvings, ceramics and character, with a performance space, paintings (the gallery part), some of which are for sale and musicians (whoever walks in with a guitar) performing at lunch-time.
Go on Fridays evenings or Sunday afternoons for changing roster of musicians who are already on the radar or up-and-coming, such as Dan Frechette or Chet Breau.
You order at the counter, and your food is delivered to your table (fairly quickly) with big portions of mostly Italian fare.
Go here for the salads, flatbread pizzas, panini, pasta or meatloaf – but they also have good perogies and nachos and they make their own pastries for dessert.
Three to try: the Athena salad with feta, the mammoth Devil’s Balls Panini (which could feed three or four people, with a salad) or the manicotti.
At 625 Portage Ave.
Dessert Sinsations
In the middle of downtown, and just across from Winnipeg Art Gallery, this is a place to linger over breakfast of poached eggs poutine or eggs Benedict with ham, salmon or asperagus on an English muffin.
Or have the huevos rancheros with sautéed potatoes. They also have a delicious vegetarian omelette with asperagus, tomatoes and cheddar.
505 St. Mary Ave., 284-461.
Fresh Café
Free-range eggs, in-house baking and juices, bison sausages are just a few of the choices – there are also vegetarian and vegan options and food for those on special diets at this Corydon Village restaurant that opens daily at 7 a.m.
775 Corydon Ave.
Street Food – Hot dog carts
The best cheap, fast lunch in Winnipeg is available from May until it snows (usually the third week of October) from hot dog carts.
You get a dog, a small bag of chips and a pop for less than $5, and nothing is more delicious on a sunny day.
Look for vendors near Main on Portage, along Broadway (weekdays only), at Assiniboine Park’s Portage Ave. entrance (evenings and weekends), at The Forks and at all of the festivals and events and at the ballpark on game days.
Winnipeg lunch at Woodsworth Building Cafeteria
A largely undiscovered budget-saver Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast or lunch at the Woodsworth Building Cafeteria.
Or, on nice days, get your food to go and picnic on a bench at the beautiful grounds and gardens next to the river behind Manitoba Legislative Building or across the street in Memorial Park -- either is just half a block away.
Only open Monday to Friday, (almost all the customers are government workers), Wordsworth has breakfast and lunch specials but the main attraction is the extensive, very fresh salad bar as well as the modest price.
405 Broadway Ave., half a block from Manitoba Legislative Building.
White Star Diner
A cute and cozy downtown diner that makes a very satisfying pulled pork sandwich. It comes with cole slaw and smothered in barbeque sauce. Or have the burger or the huge clubhouse sandwich with fresh cooked turkey.
It’s a tiny place – just a few stools and a couple of tables outside. If every seat is taken, get your food to go and (in nice weather) head for a nearby park bench. Market Square is the closest – Memorial Park is a few blocks further away.
Open weekdays, but only until 5:30. White Star Diner is in the Exchange District at 58 Albert St.
A Winnipeg institution - Salisbury House
There are 20 Sals locations throughout the city including one on Louis Riel Promenade, the bridge between downtown and St. Boniface.
Beloved by Winnipeggers for the cheap and quick breakfast or nip (hamburger) and chips followed by wafer pie or red velvet cake, all washed down with a bottomless cup of strong coffee.
Anytime you can't think of where you want to go, this Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast, or lunch, or something to eat just about anytime is a good bet.
The Sal has been around since the ’30s, but the décor as well as the menu are vintage ’50s. These days, one of the owners is singer-musician Burton Cummings, frontman of The Guess Who, who grew up in the North End and spent most of his formative years (he says) at The Sal, before or after concerts.
Cummings still lives in Winnipeg part of each year and when he’s in town he is often spotted at one or another Sals, his old (and now his own) fave spot to hang with the gang.
Filling and adequate food, small bill – go for the experience.
Exchange Café
Is in the East Exchange (East of Main Street) with bistro tables, plenty of seats and a small menu – but everything is a good choice. Mine would be the panini, followed by gelati.
Open weekdays until 7 p.m. at 137 Bannatyne Ave.
Black Sheep Diner
Hip little lunch spot, another place that doesn’t look like much from the outside but they have also have good breakfasts.
They also make a very good veggie sandwich here. Just west of University of Winnipeg and open daily. 540 Ellice.
Baked Expectations
Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast, brunch or lunch.
Before you get settled, have a look in the cases for a mouth-watering array of tortes, pies and cheesecakes, all baked fresh daily and enticingly displayed.
Impossible to resist if you still have room after their pastas, sandwiches and burgers served with a generous amount of fries.
Everything’s good, but this is the place to order dessert first.
Open lunch until late in Osborne Village at 161 Osborne.
Burrito Del Rio
is a colourful little Mexican place next to Gas Station Theatre in Osborne Village serving up generously-filled fresh tortillas weekdays and Saturdays for under $10. 433 River Ave.
More Winnipeg restaurants for lunch downtown
Rasoi The Kitchen for the samosas, 596 Ellice Ave.
Kay’s Deli sandwiches, especially the delicious roast pork, which is marinated in tea, Korean-style, 339 William Ave.
Sorrento’s for pizza, 529 Ellice
Noodle Express for dim sum, 180 King Street
Kum Koon for Chinese food at lunchtime at 257 King Street
Golden Terrace another good choice for Chinese at lunch, 245 King Street
Winnipeg lunch restaurants West of Downtown
Pho Dau Bo
is a Vietnamese restaurant with a vast menu but we think the best are the many shrimp dishes, notably the mango salad with shrimp and chicken and the crispy shrimp entrée, followed by crème caramel and sweet iced Vietnamese coffee. They also do an outstanding pad Thai.
Prices are modest, with most dishes at under $10. Wheel-chair accessible. Always busy weekdays at lunch. 856 Ellice Ave.
Original Pancake House
There are three Original Pancake House locations –
west of downtown at 1049 Pembina (the original; it has been there for almost six decades), 1445 Portage Ave. in The Clarion Hotel near Polo Park, and at The Forks Market (always crowded on weekends).
Known for the truly mammoth Giant Apple Pancake (but you can get a half order) and other breakfasts ($8.50 to $12) come in similarly generous portions.
Can’t decide? It’s all good, but my picks are the cheese omelette with buttermilk pancakes, any of the crepes, or the “baby” apple pancake.
Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast or lunch East of Downtown
Johnny’s Marion Restaurant
Johnny's might look like just another little greasy spoon, but don’t judge by the rather grubby exterior (and equally down-at-heel interior).
This is a generally boisterous, friendly St. Boniface institution, a place to get all-day breakfasts and one of the best burgers in town.
I love their pancakes; it’s also fun to listen to the mix of conversations from the other tables and booths. You will overhear as much French spoken as English, and conversations that easily flow between the two languages.
They're so busy the sign was advertising for more short-order cooks in early May when I took this photo.
In an older building, Johnny’s is not wheelchair accessible -- there are stairs to get from the entrance to the tables. 382 Marion.
Lovey’s BBQ & Smokehouse
Go here for the best BBQ in Winnipeg!
Lovey's slow-smokes its own pork for pulled-pork sandwiches. Also wonderful is the shared dinner for two (easily enough for three) of delicious hand-cut fries and ribs – sticky, not too sweet and absolutely fabulous.
Open daily for lunch and dinner except 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. only on Sundays. In a small plaza in St. Boniface at 1-208 Marion Street.
Whistle Pig Drive Inn
is east of downtown in Transcona, worth the trek for the homemade burgers, the kid meals, the old-fashioned drive-in flavour and they have picnic tables.
They are also the only fast food place I have found that has vegetarian, gluten-free and wheat-free options and that welcomes dogs (on leashes). 102 Victoria Ave. E.
Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast or lunch - North of Downtown
Luda’s
Is a Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast hot spot for their really good, generous and inexpensive breakfasts.
But it is the lunches that make Luda's a Winnipeg classic.
Here, two people can get an incredible lunch for less than $20. That includes the best potato soup in the world, reuben sandwiches that may shorten your life but you’ll think it’s worth it, and two cans of pop.
Open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays. 410 Aberdeen at Salter.
White Rock Café
is a popular Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast -- there can be line-ups on Saturdays. This is another little mom-and-pop with wonderful creamy milkshakes and homemade pies and other desserts.
Pop is the friendly face out front, Mom is in the kitchen (she makes those pies). 725 Gateway Rd.
More Winnipeg restaurants for breakfast or lunch - South of Downtown
You don't need a Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast (or lunch) when you can graze your way around St. Norbert Farmers’ Market on summer Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., June until the end of October.
Along with the fresh-from-the-fields veggies, honey, cut flowers and crafts there are hot dogs and phenomenal pork sandwiches on offer. 3514 Pembina Highway.
Another option for lunch -- any of the Chinese restaurants on Pembina near University of Manitoba.
Chinese restaurants in Winnipeg.
Go from Winnipeg restaurant for breakfast to Family restaurants
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