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Chapter 01North End
North End Halifax restaurants, bars and coffee along Gottingen Street
North End Halifax restaurants, cocktail bars and coffee on Gottingen Street and Agricola Street: where to eat, drink and start the morning.
Find your next table
Get your bearings
Gottingen & Agricola.
North End Halifax restaurants sit on two parallel streets: the restaurants on Gottingen Street, which runs north from Cogswell toward the Hydrostone, and the bars and cafés of Agricola Street a few blocks west. Between them are some of the city’s most talked-about kitchens, a cluster of cocktail bars, two distillery and cider taprooms and enough coffee to fill a morning.
The neighbourhood is residential, so most places are small rooms rather than big dining halls. Restaurants on Gottingen Street tend to fill up early on weekends, and the bars on Agricola keep the evening going. Everything below is within a twenty-minute walk of everything else.
Restaurants / 4 places
North End Halifax restaurants on Gottingen Street and Agricola Street
The kitchens worth planning around. Most are neighbourhood rooms with short menus that change with the season, so book ahead for dinner on a Friday or Saturday.
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EDNA
A long, narrow dining room near the south end of Gottingen with a menu built around local seafood and vegetables. It turns up on almost every list of the best North End Halifax restaurants and is one of the city’s busiest weekend brunch rooms.
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Bar Kismet
A small, family-run room that works as both a bar and a restaurant: fresh seafood, handmade pasta, a thoughtful wine list and some of the most inventive cocktails in the city. Seats are few, so arrive early or reserve.
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Agricola Street Brasserie
A brasserie with a broad menu that suits a group, and the rooftop above it, Billow Bar, serves cocktails and southern-style barbecue in the warmer months.
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Ratinaud French Cuisine
French cooking in a small room on Gottingen. It sits at the more expensive end of the street and suits a slower dinner.
Coffee / 5 places
Coffee and breakfast in the North End
The North End has more independent coffee per block than anywhere else on the peninsula. Several places roast their own beans.
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Café Lara
A neighbourhood café for coffee, fresh pastries and a casual breakfast or lunch.
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Espresso 46
Roasts its own coffee in house and pours Italian-style espresso drinks from a corner on Clifton Street, a block west of Agricola. A good first stop before a walk across to Gottingen.
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Java Blend Coffee Roasters
A roaster founded in 1938, with a café counter beside the roastery on North Street. It is one of the most reviewed coffee stops in the North End.
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Cafe Byron
An Australian-style café on Agricola that has quickly become a meeting point for the street.
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Bramble Cafe
A plant-based bakery and café at the north end of Agricola, worth the extra blocks for the baking.
Bars / 5 places
Cocktail bars, pubs and taprooms
The North End is where Halifax goes for a cocktail. Bars cluster on Agricola, with a brewery and a pub or two on Gottingen.
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The Brown Hound
A tiny English-style pub with a bright red front and a carefully poured Guinness.
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Billow Bar
The rooftop over Agricola Street Brasserie, with cocktails and barbecue when the weather allows.
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Compass Distillers
A small-batch distillery with a tasting room, across the street from the brasserie.
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Chain Yard Cider
An urban cidery with a taproom pouring Nova Scotia apple cider a few doors north.
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Propeller Brewing
Founded in 1997 and one of the longest-running independent breweries in Halifax. The Gottingen Street taproom is its flagship, with a cold beer store and an arcade downstairs.
The lie of the land
How the North End fits together
The North End begins where the downtown grid ends at Cogswell Street and climbs north toward the Narrows. Gottingen Street is the older main street, home to the Halifax North Memorial Library, churches and community groups as well as the restaurants near its southern end. Agricola Street runs parallel on the Halifax Common side and has filled with bars, cafés and small shops.
Much of the northern half of the neighbourhood was rebuilt after the Halifax Explosion of December 1917, when a munitions ship blew up in the Narrows. The Hydrostone, a few minutes north-west of Agricola, is the best-known part of that rebuilding, and its small market on Young Street has a chapter of its own.
Beer was made here long before the taprooms arrived. The large brick brewery at the top of Agricola Street carries the Oland name, a family name in Nova Scotia brewing since the nineteenth century, and the newer independent breweries sit within a few blocks of it.
Prices cover the full range. Cafés and takeout counters are inexpensive, the bars sit in the middle, and dinner at one of the better-known kitchens is among the pricier meals on the peninsula. Most rooms are small and run by their owners, so seats are limited and service is personal.
A few field notes
An evening on Gottingen Street
A good North End evening starts with a drink on Agricola, moves to dinner at one of the restaurants on Gottingen Street and ends back at a bar. The two streets are four blocks apart, and North Street and Cunard Street connect them.
Weekends are busy and most rooms are small. North End Halifax restaurants that take reservations fill up days ahead in summer and during festival weeks. Walk-in seats at the bar are the usual way in without a booking.
Gottingen Street has changed a great deal in the past fifteen years. It is a mixed street, with community organisations, housing and shops between the restaurants, and it rewards a slow walk.
Find your way · North End
Which North End Halifax restaurants are best for a first visit?
EDNA on Gottingen Street and Bar Kismet on Agricola Street are the two names most often recommended. For something more casual, Agricola Street Brasserie has a broad menu that suits a group.
Do restaurants on Gottingen Street take reservations?
Most of the sit-down restaurants on Gottingen Street take bookings, and on weekends they are close to essential. Bar seats are often held for walk-ins.
Where can I get coffee in the North End?
Café Lara, Cafe Byron and Bramble Cafe are all on Agricola Street. Espresso 46 on Clifton Street and Java Blend on North Street roast their own coffee.
Are there bars in the North End that serve food?
Yes. Bar Kismet serves seafood and pasta, Billow Bar serves barbecue on its rooftop, and Agricola Street Brasserie has a full menu downstairs.
How do I get to the North End from downtown Halifax?
Walk north on Barrington Street or Brunswick Street to Cogswell Street and continue up Gottingen. It takes about fifteen to twenty minutes from the Grand Parade.