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Across the citySeafood
The best seafood in Halifax: lobster rolls, oysters, fish and chips
The best seafood in Halifax, by dish: lobster rolls, oyster bars and seafood rooms downtown, and fish and chips in Dartmouth and Bedford.
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Get your bearings
Lobster, oysters, fish and chips.
The best seafood in Halifax is easiest to find by dish rather than by street. Lobster rolls are a summer lunch, oysters are an early-evening habit downtown, and fish and chips are a takeout tradition that is at its best on the edges of the city.
Nova Scotia lobster, Digby scallops and oysters from both coasts of the province turn up on almost every menu. This chapter covers the places that build their menus around them, on both sides of the harbour.
Lobster rolls / 3 places
Lobster rolls in Halifax and Dartmouth
The reader polls agree on the top of this list more than on any other.
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The Canteen
Its roll won Best Lobster Roll in The Coast’s Best of Halifax reader poll in 2022 and 2024. Strictly speaking it mixes lobster with snow crab. A short walk from the Alderney ferry.
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Evan’s Seafood
A casual counter in Alderney Landing, beside the Dartmouth ferry, whose warm lobster roll took second place in The Coast’s 2024 Best Lobster Roll poll.
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Murphy’s Cable Wharf
A traditional lobster dinner on the Halifax waterfront, for anyone who wants the whole lobster rather than a roll.
Oysters / 4 places
Oyster bars and seafood dining rooms downtown
Downtown Halifax has the raw bars and the dining rooms with the longest seafood menus.
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The Five Fishermen
The city’s best-known upscale seafood room, with a reputation for very fresh oysters and an early-evening oyster happy hour.
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McKelvie’s
A seafood restaurant in a 1906 fire station, known for Nova Scotia lobster and Digby scallops. Its broad menu suits a group with mixed tastes.
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Shuck Seafood + Raw Bar
A raw bar focused on Nova Scotia seafood, with oysters at the centre of the menu.
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The Press Gang
An oyster bar and restaurant in a stone building that dates from 1759, among the oldest in the city, a few blocks up from the water and suited to a slower evening.
Fish and chips / 2 places
Fish and chips worth the trip
The fish and chips locals recommend are mostly away from the boardwalk.
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Rudy & Olive’s
One of the most frequently recommended fish and chips in the city, on the road along the Bedford Basin.
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Pleasant Street Diner
A Dartmouth diner that locals name for its fish and chips.
From boat to plate
Where Halifax seafood comes from
Lobster is the headline. The fishing season on the coast near Halifax runs from late November to the end of May, and other parts of the province fish at different times of year, so Nova Scotia lobster is on menus for most of the year. Live lobster is also held in tanks and pounds between seasons.
Scallops come mostly from the Bay of Fundy and the offshore banks. Digby, the town on the Fundy shore that is home port to a large scallop fleet, has become shorthand for them on menus.
Nova Scotia oysters are farmed and harvested along both of the province’s coasts, and menus usually name the bay or harbour where they grew. Ordering two or three kinds on one plate is the easiest way to taste the difference between a briny Atlantic oyster and a milder one from a sheltered inlet.
Haddock is the classic fish for fish and chips in Halifax, with cod and halibut on some menus. Seafood chowder is the other dish to look for: nearly every seafood room serves one, usually haddock, scallops and shrimp in a cream base, and it is often the best-value bowl on the menu.
Market price on a menu usually means lobster, and the price follows the catch and the season. Ask for the weight and the price before ordering a whole lobster, and ask whether the kitchen will crack it for you if the tools on the table look unfamiliar.
A few field notes
Eating seafood in Halifax by season
Lobster rolls are a summer food, and some of the best-known counters are seasonal. Many downtown rooms run an early-evening oyster hour, which is the least expensive way to try several kinds side by side.
Haddock is the usual fish for fish and chips, and scallops on a menu are often from Digby, on the Bay of Fundy. Ask what came in that day: a good seafood kitchen will say.
For a day trip, Peggy’s Cove is about an hour from the city by car, and its lobster shack is often named as one of the best lobster rolls in the province.
Where is the best lobster roll in Halifax?
The Canteen in Dartmouth won The Coast’s Best Lobster Roll reader poll in 2022 and 2024. Evan’s Seafood, also in Dartmouth, placed second in 2024.
Where can I eat oysters in Halifax?
The Five Fishermen on Argyle Street, Shuck Seafood + Raw Bar on Salter Street and The Press Gang on Prince Street are the usual choices.
Where are the best fish and chips in Halifax?
Rudy & Olive’s on the Bedford Highway is the name most often mentioned, and Pleasant Street Diner and Evan’s Seafood are favourites in Dartmouth.
Is the best seafood in Halifax only on the waterfront?
No. Several of the best seafood rooms are downtown or across the harbour in Dartmouth. The Halifax waterfront chapter covers the boardwalk restaurants in detail.