Across the western US and Canada’s First Nations, there’s a growing movement that’s revitalizing Indigenous food. From game to foraged berries, chefs are reimagining their ancestors’ traditional foods for everyone to enjoy. Here are 10 places to sample Indigenous cuisine in North America.
Pueblo Harvest
Owned and operated by the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico, Pueblo Harvest has been serving what it calls ‘Native sourced. Pueblo Inspired’ fare in Albuquerque since 1976.
Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the menu has changed over the years and includes both pre-contact options – bison carpaccio with pickled squash or amaranth and corn fritters – alongside post-contact ones, like blue corn onion rings.
Bow & Arrow Brewing Co.
For a beer before dinner, or for those who consider beer to be dinner, the Bow & Arrow Brewing Co., located in Albuquerque, is the ideal spot. Shyla Sheppard, from the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, opened it along with Missy Begay, from the Navajo Nation, in 2016.
Bow & Arrow’s tap menu rotates to feature seasonal brews and includes options like the denim tux lager, made with local blue corn, and the savage times sour IPA. The brewery also hosts tours and tastings, providing a comprehensive Indigenous brewing experience.
Cafe Ohlone
Tucked behind a bookstore across from the UC Berkeley campus, Cafe Ohlone offers tea on Tuesdays, lunch on Thursdays, weekend brunches, and dinners on Saturday. The set menu changes with the seasons and features acorn flour, foraged berries and greens, San Francisco Bay sea salt, and game meats.
Dishes range from hazelnut milk chia porridge with blackberry and bay laurel sauce to roasted salmon with duck fat heirloom potatoes and fiddleheads.
Salmon N’Bannock
Further north up the Pacific coast in Vancouver, British Columbia, Salmon N’ Bannock is the city’s only First Nations restaurant. It serves wild sockeye salmon so fresh and flavorful that you might reconsider your previous standards for fish.
For a taste of everything, order the salmon and game samplers, alongside a glass of wine from North America’s first Indigenous-owned winery – Nk’Mip Cellars.
Tocabe
Matt Chandra and Ben Jacobs opened Tocabe in Denver, Colorado, in 2008. The American Indian eatery specializes in Indian tacos and wild rice bowls topped with bison or beans, sweet corn, roasted green chilies, and housemade salsas.
Many of the recipes are influenced by Osage Nation cuisines and were also used at the Jacobs’ family restaurant – Grayhorse: An American Indian Eatery, which operated in downtown Denver in 1989.
Feast Café Bistro
What began as simple curiosity about Indigenous food eventually blossomed into something greater for Christa Bruneau-Guenther, from the Peguis First Nation.
In December 2015, Bruneau-Guenther opened Feast Café Bistro in Winnipeg, Manitoba, serving ‘modern dishes rooted in First Nations foods.’ Menu highlights include grass-fed bison sausages, Saskatoon berry smoothies, bison stew, and vegan bean chili.
Pow Wow Café
Shawn Adler rose to prominence serving Indian tacos at music festivals across Ontario before opening the Pow Wow Café in Toronto’s Kensington Market in October 2016.
Beyond signature offerings like Indian tacos, scone dogs with cranberry mustard and sage ketchup, and corn soup with smoked duck, Pow Wow Café also features brunch and homemade cedar soda.
Kū-kŭm Kitchen
Kū-kŭm Kitchen, located in Toronto, Canada, reclaims the expression ‘farm-to-table’ by incorporating forest elements. Chef Joseph Shawana, from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Reserve, draws inspiration from childhood experiences of eating from the land.
The upscale menu changes with the seasons, offering dishes like sous vide elk loin with roasted carrot puree and barley-squash risotto with sweetgrass oil. Particularly notable is the seal loin tartar, which has spurred public conversations about Indigenous food sovereignty, accompanied by a pine needle and citrus sorbet.
Nikoski Bistro Pub
Wapokunie Riel-Lachapelle infuses her Métis heritage into her menu at Nikosi, located in Wakefield, Quebec. The restaurant features a unique blend of French Canadian classics and Indigenous ingredients.
Signature dishes include Nikosi poutine with BBQ duck confit, cheese curds, dried cranberries, and green peppercorn gravy, accompanied by excellent cocktails such as the sprucey negroni and the electric pow wow made with blueberry maple kombucha.
Migmak Catering Indigenous Kitchen
From Algonquin three sisters casserole with polenta, wild rice with cranberries, and bannock to salmon fish cakes with seaweed relish, reservations are recommended for Migmak Catering Indigenous Kitchen.
Located in the Montreal borough of Pierrefords, Migmak is the first permanent restaurant dedicated to Indigenous cuisine in the city. Chef Norma Condo, from Gesgapegiag Nation, began her catering company in 2018 and established a small sit-down restaurant a year later.
