What’s the Best Restaurant in Canton?
People often ask me what the best restaurant in Canton is. Actually nobody asks me that, but I like to think about what I would say if they did.
There’s not many options. Including Potsdam, there’s only a handful of “restaurants,” by which I mean places you can sit down and eat a meal. For a while there were even less, as the pandemic disemboweled much of the North Country’s indoor dining.
Regardless, I’ll include takeout places here, because I kinda have to. And even though I despise the desertification of dining out as a social experience, I don’t consider takeout any less legitimate on its food-quality merits.
I will, however, exclude fast food. That just wouldn’t be fair. Otherwise the ranking would go: McDonald’s, Taco Bell, McDonald’s again, then maybe Subway if they have garlic mayo in stock. It’s simply not possible to compete in the same league as the McChicken or the Cheesy Gordita Crunch.
When people think of the “best” restaurants in the area, two places spring to mind: 1844 House and Jake’s on the Water. I reckon that’s not because people think the food at these places is really the best, but because they think these are how the “best” restaurants ought to look and feel.
Like I said, there aren’t many restaurants period in Canton-Potsdam, and the few that do exist aren’t “fancy.” 1844 House and Jake’s are the only two that feel like fancy restaurants. And indeed they are. These restaurants tell you, in certain languages, that they offer an elevated experience: the tables are clothed, the forks are polished, the servers are polite, the vibe is vaguely racist, and the food is manicured on the plate. But does that automatically make them the best restaurants around?
I don’t know. I like both places, and they will appear on this list. The buffalo shrimp at 1844 is the best appetizer within 1,000 miles, and Jake’s has mastered the art of embodying the North Country character. Plus, both spots have good complimentary bread and butter -- something many restaurants somehow manage to fuck up.
But when I rate restaurants, I consider two things: how delicious is the food, and how well does this restaurant do what they purport to do?
1844 serves the best food of any local restaurant, albeit inconsistently, but it has a confused identity. Is it a French bistro? Nouveau American? Sometimes I think it just wants to be a “fancy” restaurant, and serves food because it has to. The menu hasn’t evolved much since I was 10 years old, despite changing ownership.
Jake’s has honed its aesthetic, but the food doesn’t soar and the menu is drunkenly incoherent. Sorry, but Kung Pao cauliflower, beer-battered fish, and wood-fired pizza should never appear in the same sentence let alone the same menu.
11 West opened recently, seemingly to compete with Jake’s and 1844, but it’s uninspired, and plates the same boring, tired cliches typical of North Country restaurants: A burger. A salad. A steak. When done well, these entrees can sing, reminding us why they remain classics. But when mediocre, they make you wonder: if this restaurant doesn’t have anything new to say, then why say anything at all?
Here are some restaurants I do think have something to say, and say it well.
A1 Kitchen, Canton: This is my favorite and I think best restaurant in the area. Gasp all you want, but it makes sense the more you consider it. Here am I, 25 years old, and I can’t recall a sunset of my life when A1 Kitchen wasn’t slinging some of the best Chinese-American takeout in the country. Yes, the country. I’ve traveled the world over. Very, very rarely have I encountered Chinese takeout as excellent as Canton’s own A1.
I dare you to find better General Tso’s Chicken. I dare you to find better boneless spare ribs. I dare you to find better veggie lo mein, or fried egg rolls. And I dare you, above all, to find takeout that juggles quantity and quality -- and price! -- as expertly as the geniuses behind those famous fiery woks.
They’ve been here 30 years. When they’re gone -- which I hope is long after I am -- Canton will be much, much poorer. Plus, you have to respect people who’ve been in this country three decades yet can’t muster more than a few syllables of English. That’s how you know their food is fucking good.
Lee’s Hawaiian Grill: Perhaps a dark horse, this authentic Hawaiian joint blessed Potsdam the second its doors swung open in 2016. It’s probably the most interesting restaurant in the North Country.
Everything is made in-house and tastes like it, from the marinade for the glorious chicken teriyaki to the pork dumplings which ejaculate flavor juice. Their musubis are crack. The chicken katsu one defies scientific limits on how long an object can remain crispy. And their mac salad is the platonic ideal of the dish -- sweet, vinegary, extremely mayo-y, with perfectly soggy pasta.
My favorite dish is called chicken with hot pepper. Every time I have it, it busts my high and burns an ulcer in my stomach, but I keep crawling back. Don’t sleep on their taro bubble tea, either.
1844 House: This was tough. It’s either Jake’s or 1844. Having been to both recently, I think I prefer 1844. It’s an institution for a reason. It’s classy, and there aren’t many truly classy places around. It almost feels aristocratic, and the food remains unparalleled round these parts.
The classic truffle fries are obsessively good and mountainous. The french onion soup is rich, cheesy, and broiled dark. The cocktails are adequate and cheap, despite the opprobrious price of everything else. None of the entrees looked enticing to me at first, but when they came -- the smoked pork chop and the salmon with beurre blanc -- both were better than expected.
I’m writing a separate piece focused on the 1844 House, so will keep these remarks short, but even though this isn’t the 1844 House of my childhood, its ghost is still good. If I wanted to impress a hot date, as I did a few weeks ago, this is where I would take them -- but only after first suggesting Chinese spare ribs.
Jake’s on the Water: Like I said, I think Jake’s is the truest North Country experience in terms of atmosphere. It’s nice. And the food is good. The bread with maple butter is good. The Kung Pao cauliflower is good. The calamari is good. The fish-n-chips are good. The pizza is good. Alright, the desserts are really good, especially the carrot cake. But nothing is spectacular or even great -- owing, I think, to the sheer lack of culinary focus.
It’s hard enough to make wood-fired pizza, which some places spend decades perfecting as their only offering. How the fuck can you focus on that while also making lobster mac-and-cheese? Even if all these items were perfect, it would still be disorienting, but since they’re far from perfect it comes across as childishly undisciplined. It’s bizarre, because the place has such a clear personality when it comes to the ambiance, but degenerates into total schizophrenia when it comes to the menu.
I suspect I know why. I’ve always thought that once a restaurant starts selling t-shirts and trucker hats, the food no longer matters, and soon the t-shirts won’t, either. That said, still a great place to celebrate your high school graduation or something.
Royal India Grill, Potsdam: When Royal India Grill first opened, I am on the record as saying it was the greatest thing to happen to Potsdam in the town’s 219 years of existence. Okay, maybe I said that about its sister restaurant, Indian Express, in Canton, which doubled as a bong shop, but the point remains: the availability of good Indian food up here is no small matter. And, ladies and gentlemen, Royal India Grill is good. Damn good.
Sorry to be White, but the butter chicken — which they call chicken makhani — is among the best I’ve had. If they used dark meat as opposed to breast, it would be the best I’ve had. The garlic naan is nuts. The saag paneer, insane. The vegetable pakora, crispy. The roasted eggplant masala underscores the range of verve of that under-appreciated and under-utilized botanical berry. And the samosa chaat will make you question everything you thought you knew about chickpeas. There’s nothing bad on the menu. And, my god, the dinner buffet. Monday nights are a can’t-miss event. I could have ranked them higher, but the restaurant is young. Watch this space in the coming years.
Honorable mentions: Jreck Subs, Canton; Thai Cuisine, Potsdam; Hoof and Horn dinner service, Potsdam.
