Restaurants and Inuit Art in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

I know that food is expensive up north. It has to be: a sealift brings in dry goods once a year for those who want to order direct (I’m told it’s about $10,000 per year), or you can buy from the grocery store.

Prices are about double, although there are the exceptions like the 2L carton of milk I saw ringing in at $12.49. Produce is shipped in every day and is the same as you’d find at a Safeway or other large retailer in the south, but at least double the price.

Iqaluit Restaurants
Eating in Iqaluit restaurants is equally as shocking. A nice steak dinner is $45.95, even though it’s served in a restaurant that also offers hamburgers and looks pretty sketchy from the outside. Fortunately, portions are large; unfortunately, there are no other options.

The Snack, Iqaluit
So the food isn’t gourmet but The Snack (867-979-6767) probably does the most business out of any restaurant in the city. There are no statistics to back me up on this, but the delivery cars that I see making runs all day and night (delivery is 24 hours) make me pretty confident in my guess.

Inside The Snack, friendly ladies man the cash register and chat away about whatever’s happening. This is the only restaurant where I’ve seen a vegetarian option on the menu, too: the Vegetarian Club sandwich rings in at a very reasonable $17.75

This is also where homesick Quebecers can have their fill of poutine ($9.25 for a small or $18.25 for their signature dish including ground beef, mushrooms, onions and curd cheese). Meat lovers can munch on a 14” Steak Submarine ($20.95).

For drinks, staffer Jackie Lalande tells me, “We have Pepsi, Pepsi and Pepsi. Until the sealift comes in, that’s all we got!”

The Navigator Inn / Captain’s Table Dining Room
On my first night in Iqaluit, I walked past the Navigator Inn’s (867-979-6201) shabby face (although it bills itself as “Iqaluit’s premier inn”) but ended up walking back to it out of curiosity.

One of the doors leads me into the café side, an ultra casual room that matchs the exterior. Beside it is the “fancier” part with dark blue table cloths and wine glasses. They serve the same menu but on the latter side, the menu comes inside a nicer cover.

Along with the regular dishes, I found the mighty Asian jackpot here: Chinese food cooked by Chinese people! I was afraid I’d go through rice withdrawal while in Iqaluit, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole page of Chinese dishes.

I opted for a simple plate of shrimp fried rice (for a mere $19.90) and wolfed it down gleefully. The local beside me laughed and asked where I was from (she was sure I was from Nova Scotia). When I told her Vancouver, she chatted on about her recent trip to B.C. and how different it was than here.

The Nova Inn, Iqaluit (Water’s Edge)
In what is called downtown Iqaluit is the Nova Inn (1-866-497-6933), whose restaurant is as close as you can get to something you’d find in the south. Prices are the same with better quality of food, but the atmosphere has less personality.

I had a giant green salad (a surprising $8.95) and crab cakes ($14.95) for dinner and was quite happy. Wine is also the norm, as I noticed most people ordering at least a glass. (There are a lot of dry communities in the north but restaurants in Iqaluit serve alcohol as long as you eat something.)

Other Restaurants in Iqaluit
There’s also the Frobisher Inn’s (1-877-422-9422) Gallery Fine Dining, Storehouse Bar & Grill and Caribrew Café, which I’m told are a tad more expensive than average but with the same quality of food you’ll find elsewhere; the Grind & Brew (867-979-0606) is supposedly a grungier version of The Snack, but with better food and cheaper prices; and then there’s a KFC and Pizza Hut. I didn’t have a chance to try any of these last ones.

Inuit Art and Crafts
A staple of every dining experience is the artists who will come in and try to sell you their ware. Although it may seem a bit off-putting at first, it’s actually a great way to buy directly from the artists, especially if it’s important to you to know who made the item.

Most of the ware is Inuit jewellery and maybe small carvings, but actual Inuit art (those emblematic polar bear carvings or inukshuks, for example) are sold in stores.

The best place to buy Inuit art is at the museum (Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, 867-979-5537). I watched two artists come in to sell their ware to Brian Lunger, the curator. They brought in a couple of items and gave him a price. He didn’t haggle and bought most of their art, giving them full cash before they left.

The mark up doesn’t seem to be very high, either, so I highly recommend shopping at a place that does “business” this way (it’s a non-profit). I bought a walrus tooth necklace and caribou antler earrings, and gave the extra $10 I would have gotten in change as a donation to the museum. It was impossible not to support what they’re doing in this small way.

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