Fat Rabbit

The story

Fat Rabbit, St. Catharines – Michelin Recommended Steakhouse & Butcher

A restaurant, a butcher shop, and a catering operation all under one roof – Fat Rabbit in St. Catharines blurs the line between dining room and retail counter. The name? The team admits they do not really know where it came from, only that it has a good ring to it. What is clear is the conviction behind the concept: every piece of meat served or sold here comes from whole animals butchered in house, sourced from farms that treat their animals well.

That commitment earned Fat Rabbit a spot on the Michelin Recommended list for 2026, a nod to the precision and care that defines this steakhouse. But the restaurant is not content to be just a steakhouse. The menu focuses on small shareable plates that rotate regularly, designed to highlight lesser-known cuts. A beef burger with an 8-ounce patty, sherry caramelized onions, Gruyère, dijonnaise, and pickles sits alongside house-cured lonza made from Linton Pasture Pork. The kitchen builds its charcuterie in house, and the team is determined to improve at it every day.

Chef Zach Smith brings twenty years of experience to the pass, having run kitchens from Vancouver to Niagara, most recently at Toronto’s Bar Raval and Matty Matheson’s Meat & Three in Fort Erie. He works alongside head butcher Justin Upper, whose passion for zero-waste butchery and old-world charcuterie shapes the daily operation. General manager Emily Walker and chef Gareth Burkholder round out a leadership team that values consistency, hospitality, and a deep respect for the supply chain.

The suppliers read like a who’s who of Ontario’s best small farms. Penekoean Hills Farms provides all-natural Angus beef, grass-fed and pea-finished for higher protein and deeper flavour. Linton Pasture Pork raises a cross-bred heritage herd in Walton, Ontario. De Martines Family Farm, in production since the 1850s, supplies top-quality pigs. Beverly Creek Farms contributes Ontario lamb. The restaurant’s catering arm takes inspiration from Argentinian asados, cooking ethically raised meat over coals for events across Niagara and the Greater Toronto Area.

On any given night, the dining room might be serving a wood-fired dish from the open fire, paired with a natural wine from the bottle shop’s rotating selection of low-intervention reds, whites, and skin-contact wines. The atmosphere is unpretentious but deliberate – a place where the line between butcher and chef disappears, and the only question is whether you are staying for dinner or taking a cut home.