Regina’s Oldest Restaurants
A Taste of History
Spanakopita and Tzatziki from The Copper Kettle.
On summer evenings, customers line up at the walk-up window of Milky Way Ice Cream on Victoria Avenue. The seasonal stand has served Regina since 1956. A few blocks west, the Copper Kettle traces its beginnings to a small lunch counter opened during the following decade. Houston Pizza arrived in 1970, bringing the thick crust and generous toppings that would become associated with Regina-style pizza.
Many of Regina’s longest-running dining businesses opened during the city’s postwar expansion. Greek immigrant families established pizza houses and steakhouses across residential neighbourhoods and downtown streets. Other owners introduced Chinese cooking, European dining traditions, craft beer, and new forms of casual family dining.
Some restaurants remain in the hands of their founding families. Others have passed to a second generation or changed ownership while retaining their names and menus. The dates below mark the earliest verified opening of each restaurant business rather than the age of its building. Restaurants sharing an opening year are arranged alphabetically when a more precise date could not be confirmed.
Regina Restaurants That Continue Today
Milky Way Ice Cream (1956)
Milky Way Ice Cream opened at 910 Victoria Avenue in 1956. The seasonal walk-up stand became known for soft-serve cones, hard ice cream, sundaes, milkshakes, and the lines that form along the sidewalk during warm weather.
The small building and service window preserve the roadside ice-cream-stand format that once appeared throughout Prairie cities. Milky Way continues to reopen each spring, beginning another season at the same Victoria Avenue location.
Copper Kettle Restaurant (1964)
Robert and Ann Koutsoulis began with a small lunch counter after arriving in Regina from Greece in 1963. The business developed into the Copper Kettle, which has remained at the corner of Scarth Street and Victoria Avenue for roughly six decades. A Saskatchewan legislative record marking its fortieth anniversary in 2004 places its opening in 1964.
The restaurant serves pizza, pasta, Greek dishes, steaks, and other familiar dining-room meals. Its downtown patio occupies part of the pedestrianized Scarth Street Mall during the summer.
Houston Pizza (1970)
Four brothers from the Kolitsas family opened Houston Pizza in Regina in 1970. The original Hill Avenue restaurant helped establish a local pizza style built around a thick crust, heavily layered toppings, and cheese spread across the surface before baking.
The family expanded Houston Pizza into other Regina neighbourhoods and Prairie communities. Members of a later generation continue operating the business, while the Hill Avenue location remains identified as the original restaurant.
Golf’s Steak House (1972)
Peter Golf and John Yiannikostas founded Golf’s Steak House in 1972. The Kolitsas family purchased the restaurant in 1980, and Maria Kolitsas took over the business from her father and uncles in October 1998.
Located near the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, Golf’s became known for steaks, prime rib, seafood, and traditional tableside service. The dining room continues to serve business lunches, family gatherings, and evening meals from its long-standing location on Broad Street.
Juliana Pizza (1972)
Juliana Pizza opened in Regina in 1972. The family-owned restaurant built its menu around homemade pizza dough and a family recipe used for its sauce.
Operating from its 4th Avenue location, Juliana continues to serve the thick, topping-heavy pizza associated with Regina’s neighbourhood pizza houses. Its menu also includes ribs, pasta, chicken, and combination dinners typical of the broad family-restaurant menus that became common in the city during the 1970s.
Trifon’s Pizza (1972)
Trifon Agioritis opened the first Trifon’s Pizza in Regina in 1972. The business grew from a single restaurant into a Saskatchewan chain while retaining its connection to the city where it began.
Trifon’s became another important contributor to Regina-style pizza, with thick crusts, substantial layers of meat and vegetables, and cheese covering the toppings. The name now appears on independently operated and licensed locations in Regina and other Saskatchewan communities.
Lakeshore Restaurant (June 1975)
Four brothers who had immigrated from Greece opened Lakeshore Restaurant in June 1975. The family-owned dining room on 23rd Avenue became known for prime rib, steaks, lobster, Greek chicken, and formal service.
Lakeshore belongs to the generation of Regina restaurants in which Greek Canadian families combined steakhouse dining with Greek dishes and familiar Canadian favourites. The restaurant remains at its original south Regina address and continues to operate under the family’s direction.
The Diplomat Steakhouse (1979)
The Diplomat Steakhouse opened in downtown Regina in 1979. The restaurant is owned by members of the Makris family and continues to operate on Broad Street.
Its dining room follows the traditional steakhouse model, with aged beef, seafood, an extensive wine list, and meals prepared or presented at the table. The Diplomat has also become associated with political dinners, business meetings, wedding celebrations, and visits from public figures passing through the provincial capital.
Peking House (1984)
Peking House has operated in Regina since 1984. The family-owned Chinese restaurant serves Cantonese and other Chinese Canadian dishes from its dining room on Rose Street.
Its menu includes more than one hundred items, ranging from noodle and rice dishes to combination dinners designed for sharing. Peking House has remained part of the downtown dining district while many neighbouring restaurants and commercial buildings have changed around it.
Memories Dining & Bar (June 7, 1989)
Memories opened on June 7, 1989, under the name Memories Fine Dining. The restaurant developed a menu combining Greek and Mediterranean cooking with steaks, seafood, pasta, and other formal dining-room dishes.
Memories continues on Victoria Avenue under family ownership. The restaurant’s long service, white-tablecloth setting, and emphasis on personal hospitality have made it a regular choice for anniversaries, family dinners, and community celebrations.
Bushwakker Brewpub (January 1991)
Bushwakker Brewpub opened in January 1991 in the historic Strathdee Building in Regina’s Warehouse District. The family-owned business established its brewery and pub at a time when Saskatchewan’s modern craft-beer industry was still small.
Beer is brewed on the premises and served alongside pub meals, including burgers, meat pies, sandwiches, and Saskatchewan ingredients. Live music, seasonal beer releases, and annual events have also made the Bushwakker a gathering place beyond its role as a restaurant and brewery.
Regina Restaurants That Have Closed
Several Regina restaurants served customers for decades before retirement, fires, redevelopment, or changing business conditions ended their runs. Their dining rooms are gone, but their names still appear in archival photographs and in the recollections of people who ate there.
Novia Café (Opened 1918; Closed 2011)
The Novia Café opened in the Gordon Block near Victoria Park in 1918. It began as a more formal dining room before renovations during the 1960s gave it the appearance of a casual downtown coffee shop.
For generations, the Novia served office workers, shoppers, politicians, and visitors to the city centre. The café even remained in place after a steel beam crashed into the building during nearby construction in 1982. It closed in 2011 after 93 years in business.
Lang’s Café (Opened c. 1987; Closed April 4, 2018)
Published accounts from 2018 place the opening of Lang’s Café in the late 1980s, when Lang Nguyen and his father established the Vietnamese restaurant on Broad Street. A precise opening year has not been preserved in the available reporting, although family accounts confirm that it operated for more than thirty years.
Lang’s became known for Vietnamese soups, noodle dishes, and meals served from its narrow downtown dining room. A fire destroyed the restaurant and its building on April 4, 2018, bringing the business to an abrupt end.
