This Converted Gas Station Near Toronto is a Michelin Star Restaurant Serving Creative Chinese Fine Dining – The Pine in Creemore

Looking for one of the most unique dining experiences in Ontario? The Pine is a culinary gem tucked away in Creemore that you need to put on your radar.

After dining at their original Collingwood location back in 2021, I knew I wanted to return to see the new location and how they’ve evolved.

It’s not every day you find a world-class tasting menu inside a converted gas station. But that’s exactly what Chef Jeremy Austin and his wife Cassie have created.

On September 18, 2024, The Pine was one of the first restaurants outside Toronto to get a Michelin Star in the inaugural expansion Toronto & Region Michelin Guide.

With a Michelin Star under their belt and other accolades, The Pine has firmly established itself as a destination restaurant worth the drive from Toronto.

The Pine in Creemore

The Pine is a contemporary Chinese restaurant run by husband-and-wife team Jeremy and Cassie Austin.

Their story is a romantic one.

They met while working at a restaurant in Thornbury called Bridges. Jeremy ran the kitchen and Cassie managed the front of house, a dynamic they still hold today.

After spending years honing their craft in Montreal and then Italy, they moved to China where Jeremy cooked in Wuxi, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

These travels inspired the “Chinese food using Canadian ingredients” concept behind The Pine.

They originally opened The Pine as a pop-up dinner series on Cassie’s family farm before opening a brick-and-mortar spot in Collingwood in 2020.

In 2024, they moved the restaurant to its current permanent home in Creemore.

Adjacent to the restaurant is their retail store, Juniper, where you can buy handmade pottery, tableware, dining and kitchen accessories, some of which are used at The Pine.

Also sharing the same space as Juniper is Good Grief Coffee, where you can enjoy a great cup of coffee or tea if you arrive early.

We totally did this and it felt like a Hallmark moment sipping flat white, looking out the window with snow falling.

The Pine Accolades & Awards

Since opening, The Pine has racked up an impressive list of awards, solidifying its spot among the best places to eat in the country:

• Michelin Guide Toronto & Region: 1 Michelin Star (2024, 2025)  
• The Best Chef Awards: Chef Jeremy Austin awarded 1 Knife (Excellent) in 2025  
• Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants:
  • No. 19 (2025)
  • No. 40 (2024)
  • No. 47 (2023)
  • No. 51 (2022)

Location & Where To Stay Near The Pine

You will find The Pine at 7535 County Rd 9 in Creemore, Ontario, a charming village in Simcoe County about an hour and a half drive from Toronto.

It is located just south of Collingwood and the Blue Mountains.

Inside The Pine

The most striking thing about the location is the building itself. It is a converted gas station that has been beautifully renovated.

It’s unassuming from the road and can easily be missed, but once you step inside, you are transported into a completely different world.

The interior of The Pine is modern rustic, feeling almost like a chic cottage with its heavy use of wooden accents and forest tones. It fits the “Creemore” vibe perfectly.

The layout is designed around an open kitchen, which serves as the stage for the evening.

There is a Chef’s Counter that offers front-row seats to the action along with dining tables with views of the kitchen, similar to the setup at Turk Fatih Tutak in Istanbul.

Total seating at The Pine is 24, with six at the chef’s counter. I sat at a table behind the the Chef’s Counter which still had a view of the kitchen, though the view may get obstructed eventually by diners at the Chef’s Counter.

The Pine Menu and Price

The Pine offers a multi-course tasting menu that changes seasonally based on ingredients, some of which come from their own greenhouse.

It is definitely a splurge, but comparable to other top-tier tasting menus in the region like Restaurant Pearl Morissette and Langdon Hall.

The best time to go to The Pine if you haven’t been? Now.

On my first visit in 2021, the tasting menu at The Pine was $135 so you can see the price difference compared to now. With the growth and achievements they get through the years, the price will only get higher.

Tasting Menu at The Pine

I love trying Michelin restaurants around the world and was excited to come back to The Pine for the first time in its new location and since becoming Michelin-starred.

For my dinner on December 6, 2025, I had the Upgraded Origins Tasting Menu which was priced at $275 per person ($50 for the upgrade from the standard Origins menu).

My experience started before I even entered. Outside the entrance, a fire pit bowl with burning wood greeted us, filling the air with a smoky aroma that set the tone for the meal.

Once seated, we were welcomed with a complimentary glass of Dourdon Vieillard La Réserve de Germain Champagne. This was a lovely touch and quite uncommon for tasting menus in Ontario.

On the table, there was a placeholder with cards for all the courses. As the meal progressed, they presented each card, building the story of the menu.

The culinary journey takes about 2.5 hours. Here is the breakdown of the full 20-item tasting menu I experienced.

The First Bites

The meal began with All Dressed Cantonese Scallops, a playful collision of cultures.

Inspired by the Southern Chinese style of steaming scallops with garlic, the chef turned it into a mousse with smoked sturgeon.

He finished it with “All Dressed” spices made from fermented chili, a nod to the famous Canadian chip flavour.

Next was the Tea Egg, inspired by Cha Ye Dan (Chinese tea eggs) sold on street corners.

This version featured a hen’s egg steeped in tsaoko (black cardamom) and black tea, topped with a smoked devilled egg filling and Acadian gold sturgeon caviar.

The tea aroma was strong and nostalgic, perfectly matching the salty pop of caviar.  

Crunchy and Savoury

The third course was Pumpkin Cake, a take on nan gua bing, a traditional Chinese dessert.

It was crunchy and filled with caramelized parsnip and aged cheddar jam.

The addition of pickled kohlrabi and garlic chive leaves gave it a nice savoury finish.

Then came the Wuxi Lamb Ribs. This dish reimagines Wuxi Paigu (Wuxi spare ribs), swapping the traditional pork for lamb.

Braised in Wuxi spices and glazed in lamb fat molasses, they were grilled over charcoal with a sun-dried Niagara cherry vinaigrette.

The $200 antique bone holders provided to eat them added a fun, theatrical touch to the tender, flavourful meat.

Breakfast and Sea Tales

Good Morning Shanghai was a tribute to jianbing, the classic Chinese breakfast burrito.

It was a crispy roll stuffed with Nova Scotia lobster, snow crab, and Five Brothers sheep’s milk Gouda.

It reminded me of barquillos from the Philippines, but with a filling of fresh, creamy seafood instead of being hollow.

Next was the most unique course: Oyster and The Oyster Thief. The story goes that “oyster thief” seaweed wraps around oysters to steal them away.

The best part? There’s no oyster in the dish! The dish featured oyster blade beef tartare wrapped in seaweed “oyster shell”.

You spray vinegar into the shell before eating, and it tasted like a Taiwanese oyster omelette, a popular dish of Fujian roots I grew up on in Manila.

This play on perception reminds me of the Asparagus Rice, No Rice course I had at 3 Michelin Star Tresind Studio that looked and tasted like rice but was completely rice-free.

French Influence and Spice

French Concession is named after the French neighbourhood in Shanghai, representing a “French dish in a Chinese menu.”

On the bottom is sourdough roasted in brown butter and kabayaki (the sauce used in unagi), topped with foie gras ice cream and sour prune jam.

This one is a dish that they had never removed. It was a highly memorable course from my first visit in 2021 because they served it on a brick, and I also love foie gras.

The contrast of cold foie gras ganache on warm toast with the touch of acidity from the sour prune jame is unforgettable.

Following that was Husband and Wife Venison, inspired by the Sichuan dish fuqi feipian.

This was a birch syrup donut topped with spicy shaved venison tossed with coriander and lovage. It was a single bite that packed a massive punch of flavour and juice.

A Refreshing Interlude

To cleanse the palate after the spicy venison, we were served a Sea Buckthorn Drink. It was smooth and refreshing, striking a nice balance between tart and sweet.

Honestly, it reminded me of a really high-quality mango juice in the Philippines.

Then we moved to No Boil Boiled Fish, a riff on shui zhu yu (Sichuan boiled fish).

Instead of boiling fresh fish, they use Albacore tuna with fermented green chili doubanjiang for the eyes, sawtooth coriander, lao gan ma emulsion, and seaweed vinaigrette.

The “fish bones” on the plate were actually a cracker you break into the broth of fermented juices with kefir and fig leaf oil.

The sauce was salty, spicy, and perfectly balanced by the buttery fish and contrasting crispiness of the cracker.

The Dim Sum Experience

The Dim Sum course arrived as a set of three, and we even got to choose our own utensil holder from a box of mushroom ornaments.

First was Zheng Shui Dan, a Chinese egg custard with B.C. black cod, chicken fat and smoked lobster espuma. It had a rich sauce reminiscent of lobster bisque.

Second was Carrot Jiaozi, a dumpling with kabayaki and chive butter filled with carrot and brown butter puree.

This was a flavour explosion on bite. The puree was incredibly sweet and creamy. I never thought a carrot dish would ever impress me until this dish.

Last was Xiang Gu Soup, inspired by soy-braised mushrooms. It featured a jiaozi filled with maitake and oyster mushrooms alongside sunchoke soup.

As a mushroom lover, I love this and was scraping the bowl for every drop of soup.

The Refresh and Mains

We took a break with Refresh, a selection of house-made Freezies, a fun throwback to childhood summers.

You only get to choose one so, out of curiosity, I tried the mystery flavour (pink), which my guess is a grapefruit pink lemonade

The first main was That Ubiquitous Sweet and Sour Dish, a play on Tang cu. It featured grilled Nova Scotia lobster with paw paw vinegar béarnaise and muscat grape saba.

The vinegar was quite potent, but the lobster was nice and cooked perfectly.

The final savoury course was Charsiu, inspired by Chinese BBQ pork but using squab in a marinade of red yeast, beets and rose.

The bird was presented whole before being carved. The red colors and char looked perfect on it.

It was the best squab I’ve ever had, perfectly charred with that deep, sweet BBQ flavour. For this course, you use a hand-forged medieval cutlery, a throwback to dining during the olden days of yore.

Dessert Begins

Of course, it’s no Chinese menu without rice. The transition to sweet started with Finally… The Rice.

This wild rice and Niagara pear pudding featured sourdough praline, gewürztraminer jelly and burnt wild rice ice cream.

It wasn’t too sweet and had amazing textures, including one that popped like pop rocks.

Next was Sugar Water, inspired by tong shui dessert soup. It was an elderberry and soy milk pudding with Haskap curd and chamomile.

A simple, well-balanced dessert that lived up to its name.

The Grand Finale

We finished with Grand Dessert Finale which came in 3 parts.

The last main dessert was the HKFT 6.0, the sixth version of their popular Hong Kong French Toast. I had the version 2.0 back in 2021.

It’s a crispy toast topped with salted egg shavings and caramelized condensed milk. They pour spice bush milk onto the plate, allowing the toast to soak it up like a sponge.

It was a great move because every bite gives a burst of milk while still being crispy. This is in my top 2 Hong Kong French Toast desserts I’ve had.

Finally, the two Mignardises. The first was a refreshing Sweet Pea and Marigold Ice Cream Sandwich with duck fat and red fife cookie.

And the other was a nutty Buckwheat and Sourdough Miso Lace Cookie. The cookie was addicting and reminded me of peanut broas from the Philippines.

We were also given a copy of the menu with all the icons of courses on one side and signatures of the kitchen team on the other. Note that the menu cards used throughout dinner are not included.

The Pine Service

The service at The Pine was Michelin-level: attentive but not stuffy. Water glasses were never empty, and napkins were folded whenever we stood up.

What I appreciated most was the synchronized serving. The staff would drop dishes at the table simultaneously for everyone.

The entire team also gets involved in the service, including General Manager Jeremiah Tomas, Bar Manager Eric Roell and even Chef Jeremy Austin himself, which adds a nice personal connection to the food.

How To Make Reservations at The Pine

If you’re looking to try The Pine, reservations are a must. Because of the limited seating and high demand since the Michelin announcement, you need to be quick.

Reservations are released on the 15th of every month for the following month via Tock here. Credit card is required to secure the reservation.

Your reservation can be canceled up to 3 days before the time of the reservation at no cost. Otherwise, a fee of $225.00 per person is charged to the payment method used to secure this reservation.

If you can’t cancel in time, you can always transfer your reservation to another person.

About Chef Jeremy Austin

Chef Jeremy Austin is the creative force behind The Pine. His culinary background is fascinating.

He started with Italian training at Antica Corte Pallavicina, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy before moving to China, where he spent years working in kitchens across Wuxi, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

This specific combination of Italian precision and Chinese flavour profiles is what makes his cooking so distinct.

His menu isn’t trying to do “traditional” Chinese food, but tell his own story and learning from his travels cooking in different countries.

Final Thoughts on The Pine

My second visit to The Pine confirmed that they are not slowing down. The courses felt more daring, creative and breaking boundaries than my first visit in 2021.

It is incredible to see how much they have grown. In my opinion, The Pine is definitely the next contender for 2 Michelin Stars in the Michelin Guide Toronto & Region.

If you love creative tasting menus (it’s very uncommon to find an Asian-inspired one in Canada) and are looking for a culinary adventure outside the city, you need to book a table here.