(FORTUNE Magazine) – Canada's plans to liberalize trade regulations and attract more foreign investment have a growing number of U.S. executives wondering when they'll be packing for a trip north. Many also wonder what they'll find when they get there. Canadians themselves have long complained that their country imports the worst elements of American culture, including boring food and so-so lodgings. The rap is undeserved nowadays. Canada's top hotels rank with their counterparts anywhere else in the world in decor, amenities, and service, and can attend to the business traveler's needs for typing, photocopying, and so forth. Indeed, the Toronto-based Four Seasons chain has opened several hotels south of the border during the past few years that have taught U.S. innkeepers a few things. The only consistent complaint I had in a 12-day cross-country tour was that the croissants on my breakfast trays arrived, almost without fail, cold and hard. It's true that Canada as yet has no restaurants that are celebrated along with the great ones of such cities as Paris and New York. Outside the province of Quebec, the culinary heritage until recently was an unfortunate blend of British and homespun American, and even the best Canadian restaurants are still apt to inflict canned music on their patrons. But creative and satisfying cooking abounds, mainly in French and Italian restaurants but also in places that offer such native specialties as Nova Scotia and British Columbia salmon, a trout called arctic char, and reindeer steak. What follows is FORTUNE's sampler of the best hotels and restaurants in the Canadian cities business travelers are most likely to visit. All places listed accept major credit cards; restaurant reservations are advisable. Good eating comes relatively cheap in Canada. With few exceptions, entrees for dinner range from $7 to $18. Prices are in U.S. dollars (worth $1.39 Canadian at recent exchange rates). Toronto, the nation's largest city as well as its financial center, is thriving and cosmopolitan. The most elegant hotel is the King Edward, built in 1903 in the grand European style -- 80-foot marble columns support the gilded, coffered ceiling of its lobby -- and renovated four years ago by Trusthouse Forte, the British group that runs the George V in Paris and Brown's Hotel in London. The hotel is in the center of Toronto's bustling financial district. The service is excellent, nightly piano music graces the lobby lounge, there's a small health club, and conference rooms are available. Rates for single rooms: $104 to $140; telephone: 416-863-9700. The Four Seasons Hotel lacks the King Edward's period splendor, but its rooms are luxurious and it pampers guests with 24-hour room service and twice- daily maid service. Chinese screens grace the elegant lobby and a beaux arts mural sets the tone in the reception room. Rates: $119 to $133; tel: 964-0411. The least impressive of Toronto's major hotels is the Hilton Harbour Castle, five minutes from the financial district; it's huge, the site of frequent conventions, and guests are apt to find themselves standing in line at checkout time. But it's nestled on the shore of Lake Ontario, and all rooms command stunning views of the lake. Rates: $64 to $115; tel: 869-1600. The hottest new restaurant with the business crowd is Il Posto in Yorkville, Toronto's fashionable shopping district. A small place with modern decor and soft lighting, it offers such northern Italian delights as linguine with a sauce of tomatoes, cream, and herbs, and scallopini Savoiarda, veal sauteed with mushrooms, cream, and wine. Closed Sunday; tel: 968-0469. Fenton's, downtown, is an elegant French restaurant set in a Victorian house. Try to sit in the front room, with its mahogany paneling, elaborate arrangements of orchids, and roaring fireplace. The menu changes monthly; recent standouts included quenelles of shrimp glazed with a lobster mousseline, and fillets of fresh trout with shrimps, brandied lobster butter, and white wine. The wine list boasts 300 selections, ranging from a good $10 French house wine to a 1923 Chateau Latour for $430. Open daily; tel: 961-8485. La Maquette, set in a modern, glass-enclosed room overlooking a sculpture garden, is a refuge amid the bustle of the financial district. It offers good and unusual variations on French fare, such as shrimps sauteed with brie, tomatoes, and cream, with a dash of bourbon. The wine list gives neither vintages nor chateaux, but maitre d' Daniel will help. Dinner only on Saturday, closed Sunday; tel: 366-8191. Montreal, the second-largest French-speaking city in the world after Paris, is headquarters for many banks and insurance companies. Few hotels anywhere can beat the venerable and elegant Ritz-Carlton for white-glove service; even a room service breakfast was delivered by two staff members, one pushing the cart, another bearing the morning paper. The rooms are spacious and comfortably old-fashioned; the absence of a pool or health club seems unimportant. Rates: $86 to $104; tel: 514-842-4212. The newly renovated Four Seasons Hotel does have a health club, a splendid one at that, along with a year-round, heated outdoor pool. The amenities are abundant -- minibars in the bedrooms, bidets in the bathrooms, impeccably helpful concierges -- and some rooms command impressive views of the city and the St. Lawrence River. Rates: $108 to $122; tel: 284-1110. Not surprisingly, the city's outstanding restaurants are French. La Maree, specializing in fresh seafood, is set in a stone house in the heart of Old Montreal; the decor runs to red velvet drapes and gloomy still lifes. But the food is meticulously prepared, and though lunch can easily take over two hours, it is worth the wait. The specialty of the house is poached fillet of sole served with white wine, saffron, shallots, and cream and topped with lobster butter and bits of lobster. Dinner only Saturday and Sunday; tel: 861-8126. Also in Old Montreal is Le Fadeau, which offers such simple but elegant dishes as breast of chicken with lobster cream sauce, accompanied by artfully arrayed nouvelle-style vegetables. Dinner only Saturday and Sunday; tel: 878-3959. In the heart of the city, Les Halles, a cheery place in a converted townhouse, is a favorite of Canadian executives. The food is good, though perhaps not as wonderful as its partisans insist; try the tender duck with pear-and-wine sauce, or the hefty chateaubriand with bearnaise. Desserts are a strong point, especially the dark and white chocolate mousse. Closed Sunday, dinner only Saturday and Monday; tel: 844-2328. Ottawa has few corporate headquarters, but as the nation's capital it is apt to be on the itineraries of executives negotiating with federal bureaucrats. Canada's movers and shakers stay at the Chateau Laurier, a 460-room granite and sandstone leviathan with soaring turrets and towers. Zoe's Lounge, a Victorian room with flowers and piano music, is the place for a late-afternoon power tea. The rooms are spacious and comfortable but in need of a facelift -- the TV knob in my room came off at the touch of a finger, falling to the sickly, olive drab carpeting. Rates: $72 to $115; tel: 613-232-6411. Ottawa's newest hotel, the Westin, is a gleaming high-rise with spare, modern rooms, each with a minibar and pay-per-view movies. The operator reports the day's weather during the wake-up call. The health club includes three squash courts, and the club's manager will map out a jogging route along the scenic Rideau Canal. The hotel provides French interpreters and limousine service. Rates: $79 to $104; tel: 560-7000. L'Oree du Bois, a traditional French restaurant, is nestled in the woods 15 minutes outside the city and worth the trip. The dining room's rustic decor -- wood paneling and beams -- belies a cuisine that includes dishes ranging from a flan made of rabbit pate to arctic char, a trout with a salmonlike taste, which the restaurant serves with a cream and herb sauce. Open Tuesday through Saturday, dinner only; tel: 819-827-0332. Cafe Henry Burger may sound like a fast-food joint, but it's an old and elegant French restaurant where Ottawa's politicos like to be seen. The food and service are good but not outstanding. For the brave, there's grilled bison steak, a bit like beef with a slight liver taste. Dinner only Saturday and Sunday; tel: 777-5646. A nice informal lunch spot is Clair de Lune, a bistro with high ceilings and brick walls in the Byward Market, a renovated section of Ottawa full of shops and boutiques. Al dente pasta with fragrant Provencale sauce and smoked meats makes a good appetizer; entrees include such dishes as lamb brochette with a mango curry sauce. Open daily; tel: 613-230-0022. & Oilmen still fly into Calgary to do deals, and they are most likely to stay at the imposing Palliser Hotel. Built in 1914 and recently renovated, the Palliser retains its period charm in the lobby, bedecked with marble pillars and brass doors. Down a Big Rock, one of the robust local ales, in the Oak Room, a spacious lounge with a trio of chandeliers made of elk antlers. The rooms are modern and comfortable. Service is not always the Palliser's strong point: on my arrival, no bellhop appeared to take my bags. Rates: $68 to $79; tel: 403-262-1234. The oilmen also favor La Chaumiere, a formal -- for Calgary -- French restaurant across the street from Superior Auto Body and hard by Bert and Jack's Import Car Service. The food is fine if you can survive overpowering service. The beluga caviar arrived on a large ice sculpture of a fish vaguely resembling a sturgeon; with much ado my waiter served the main course -- Dover sole fillet with scampi in a white wine and lobster sauce -- from a cart with burners. Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday; tel: 228-5690. On a recent afternoon neither the food nor service justified the local enthusiasm for a continental restaurant named La Caille. The filet mignon ordered medium arrived rare, diminishing greatly my enjoyment of the sweet and tender Alberta beef; the broccoli and carrots were steamed beyond taste. The waiter kept sighing and saying, ''It's not my day.'' Dinner only Saturday and Sunday; tel: 262-5554. Vancouver is a lumber town and a bustling port; business travelers will also be flocking in for the 1986 world's fair. The Four Seasons Hotel, perhaps the best in the chain, is a glass and stone high-rise with an indoor-outdoor pool. The garden lounge, with high ceilings, huge hanging plants, and wall hangings of native Eskimo art, is a pleasant and quiet place to meet with a client. Some rooms offer a view of Vancouver harbor and the surrounding snowcapped mountains. Rates: $94; tel: 604-689-9333. The moment you enter the gleaming glass, brass, and marble lobby of the luxurious Mandarin Hotel, the help swarms around you. Pants sent out to be pressed were back in 15 minutes. The hotel offers workrooms with phones and typewriters, and a chauffeur-driven Mercedes limousine ($30 an hour). The Mandarin's director of public relations will help executives set up press interviews. Room service is swift but can also be costly. A $1.80 service charge gets tacked onto orders under $7, so a cup of coffee ended up costing % over $3, not including the tip the waiter extracted from me. Rates: $108 to $119; tel: 687-1122. Among the best restaurants is Le Gavroche, a cozy place with a marble fireplace. The cuisine is French provincial; notable dishes include seafood in puff pastry and rack of lamb with mustard sauce. The wine list includes some hard-to-find (in Canada, at least) 1975 and 1976 Bordeaux. Dinner only Saturday and Sunday, closed Sundays in the winter; tel: 685-3924. The unpretentious Cherrystone Cove, opened a few months ago in a converted waterfront warehouse, prepares seafood in a style that mingles French and Chinese cuisines -- for example, Dover sole served with flavorful shiitake mushrooms and soy sauce. Worth the calories is owner-chef Stephen Wong's special dessert of marinated pear with vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate sauce, and almonds. Dinner only on Saturday, closed Sunday; tel: 681-7020. Il Giardino, a warm, rustic restaurant, specializes in fresh game. A local favorite is fillet of reindeer with pepper and brandy sauce. If you call ahead, owner Umberto Menghi will decant your wine before you arrive. Dinner only Saturday, closed Sunday; tel: 669-2422. One distinctly Canadian characteristic the traveler will appreciate is a laid-back friendliness. In Calgary one wintry night, I hopped into a cab for a trip to a restaurant; to my surprise, it happened to be just around the block. The driver didn't charge for the ride. ''It's too cold to walk,'' he said. When was the last time a New York cabby did that?