Walk into KiX ON MAIN on a busy evening and you immediately understand why this place keeps stacking awards. The two-story dining room at 170 South Main Street in downtown Canandaigua buzzes with energy, and if you can snag a table on the covered rooftop deck, you've got yourself one of the best outdoor dining setups in the region. Chef-owners Kimberly Vakiener (the Ki) and Alexander Bacon (the X) opened in the former Gleason's space and turned it into something Canandaigua didn't quite have before — a restaurant that takes food seriously without taking itself too seriously.

The creative American menu rotates monthly, which keeps regulars coming back to see what's new. Past highlights include truffle scallop carbonara and pichanha steak, but the burgers are what earned them Gold — and honestly, they deserve it. The Chicken French, according to multiple reviewers, melts in your mouth. They also run curated winemaker dinners, like a recent six-course Orin Swift pairing at $100 per person, which tells you something about the kitchen's ambition. Cocktails are well-executed, and the bar is a perfectly good place to wait for your table or just hang for the evening. OpenTable recognized them with Diners' Choice awards in both 2024 and 2025.

This is the rare restaurant that works as a Tuesday night burger-and-beer stop and a Saturday anniversary dinner. Vegan options exist and are praised, which is not a given in this part of New York. Reservations are smart, especially for the rooftop. KiX has earned Gold for Best Burger, Gold for Best Fine Dining, and Silver for Best All-Around Restaurant and Best Outdoor Dining — and in a town with genuinely good competition along Main Street, that range of recognition says everything about what they're doing right.