Restaurants
Some of the most highly recommended restaurants in Toronto.
Best Southern Italian
Gusto 101
The most striking thing about Gusto 101 isn’t the fact that it’s located in a former auto body shop—it’s that the space actually feels cozy and convivial. The restaurant delivers crowd pleasing Southern Italian classics, including a near-perfect rendition of cacio e pepe. Grilled entrees are also exceptional, especially the branzino.
Best Jamaican (incl. Patties)
Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen
This is the best place in Toronto for Jamaican food. The papaya-avocado salad is a nice way to start any meal, and the salty fish fritters (served with mango salsa) should not be missed. There are great burgers and coconut-crusted fish, but the main event here is the jerk chicken, which takes four days to prepare. Each bird is brined for 24 hours, dry-rubbed, laced with scotch bonnet peppers, and left to dry before getting barbecued over maple wood.
Best Brunch
Mildred’s Temple Kitchen
Mildred’s Temple Kitchen is Toronto’s original Mildred-Pierce-themed brunch spot. Though it’s an all-day place, they’re known for their splurge-worthy brunch, pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches and Caesars. Renowned for having one of the best brunches in Toronto.
Best Cuban Sandwich
La Cubana
Swivel lunch counter chairs overlook an open kitchen where cooks in ball caps fry conch fritters and shimmy to vintage jazz. Snack-sized plates are surprisingly sophisticated: a Cuban-style sweet egg bun barely contains its filling of guava-glazed beef short ribs and tangy pickled cabbage. Larger dishes include Georgian Bay whitefish served with double-fried slices of plantain and a heap of rice and beans.
Best German Street Food
Otto’s Berlin Döner
This snack counter in Kensington Market serves a near-perfect version of Berlin’s unofficial late-night nosh, the döner. Thick, juicy slices of spit-roasted veal and lamb are tossed with fresh tomato, crunchy iceberg lettuce and red cabbage, then doused with a spicy, garlicky yogurt sauce. The addictive and messy mixture is served on grilled flatbread. For vegetarians, the halloumi döner comes stuffed with salty slabs of fried cheese and a generous dusting of feta. And Otto’s serves more than just sandwiches: their currywurst is an expertly seasoned pork sausage served with a reckless dollop of curried ketchup (or creamy aïoli) and a mountain of fries.
Trending Seafood Restaurant
Prime Seafood Palace
Think of Canadian celebrity chef (most recently of The Bear) Matty Matheson’s Queen West restaurant as a luxe, contemporary take on a classic surf and turf house. The menu oozes with luxurious touches such as a halibut filet drenched in an eye-popping beurre blanc with orange trout roe, and more caviar than you could shake a mother-of-pearl spoon at. But don’t be distracted by the Wagyu steaks and over-the-top flourishes, because the details are where chef Matheson really sings. A local stracciatella covered with painstakingly aligned slivers of white asparagus and topped with ember-grilled squid requires the type of precision and vision of a chef who is so much more than just a hype master. Come for the classics, stay for the unexpected twists.
Best Diner
Le Swan
This elevated French diner is an exciting place: the busy beats of French vintage pop build through the night, the cocktails are potent and fun. One side of the menu lists diner standards (chicken fried steak, onion rings, meatloaf), the other parallel bistro fare (steak frites, French onion soup, beef cheek bourguignon, etc.). The French side is pricier and tastier, especially the bourguignon, with its fluffy mashed potatoes and buttered carrot spears.
Best Italian-American
Sugo
Boxing-themed casual Italian eatery serving classic comfort fare like meatballs sandwiches & spaghetti. With huge portions, quality ingredients, good prices and familial energy in the space, Sugo feels like an old neighbourhood mainstay that’s been around forever. Top 3 best pizza in Toronto hand’s down. Also Trev absolutely loves this place.
Best Latin Restaurant
Baro
This Latin restaurant comes alive at night and promises a loud, flavor-packed, mezcal-drenched night out with friends. Order flights of ceviche and hot plates of picada for nibbling or visit the raw bar in this towering four-storey half dining, half party establishment with a speakeasy on one floor and a rooftop patio.
Best Thai Dining Experience
Pai
The mod bohemian look is appealing, but it’s the extensive menu that you’ll spend all of your time admiring. It’s full of fresh, tasty dishes and vibrant curries. While they traipse across Thailand for inspiration, zero in on the North Thai plates and chef favorites, including khao soi, a noodle and coconut milk dish, or kanom jin nham ngeaw, a pork rib and tomato soup with rice vermicelli. Kung tawt, a plate of fried shrimp sided by a piquant tamarind sauce, is delicious but gaeng panang, a sweet-and-sour red curry, hits all the right notes.
Best French Casual
Aloette
The little sister restaurant to 1-Michelin Star ALO, this stylish bistro remains one of the coolest reservations in town. With the tasting menu-only ALO just upstairs, the team here is impressively polished in this diner setting. No wider than a train car, the cozy space offers satisfying, approachable dishes that look and taste far better than imagined. Iceberg wedges dressed in chive cream arrive under a mountain of puffed wild rice. A complimentary loaf of cheddar brioche wouldn’t be out of place on white tablecloth. Everyone wants the burger. And for dessert, there must be pie. The signature lemon meringue is a towering finale that will have you rolling out the door.
Best Dim Sum
Mother’s Dumplings
The menu boasts all manner of Chinese dishes, but stick to the namesake specialty, which are rolled out and folded at all hours by a dedicated team in the back. One could make a meal out of just the boiled pork and dill dumplings, but other types are also worth dipping into.
Best Chinese Casual
Sunnys Chinese
*Michelin Bib Gourmand Award*
In the belly of Kensington Market, down a hallway that nearly looks like a dead-end, you will find the door to this high-energy hotspot. There’s no turning back, as the packed-out room is constantly buzzing with groups huddled around Chinese homestyle dishes pulled from Sichuan to Guangdong. Spicy, fiery, crispy, smoky – the high-wattage cooking is a total delight, as the kitchen pulls no punches at every possible junction.
Best Filipino
BB’s Diner
*Michelin Bib Gourmand Award*
Start your morning or fire up your evening at this groovy Filipino diner bursting with color and coolness. Sea foam green tile, pink booths and turquoise stools set the stage for a hangout that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Brunch is a treat, featuring Adobo fried chicken paired with pineapple habanero hot sauce, while dinner is a different speed. The cocktail bar comes alive, and the kitchen trades in Carol’s pancakes with butter and maple syrup for classic pancit with chili oil, chicken liver mousse, and calamansi pie with orange blossom meringue.
Best Fancy Chinese
MIMI Chinese
Lipstick red banquettes and servers fitted in sharp suits make for a different kind of Chinese restaurant. Unlike the homestyle comforts and flavors of its sibling Sunnys, this Yorkville looker pulls in an equally gussied-up crowd out for an upscale evening. The kitchen takes regional classics and spins them with just enough style. The shrimp toast, brilliantly made with fried bread and a hot mustard mayo, is worth a visit alone, but don’t miss out on the scallop crudo with fried donut and that soulful soy broth. Spice-hounds will be all over the Hunan chili sea bass, and someone should probably order the picturesque “four-foot belt noodle.”
Best Fusion Restaurant
R&D
Smack dab in the middle of Chinatown, this hip, unconventional eatery is the product of the sort of freewheeling fusion cuisine that made Chef Alvin Chong a TV hit as the winner of MasterChef Canada’s first season. The assortment of decidedly untraditional dim sum serves as a prime example, drawing upon a grab bag of international flavors, including French, Chinese and Korean, as in flaky sou filled with foie gras parfait, or bao filled with kimchi and galbi. Mains are similarly genre-defying, like a signature butter-poached lobster with scallion oil, dashi and vermicelli.
Best French Contemporary
Lapinou
Chilly Toronto nights call for cozy spaces, and Lapinou delivers in spades with its beamed ceiling, vintage-style oil lamps, forest green booths and an eye-catching green-veined marble bar. Just west of the Theater District in an area teeming with standout spots, Lapinou pulls its weight with a fresh spin on classic bistro fare. Don’t confuse tried and true with ho-hum though, as Chef Jamie Ullrich carefully balances tradition with intrigue. Shrimp cocktail is a simple but elegant starter, as is the perfect disc of beef tartare topped with an egg yolk and sided by sourdough toast. Duck confit is comfort in a casserole dish with buttery white flageolet beans and garlicky andouille sausage. The delightful tarte au cafe rounds out the enjoyable experience.
Best BBQ
Cherry Street Bar-B-Que
*Michelin Bib Gourmand Award*
Its red neon sign shines like a beacon, as this 1920 building – which was once a bank – now sits proudly isolated in the middle of a massive waterfront construction project, but step inside and you immediately feel cocooned in its warm-heartedness. It was pitmaster Lawrence La Pianta who brought the barbecue traditions of the American South to Hogtown; after years of competing and judging with the Kansas City Barbeque Society circuit, he knows his way around a broad range of tastes ranging from Texas-style brisket to St. Louis-style ribs.
Best California Style Mexican
Wilbur Mexicana
Wilbur Mexicana is a taco joint on King West named after Wilbur Scoville, the chemist responsible for creating the Scoville scale. The decor draws on Scoville’s career in laboratories rather than a Mexican theme, like an apothecary cabinet stocked with dried and preserved chilis. The short menu sticks to simple Mexican street food dishes, mostly of the tortilla-wrapped variety (tacos, burritos, quesadillas, etc.). The salsa bar stocks eight condiments of varying intensity.
Best Mexican Restaurant
Quetzal
*1-STAR MICHELIN RESTAURANT*
This stylish, boisterous hotspot offers up no shortage of personality. Almost everything on this distinctive menu passes through a battery of roaring wood-burning grills and hearths along the kitchen’s 26-foot length, lending a primal smokiness that pervades the food and room alike. At the end of the line is a single cook at an earthenware comal, busily preparing tortillas from heirloom corn that is nixtmalized and ground in-house. Further masa-based items like a sturdy a memela filled with melty quesillo, smoky preserved shiitakes and crunchy chicharron show off the kitchen’s creativity. Grilled meats, like a meltingly tender secreto “al pastor” with charred pineapple, are a particular highlight. Those hard-pressed to make decisions can opt for a tasting menu that pulls highlights from the various options on offer. In tandem, the bar provides a wealth of imaginative (and cleverly named) agave-based cocktails that further add to the excitement.
Best “Roman” Style Italian
Enoteca Sociale
*Michelin Bib Gourmand Award*
The restaurant is as inviting as they come, radiating comfort and anchored by a marble bar that welcomes solo diners like long- lost friends. From bread to charcuterie, practically everything is made in-house here, down to the fantastic pastas that make up the very heart of this menu. There isn’t a table in sight that hasn’t ordered either the signature cacio e pepe or the bucatini all’Amatriciana. Comforting starters like golden-fried arancini stuffed with mozzarella di bufula or clever riffs like caprese sformato reflect the many talents of this capable kitchen, which also offers a tasting menu.
Most Unique Interior
Adler
The restaurant is a cool mix of dark brick floors, sleek wood finishes and large windows that usher in radiant beams of sunlight.There’s a lot to like on this Mediterranean menu by Michelin Star Chef Patrick Kris (Alo). Beef carpaccio is a crowd-pleaser, while the cucumber salad is a sleeper hit festooned with shaved fennel, dukkah, and hazelnuts. Stacks of firewood in the dining room is a clue to hone-in on proteins like roast chicken, Australian lamb, and a bone-in strip loin. Dessert is a must, especially if the astoundingly light coconut cream pie is still around.
Best Pizza in Toronto
Pizzeria Badiali
My favourite pizza in Toronto, and although it’s debatable, it’s widely considered the best.
In their own words… “Pizzeria Badiali is a neighbourhood slice shop located in Toronto’s West end. A nod to the New York classics, we use carefully sourced and house made ingredients.
Best “New” Restaurant
General Public
General Public is the new restaurant from the people behind Le Swan. The main floor is decorated with rich greens and browns, while the mezzanine is painted with dreamy whites and pinks. The owner describes the space as a cross between a “fancy British pub” and an ” ’80s inspired cocaine-slash-disco, mirrors-and-crystal peach fantasy.” The menu runs the gamut from simple to show-stopping. Most dishes are inspired by traditional English pub fare, but others are inspired by international influences, such as curried lamb and escargot.
Best Vegan Restaurant
Planta Queen
A menu of purely vegan eats, but with an Asian flair.
The menu is comprised of “izakaya-style” dining, meaning smaller, refined shareables, as per Planta’s usual style. You can pair your food with some cocktails, or if you’re feeling health conscious, kombucha via Tonica or juice from Village Juicery.
Ahi watermelon plays a big part in this menu: Lee’s dehydrated versions of this usually sweet fruit makes an interesting tasting vegan substitute for sashimi that’s pretty convincing visually.
Best Casual Vegetarian Food
Fresh Kitchen
Fresh Toronto, a chain of restaurants and juice bars, is known for its fresh, healthy, and plant-based options. Reviews generally highlight the quality of ingredients, generous portions, and delicious food, especially for those seeking vegan and vegetarian choices. Known for generous portions, high-quality ingredients, and good value for money.
Best Eclectic (Incl. Vegetarian)
The Ace
An eclectic selection of croquettes, burgers, steak frites and duck confit in an old 1950s diner setting. Meatless Burger includes a patty consisting of lentil, mushroom and quinoa ground together. Lettuce, avocado, vegan garlic confit aioli and fried shishito peppers, and a fluffy brioche bun, make the burger stand tall. The croquettes are filled with braised leeks and cremini mushrooms and are sprinkled with grana padano. The crispy tofu is slathered in a spicy, sweet, and salty gochujang sauce. The miso daikon slaw also comes as a well-matched side.
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