Best Food in Toronto?
- Thread starter MissAlys
- Start date
Disregard this, welcome to Toronto.
Since you're from Vancouver, you're probably used to Indian food. I can't make a particular recommendation, there are so many. Toronto is at the forefront of Tibetan cuisine, there now is a cluster of them in Parkdale on Queen west of Dufferin. The area could be called Little Shangri-La. Tibetan dumplings are outrageous good.
Abel Tesfaye (now known as The Weeknd) used to busker at The Rex, Toronto's oldest Jazz/blues established. He was a natural musician as well as being an awesome singer. I was so impressed I put $20 in his jar.
If you go there for dinner, which is so so, you can get in for free. After 7pm there is an admission fee. They do make a great cheesecake there.
If you go there for dinner, which is so so, you can get in for free. After 7pm there is an admission fee. They do make a great cheesecake there.
Ranked Top 3 restaurant in Canada
https://canadas100best.com/no-3-buca/
Since opening in 2009, Buca has shifted local parameters of Italian dining.
Salume is now something made lovingly in house—and it’s no longer all about pork, but includes goat and lamb and sometimes even a local spin that extends to bison. The in-house prosciutto might be a culatello or even a foreleg, rather than the hind. But Buca is about much more than charcuterie. Rob Gentile’s kitchen has somehow got an offal-wary city hooked on crispy pigs’ ear with fennel salt, lamb brain saltimbocca, duck egg bigoli with duck offal ragù, and pork blood pasta with n’duja. While the kitchen favours big, robust flavours, it also boasts a convincing light touch (try summer’s linguine with sweet prawn broth and zucchini flowers). The restaurant is boisterous and invariably crowded. The high ceiling of the main dining (an old boiler room) and the hard exposed surfaces ensure the decibels soar as high as the flavour profile. Service is highly capable, and never fussy. The wine list is sizeable, and heavy on private imports—but reliable help with negotiating the unfamiliar is always close at hand. The restaurant is in Toronto’s club district, but if you eat properly here, you will more likely end your evening with a satisfied rest than with dancing.
https://www.blogto.com/restaurants/buca/
Ranked Top 6 restaurant in Canada
https://www.blogto.com/restaurants/canoe/
Canoe
https://canadas100best.com/no-6-canoe/
In more ways than one, the 54th floor of a downtown Toronto office tower seems an odd choice for the setting of a restaurant conceived to showcase culinary Canadiana. But it works. Day and night the views of the lower city and Lake Ontario are the best in town. And the modern décor incorporates just enough soft wood finishes to fit the culinary messaging. For while the focus is on the finest Canadian food products, wild and cultivated, and often featuring modern spins on old Canadian dishes, the culinary vocabulary is one of highly contemporary finesse. Think bison Carpaccio with pemmican threads and pickled Saskatoon chanterelles. Or Manitoba Lake trout with rutabaga pierogies and puffed grains. Or grass-fed beef strip loin from Thornbury’s Grandview Farms with chicken-fried sweetbreads and Algonquin grits. The cellar is deep and varied, and the service exceptional.
66 WELLINGTON STREET WEST, 54TH FLOOR TD BANK TOWER,
TORONTO, ON M5K 1H6
416-364-0054
OLIVERBONACINI.COM/CANOE.ASPX
https://canadas100best.com/no-3-buca/
Since opening in 2009, Buca has shifted local parameters of Italian dining.
Salume is now something made lovingly in house—and it’s no longer all about pork, but includes goat and lamb and sometimes even a local spin that extends to bison. The in-house prosciutto might be a culatello or even a foreleg, rather than the hind. But Buca is about much more than charcuterie. Rob Gentile’s kitchen has somehow got an offal-wary city hooked on crispy pigs’ ear with fennel salt, lamb brain saltimbocca, duck egg bigoli with duck offal ragù, and pork blood pasta with n’duja. While the kitchen favours big, robust flavours, it also boasts a convincing light touch (try summer’s linguine with sweet prawn broth and zucchini flowers). The restaurant is boisterous and invariably crowded. The high ceiling of the main dining (an old boiler room) and the hard exposed surfaces ensure the decibels soar as high as the flavour profile. Service is highly capable, and never fussy. The wine list is sizeable, and heavy on private imports—but reliable help with negotiating the unfamiliar is always close at hand. The restaurant is in Toronto’s club district, but if you eat properly here, you will more likely end your evening with a satisfied rest than with dancing.
https://www.blogto.com/restaurants/buca/
Ranked Top 6 restaurant in Canada
https://www.blogto.com/restaurants/canoe/
Canoe
https://canadas100best.com/no-6-canoe/
In more ways than one, the 54th floor of a downtown Toronto office tower seems an odd choice for the setting of a restaurant conceived to showcase culinary Canadiana. But it works. Day and night the views of the lower city and Lake Ontario are the best in town. And the modern décor incorporates just enough soft wood finishes to fit the culinary messaging. For while the focus is on the finest Canadian food products, wild and cultivated, and often featuring modern spins on old Canadian dishes, the culinary vocabulary is one of highly contemporary finesse. Think bison Carpaccio with pemmican threads and pickled Saskatoon chanterelles. Or Manitoba Lake trout with rutabaga pierogies and puffed grains. Or grass-fed beef strip loin from Thornbury’s Grandview Farms with chicken-fried sweetbreads and Algonquin grits. The cellar is deep and varied, and the service exceptional.
66 WELLINGTON STREET WEST, 54TH FLOOR TD BANK TOWER,
TORONTO, ON M5K 1H6
416-364-0054
OLIVERBONACINI.COM/CANOE.ASPX
El Charro is great. Also, across the street and around the corner (on the Danforth) is a great Cuban place called Mambo Lounge.
I guess it's possible. Never heard it, though.
I do know that the 2nd generation guys that run Zorros and Peter's on Eglinton are cousins. Peter's has humongous deli sandwiches. The best in the GTA not near Bathurst St.
There's a lot of great small restaurants of all cuisines, too numerous to list. So much authentic food that you don't need to go to the well known names.
However, here are some of the well known names that are special to me that I don't see mentioned yet....
Downtown
Alo - French
Patria - Spanish
Etobicoke
Kaji - Japanese
However, here are some of the well known names that are special to me that I don't see mentioned yet....
Downtown
Alo - French
Patria - Spanish
Etobicoke
Kaji - Japanese
I completely disagree about no good Japanese food. I’ve spent a lot of time in Japan, been 4 times, spent at least 3 weeks each time. There are quite a few ramen places here that are just as good as what I’d get in Japan. Gyugyuya on Dundas has very authentic Japanese curry. Some good izakayas and yakitori places around too. Kintori Yakitori is fantastic. I don’t eat seafood, so I can’t really comment on the sushi offerings here (or in Japan, for that matter), but stuff like ramen, curry, gyudon, yakitori, etc. is well represented here.
I can tell you I just got back from NY a few months ago, and I specifically tried certain foods to compare them to Toronto. For example I tried a street hot dog there because they're everywhere, and tried pizza in little Italy. Not even close to what you get here in Toronto.
Wilbur Mexicano is a decent casual place with a large selection of sauces. Ki is a good place for sushi, and I also love their pork belly satay.
I visit St. Lawrence Market multiple times whenever I'm in town for a variety of cuisines. Of course there's Carousel Bakery for the peameal bacon, Buster's Sea Cove for seafood and the bakery in the bottom level (don't know the name) with THE BEST cheese danish I've ever had! Cactus Club in the Financial District is a good place to go for eyecandy, especially during happy hour, and their food is decent.
I visit St. Lawrence Market multiple times whenever I'm in town for a variety of cuisines. Of course there's Carousel Bakery for the peameal bacon, Buster's Sea Cove for seafood and the bakery in the bottom level (don't know the name) with THE BEST cheese danish I've ever had! Cactus Club in the Financial District is a good place to go for eyecandy, especially during happy hour, and their food is decent.
I have not met any Japanese in Toronto who would say that the Japanese food is comparable to anything in Japan. This might be just national pride but then the Japanese that I have known in the GTA think that the food from their local prefecture is the best, and I have heard Osaka, Hokkaido and Tokyo expats boast that that their's is the best in Japan. It would be extremely expensive to bring to Toronto the unique ingredients and expertise from Japan for a population here that would not really appreciate it or know the difference. This is why so many Koreans and Chinese operate most of the "Japanese' restaurants here and get away with it. I like Japanese food but if I want real curry than I prefer the real thing from the Indian subcontinent not the relatively recent Japanese knock off which is bland in comparison.
Clarify BBL...you're saying NYC better on those two fronts than Toronto?
How come they don't have the warm, soft pretzel carts here? grrrrr..... I'm going to open one!
No, Toronto is way better. Obviously there's a million different pizza places in NY, so there's going to be a ton that taste different, but seeing as I was in little Italy, I was not impressed at all. I can also tell you that like Toronto, you have one street hot dog there, you've pretty much tried them all, and it wasn't even close to the ones in Toronto. I also tried chicken wings and two different places to compare, same thing. Not nearly as good as what you get here, and it was extremely expensive, even by NY standards.
