How the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the Toronto food scene for better and worse

COVID-19 year in review

It’s been just over a year since COVID-19 exploded in Toronto. For future historians, here’s a retrospective of how the restaurant scene changed over the last 12 months.

Order fulfillment changes

Of all the changes, those regarding order fulfillment are the most likely to stick around after the pandemic. Order fulfillment is everything between making an order and receiving food.

More contactless payment and ordering

Cashless restaurants existed even before the pandemic, with places like iQ FOOD accepting only card payments and online orders. The pandemic drove more places like Baguette & Co and PG Clucks to go cashless.

2020 saw the introduction of two automated cubby restaurants. Diners order and pay at a touchscreen kiosk. They pick up their order from one of the cubbies (compartments) at the back of the restaurant. No human interaction necessary. Regardless, both restaurants have one human staff to help confused customers. The concept has been around in other countries for years, but these are the first in Canada.

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Increased online presence

One positive outcome of the pandemic is how it has pushed businesses to digitize. When I did a refresh of my restaurant list at the end of 2020, nearly all the restaurants that did not have a website in 2019 had one now. Or at least a Facebook page.

Even old school restaurants like Wei’s Taiwanese Food created a shockingly modern website. Customers can pick up orders at designated spots around the GTA, an innovation I haven’t seen elsewhere. It makes the best of a small delivery team.

More convenient ways to order

During the early months of the pandemic, there was a scramble to get on delivery apps. Foodora exited the Canadian market in May 2020, leaving behind Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, and DoorDash as the only big food apps in Toronto. Deterred by high commission fees of up to 30%, some turned to smaller alternatives like Ambassador AI, Ritual, Tock, and TouchBistro. Tock is especially favoured by high-end establishments. Not all these platforms offer delivery though.

A few resourceful restaurants set up their own e-commerce stores using Shopify, Square, or their own bespoke site. Mandarin and Cafe Landwer rolled out their own digital ordering services, complete with phone authentication and online discounts.

These apps make it easy to order, pay, check availability, schedule orders, discover new restaurants, and reduce miscommunication when ordering. I hope that restaurants continue to invest in them after the pandemic.

Pre-ordering enters mainstream

With online ordering, it’s a breeze to plan a restaurant pickup after an outdoor stroll. No time wasted on waiting.

Another use of pre-orders are for special meals. You know, those that have to be ordered a few days in advance. High-end restaurants like Alo and Edulis switched to this format for their multi-course meal kits. Restaurateurs benefit from forecasting demand so they don’t end up with wasted produce.

Product changes

When the pandemic struck, many restaurants were suddenly in trouble because their business model could not be sustained by takeout. Fine-dining restaurants, buffet restaurants, bars, and any restaurant that sold quickly-perishable food (e.g. tartare, sundaes, soufflés) were hit hard. They had to turn to the buzzword of the startup world: pivot.

Takeout reigns supreme

With indoor dining shut down, the lifeline for restaurants has been takeout. Curbside pickup is now a thing. After the pandemic ends, the infrastructure for takeout will remain. Hopefully, more diners and restaurants will see greater possibilities for takeout.

Restaurants adapted by paring down their menu to takeout-friendly choices. This contributed to the food fad of 2020:

Rise of burgers and fried chicken

Burger joints mushroomed in 2020 like in no other year. Say hello to

• Burger Drops
• Burger n’ Fries Forever
• Happy Burger
• Matt’s Burger Lab
• Matty’s Patty’s
• and dozens of others

Harry’s Charbroiled re-opened. Extra Burger opened a new outlet in Parkdale. Non-burger restaurants like Flame Food+Design switched to or focused on burgers.

Fried chicken experienced a boom too. Bonjour

• Ating Bahay
• Dave’s Hot Chicken
• Grandone Chicken
• Heartbreak Chef
• and a dozen others

Mi Taco spun off Bubba’s Crispy Fried Chicken. Middle-Eastern chain Paramount created Krispo Chicken. Japanese izakaya Kinka started Tokyo Sando. Tuk Tuk Canteen became Ding-a-Wing.

These foods have mass appeal, decent profit margins, and don’t require advanced skills to make. It’s no wonder they took off in the pandemic. If you are a restaurateur, please don’t open another smashburger store. The city is smashed with them.

Cuisine changes and launching of virtual brands

Some restaurants switched to different cuisines. Following the success of Krispo Chicken, Paramount created Mas e Mo Pizza. Mexican fine dining spot Quetzal morphed into Don Pollo, a roast chicken joint. French-Italian Après Wine Bar pivoted into Japanese Ikune. These new restaurants operate in parallel with existing brands at the same storefront. Since they don’t have their own space and signage, they are also known as virtual brands.

Appearance of family meals and meal kits

Family meals started to appear on more takeout menus. It’s convenient for sharing among large groups and for those who can’t decide. Restaurants are guaranteed of larger revenue and enjoy economies of scale, especially if pre-ordering is used. Restaurants that went down this route include Casa Manila, Azyun, and Uncle Ray’s. All offer combo platters for 4 or more.

Meal kits are a novelty in this pandemic. Restaurants prepare components that customers can heat up and finish at home. High-end restaurants like Alo even provide music playlists and wine pairings.

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Retail expansion into grocery and alcohol

During the first two months of the pandemic, restaurants were selling off excess inventory like flour and sauces. Even toilet paper.

By summer 2020, a growing number of restaurants jumped on the bandwagon of selling groceries and other goods.

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The province of Ontario allowed the sale of alcohol with takeout food and restaurants certainly took advantage of that. Others spun off wine shops.

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Options to buy gift cards and donate

Food apps enabled customer donations. For example, SkipTheDishes added a Community Support item in restaurants’ menus, where customers can enter a donation amount with their order. Businesses with their own online stores introduced similar features.

Gift cards were another avenue to improve cash flow. Small, independent restaurants like Greta Solomon’s started offering them.

Service and marketing changes

Restaurants had to hustle to sustain their businesses. More than ever, they had to figure out how to reach to customers and encourage repeat purchases.

Downsized kitchens

This is an obvious consequence from the closure of dining spaces and reduced food traffic. Service staff was basically gone, save for the times when outdoor dining was allowed.

Not all establishments were equally affected though. Caterers, bars, and businesses in the PATH were decimated. Mediocre restaurants struggled while quality ones like Aloette thrived. It was mostly business as usual for casual takeout restaurants.

Takeout gets better presentation

Upscale restaurants new to the takeout game had to figure out how to execute gorgeous plating in disposable containers. Presentation is a key differentiator between mid-range and high-end restaurants.

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It wasn’t just upscale restaurants. Others commissioned takeout containers with thoughtful branding.

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Complimentary gifts

Restaurants sometimes delight diners with complimentary amuse-bouche and desserts. That tradition is continued with takeout. Small tokens like these go a long way in encouraging repeat visits.

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Subtle upselling

Like supermarkets, some restaurants put small bites at their pickup counters to encourage impulse buying.

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More discounts and BIA promotions

At the beginning of the pandemic, some restaurants like Ikkousha and Maison Selby gave big discounts to attract people who were wary of going out. Pricing reverted to normal a few months later, when people were less afraid to venture outside.

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Today, there are still many that offer discounts for cash and pickup orders, since they don’t have to pay commissions to delivery apps.

Promotions were another way to drive up customers, often organized with Business Improvement Areas (BIA).

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Touching thank you notes

The standout of the year was the variety of thank you notes bundled in takeout bags. Some restaurants decorated the bags themselves. Handwritten notes added an extra touch of personalization.

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More enterprising businesses packed a menu flyer to encourage repeat or direct orders.

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I appreciate these small gestures. It really goes to show how hard they are trying to adapt to difficult times. They get an A+ for effort.

Physical changes

Layout changes and extreme hygiene measures were implemented quickly. But I doubt they will stay after the pandemic.

More sanitization

Bottles of disinfectants were a common sight, especially near entrances. Restaurants cleaned their premises more regularly. Hypochondriacs swabbed touchscreens and POS terminals after each customer interaction.

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Increased physical spacing

Capacity limits were imposed. Only a handful of customers could be in a restaurant at a time.

Tables and chairs were cleared to create larger aisles.

Seating was removed completely or for alternating tables. Tables were set further apart.

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Crowd control

Lots of signs went up. Most ubiquitous were the City of Toronto posters mandating the use of face coverings.

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Lanes were created to guide lineups and foot traffic.

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Takeout restaurants placed markings every 2 metres, reminding people to maintain social distance.

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Up goes the reception

The trending restaurant configuration of the pandemic was to move the service desk right up to the front of the restaurant. It naturally limited the number of customers inside and how long they stayed. Another side benefit was that staff didn’t have to maintain the cordoned dining space.

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Suddenly finding themselves with unused space, some used it for storage and operations.

Doorside and window counters took this idea a step further. Why let customers in the restaurant at all?

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Up goes the physical barriers

Plexiglass (acrylic) sheets were a common sight in restaurants. They were almost always placed around the reception desk.

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Some went so far as putting shields between diners.

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Those that couldn’t afford or obtain plexiglass used vinyl or polyethylene. Anything that stops small particles works.

Lest we forget, face masks also counts as physical barriers. They were omnipresent on staff, customers, and delivery people. Unfortunately, diligence in keeping them on varied.

More fresh air and outdoor dining

One likely permanent change is the greater prevalence of outdoor dining. This is nothing new in Europe and Asia but it was amazing to see the inner city come to life as tables spilled over onto sidewalks and even roads.

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Restaurants scrambled to set up outdoor seating, tents, and heaters.

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Those that couldn’t get sidewalk space got creative in using rooftops and backyards. All interior windows were thrown open.

Pity that outdoor dining was banned during the winter. It would have been a great experiment to see how many would embrace al fresco dining in the snow. I know I would.

Warming up to virtual kitchens

The most drastic change of all was to have no physical space for customers. Virtual kitchens or virtual restaurants offer delivery only. Some rented out commercial kitchens from other restaurants while others were run from home kitchens. Witness the number of pop-ups over the year like Afrobeat Kitchen, Kang Bang Furaiodochikin, Mac’s Pizza, and The Benue. You only find out about these through delivery apps or food blogs.

In memoriam

It was inevitable that some restaurants would not survive the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the restaurants featured on this site that closed in the last 12 months.

• The Grill McCoy: Argentinian outdoor barbecue stand in Kensington Market. They were barely a year old and didn’t get a chance to open in spring 2020 as planned.
• Bokeat: Guadeloupean bokit sandwiches. They moved out of the World Food Market at Yonge and Dundas in early 2020 and haven’t announced a new location.
• Busan Galmaegi: Korean BBQ restaurant with different types of grilling equipment. This restaurant is now replaced by Gui Gui, specializing in Korean rotating skewers.
• Pasha Authentic Turkish Cuisine: Elegant Turkish restaurant with a respectable selection that wasn’t just pides and kebabs. Closed in early 2020.
• Aragvi: One of the few Georgian restaurants in the Toronto area. They shut down early on in the pandemic and never opened up again.
• Marché Mövenpick: Swiss-based chain of food markets exited Canada in April 2020 for financial reasons. The pandemic surely accelerated that decision since their restaurants were in the empty Financial District.
• Southern Accent: Cajun fixture that survived relocation after 34 years in Mirvish Village but not COVID-19. Closed in May 2020.
• Poutini: Was one of the best places to get traditional poutine. Reduced foot traffic, bar closures, and impracticality for takeout probably contributed to its demise. Closed in June 2020.
• Gandhi: Inventor of the East Indian roti (probably). Owners decided to retire in June 2020. This was a big loss to Toronto’s culinary heritage. The silver lining is that some of the former crew opened up Roti Mahal at the same location with the same menu (mostly).
• Moo Frites: Dutch fries at Kensington Market. Like Poutini, they suffered from a precipitous drop in foot traffic. Delivery isn’t practical for crispy fries. Closed in July 2020.
• Urumchi Ozgu: A hidden gem for Uighur cuisine. Its stir-fried knife cut noodles (ding ding noodles) were the best in the region. Closed in October 2020. On the bright side, the GTA’s only Sudanese restaurant, Zoal Restaurant, took its place.
• Koricancha: Homey Peruvian restaurant. Closed in late 2020.
• Chakula Hut: East African Indian takeout spot in Scarborough. Owners decided to retire in November 2020.
• Rikkochez: It was the only Cypriot restaurant in Toronto, and a modern one at that. Closed in December 2020.
• Boat King of Thai Noodles: The only place specializing in Thai boat noodles. Closed in March 2021. Fortunately, Paddler Thai opened around the same time and carries the torch for boat noodles.

The pandemic isn’t over yet and more restaurants might succumb. Please support deserving restaurants. They need all the help they can get!