Toronto is the most diverse city on the planet, so it is not surprising that you can eat around the world here. These are the best restaurants for every cuisine type in the Greater Toronto Area. For ratings and easy sorting, see our compact table.
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Tags
- Thriving Good representation of the cuisine. Includes regional dishes that are not widely-known. If you haven’t tried this cuisine before, Toronto is a good place to start.
- Meh Only a few dishes from the cuisine are available. Or not authentic or not tasty enough to deserve full recommendation. You wouldn’t call a city well-represented in Italian food just because it has a Pizza Hut, right?
- Endangered Not many places serve this cuisine.
- Critically endangered Only one place left that serves this cuisine. Quickly go and support it so that it doesn’t go out of business!
Cuisines
Afghanistan
Kabobs are the stereotypical offering. Try mantu (Central Asian dumplings) and palaw (long-grained rice cooked with stock and fruits) if you are bored of grilled meats.
Bamiyan Kabob
8/10
62 Overlea Boulevard and other locations
Best Afghan kabobs in Toronto: tender and well-seasoned. Fresh pillowy naans, large portions, and reasonable prices. They also have mantu (dumplings in spicy tomato sauce).
Kabob Guys
8/10
4045 Sheppard Avenue East
This young upstart takes pride in its authenticity. It is the only place that has shaare noww “burgers”. That’s not a typo; it’s a street food from Shahr-e Naw, Kabul. Generous portions.
Naan & Kabob
691 Yonge Street and other locations
One of the few Afghan options downtown. Trendy decor and OK food. Earnest service.
Albania
There are no Albanian restaurants in Toronto but you can get pastries and groceries.
Old Mill Pastry And Deli
385 The West Mall
This place follows the same template as other Balkan delis in the region. There are imported Balkan goods, a deli counter, and a takeout counter serving fast food like burek (stuffed filo pastry) and ćevapi (grilled minced meat). Average quality but bargain prices.
Argentina
There are no amazing asado (BBQ) restaurants in Toronto. You definitely won’t find one with a whole lamb roasting on a spit. But you can get yerba mate (herbal tea) complete with a metal bombilla (straw). Only the Pampas region is represented, which encompasses Buenos Aires.
VOS Restaurante Argentino
847 College Street
The calling card here is asado (barbecue). Meats are expertly cooked to your desired doneness. The menu is focused and sticks to traditional fare, with a couple of modern interpretations like an empanada with mozzarella, pancetta, and dates. Food is flavoursome and shows respect to the produce. Price and service reflect an upper mid-range to high-end establishment.
Gaucho Pie Co.
346 Westmoreland Avenue North
Solid empanadas baked golden brown. There’s the traditional version with beef and olives but leave room for the creative fusion fillings like bulgogi or butter chicken. You won’t find those in Argentina.
Bacan
369 Roncesvalles Avenue
The menu here is contemporary Buenos Aires. Traditional favourites with a modern spin. This is one of two places that has fainá, a chickpea bread. Usually eaten with Argentine pizza, the version here is made with hipster vegetables like kale and leek. Speaking about pizza, this is the only place that has fugazzeta (onion pizza with no sauce, originating from Buenos Aires). The concept of the dishes is good but execution can be inconsistent.
El Almacen Yerba Mate Cafe
1917 Weston Road
Try the national drink of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil. The mate here is more botanical than smokey. The gadgetry that El Almacen uses to concoct mate is impressive. You can’t miss the giant bronze tank in the middle of the shop. For a fusion twist, try the mate latte, which adds cream. Skip the food and stick to the beverages.
Armenia
Armenian cuisine is overshadowed by its heavyweight neighbours Turkey and Georgia. Nevertheless, the Toronto region has a sizeable Armenian community and you have a good chance of getting authentic food.
Taline
1276 Yonge Street
A rarity: an upscale Armenian restaurant. It’s no slouch when it comes to Armenian dishes and offers rare ones like hadig, a wheat grain salad. Their mante (baked beef dumplings) is elevated with a tangy and savoury tomato consomme. Traditional? No. Delicious? Yes.
Lavash Restaurant
2746 Victoria Park Avenue
Modern setting, traditional cooking. Ghavourma (pulled beef) isn’t common in Toronto and is surprisingly tender here. Their fattoush (pita crisp salad) is wonderfully balanced with tangy and savoury notes.
Mamajoun
209 Ellesmere Road
You know it is good when people buy this Armenian flatbread in bulk. You can get it traditional or modern fusion-style with pizza toppings.
Australia
Australia has a national cuisine? Not really, just like Canada. There are some interesting variations, but they wouldn’t be considered iconic on the world stage. If you want to eat kangaroo, there is Wvrst. If anyone knows where to get Vegemite sandwiches, let me know.
Electric Bill
866 Bloor Street West
Toronto’s first Australian bar is a stunner in the food department. Vegetable-forward dishes include grilled napa cabbage with each leaf lovingly brushed with tahini and marmite (vegemite was too expensive). It’s might be the best cabbage you ever had. The menu and drinks are Australian-inspired rather than true Australian. Their “lamington” looks and tastes nothing like the real deal but is intensely chocolatey nontheless.
The Sydney Grind
2883 Lake Shore Boulevard West
Aussie cafe. Lamingtons are slightly expensive but large. They are representative of those found in Australian bakeries.
DoDoner
1132 Queen Street West
The halal snack pack is an Australian fast food item comprising of doner kebab on fries, drizzled with sauces. Strangely, DoDoner is the only place in Toronto that sells this. Tastes exactly as described. Opens until midnight and beyond.
Austria
Austrian food is similar to Bavarian (Southern German) food. I find their cafes more interesting than their restaurants. Sachertorte and viennoiseries are famous Austrian cafe foods. Sadly, there are no Austrian cafes in Toronto. There are Austrian and German cured meats at Vienna Fine Foods.
Old Country Inn
8/10
198 Main Street Unionville, Markham
You know it is Austrian when they have Sachertorte. Classic recipe, down to the stylized ‘S’ lettering. Menu has heavy Central European food like schnitzel and leberknödel (liver dumplings). Lunch menu is great value, especially the huge schnitzel sandwich on rye bread. The restaurant is in a charming historic house in kitschy Main Street Unionville.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani food is similar to Turkish food. Expect lots of grilled meats and plov (rice cooked in stock).
Old Avenue Restaurant
1923C Avenue Road
Given that there are only a handful of Azeri restaurants in Toronto, this one is a stunner. Simple items like kutab (stuffed, thin flatbreads) are constructed with care and packed with flavour. Although they have dishes from other countries in the Caucasus, it’s better to stick to the Azeri ones like the dolma (grape leaves stuffed with ground meat), which is unusually served warm. Interiors are modern vintage.
Bahamas
Conch (a shellfish) is emblematic of Bahamian food but you will be lucky to get it fresh in Canada. Bahamian restaurants are just as rare.
Old Nassau
2047 Weston Road
The only place to get conch fritters and guava duff (steamed caked roll with guava jam). Flavours are satisfying but quite pricey.
Bangladesh
Similar to Bengali cuisine, famous for its sweets and somewhat sour curries.
Bangladeshi stores and restaurants are clustered on Danforth Avenue between Main Street and Warden Avenue.
Premium Sweets
8.5/10
107 Lebovic Avenue, Unit D02 and other locations
Bangladeshi chain. In South Asia, a place with “sweets” in its name is typically a full-fledged restaurant serving more than sweets. Like in this case. This is an upper mid-range restaurant with flavourful Bengali foods. The achari khichuri (congee) has been simmered long enough to bring out deep meat flavours. Fish curries have the characteristic smell of mustard oil and the meat flakes easily. And of course, they have sweets. High quality, dainty ones that are worthy of wedding receptions.
Adda Bengali Kitchen
3342 Danforth Avenue, Unit 1
Solid mid-range Bangladeshi restaurant. Modern decor. They are the only place to get Biye Bari roast chicken, associated with weddings. It’s smothered with a flavourful sauce, but the meat can be dry.
Barbados
As with other Caribbean countries, the cuisine of Barbados sits somewhere in the spectrum between Jamaica and Trinidad. Barbadian food includes cou-cou, a yellow corn paste that is also found on other Windward islands.
The Bajan Kitchen
Popup restaurant that alternates pickup between Mississauga and Scarborough. Dinners include grilled fish and baked pork chops. Don’t miss the cassava fries, pillowy soft on the inside and lightly crisped on the outside, which is difficult to accomplish.
Belgium
The country that specializes in junk food: waffles, chocolate, fries, and beer. There aren’t any savoury Belgian establishments in Toronto but you can get moules frites (mussels and fries) at several French bistros.
Postman Waffles
2409 Yonge Street and 486 Front Street West
The only place in Toronto that makes fresh Liege-style waffles. They’re not quite authentic and don’t have a crisp sugar crust, but they’re sweet enough.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia was part of Yugoslavia and shares the same cuisine as its Balkan neighbours.
Mrakovic
44 Wellesworth Drive
Long-standing supermarket and deli. Also has a takeout counter serving Balkan fast food like ćevapi and burek.
Brazil
Brazilian food is more than steakhouses. Sure, Toronto has those but don’t forget about everyday dishes like pão de queijo (cheese bread) and feijoada (pork and bean stew). Corso Italia is home to a bunch of Brazilian businesses.
Rio 40
1256 Saint Clair Avenue West
Classy casual restaurant, straight from the upscale districts of Rio de Janeiro. They have a larger menu than most, including chicken stuffed with catupiry (soft cheese). Decent cooking. Come on Saturdays for feijoada.
Tapi Go!
835 Bloor Street West
In Brazil, tapioca not only refers to the root vegetable but also a pancake made out of it. Tapi Go! has one of the most creative flavours in Toronto, like pink tapiocas folded with beet juice or green ones with spinach. The daily specials are a steal.
Geladona
9 Silverthorn Avenue
Brazilian freezies. Though they are little more than frozen fruit juice in a tube, the variety is staggering. It’s a great opportunity to try uncommon Amazonian fruits, like cashew fruit and cupuaçu. The latter has a unique taste and may not always be available because of supply issues from Brazil.
Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouse
7/10
230 Adelaide Street West and 150 Eglinton Avenue East
Decent but pricey all-you-can-eat grilled meat steakhouse. Many meats come with cheese, which you either love or hate. The picanha and top sirloin are the best cuts.
Mary’s Brigadeiro
1912 Danforth Avenue
Pricey, dainty chocolate balls. They come with different coatings and fillings. Gourmet brigadeiros are a relatively new phenomenon that started in São Paulo in 2007. These ones are slightly more affordable than its main competitor, Chocollata, and taste about the same. A ball of sugar and cocoa.
Brazil Bakery and Pastry
1566 Dundas Street West and other locations
Brazilians love pastries and cakes. Here, you can find some typical sweet and savoury ones. The pastéis de nata (egg tarts) are so-so.
Bulgaria
There aren’t any Bulgarian restaurants in Toronto but you can assemble your own charcuterie plate with Bulgarian cured meats.
Karlovo
8 Six Point Road and 469 Cosburn Avenue
This tiny Bulgarian deli has a treasure trove of hard-to-find cured meats like lukanka (spicy salami), sudjuk (sausage), pastarma (dried meat sausage), kashkava (hard cheese), and more. Also, a shelf of imported Bulgarian goods and a hot foods table. The headquarters is in Etobicoke but the outlet at Cosburn Avenue is slightly bigger.
Cambodia
There are no true Cambodian restaurants in Toronto. A bigger variety is available in Kingston, which has a sizeable Cambodian population and delicious golden curry. It seems that Cambodian restaurants in Canada feel compelled to add Thai dishes to their menus.
Khmer Thai
1018 Saint Clair Avenue West
The food here is more Thai than Cambodian. Representative dishes are lacking. OK if you are in the neighbourhood.
Cameroon
Cameroon sits between West and Central Africa. Its food is a continuous blend between the two regions. Towards the Nigerian border, there are West African staples like egusi (pumpkin seed) soup and soya (barbecued meat skewers). Towards the Congolese border, Central African influences appear, like snails and water fufu (fermented cassava paste).
African Village
2849 Weston Road
This restaurant shows its Cameroonian colours when they sometimes spell the region’s barbecued meat as “soya” instead of the Nigerian “suya”. The dry rub on the soya is rich and smokey but the meats can be rubbery. Their menu is West Cameroonian, which is virtually indistinguishable from Nigerian. One exception is their bobolo.
Canada
Nobody really knows what Canadian cuisine is. Instead, here are suggestions for regional specialties across the country.
Toronto
Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of dishes that are invented in Toronto given the size and history of the city. That may change soon. The groundwork is already here: more discerning eaters, people willing to spend more for good food, and a multicultural food scene.
Peameal bacon
Called “Canadian bacon” by Americans, this is just a salty, thick piece of pork encrusted with bits of pea. Not sure why this is a Toronto specialty, but you can find out what the fuss is about here.
When The Pig Came Home
384 Keele Street
This is the best rendition I’ve had in the city. Fatty pork with fresh greens.
Carousel Bakery
St Lawrence Market, 93 Front Street East, Upper Level Unit 42
If you can’t travel all the way to When The Pig Came Home, you can get your fix at this semi-tourist trap. It’s meh. Personally, I prefer their breakfast on a bun sandwich. For penny-pinchers, you used to be able to get free samples of peameal bacon at Kozlik’s on Saturdays, paired with their excellent mustard. Kozlik’s is on the same level of the market, on the eastern side. They stopped doing this since tourist traffic plummeted after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sushi pizza
This is not a pizza topped with raw fish and sushi ingredients. Sushi pizza is a thick disc of sushi rice, deep-fried and topped with raw fish, mayo, nori, and roe. Delicious junk food, served in many all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants in the area. It was invented in Toronto in the late 1980s.
Nami
55 Adelaide Street East
Not the best Japanese restaurant but one of the oldest, serving sushi before it was popular in North America. This is where sushi pizza was invented and it is as good as all deep-fried things are. Could be less greasy. Expensive.
East Indian Roti
Roti can refer to different foods depending on which country you are in. Like how “chips” are deep-fried potato batons in the UK but become thin potato slices in the USA. The East Indian roti takes a West Indian roti and replaces the stuffing with North Indian curries like butter chicken and vindaloo. For the uninitiated, a West Indian roti is an unleavened flatbread, sometimes with ground peas sandwiched inside, wrapped around a filling like some giant burrito. The result is something that is found neither in India nor the Caribbean.
Roti Mahal
554 Queen Street West
Successor of Gandhi, the pioneers of East Indian roti. When Gandhi closed in June 2020 because of COVD-19, the owners sold it to the head chef. The new restaurant, Roti Mahal, has the same menu, location, and some of the same staff. It even continues the tradition of discounted day-old rotis. While the fillings are close to Gandhi’s standards, the roti shell is thicker and not as tender. Be warned that spicy is very spicy.
My Roti Place
406 Queen Street West and other locations
Not as good as the old standard bearer, Gandhi. But convenient if you are near one of their branches.
Modern Canadian
This is a catch-all phrase for anything that doesn’t quite fit anywhere else. Modern Canadian food can be described as seasonal, reflecting the best produce the region has to offer. But that description isn’t very distinctive because it can equally apply to Danish, Norwegian, or New Zealand cuisine.
Richmond Station
9/10
1 Richmond Street West
Definition of Modern Canadian. It’s hard to pinpoint what makes it Canadian. Perhaps it’s the ingredients and flavour combinations that are Not American. Although the menu changes frequently, the burger is a mainstay and a candidate for the best in the city.
Aloette
9/10
163 Spadina Avenue
You likely will not get a seat at Alo, the main restaurant. This causal sibling is not a bad consolation prize. Actually, that is an understatement. This is one of the best restaurants in the city. The deceptively simple menu is packed with flavour and technique. True to “modern Canadian”, the dishes reflect what is in season and whatever the chef is inspired by, which leans toward Italian, French, Japanese, and Korean. Like Richmond Station, the burger is a permanent offering and a contender for the best in the city. You also get top-notch service from the same staff at Alo.
Lake Inez
1471 Gerrard Street East
A laid-back restaurant to figure out what Modern Canadian is. The food is no slouch though. Creative, quite local, and unrelentingly seasonal. A high-end tasting menu without the formality or exorbitant price. Expect anything from Ontario schnitzels with chow-chow to mushrooms with spruce tips and crispy chicken skin.
Grey Gardens
199 Augusta Avenue
Like other establishments by the same chef, this is a casual spot to socialize, drink, and have some bites. The dishes here are expensive but are prepared with respect to the seasonal produce. You can taste every described ingredient and they complement one another.
Aboriginal
The foods of the indigenous people of Canada are quite varied, but are usually lumped together for simplicity of classification. In the Arctic, the Inuits eat fish, seals, and whales. In Toronto, seal was once offered by Kū-kŭm restaurant but not anymore after it closed down. If you are wondering, whale is not available commercially.
The Iroquois are the major First Nations group in the Toronto region. They gave us Three Sisters Soup (corn, beans, and squash). Bannock, a fry bread of Scottish origin, is popular among aboriginals and the Métis. Bison, moose, and other game meat also feature on Métis dining tables.
Pow Wow Cafe
213 Augusta Avenue
Bannock with a twist: served as a flatbread piled high with toppings. They call it a taco, but it will just be a giant mess if you attempt to fold it. The toppings are fresh but the fried bread steals the show. The owner is looking to sell the restaurant and now only operates a couple of days a month. Check social media for when they open.
Tea N Bannock
1294 Gerrard Street East
Another excellent spot to try bannock. Cafe food.
Atlantic Canada
The standout food from the maritime provinces is donair. This is a shawarma sandwich with a sweet sauce made of condensed milk and garlic. For some reason, donair stalls don’t do well in Toronto.
Unfortunately, there are no Acadian restaurants in Toronto.
Lola’s Gelato
14B Brookers Lane
Their gelato might get all the attention but this is perhaps the only place to find that Atlantic Canadian convenience store food: oatcakes. They’re oats compressed into rounds with some sugar and salt. Classic and straightforward, Halifax style.
College Falafel
450 Ossington Avenue
The best option for donairs if you are near downtown, albeit inauthentic. More Lebanese in style and has pickled turnips.
Seaport Merchants
1101 Victoria Park Avenue
This fishmonger has the largest selection of Newfoundland imports in Toronto. It’s mostly from Purity, the main food manufacturer on the island. There’s also tiny bottles of screech (Newfoundland rum) for the curious.
Quebec
Toronto does a shallow imitation of Quebecois cuisine. It works in a pinch if you can’t make it to Montreal.
Bagels On Fire
2248 Queen Street East and 426 Queen Street West
The secret to these Montreal-style bagels is the wood-fired oven. It definitely makes a difference with the smokey aftertaste it imparts.
Dave’s Genuine Deli
1763 Avenue Road
The smoked meats have the perfect amount of smoke and are cut to the right thickness. Might even be better than Schwartz’s in Montreal.
Nom Nom Nom Poutine
707 Dundas Street West, at the eastern end of the container market
The best loaded (i.e. stacked with ingredients) poutine in the city. They used to be called Nom Nom Nom Crepes until they realized that their star attraction was poutine.
Ottawa and rest of Ontario
The capital is not known for food. The “specialties” are shawarma and beavertails. Ottawa shawarma is Lebanese-style. Some restaurants put fries inside the shawarma sandwich. I don’t know why. See Lebanon if you are looking for this sort of shawarma.
There are several BeaverTail outlets in Toronto. This is essentially a giant flattened doughnut.
Antler Kitchen & Bar
1454 Dundas Street West
Want to eat bison, elk, venison, wild boar, or rabbit? Antler Kitchen is a sure bet for Canadian game meats. The bison is from Alberta but the other meats are usually sourced locally. Semi-upscale preparations.
Ambassador Pizza Co.
946 Bloor Street West
Small shack that sells Windsor-style pizza. It’s just a pizza topped with shredded pepperoni and canned mushrooms. The pepperoni shreds are generous and blanket the entire pie. Comforting, affordable, home-style pizza. Sold as a whole pie or single slices, but the latter is for walk-up customers, while stocks last.
The Maids’ Cottage
8/10
223 Main Street South, Newmarket
One of the best butter tarts in Ontario. The filling is not too sweet and has the perfect consistency: not runny and not too firm. If you are a foodie, you will have no problem making the trek to Newmarket. If you are too lazy, several bakeries and supermarkets in Toronto also carry these tarts. If you prefer a molten butter tart, go to Annina’s Bakeshop. Finally, Gerrard St Bakery makes one with a unique crust: crystallized and on the verge of caramelized.
Prairies Canada
The food of this region is influenced by the large number of Polish and Ukrainian immigrants to Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Maybe they were drawn to the similarly harsh winters? Cabbage rolls and pierogies are not unusual.
Alberta gave us the Caesar cocktail and the Canadian-Chinese dish, ginger beef.
Saskatoon berry products like pies and jams can be found between July and August in select farmers’ markets and specialty stores. Fresh berries are rare.
OEB Breakfast Co
125 East Liberty Street
The cult brunch favourite from Calgary has finally expanded to Toronto. The menu is distinctly Canadian with inventive poutines and duck-fat-fried things. It pays tribute to its prairie roots with the dish Pierogies (Polish/Ukrainian dumplings) and Duck. That’s something you don’t see for Toronto brunch and the pierogies are hand-made no less.
Hy’s Steakhouse
365 Bay Street
Steakhouse with origins in Calgary. Though it may not always be from Alberta, Canadian beef features prominently. Hy’s sets itself apart from other steakhouses with its languid and stately ambience that re-creates an airy study.
Szechuan Szechuan
Vaughan Mills, 1 Bass Pro Mills Drive, Unit 2, Vaughan
The only reason that this Canadian-Chinese chain is here is because of its ginger beef. It’s sweeter and not as crisp as the original but may be the only decent option in town. Other than ginger beef, it is just a standard westernized Chinese place that sells monstrosities like General Tso Chicken. If you can’t make it to the restaurant, you can go to Szechuan Express outlets downtown, which are food court stalls.
Pacific Canada
Ask a Canadian about British Columbian food and they might come up with smoked salmon and Nanaimo bars. The region’s true culinary strength is actually fusion Canadian-Japanese. Fun fact: the California roll was invented in Vancouver. Los Angeles disputes this but I am just going to ignore that claim.
See Canadian-Japanese for recommendations.
Kristapsons
1095 Queen Street East and 3248 Yonge Street
Imported salmon from BC and smoked locally. A decadent treat.
Japadog
Wellington Market, 486 Front Street West, Unit 24
A cult favourite in Vancouver, these gourmet Japanese hot dogs have finally landed in Toronto. The Japanese part comes from toppings like nori and yakisoba (fried noodles). Even the sausage meat features Japanese breeds like Kurobuta. Even so, this creation is 100% Vancouverite.
Tuck Shop Provisions
29 McCaul Street
Toronto doesn’t have good Nanaimo bars. At least the one at Tuck Shop Provisions has lots of nuts in the base. It’s constructed well too, with sharply-defined layers.
Chile
Chilean food in Toronto is limited to street food like empanadas. Surprisingly, Chilean empanadas are more common than Argentine ones. The difference? Chilean ones contain raisins.
The Empanada Company
122 Fortieth Street
You want empanadas, this place has a ridiculous variety of empanadas. Traditional Chilean ones with raisins. Fusion ones with lobster. A little pricey.
Completo
5 Coady Avenue
Completos are amped-up hot dogs. The versions here are more gourmet than the ones on the streets of Santiago.
Autentica Panaderia
Plaza Latina, 9 Milvan Drive, past the main food court
This is a Chilean bakery but they also serve a variety of South American treats like alfajores. They are OK and not worth a special trip. What makes the trip worthwhile is the opportunity to visit a variety of Central and South American food stalls at the food court.
China
Most people know Chinese food only by its Cantonese variant: dim sum, wantons, noodles, and char siew. It doesn’t come as a surprise that there is more to Chinese cuisine than that, considering China is the most populous country in the world. What is surprising is the staggering variety of Chinese cuisines. Officially, there are eight major Chinese cuisines but there are numerous minor ones. You can find seven major and most minor ones in Toronto. Very few cities in the world can make that claim. It helps to have seven Chinatowns in the Toronto region! If you prefer to stick to Cantonese food, you are in luck. Toronto has the best Cantonese cuisine outside East Asia due to its high number of Hong Kong immigrants. Most places accept cash only.
Here are the seven Chinatowns. Only the first three are pedestrian-friendly. The rest cover entire suburbs.
- Downtown Chinatown. Spadina Avenue between Queen and College Street. Good for tourist and student eats, hot pot, and a wide sampling of Chinese cuisines from ho-hum restaurants. The area is experiencing a renaissance and high quality mid-range restaurants have moved in over the past few years.
- Chinatown East. Gerrard Street between Broadview and Logan Avenue. Has a more Vietnamese influence.
- Mississauga Chinatown. Near Dundas Street East and Cawthra Road. The oldest Chinatown in Mississauga, housed in a kitschy complex.
- Agincourt. Sheppard Avenue East between Birchmount and McCowan. Hong Kong-oriented.
- Milliken. Bounded on the north by Steeles Avenue East, east by McCowan Road, south by Finch Avenue East, and west by Warden Avenue. Dense mix of Chinese cuisines. The neighbourhood spills over to neighbouring Markham to the north of Steeles Avenue. The de facto center is Pacific Mall, equivalent to a low-end mall in Hong Kong (which is better than most in Toronto). Don’t miss out on Skycity Shopping Centre at night, resembling a bustling restaurant row from any of mainland China’s big cities.
- Richmond Hill Highway 7. Highway 7 between Yonge Street and Leslie Street. Originally dominated by Hong Kong establishments, these days there are more Mainland Chinese businesses. The main food hub is centred around Times Square mall, between West and East Beaver Creek Road.
- Markham Highway 7. Highway 7 between Woodbine Avenue and McCowan Road. Really a continuation of the Chinatown from Richmond Hill. The spiritual center is First Markham Place, a mall legendary for its density of good quality Chinese food. Other notable food centres are New Kennedy Square and Langham Square in Unionville.
- Honourable mention: North York Centre. Yonge Street between Sheppard and Finch Avenue. This area hasn’t developed into a full-fledged Chinatown yet (it doesn’t have a Chinese supermarket) but it has a high density of Chinese casual eats. This area is also part of Koreatown, so you can find good Korean food too. In particular, the strip between Northtown Way and Byng Avenue is packed with small shops run by young entrepreneurs.
There are many excellent Chinese supermarkets in the region, from hypermarkets to small family businesses. They stock international foods too, like Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean. The most corporate chain that doesn’t smell like a fish market is T&T. Nations is an up and coming competitor with a play pen in its flagship outlet. For the biggest variety and floor space, go to Foody World.
Modern Fusion
The large number of residents of Chinese descent in a multicultural city has naturally led to inventive Chinese cuisine. The following are unique to Toronto.
Lee
601 King Street West
Personally, I find this overpriced but it might be worth trying once to see what the fuss is all about. Helmed by a celebrity chef, the most popular dish is the 20-ingredient Singapore Slaw. Despite the name, this is not something found in Singapore, although it is loosely inspired by the Singaporean festive dish, yu sheng (raw fish with multi-coloured julienned vegetables). It is probably the most expensive salad you will eat in your life if you are not into fine dining. Indian, Italian, and Mexican influences run through other dishes.
Inspire Restaurant
144 Main Street North, Markham
Although the menu is pan-Asian fusion, the flavours are catered to Chinese palates. The popular chicken and waffles are reminiscent of Taiwanese popcorn chicken. Their solid burgers don’t stray too far from tradition, but the fusion fries with curry leaves and secret seasonings are a surprising hit. Their competitor a few metres away, Azyun, is equally worthy.
Dailo
503 College Street
Chinese tapas. Fried watermelon and Hakka brown wantons are some of their signatures. Flavours and presentation show some technique.
R&D
241 Spadina Avenue
Located a block from the center of downtown Chinatown. The menu changes semi-regularly and offers upscale versions of East Asian classics with modern twists. The food is hit-or-miss; some are meh while others are excellent.
Canadian-Chinese
This is the sort of food that was brought over by immigrants that were not professional chefs. Adapted to local tastes, typical dishes include deep-fried chicken balls, lemon chicken, and General Tso chicken. The meal might end with a fortune cookie. You won’t find these dishes in China. The food is greasy, unsophisticated, and loud. You can find this cuisine at mall food courts, such as the chains Manchu Wok and Shanghai 360.
Mandarin
7/10
2200 Yonge Street and other locations
An institution in Ontario. All-you-can-eat buffet featuring westernized Chinese favourites, sushi, and pizza. They sometimes have themed events like mooncake festival or Canada Day with special food items. Quantity is key here, although quality is not too bad. Go with low expectations and you will be all right.
Garden Gate Restaurant (The Goof)
2379 Queen Street East
This Chinese diner has been around since the 1950s so you can be guaranteed an authentic non-authentic Chinese food experience. Canadian-Chinese restaurants are a dying breed in Toronto as authentic Chinese restaurants replace them. This is a rare snapshot of history with all the love-it-or-hate-it staples like moo shu pork, radioactive orange chicken, and of course, deep-fried chicken balls. The dinner combo for one is a steal at $8 to $9 (after tax), consisting of fried rice, egg roll, and a main. Fun fact: it’s also known as The Goof because the letters from its neon sign “GOOD FOOD” fell off, leaving “GOO F”.
National
The majority of Chinese restaurants have a few signature dishes and focus on a particular regional style. It’s rare to find places that cover a range of sub-cuisines and do them all well.
Fuji Wonton House
5433 Yonge Street, Unit 29
Obviously, the signature dish here is wontons (small dumplings). They’re central Chinese style, in a robust meat and seafood soup with seaweed. They also excel in a diverse menu, ranging from Sichuan spicy skewers to lamb soup. Homey and comforting.
Guangzhou and Hong Kong (Cantonese, Yue)
By far, Cantonese is the strongest Chinese regional cuisine in Toronto. The best places are up north, in Scarborough, Richmond Hill, and Markham. Some are even better than the ones I have tried in Hong Kong.
Cantonese food is slightly sweet and features lots of fresh seafood. As in, the seafood was still alive in the tank 10 minutes before you ate it. Cantonese people are known for eating everything but you are probably safe in Canada with regards to mystery meat.
Fishman Lobster Clubhouse
4020 Finch Avenue East
Come here for the lobster tower, a uniquely Toronto dish that was either invented at this restaurant or popularized there. It is a massive mountain of Typhoon-Shelter-style lobster: deep fried with crispy bits of garlic and addictive savoury items. It makes for a impressive photo-op. Other Chinese restaurants in the city now serve this dish.
Yang’s Fine Chinese Cuisine
9665 Bayview Ave, Unit 30, Richmond Hill
Worthy dim sum in Toronto can be split into two camps: cheap and cheerful or over-the-top ostentatious. Yang’s skews towards the latter. They experiment with new offerings semi-frequently, most recently with a luscious red rice roll stuffed with seafood. Balanced menu of creative luxury items and traditional ones like melt-in-the-mouth char siew polo buns, probably the best in the region.
Congee Queen
2930 Steeles Avenue East and other locations
A reliable restaurant chain. Giant bowls of congee packed with premium ingredients like scallops. Their non-congee dishes are just as good. Prices are very reasonable.
The Noodle Bar
3603 Highway 7 East, Unit 106, Markham
Cart noodles are usually a mish-mash of mediocre toppings paired with noodles. Not here. Every component can be a standout side dish on its own. And they don’t result in flavour confusion when brought together in the same soup.
Cho-Kwok-Lat
31 Main Street North, Markham
One of the top 3 French pâtisseries and chocolateries in the Toronto region. The Hong Kong flair shows through their ingredient choice (jasmine tea, for example) and subdued sweetness. It takes skill to makes stuffed viennoiseries while retaining the structural integrity of puff pastry. Cho-Kwok-Lat is a master at that.
Cafe De Hong Kong
11 Fairburn Drive, Unit 15, Markham
This cha chaan teng (westernized Hong Kong cafe) superbly straddles the balance between traditional and modern. There’s comfort food like luncheon meat noodles but the standouts are the new age creations like the foie gras and truffle “pineapple” bun.
Hou Kee
5 Northtown Way, Unit 7 and First Markham Place food court, 3255 Hwy 7, Unit 255, Markham
There are a few menu items at this braised pork leg specialist, but it’s really just one. Everyone gets the combo with fatty pork leg, pickled vegetables, half a braised egg, and rice. All components are executed well, but the pork leg stands out with its umami soy and star anise sauce. Cheap, satisfying, comfort food.
Good Taste Casserole Rice
New Kennedy Square, 8392 Kennedy Road, Unit A9, Markham
Impeccable casserole rice dishes featuring Chinese preserved meats. The meal is cooked in a claypot and conoisseurs fight for the crispy caramelized rice bits that stick to the pot.
Yin Ji Chang Fen
7010 Warden Avenue, Unit 17-18, Markham and 4981 Highway 7, Unit 13, Markham
Specializes in cheong fun (rice rolls). You might have seen this at dim sum restaurants but this place ups the ante by offering various fillings and making it a meal on its own.
Ho Ho BBQ
3833 Midland Avenue
This is the place to get great value Cantonese roast meats like char siew and siu yuk (roast pork belly). Huge portions, crispy exterior, balanced marinade. There is almost no seating available, so everyone takes out.
Jim Chai Kee Wonton Noodle
3700 Midland Avenue, Unit 109 and 270 West Beaver Creek Road, Richmond Hill
Everyone gets the wonton noodles here. Wantons are large and packed with shrimp. Comparable to very good wonton noodle places in Hong Kong.
Swatow
309 Spadina Avenue
Fast, cheap, and above average food has kept this place running for decades. It is open late and attracts students from the nearby university and chefs who have finished dinner service at their restaurants. Swatow technically serves Chaozhou cuisine (aka Chiuchow or Teochew), which is somewhere between Cantonese and Fujian cuisine. Wanton and fishball noodles are good.
Macau
Macanese food is one of the earliest examples of fusion cuisine. Think of it as Chinese food with light Portuguese influences. Macau is famous for its take on pastéis de nata (egg tarts) and galinha à africana (African chicken. Not actually African in any way).
Woodstone Eatery
10 Apple Creek Boulevard, Unit B1, Markham
This is a Hong Kong-style cha chan teng (westernized cafe) that has a few Macanese dishes like bacalhau croquettes and baked chicken rice with Portuguese sauce. They have something labelled as “African chicken” in Chinese but the English menu calls it “Spicy bbq chicken steak”. It is actually closer to frango de churrasco (Portuguese roast chicken). It doesn’t have peanuts nor enough sauce to qualify as galinha à africana. A hit, nevertheless, and beats most other Portuguese rotisserie chicken joints. Get it with roast potatoes to absorb the lip-smacking chicken fat.
Hakka
Hakka isn’t a province in China. It refers to the semi-nomadic people that settled throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Their cuisine has a similar flavour profile to those places. Pickling is prominent, from salted vegetables to salt-baked chicken. Not to be confused with Indian-Chinese, which is also called Hakka in Toronto.
Hong Kong Chicken
New Kennedy Square, 8362 Kennedy Road, Unit 57, Markham
This store has no English name displayed, so look for the unit number or the Chinese characters (鹽焗雞). Their specialty is salt-baked chicken. It’s a whole chicken marinated in spices, sealed up in coarse salt, baked, and pried from its salt vessel. A rather decent rendition here.
Fujian (Min, Hokkien)
Fujian cuisine features seafood but is lighter and less intense than Cantonese. Typical dishes are ngoh hiang (five-spice pork wrapped in beancurd skin), Fuzhou fishballs (fish paste balls with minced pork centre), and oyster omelette. Taiwan and Fujian have similar foods because of the large number of Fujian migrants to the island.
Hui Xiang Fujian Cuisine
Unit A-11, Denison Centre, 1661 Denison Street, Markham
Skip the noodles and get their signature oyster cake. It’s a Fujian specialty, resembling a UFO stuffed with oysters and aromatic herbs. Crisp on the outside and juicy inside.
Shaxian Delicacies
3280 Midland Avenue, Unit 15
Shaxian food is a sub-cuisine of Fujian. This is a cheap and cheerful chain from China. How cheap? 18 wontons for $3.99. The “signature noodles with peanut butter sauce” has no toppings but it costs just $2.99. They have some typical Fujian dishes like Fuzhou fishballs. Fast food quality, so don’t expect much.
Lao Fu Zhou Xiang Wei
5661 Steeles Avenue East
One of two Fujian fast food stalls in the food court of Field Fresh Supermarket. Expect street food like oyster fritters and guo bian (noodle sheets formed by scraping batter on a hot wok). Average. There is no English name, so look for a black sign with red Chinese characters “老福州乡味”. The competitor next door has a near-identical Fujian menu and more non-Fujian offerings. Its English name, “Cook with Heart”, is also not displayed, so look for “表嫂葱饼” (biao sao cong bing) inscribed on circular woven baskets on top of the stall.
Zhejiang
Zhejiang cuisine is not distinctive. It is similar to Jiangsu and Shanghai food. Not surprising since they are in the same geographical area. Zhejiang cuisine involves more technique and emphasizes fresh ingredients. The capital Hangzhou is the epicentre for this cuisine.
Green Tea Restaurant
261 Spadina Avenue and 3235 Highway 7 East, Markham
Chain restaurant from Hangzhou. Elegant decor. Classic dishes like dong po pork (fatty braised pork), modern Chinese ones like chicken wings with salted egg yolk, and odd creations like bread temptation (loaf of toasted white bread and ice cream). Stick to the stir-fried and stewed dishes if you want a taste of Zhejiang. Free green tea is surprisingly good and has a crowd-pleasing fragrance. Above-average food.
Grandma’s Home
7050 Warden Avenue, Markham
Another chain from Hangzhou. Not as good as the branches in China, but has the same signature dishes like Grandma’s roasted pork. The menu is chock-full of hard-to-find Hangzhou dishes like longjing prawns (stir-fried with tea). Tastes all right.
Jiangsu and Shanghai
Shanghai used to be part of Jiangsu province. Both have food similar to Zhejiang. Shanghai’s affluence has led to a sub-cuisine of its own. Its xiao long bao and sheng jian bao (steamed buns with soupy filling) are legendary. Hairy crabs are a luxury delicacy and the region goes crazy when they come into season in the fall.
The Daily Dumpling Wanton Co
792 College Street
Artisanal wantons. Pricey but flavourful. Get the lobster ones if they are in stock.
Fabulous Jiangnan
Pacific Mall food court, 4300 Steeles Avenue East, Markham
This is one of the handful of places that have Shanghai-style shao mai (pork dumplings) and the only one with a good variety of Shanghai snacks. All dumplings are made fresh on the spot and one can taste the difference from ready-made ones. This stall doesn’t display its English name. Look for the red signboard with “上海燒麥館”.
Juicy Dumpling
280 Spadina Avenue
The xiao long bao is average but what this place has going for it is the price and location. It is in the heart of Chinatown—convenient for tourists and cheap grocery shopping. And $4.51 for 6 xiao long bao! That is even cheaper than places in Shanghai. Also has other snack items. For bigger variety and even cheaper xiao long bao ($3.38 for 6), head to their parent restaurant Shanghai Dim Sum in Richmond Hill.
Shanghai Shikumen Fine Cuisine
530 Dundas Street West and First Markham Place, 3225 Highway 7 East, Unit 2, Markham
For Shanghainese food that goes beyond xiao long bao: fried rice cake, dong po pork, and scallion oil noodles. Taste profile is sweet and salty. Although their menu is huge, stick to their specialty dishes like sweet and sour yellow croaker. Other items are so-so.
Shandong (Lu), Dongbei, and Beijing
This is the northeastern region of China where noodles take over rice as the main carbohydrate. Shandong sits between Northern and Southern Chinese styles. It features various types of soup. Unfortunately, Shandong cuisine is limited to street snacks in Toronto.
Beijing has some truly awful delicacies (liver and intestine stew anyone?) but there are exceptions like Beijing duck.
Happy Valley Village
3700 Midland Avenue, Unit 113
One of the rare Dongbei places in Toronto. It has an extensive menu to boot. There are many compelling dishes but a good start would be the guo bao rou. It’s sweet and sour pork taken to the next level of lightness and crispiness. The fried hairtail fish is served on the longest dish in Canada and is redolent of garlic. The signature stewed goose, cooked in a wok in the middle of the table, can feed a small family. Decor is Chinese street chic.
Yu Henan Cuisine
4219 Sheppard Avenue East
Henan is the province between Northern and Central China, and this is the only restaurant in Toronto that represents its cuisine. Their specialty is spicy pepper soup, which is actually mild. Probably toned down for timid palates. Best paired with freshly-fried you mo tou (lightly-spiced dough balls).
Dayali
160 York Boulevard, Richmond Hill
One of two old-school Beijing duck chains to set up shop here (the other is Quanjude).
Baozi Ke
4400 Sheppard Avenue East, Unit 13
A panoply of dumplings grace the menu at this snack shop but don’t be distracted from its namesake: baozi. They’re steamed white buns with a filling, usually minced meat. The flavours of the marinade well-balanced. It’s soupy and juicy too.
Tianjin Auntie’s Steamed Bun
77 Huron Street
It’s easy to miss this basement restaurant if you’re not on the lookout. They specialize in Tianjin snacks like jian bing (egg and scallion pancake with a crispy filling) and goubuli (buns with slightly soupy fillings). It’s decent, not great.
Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice
5285 Yonge Street, Unit 3
Chain specializing in braised rice dishes. It’s mediocre but is the only restaurant that has something remotely resembling Shandong dishes.
Hunan (Xiang)
Hunanese food is the spiciest in China. Like Sichuan cuisine, it is popular throughout China for its bold and intense flavours. Great during cold winters.
Wuhan Noodle 1950
3621 Highway 7, Unit 119, Markham
Specializes in re gan (hot-dry) noodles from Wuhan, in neighbouring Hubei province. Doused in thick sesame sauce. You can customize the spice level.
Hunan Restaurant and Bar
633 Silver Star Boulevard, Unit 107 and 300 John Street, Unit 110, Markham
The menu has dishes from around China but it’s best to stick to the Hunanese classics: Mao’s braised pork, farmers’ stir-fried meat (country-style stir-fried pork with green pepper), and steamed fish with minced chillies. Average quality. I think they tone down the spice levels for non-Hunanese diners.
Sichuan and Chongqing
This is the second biggest Chinese regional cuisine in the world, after Cantonese food. Turns out that many people around the world like spicy food. Sichuan food is not just spicy, it has Sichuan peppercorns that numbs the tongue. It is a weird experience for first-timers but can be strangely addictive.
The Red
5328 Highway 7 East, Unit 3, Markham
Modern interior and the most upscale of the lot. The flavour profile is more spicy than numbing. It doesn’t taste too spicy at first but the heat builds up. It’s a gentle introduction for people who are new to the cuisine. All the Sichuan classics are done well and there are also Chongqing dishes like mao xue wang (duck blood stew, yum). They also do Shanghai dishes, which is good for people who don’t want spicy food. Prices are moderate.
Nian Yi Kuai Zi
328 Highway 7, Richmond Hill and 4186 Finch Avenue East, Unit 26
It may be a chain from China but it’s winning praise for bringing an authentic taste of Sichuan to Toronto. Their signature dishes, like the stir-fried taro and bone-in chicken, are massive. Spice levels are lower than other Sichuanese restaurants but flavours are not compromised.
Szechuan Noodle Bowl
400 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Another restaurant famous for its dan dan noodles. Heaps of ground pork and al dente hand-pulled noodles, but doesn’t have Sichuan peppercorns either. Any of their noodle bowls are good, but some might be turned off by the amount of chilli oil. Authentic flavours and cheap prices.
Liuyishou Hot Pot
254 Spadina Avenue and 4188 Finch Avenue East, Unit 14
Chain from Chongqing, the hot pot capital of China. The hot pot scene is competitive and there are tons of options. This one is conveniently located in downtown Chinatown and better than most.
Modu Three Brothers
3260 Midland Avenue, Unit F101
Chongqing noodles (xiao mian) are well-represented here, with classic and fusion flavours. The spicy soup has herbs with a medicinal quality, setting it apart from its competitors. The best part is the noodles—incredibly bouncy and light on the palate. Free noodle refills.
Shaanxi
Situated inland, the food in midwest China is more Turkic. Lamb and cumin feature prominently, as do Muslim influences. The capital Xian is the epicentre of the food scene. Typical dishes are liang pi (cold, spicy mung bean noodles), rou jia mo (flatbread sandwich of braised meat), and pao mo (lamb soup where diners can dunk pieces of bread into). Shaanxi restaurants in Toronto usually have biang biang noodles, a chilli-sauced ribbon noodle.
Wowow Delight
4040 Creditview Road, Unit 21, Mississauga
This is the place for Xian snacks. Specifically, the two most famous ones: liang pi and rou jia mo. They even have stir-fried liang pi but first-timers should try the original version first. It comes with a bunch of sauces—spicy, savoury, sour, garlicky, that you can adjust to taste. As for the rou jia mo, the bread flakes beautifully when you bite into it. The meat filling is juicy and tender. It beats the average street stall in Xian.
Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu
These are the western provinces of China. Dishes morph into Central Asian staples like lamb skewers, laghman (pulled noodles), and fermented milk. Chinese-Muslim food almost always refers to food of this region. Beef noodles from Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu, are popular all over China and in Chinese enclaves around the world. From Xinjiang, a unique dish is da pan ji (big plate of chicken with potatoes).
Big Beef Bowl
8362 Kennedy Road, Markham
The best Lanzhou beef noodles in the GTA, but only when combined with their chilli oil. The taste isn’t exactly traditional but it’s flavourful. Choose from 6 different noodle shapes.
Oguz Uyghur Cuisine
1110 Finch Avenue West
Not Chinese food. It’s definitely Central Asian, featuring polov (rice cooked in meat stock with carrots), chochure (small dumplings in broth), and the largest Uyghur menu in Toronto. The BBQ platters are theatrical, served with an open flame or tableside sprinkle of spices. Meats are perfectly cooked and lightly seasoned.
Charcoal Kebab House
3256 Lawrence Avenue East
Another authentic Uyghur restaurant but with more smokey and complex kebabs. And chicken kebabs for variety.
Yunnan, Guangxi, and Hainan
This part of China borders on Southeast Asia and is where many minority tribes call home. Mushrooms, ham, and even dairy products make an appearance. The representative dish of Yunnan is guo qiao noodles, served boiling hot with a thick layer of oil.
Guangxi cuisine is not distinctive and is mostly homey, country-style dishes. Each part of the province has its own specialty noodle dish that can be found in instant noodle format at Toronto Chinese supermarkets.
Hainan is practically Southeast Asia. It’s historically a poor province, so food preparations are not elaborate. The most famouse dish, Hainanese chicken rice, was perfected outside of Hainan by Hainanese settlers in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Fudao Noodle House
7.5/10
358 Spadina Avenue
The best of the downtown restaurants that specialize in guo qiao noodles. Usually packed with Chinese patrons. I don’t understand the popularity of this dish. Perhaps it is the fun of adding ingredients to the broth by yourself? The traditional soup is rich and arrives in a roaring boil in an urn. Side ingredients are pre-cooked or quick to cook, so you don’t have to rush to dump them in the soup. Cheap.
Taste of Guang Xi
7.5/10
388 Spadina Avenue and First Markham Place, 3235 Highway 7 East, Unit 28, Markham
Probably the only Guangxi restaurant in Toronto. Noodle dishes are the main focus. Try luo si fen, rice noodles in a complex, spicy, and slightly pungent soup stewed with river snails. The tableware is also a highlight. Menus are embossed on bamboo scrolls, just as they were in China a few hundred years ago.
One Restaurant
Emerald Park food court, 4750 Yonge Street, Unit 141
Not to be confused with the Yorkville restaurant of the same name. This is actually a food court stall stashed away in the depths of a condo. They specialize in noodles dishes from Guangxi. Skip the luo si fen and get the Guilin rice noodles. It’s a potpourri of ingredients like peanuts, pickles, and long beans, finished with a dash of gravy. Cheap and filling.
Hainan Noodles
Splendid China Mall, 4675 Steeles Avenue East
The only Hainanese restaurant in Toronto. The namesake dish is a gooey and mild-tasting noodle. Although they have Hainanese chicken rice, there are other places that do it better.
Tibet
Toronto is one of the few cities in the world with a vibrant Tibetan food scene. Little Tibet, on Queen Street West between Lansdowne and Sorauren Avenue, is filled with Tibetan and Nepali restaurants. Tibetan food is bland due to the harsh environment of the highlands. Vegetables are difficult to grow and few livestock can survive the high altitudes. The standout dish is momos, dumplings with spicier fillings than its Chinese counterparts. If you like Tibetan food with more spice, check out the Nepali section.
Loga’s Corner
216C Close Avenue
Momos are the main offering here and they are done well.
Shambhala Kitchen
1406 Queen Street West
This restaurant stands out for not just offering the Tibetan standards, but also adventurous dishes like lowa khatsa (stir-fried beef lung). It’s more delicious than expected thanks to the savoury and spicy sauce. For the squeamish, there are 3 different types of laphing (cold rice flour blocks) to choose from.
Colombia
Colombian food is a meat fest. The national dish, bandeja paisa, is a good example. It is stacked with beans, steak, chorizo, plantains, avocado, and a fried egg. Actually, bandeja paisa is not that common in Colombia. Far more popular throughout the country are the Colombian take on empanadas: deep-fried masarepa dough (precooked corn flour) encasing a variety of fillings.
The Toston
35 Karachi Drive, Unit 39, Markham
Specialists in tostones (plantain chips) and they make them far better than other restaurants. Colombian tostones are massive and The Toston somehow manages to press them evenly, without any cracks. They are a meal on its own with various toppings executed just as skillfully.
Delicious Empanadas
2438 Dufferin Street
This restaurant lives up to its name. What sets it apart is the filling of the empanada. It tastes like it was reduced with stock. The meat to potato ratio could be improved, but those potatoes are the most savoury of the Colombian empanadas in Toronto.
La Mulata
North end of Dr Flea’s Flea Market, 8 Westmore Drive
The warren of downmarket stalls at this weekend market hides a Colombian gem. La Mulata offers street snacks from the northern coastal city of Cartagena, like arepa de huevo. It’s a sunny-side egg completely encased in a masarepa shell. Fragrant and expertly fried, as are the empanadas.
Esto es Colombia
2848 Dufferin Street
This is Colombia. Or close to it. They have one of the largest range of Colombian foods here, including ajiaco (potato and chicken soup from the Andes). Their bandeja paisa is satisfying. The chicharrón (deep-fried pork belly) isn’t rubbery as it usually is at other Colombian restaurants.
Congo (Democratic Republic), Republic of Congo
The food of these two countries are practically identical. Both are unsophisticated. The most common dishes are pedestrian: crushed vegetables and grilled meats like brochettes (meat skewers). The Democratic Republic of Congo has the benefit of size and offers a tiny bit of regional variation.
Ma Yvé Grill
7.5/10
1980 Rosefield Road, Unit 2, Pickering
Congolese specials like pondu (cassava leaf stew) and kwanga (fermented cassava paste wrapped in banana leaves) draw a loyal following from the Congolese community. The kwanga has a strong botanical fragrance due to the generous amount of leaves used to wrap it. Meats are cooked the traditional way: very well-done or stewed for a long time. Moambe sauce has a gentle spike of peanut in it.
Congo Coffee and Beignets
298 Gerrard Street East
As the name suggests, this place has Congolese coffee and mikate, a deep-fried doughnut ball. Average quality.
Costa Rica
Costa Rican food is indistinct and almost the same as that of its neighbours, Nicaragua and Panama. The Caribbean staple, rice and beans, is ever-present.
Pura Vida
750 St Clair Avenue West
The national dish of Costa Rica takes top billing: gallo pinto (rice and beans). For more meat, try the Pura Vida special, with the rice served separately from the beans, along with delightful salsas. There are other lesser-known dishes to try too, like run down soup made with coconut and seafood.
Côte d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal are heavyweights of West African cuisine. Sadly, there aren’t any Senegalese restaurants in Toronto, so you will just have to make do with Ivorian ones. Because of its location in the middle of West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire offers a good sampling of the regional dishes. Fufu is a tasteless, bouncy mound of starch that has become the representative dish of West Africa. Attiéké (fermented cassava) and alloco (fried plantains) are common snacks.
Instant du Palais
557 Mt Pleasant Road
This remarkable one-person-operation has above-average preparations of Ivorian dishes like thiéboudiène (rice cooked in tomato broth) and attiéké (firm and tangy cassava cous-cous). The poisson braisé (grilled fish) is presented upright, dramatically towering over the sides. Pleasant find in an ossified neighbourhood.
Croatia
The food of the Balkans is homogeneous, with minor variations here and there. Expect heavy meals with lots of meat and fat.
Joso’s
202 Davenport Road
This quirky restaurant features food from the Dalmatian coast, a far cry from the meat-heavy dishes of the Balkans. In fact, the food is closer to Italian. A few offerings are uniquely Croatian, like crni rižot (squid ink risotto). Their calamari and shrimp kornati (battered and fried) is great for sharing and comes with a bright salsa.
Croatia Restaurant
1989 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
The menu sticks with familiar classics. Dishes from inland regions include šnicle (schnitzel) and ćevapi (meat skewers); from coastal regions, grilled fish and calamari. Decent cooking.
Cuba
Nobody goes to Cuba for the food. Dishes are rustic and heavy. Ropa vieja (shredded meat, tomato sauce, rice and beans) is the national dish. Like many Caribbean nations, food is chiefly variations of plantains, rice, and beans.
Havana Sanguich
252 Queen Street West
The Cubano sandwich here is nothing like in Havana or Miami. It’s made with a humongous, whole loaf of bread, topped with a crispy cheese crust. Traditional? No. Delicious? Yes.
Czech Republic
The cuisine of Central Europe is homogeneous. A large swathe of land serves pretty much the same type of food. Czech food includes řízky (schnitzel), bramboráky (potato pancakes), potato dumplings, and špekáčky (sausages).
Prague Restaurant
7.5/10
450 Scarborough Golf Club Road
Situated in the scenic Masaryk Memorial Institute for the Czech and Slovak community, this place obviously gets lots of Czech diners. Serves bramborak and other traditional food. The delight here is the variety of Czech bread dumplings (knedlíky), one of two restaurants that offer these (the other is Old Country Inn). They are like a bunch of bread cubes, handy for scooping up savoury stews. Old school and a solid mid range option.
Denmark
There are no Danish restaurants in Toronto. The nearest one is The Danish Place in Puslinch, an hour’s drive away. The silver lining is an outstanding Danish bakery chain. And if your timing is right, you can get smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) from the Danish Lutheran Church of Toronto at special events.
Danish Pastry House
Eaton Centre, Level 2, 220 Yonge Street and other locations
As the name suggests, one finds Danish pastries here. The signature is the Høj Snegl (tall cinnamon roll) but I prefer the Viking Slice (chocolate-iced, marzipan-stuffed, puff pastry triangle) because it is decadent and great value. They also have savoury pastries like tebirkes (poppy seed rolls) and breads.
Dominican Republic
Dominican food is similar to Cuban and Puerto Rican. Pasteles en hojas (like tamales but with plantain dough) is endemic to the Dominican Republic.
Cabacoa
1157 St Clair Avenue West
Besides the customary rice and beans and mofongo (mashed plantains with garlic and lard), this little restaurant also has lesser-known Dominican foods. The chulitos, for instance, have a delightfully chewy cassava dough and well-seasoned ground beef.
Sazón Latino
7.5/10
4 Bradstock Road
Not only can you get Dominican food here, you can also get Salvadoran. Mofongos are massive and chunky, with bits of roast pork for crunch. Pupusas have a generous filling. Cooking techniques are above average.
Ecuador
Ecuadorian food can be categorized as either Andean or coastal. Andean food is rich with stews like locro (thick potato soup). Corn is popular like in most of South America. Mote (hominy) appears in many dishes. From the coast comes the national dish encebollado (red onion and fish soup). I find it boring and too sharp, but maybe that’s because I haven’t found an excellent encebollado yet.
La Morena
7.5/10
1175A St Clair Avenue West
Hip rendition of Ecuadorian snacks. The national ceviche, ceviche de camarón (shrimp), is presented in a cute cup for takeout. It bursts with shrimp and is complemented by refreshing citrus and crunchy cancha (corn nuts). La Morena also makes exemplary, traditional humitas (fresh corn and cheese dumplings) and tamales.
Las Fronteras Restaurant
2300 Finch Avenue West
Working-class Ecuadorian restaurant with home-cooked meals. Their empanadas de verde (of plantain dough) are huge. Seasonings are somewhat bland but the food is hearty.
Egypt
Egyptian cuisine doesn’t have as many famous dishes as other Middle Eastern countries. Koshari (macaroni, lentils, and a spicy tomato sauce) is distinctly Egyptian and can be found at street stands in the Nile river region. Ful medames (mashed fava beans) are another common street food. Chances are that you will find koshari, ful, and taameya (falafel) sold at the same place.
Masrawy Egyptian Kitchen
2275 Britannia Road West, Unit 1, Mississauga
The top Egyptian restaurant in the Toronto region, and the constant crowds prove it. All Egyptian staples are represented from street food like koshari to entrées like sea bass with rada (fish coated with wheat bran, a specialty of Aleaxandria). Their “Mama’s molekheya” is a deliciously slimy soup made with mallow leaves.
Papyrus
8.5/10
337 Danforth Avenue
Contemporary Egyptian restaurant. This one prides itself on healthy food. You can find the trinity of ful, koshari, and taameya here. The koshari is better than street stalls in Egypt and comes with a assertive garlic dressing on the side. Every ingredient is prepared with care and retains its flavour. Desserts are photogenic. Expensive for vegetarian food, but the quality is indisputable.
Maha’s
226 Greenwood Avenue
You know the city has become hip when Egyptian brunch is a thing. Super popular and still sees line-ups years after its opening. Maybe because there is only one matronly chef in the kitchen. You can sense the love put into each plate. Taameya is fresh. The chicken sandwich is better described as a mountain of chicken with some bread. No koshari.
El Salvador
One word: pupusas. This cornmeal pancake with various stuffings is so prevalent in El Salvador that there is even a day dedicated to it. Other Salvadoran dishes are not that memorable.
La Guanaquita
8/10
1621 Wilson Avenue
Busy with Salvadorans, la Guanaquita makes flavourful, unpretentious dishes. Their pupusa revuelta is one of the best in the city: rich in aromatics, with a balanced ratio of ground pork, cheese, and beans.
Amanecer Salvadoreño Restaurant
7/10
2663 Islington Avenue
While the food isn’t amazing, it does has the most comprehensive Salvadoran menu in the city. It’s not shabby either, with a bonanza of sides included with their entrées: plantains, tortilla, beans, rice, and salad. Expect grilled meats, fried seafood, tripe soup, and of course, pupusas.
Eritrea
Eritrean food is almost the same as Ethiopian so they are usually lumped together. Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto brand themselves as “Ethiopian and Eritrean”.
Selam Restaurant (formerly Pero)
812 Bloor Street West
Re-branded itself in 2019 as Selam: vegan Eritrean and Ethiopian foods. Worry not meat lovers, it still has meat and seafood dishes. More upscale than other Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurants in Toronto. Eritrean dishes are the seafood ones like fish dullet (minced raw fish with spices) and shrimp tibsi (sautéed with onions and peppers). Tastes the same as other Ethiopian restaurants in the city.
Estonia
Food from the Baltic states lie somewhere between Polish and Russian. Expect herrings, rye bread, beets, and potatoes.
Estonian House Cafe
6/10
This cafe was situated at the basement of the Estonian House, below the banquet hall. Nothing too exotic. Has pirukad (meat pies) and beet salads. Currently closed but the same food may be available when the new Estonian centre opens.
Ethiopia
Toronto has a glut of Ethiopian restaurants. The menu often includes wat (stews), tibs (sautéed meat), and a giant pile of injera (fermented flatbread). Larger establishments might have rarer dishes like kitfo (raw minced beef). Veggie platters are a popular option for vegans who crave for spicy food that is not Indian. Often, no cutlery is provided because you eat with your hands. You can end the meal with an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Fun fact: coffee originates from Ethiopia.
Ethiopian restaurants are clustered around two parts of the city: Danforth Avenue between Greenwood and Coxwell, and Bloor Street West between Ossington and Lansdowne.
Rendez-Vous
1408 Danforth Avenue
The most flavourful of the lot on Danforth Avenue. Prices are slightly higher and the place is frequented by non-Ethiopians.
Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant
869 Bloor Street West and 1202 Danforth Avenue
One of the Ethiopian stalwarts in the city. The reasons to come here are their large menu and frequent online deals. You can upgrade wheat injera to teff injera, which ups the authenticity factor. Teff is an ancient grain that is hard to find outside Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Finland
There are no Finnish restaurants in the region. But there are a handful of Finnish bakeries and grocers.
Viking Foods
31 Railside Road, Unit 5
Small Finnish and Swedish grocer. Has Finnish breads like pulla (cardamom bread), brought in from Milbree-Viking bakery. It mainly sells processed foods like chocolates, knäckebröd (Swedish crisp rye bread), and fish paste in a tube (Kalles, Kladesholmen, and other brands).
France
The French food scene is above average and respectable. Restaurants don’t usually specialize in a particular regional cuisine; they try to cover a bit of everything. Or they may be loosely “French-inspired”. For a bigger variety of regional cuisines and higher quality, head to Quebec.
Île de France and Paris
The capital region is an amuse-bouche: small and intense. Attracting chefs from all over France and the world, you can find food from all francophone nations here. The quintessential Parisian food experience is the pâtisserie. Macarons, croissants, Paris brest, gâteau Saint-Honoré (a puff pastry extravaganza), gâteau opéra (layered almond cake with chocolate and coffee), and other confections have inspired variations around the world.
Auberge du Pommier
4150 Yonge Street
French fine dining in a gorgeous mansion. The place for a special splurge. For us plebs, the Summerlicious and Winterlicious events offer the chance to sample their dishes at a more affordable price. Menu is classical French like vichyssoise, steak tartare, foie gras, and duck. All the components work together and the chefs’ technique shines through.
Union
72A Ossington Avenue
Excellent French bistro. If you come for brunch, try the Swiss train ride, a Swiss-French fusion sandwich of melted cheese, egg, and ham.
Le Beau
665 Dundas Street East
Croissant specialists. It’s easy to see that they have mastered the art of the laminated dough. Their croissants have the largest rise I’ve seen in Toronto and have well-defined layers inside and out. Textbook quality: slightly crisp exterior and chewy interior.
Nadège
780 Queen Street West and other locations
The king (or queen?) of macarons in Toronto. Textbook crisp exterior and chewy interior. They also have dainty entremets (mousse cakes with fillings of contrasting textures) and other confections.
Hauts-de-France
This is practically Belgium. Food specialties here are Flemish like waffles or mussels and fries.
Marvelous by Fred
8.5/10
224 Queen Street West
Their French name sounds much better: merveilleux de Fred. Founded in Hazebrouck in Northern France, their specialty is meringue. Specifically, their invention called “le merveilleux”. It literally melts in the mouth like cotton candy and leaves a sugar bomb on the tongue.
Bretagne
Known as Brittany to the English, this is a Celtic region with a distinct character from the rest of France. Two of its native dishes have gained some global fame: Breton galette (buckwheat pancake) and kouign-amann (puff pastry topped with caramelized sugar).
Chez Paul
833 Queen Street West
Crêpe and galette specialist. Since you can get crêpes easily in Toronto, the obvious thing to get here are the savoury Breton galettes. They’re all right, but expensive for what it is.
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
The cuisine of this region is dominated by Burgundy. Renowned for its wine, Burgundy also gave the world French classics like coq au vin. For gougères (cheese puffs), Chantecler was a good source of them until it closed due to a fire. Check back when they re-open.
Maison Selby
592 Sherbourne Street
Classic Burgundian dishes like coq au vin and bœuf bourguignon executed to perfection. Their signature is the French onion chuck burger, which is like a French onion soup in a burger. The restaurant is set in a gorgeous mansion.
Grand Est
Bordering on Germany, the food of this region is more German than French. Choucroute garnie is the representative dish, which is just sauerkraut, cured meats, and potatoes.
Le Sélect Bistro
432 Wellington Street West
OK, so this isn’t an Alsatian restaurant. This is a long-running bistro that serves classics from all over France. However, it is probably the only place in Toronto that has choucroute on the menu permanently. Go during off-peak hours on the weekends for a discounted menu.
Guadeloupe
This island is thousands of kilometres away in the Caribbean, far from its political masters in Paris. Only French in administration, the food is definitely Caribbean.
Riko Bokito
254 Adelaide Street West
Bokit is a fried bread with a variety of fillings. The bread steals the limelight at Riko Bokito. The fillings could be seasoned better and it could be priced cheaper for mass appeal.
Georgia
Georgian cuisine is severely underrated outside of the former Soviet Union. It is a culinary oddity and quite different from the food of surrounding nations like Russia and Azerbaijan. Walnuts feature prominently in savoury dishes. Wine was probably invented here. Casual food like khinkali (oversized, less refined xiao long bao) and khachapuri (family of flatbreads, typically filled with cheese) are favourites in CIS countries.
Suliko
1311 Alness Street, Unit 8
Has all the Georgian classics like lobio (bean stew) and seven types of khachapuri. Khinkali is good.
Genatsvale
1118 Finch Avenue West
You can tell the target clientele are Russians from the faux-glam banquet hall aesthetic. But the food is traditional Georgian. Kharcho is delightfully spicier than most versions. It has a deep flavour from the khmeli suneli (spice mix). The khinkalis are well-pleated but flaccid.
SunnyCheese Grill and Bakery
3421 Yonge Street
This restaurant takes khachapuri adjaruli to the next level. The boat-shaped pastry comes in different sizes and unusual fillings, including dessert ones with chocolate.
Germany
What most people associate with German cuisine is actually southern German. Pretzels, schweinshaxe (roasted pork knuckles), and schnitzel are Bavarian. It may surprise some to know that Turkish food is widespread there too, owing to the large number of inhabitants of Turkish descent. Which is great for people who want a change from bland Central European food.
The Golden Pigeon Beerhall
424 Parliament Street
Fun pub that comes with arcade games. Recipes are not entirely traditional. It’s a slightly upscale take on German classics but it still works. Like spaetzle with white cheddar.
Wvrst
6.5/10
609 King Street West and Union Station, 65 Front Street West
If you love sausages, come here for a ridiculous variety. For the adventurous, there are bison, elk, and even kangaroo sausages. A little pricey and salty. You can tell it is going to be hipster from the name of the place.
Otto’s Berlin Döner
256 Augusta Avenue
The same crew from Otto’s Bierhalle started this place first before expanding into a beer hall. The menu is simple: döner kebab and currywurst, the two most popular street food in Berlin. Taste is good but prices are higher than in Berlin.
Ghana
Unique dishes to the country are their take on jollof rice (rice cooked in meat stock) and red-red (beans and plantains cooked with red palm oil). Ghanaian food is mild in flavour, unless very hot shito (pepper) is added.
Afro Continental Bar and Grill
849 Albion Road
Authentic Ghanaian food of respectable quality. The main items are jollof, waakye (rice and beans), suya (meat skewers), and stews. Okra and cow foot stew is deliciously slimy. The shito brings about a pleasant lingering of heat. Perfect for pairing with one of their many starches: konkonte (cassava paste), banku (fermented cassava paste), emutuo (rice balls), fufu (pounded yam), and yams. Of these, banku is the most Ghanaian. It tastes slightly medicinal and borderline alcoholic—an acquired taste.
African Chop Bar
2503 Finch Avenue West
Finally, a Ghanaian jollof rice that rivals the best Nigerian one in Toronto. It’s glutinous and has deep flavours from tomatoes and spices. Thoughtful presentation too. The shito is freshly made and isn’t too spicy.
Greece
Toronto had a large wave of Greek immigrants in the mid 20th century. Greektown is on Danforth Avenue between Broadview and Pape and has a slew of old school restaurants. The typical menu in Greektown is pan-Greek, with safe favourites like souvlaki, keftedes (meatballs), and moussaka (eggplant and beef casserole). For modern takes on Greek cuisine, head to the hipper parts of the city. Regional cuisines have not emerged yet.
For Greek groceries, Kostas is a stalwart. Cosmos Agora is a more spacious alternative.
Mamakas Taverna
80 Ossington Avenue
Restaurant is casual but prices are not. This is the best upscale Greek restaurant in the city. You won’t find traditional, heavy dishes here like souvlaki and moussaka. Instead, try modern takes on saganaki (pan-seared cheese) and goat tartare.
Fat Fork
2200 Dundas Street East, Unit 1, Mississauga
Even in Greece, souvlaki chunks aren’t usually as large and copious as at Fat Fork. They’re expertly grilled and slathered with sauces. One wrap can be two light meals.
Filosophy Pastry and Espresso Bar
912 Bloor Street West
Flaky filo pastries and more importantly, flavourful and not too salty. The spanakopita (spinach pie) is a safe choice.
Ballissimo Loukoumades Bar
1027 Coxwell Avenue
Loukoumades are Greek doughnut balls doused in honey. Ballissimo has the best in Toronto and it’s easy to see why. Unlike other bakeries, these treats are fried to order so they are piping hot, soft, yet bouncy. They also win on creativity with their modern flavours, like Oh Canada (potent maple sugar, caramel, and crushed pecans).
Grenada
Like other small Caribbean nations, the cuisine of Grenada is overshadowed by heavyweights Jamaica and Trinidad.
Nutmeg Spiced
646 Oakwood Avenue, Unit 3
Limited hours and literally a takeout window but it’s worth making the trek here for artisanal tropical pastries. They’re famous for their rolled cakes but don’t miss out on their luscious guava and pine nut tarts, which are actually stuffed pastries. The sweet, crisp shell has the perfect thickness.
Grenada Rose
2721 Jane Street, Unit 12
This place also doubles as a bar. Occasionally, they may serve oil down, the national dish of Grenada. This is a stew of chicken, callaloo (a leafy vegetable), breadfruit, salted fish, and other random ingredients. It has an unusual sweet-savoury taste. Hefty portion; buried within are gigantic dumplings. Check their Facebook page to find out when they offer it.
Guatemala
Guatemalan cuisine is where Mexican influences taper off. Ancient Mayan traditions still live on in the large varieties of tamales (leaf-wrapped corn dumplings) and tortillas. There aren’t any Guatemalan restaurants in Toronto since Maya Restaurant closed in the spring of 2021.
El Quetzal Bakery and Restaurant
2011 Lawrence Avenue West, Unit 9
Small store with an equally diminutive selection of Guatemalan imported products and dishes. The tamales are a good bet, rich with meat juices and an undertone of corn from the masa. Be aware that tacos in Guatemala refer to rolled, filled, and deep-fried tortillas, like taquitos. They’re no different here.
Guyana
Guyanese food is almost the same as its more famous cousin, Trinidad. Unfortunately, some unique dishes like pepperpot are not available in Toronto. But you can get cook-up rice: a one-pot wonder of rice, meat, and whatever else is left in the pantry, cooked to a wet consistency.
Lucky Lin’s Restaurant
Serving Chinese-Caribbean meals since 1991. Think chilli fish or jerk chicken fried rice. Portions are heaping for the price and there’s even wok hei (char) in the fried rice.
Naraine’s Bakery
2691 Markham Road, Unit 11
The storefront might be tiny but it has a large variety of breads and pastries. Naraine’s is famous for tennis rolls, which are bread rolls with lemon zest. It’s mild and goes well with sweet or savoury foods. Come on Fridays and Saturdays for hot food specials.
Blue Water Curry and Roti Restaurant
1646 Victoria Park Avenue
Guyanese-Indian food like roti and doubles. The boneless chicken roti has generous meat portions and a strong whiff of coriander powder. Leans towards the salty side. Also has fried bangamary (fish) and black pudding (blood sausage).
Haiti
There are very few Haitian restaurants in Toronto. Montreal is a better bet. For Haitian goods, Union Food Market at 3355 Kingston Road brings ramshackle charm.
Rhum Corner
926 Dundas Street West
This is what happens when Haitian food becomes trendy. Griot and légumes (vegetable stew) become dressy bar food. Fried plantains are sliced thickly and carved into pretty rounds. In general, food is on the salty side. As with other establishments from the same owner, drinks get equal or more attention than the food. Over a hundred types of rum are available from big and small nations around the Caribbean Sea.
Boukan
774 Danforth Avenue
Boukan is a fritay, which is a specialist of deep-fried food. Try Haitian snacks like griot (pork cubes in orange sauce), brightened with pikliz (spicy slaw pickled with vinegar). Some items can be dry.
Hungary
No, Hungarians do not eat goulash every day. But soups do feature prominently in Hungarian cuisine. Besides the usual Central European staples like schnitzel and sausages, there are also some unique foods. Unfortunately, these are difficult to find in Toronto as Hungarian restaurants here stick to more familiar dishes. There used to be more Hungarian restaurants but sadly, many died out in the 1980s and 1990s.
So Hungary is a tiny outpost for Hungarian imported goods and has a small counter for prepared foods.
Budapest Restaurant
7.5/10
2183 Danforth Avenue
This is one of the most flavourful Hungarian restaurants in Toronto. Along with the usual suspects of goulash, paprikash, and dobos torta (layered chocolate cake), there are also lesser-known items like hideg meggyleves (cold cherry soup). The paprikash is simple and comforting, like Swiss Chalet sauce. Nokedli (egg dumpling) has a satisfying chew.
Rhapsody Continental Hungarian Cuisine
10152 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill
Long-standing Hungarian restaurant in the heart of downtown Richmond Hill. The decor is dated but the food is hearty and traditional. Their nokedli are plump and al dente. Sauces have good balance.
India
Toronto boasts over a dozen regional Indian cuisines, fuelled by the huge Indian population. Northeastern and Central Indian cuisine are not represented.
There are five Little Indias in the Toronto region.
- Gerrard India Bazaar. Gerrard Street East between Greenwood and Coxwell Avenue. The original Little India. Good for small grocery stores. Not much worth recommending as better Indian restaurants are found elsewhere.
- Markham Road. Markham Road between Eglinton Avenue East and 14th Avenue in Markham. Long stretch of Indian restaurants. Has more South Indian establishments, especially Tamil ones.
- Albion. Albion Road between Highway 27 and Islington Avenue. Mainly North Indian.
- Brampton. It’s hard to define boundaries so I am just going to put the entire city as a Little India. You can find Indian businesses everywhere. Spills over to Mississauga on the southeast border. Mainly North Indian, especially Punjabi.
- Central Mississauga. Bounded on the northwest by Britannia Road West, northeast by Hurontario Street, southeast by Dundas Street West, southwest by Creditview Road. Mississauga has the best Indian restaurants in the region for every budget.
Surprisingly, there aren’t any Indian hypermarkets in Toronto. Atiya’s Fresh Farm is an orderly place to shop with probably the largest range in Toronto, from organic pulses, East African Indian chevda, to a halal butcher. National chains like No Frills, FreshCo, and even Costco have large desi food sections at certain branches. Chinese hypermarkets are also popular places for Indian families to shop—they have a wide range of international goods. See Pakistan and Sri Lanka for more suggestions.
Canadian-Indian
Think butter chicken poutine. Usually helmed by native Torontonians, influenced by the multicultural food scene.
Pukka
778 St Clair Avenue West
Contemporary Indian cuisine. The focus is not so much on fusion but on modern and sensible dishes. As examples, okra fries, pumpkin curry, and lamb lollipops. Atmosphere is a little hipster (they serve rice in mason jars) but it does not detract from the flavours bursting from each dish.
Curryish Tavern
783 Queen Street West
This is the Canadian-Indian restaurant that Toronto deserves. Curryish pushes hard on the Canadian angle, churning out duck confit curry, smoked salmon uttapam, Newfoundland Screech gulab jamun, and other ingenious combinations. Some dishes like the cheese curds samosas need more fine-tuning to balance the ingredients, but that’s to be expected for a new restaurant that’s experimenting with new flavour profiles.
Khau Gully
1991 Yonge Street
The menu is mostly traditional North Indian, but there are a few fusion dishes like pesto chicken tikka and gulab jamun cheese cake. Biryani is outstanding. A single portion is cooked “dum”: sealed with a sheet of dough, pressure-cooked, and then revealed tableside. Mid-range prices and ambience.
Rick’s Good Eats
6660 Kennedy Road, Unit 1, Mississauga
The owner won a cooking contest and went on to open this place. This place serves “why didn’t I think of that” flavour combinations like butter chicken mac & cheese and dosa burger.
Indian-Chinese (Hakka)
This sub-cuisine has its roots from Chinese migrants in India, especially Kolkata. Sadly, when relations between China and India deteriorated, most Chinese packed up and left. Today, there are very few Chinese-operated Chinese-Indian restaurants in India. You will find more of them here in Toronto than in Kolkata.
Indian-Chinese food looks Chinese if you squint your eyes. But it tastes far from it. Typical dishes are chilli chicken, Szechuan chicken, and Manchurian chicken. They are spicier, greasier, and less refined than authentic Chinese food. For people who grew up in India, this is Chinese food to them since there are no other alternatives.
In Canada, this style of food is confusingly known as Hakka, after the majority Chinese immigrant group to India. Be aware that Hakka people actually have their own cuisine which is completely different from Indian-Chinese. For this reason, I avoid using the term Hakka for Indian-Chinese food.
Federick
1920 Ellesmere Road
This restaurant has been around forever so it has its fair share of lovers and detractors. All the deep-fried staples are there. Good, not great.
Himalayan North
The far north of India features goat and wheat: both suited for high altitudes. The most famous specialty from Kashmir is rogan josh (curried goat) and it can be found at most North Indian restaurants. No restaurants in Toronto serve wazwan, a multi-course meat fest.
Straight Outta Shimla
The only business in Toronto that offers siddu. They’re like Chinese bao but supersized and spiced with turmeric and coriander powder. This home kitchen doesn’t have a storefront, so catch them at events or order pickup.
Kashmiri Kitchen
This is a caterer, not a restaurant. It is the closest you will get to wazwan in Toronto.
Punjab
When most people think of North Indian food, it is usually Punjabi food. Tandoori chicken, butter chicken, and malai kofta all hail from Punjab. Ghee (clarified butter) is used liberally. Naans can be dripping in ghee but you won’t experience that in health-conscious Toronto.
The Host
8.5/10
87 Elm Street
The main reason to come here is for the all-you-can-eat lunch. This is the best quality Indian AYCE you can find in Toronto proper. Good variety of North Indian dishes. Everything is excellent or above-average; there are no fillers at the buffet.
Sher-E-Punjab
351 Danforth Avenue
It is rare to find a good Indian restaurant near downtown Toronto. This is one of them. Naans are freshly baked and fluffy. Curries are well-seasoned and taste different from one another. Good value.
The Tale Indian Cuisine
3747 Lake Shore Blvd West, Unit 1
This would be a cookie-cutter North Indian restaurant if not for its excellent Amritsari kulcha (flatbread with fenugreek and ghee). It’s toasted crisp and the herbs are aromatic. Easily beats other Punjabi restaurants in Brampton.
Delhi and Mughlai
The national capital region doesn’t have a standout cuisine of its own. Instead, think of Delhi as a microcosm of Indian food. Its location in North India guarantees strong Mughlai influences. That means thick, creamy curries with finely-ground spices.
Avani
801 Matheson Boulevard West, Unit 1, Mississauga
Consistently rated as the best Indian restaurant in Mississauga, the accolades are well-deserved. The tandoori meats are impossibly juicy yet delicately charred on the outside. They also have a wide selection of Indian-Chinese food.
Banjara
796 Bloor Street West and 164 Eglinton Avenue East
For those who can’t make the trip to Mississauga or Brampton, this is a fine choice for pan-Indian food. Menu is extensive but leans towards North Indian. For South Indian, you can go to Madras Masala next door (on Bloor Street), run by the same owners. Dishes are above average and they don’t skimp on the saffron.
Gwalia Sweets
25 Woodbine Downs Boulevard, Unit 32
Though this restaurant has its roots in Gujarat, its menu goes beyond to encompass the whole of North India. It has a plethora of street food and makes an authentic chole bhature (puffed fried bread with chickpea curry).
Rajasthan
Rajasthan is arid. The climate encourages preparations that last for days in the desert. Meat dishes feature in Rajasthani cuisine but there is also a strong vegetarian component owing to diverse groups living in the region.
The Maharaja
4646 Heritage Hills Boulevard, Unit 3, Mississauga
This place competes with Avani for the title of best Indian restaurant in Mississauga. The menu pays tribute to the four great traditions in North Indian food: Awadhi, Hyderabadi, Punjabi, and Rajasthani. Their offerings are handily classified accordingly in the menu. Grilled meats are well-seasoned. Naans are made à-la-minute and have the right amount of chew. Chutneys are fresh and perfectly balanced.
Gujarat
Like an opposite to meat-heavy Rajasthan, neighbouring Gujarat is vegetarian. The large population of Jains practice an even more austere form of vegetarianism: they don’t eat underground vegetables like onions, garlic, or potatoes. So, they have to be very creative with their vegetables. An example is dhokla, a savoury chickpea and rice cake.
Gujarati Foods
8.5/10
287 Glidden Road, Unit 14, Brampton
Gujarati fresh food and junk food. Dhokla has a tantalizing aroma of ginger and pairs well with the mint chutney. The namkeen (savoury snacks) are made in-house and are not over-salted like big brands.
S. Motiram Sweets and Restaurant
2608 Eglinton Avenue East
This chain hails from Surat in southern Gujarat, close to Mumbai. Unsurpisingly, its menu is a mix of Gujarat, Bombay, and north Indian food. Of course, you should go for the Surat specialties like the complex-yet-balanced khaja chaat (deep-fried wheat cracker with other savoury bits). Or the green pav bhaji (bread roll and green vegetable curry).
Mumbai and Parsi
Mumbai has two food highlights: junk food street food and Parsi food. Vada pav (croquette sandwich), pav bhaji (vegetable curry sandwich), and bhelpuri (deep-fried snack mix with chutneys) are emblematic of Bombay.
The Parsis are Persian immigrants that settled in the area more than a thousand years ago. The cuisine has since diverged from Persia. The Maharaja holds a Parsee Food Festival in mid-August.
Bombay Bakers
375 Howden Boulevard, Brampton
They bake eggless cakes but the other thing that draws a perpetual crowd is their snacks. Classic street foods are prepared with simple ingredients, yet manage to be delectable. Their vada pav is one of the top ones in the region, with a crisp and well-seasoned batata vada, refreshing coconut chutney, and soft buttery buns. Their chaats are good, but Milan does them better. Incredible value—same prices as in Bombay.
Milan
3899 Trelawny Circle, Mississauga and 14 Lisa Street, Brampton
Skip the rest of their menu and zoom in on their chaats (crackers with yoghurt and chutney). They claim to be the best in the region and for once, this isn’t hyperbole. Every chutney is distinct and savoury. Even their papdi (round, flat crackers) have some complex flavour and are good to eat on their own. Perfect ratio of a multitude of ingredients.
Chaat Ter Box
127 Westmore Drive,Unit 109
Probably the first to bring “live” pani puri to Toronto. Pani puri is an iconic snack made from crisp shells (puri), filled with spiced potatoes or chickpeas, and dribbled with flavoured water (pani). Most places serve a platter that’s ready-to-eat. At a “live” station, diners queue to eat them one at a time, and the vendor pours in the pani of their choice. The shells have a homemade quality and there are 7 pani to choose from. Try khata-mitha (sweet and spicy) or the mango one.
Bombay Frankies
197 North Queen Street and other locations
This chain was started by a celebtriy chef from Vancouver and is now the biggest purveyors of Frankie rolls in the Toronto region. Frankies are wraps with Indian fillings. They’re modernized at this fast food restaurant to include unorthodox ingredients like pakoras (fritters) and vindaloo.
Lucknow and Awadhi
Awadhi cuisine is one of the great culinary traditions in India. It’s renowned for its kebabs like the galouti kebab, tenderized with papayas and minced so finely that it can be eaten by toothless kings. Lucknow is the centre of this cuisine.
The Maharaja is the only restaurant that has a decent offering of Awadhi cuisine.
Kakori
2911 Eglinton Avenue West, Unit 2, Mississauga
The only restaurant that has kakori kebabs. Very similar to galouti kebabs and melts in the mouth without chewing. Unique texture and worth trying at least once. This restaurant describes itself as Lucknowi but the menu is mostly generic North Indian foods like butter chicken and vindaloo.
West Bengal
Bengal is known for its sweets. Full-service restaurants that have both savoury and sweet foods prefer to have “sweets” in their name than the word “restaurant”. Rosogolla (balls of cheese in syrup) is the representative sweet of the region. Other noteworthy aspects of Bengali food are the use of mustard oil and fish. It is also the only Indian cuisine that has a multiple course tradition: appetizer, main course, and dessert.
Bangladeshi food is almost the same as West Bengali. The difference is usually the choice of protein: beef vs fish.
BHK Roll
College Park food court, 444 Yonge Street
Not many places in Toronto offer kathi rolls, a street food from Kolkata. It’s a kebab wrapped with fried egg and paratha (laminated flatbread). The chef worked at hotels and high-end restaurants before opening this food court stall. Predictably, the standard is high and has the crowds to show for it. Flakey parathas, generous fillings, and low prices.
Flavors of Kolkata
545 Keele Street
This ghost kitchen is one of the few places to get Kolkata dishes that are not just kathi rolls. Try their various breaded meats or Gondhoraj chicken in a yoghurt-based curry. Decent cooking.
Kwality Sweets
2150 Steeles Avenue East, Brampton
Wide variety of Bengali sweets. Serves good pan-Indian food too, cafeteria style.
Goa
The most famous export of this former Portuguese colony is vindaloo. This is a spicy curry with vinegar, which is an unusual ingredient for Indian food. Seafood dishes are a highlight, with fun-to-pronounce names like xec xec (dry curry shellfish) and xacuti (chicken coconut curry).
Goa Kitchen
Bayview Village, 2901 Bayview Avenue, Unit 102
Trendy fusion restaurant focusing on Goan cuisine. Modern takes on vindaloo. There are some non-Goan dishes thrown in the mix like butter chicken porcini. Tastes above average.
Karnataka
Karnatakan food is almost the same as Tamil food. Except for the northern region, which is almost the same as Andhran food. The ubiquitous Mysore dosa (rice flour crepe stuffed with mashed potatoes, onions, and chillies) may or may not have been invented in Mysore.
Radha Krushna
3075 Ridgeway Drive, Unit 1, Mississauga
Vegetarian restaurant offering Udupi specialties like neer dosa, a non-fermented type of dosa. Their upma (semolina porridge) and poha (flattened rice) are complex and replete with ingredients. Zany dosas rivals that from Guru Lukshmi. Noodle dosa or Thai red curry dosa anyone?
Hyderabad (Nizami)
Indian food lovers should make a pilgrimage to Hyderabad at least once in their lifetime. Hyderabad is the centre of Nizami cuisine, one of the great culinary traditions in India. You can find biryani all over India but the version in Hyderabad is considered the most sublime. I haven’t found a comparable version in Toronto but some places come close.
Hyderabad Biryani Hut
7.5/10
1587 Ellesmere Road
The presentation of biryani here resembles biryani shops in Hyderabad: in a large metal pot with a ladle. There are close to 20 different types of biryani to choose from. There are other North Indian items on the menu, but you are really here for the biryani and Nizami dishes. The signature dum biryani is spiced assertively. The chili powder is there but is quite mild actually, letting other spices like star anise, cumin, and cardamom come through.
4 Seasons Indian Cuisine
1519 Birchmount Road
For something other than biryanis, come to 4 Seasons for various Hyderabadi dishes. Their haleem (wheat porridge with shredded mutton) is smooth, well-balanced, and arguably one of the best in Toronto.
Andhra (Telugu)
Andhran food is regarded as the spiciest in India. Its spin on dosa is the pesarattu, which is made out of mung bean flour instead of rice flour.
Minerva Tiffins
16 Lebovic Avenue
Vivid flavours and phenomenal freshness. I mean, who fries vadas (savoury fritters) to order? Minerva Tiffins does. And it shows with the fluffiest vadas in the region. No wonder they outgrew a stall in a desolate food court and took over a nearby restaurant.
Andhra Bhavan
2598 Birchmount Road
If you’re looking for fiery curries, you’ve found it here. Hotter than the average curry, the konaseema kodi kura (chicken curry) glistens red but other flavours are still discernable.
Tamil Nadu
At the southern end of the country, Tamil cuisine is distant from the butter chicken and tandoori items of North India. Rice replaces bread as the main staple. Curries are more runny and contain coconut milk. Dosas, idlis (lightly fermented rice cakes), vadas (bean and potato doughnuts), and other South Indian favourites originated from the Tamil kingdom.
Toronto has a decent selection of Tamil restaurants. From nondescript hole-in-the-walls to famous chains from Tamil Nadu: Saravanaa Bhavan and Anjappar Chettinad. Tamil food is almost indistinguishable from Northern Sri Lankan food, so consider visiting Sri Lankan restaurants as local Tamils do.
Guru Lukshmi
7070 Saint Barbara Boulevard, Unit 45, Mississauga
Best South Indian restaurant in the Toronto region. All chutneys are fresh and scrumptious. Dosas are their specialty and better than most in India. They range from traditional ones like aloo masala (potato onion mash) to zany ones like pav bhaji (Bombay potato patty) and M&M’s.
Karaikudi
1225 Kennedy Road
Come for the dosas. The ridiculously long paper dosa has to be seen to be believed. Classic standards. Potato masala is piquantly savoury.
Kerala
Kerala sits on the same latitude as Tamil Nadu and is also coastal, albeit on the other side of the country. Surprisingly, its cuisine is quite distinct from its neighbour. The representative dish is meen molee (fish curry). There is also duck curry and karimeen pollichathu (marinated fish wrapped in banana leaves), which probably isn’t what most people have in mind when they think of Indian food. In a good way.
Oruma Indian Takeout & Bakers
1071 Danforth Road, Unit 5
Large variety of Kerala foods, cheap, lip-smacking, and opens late. What more do you want? Their weekend pothichoru (rice meal wrapped with banana leaves) is a must-try: bold spicing, aromatic coconut in various guises, and fried fish that is richly-seasoned and not overcooked.
Thanima Kerala Kitchen
5165 Tomken Road, Mississauga
Their menu is largely Malayali but dips into neighbouring Tamil Nadu with dosas and Chicken 65. Solid quality. Check out their supermarket next door for Kerala produce.
Indonesia
Toronto sorely lacks Indonesian restaurants. Indonesia is one of the largest countries in the world and has numerous regional cuisines. In Toronto, you will just find Javan and Balinese cuisines. Promising virtual kitchens like Indonesian’s Flavour and Sambal have been popping up recently. Here’s hoping they will get a bricks and mortar store or at least a more robust online presence.
See Netherlands for Dutch-Indonesian restaurants.
Samara Kitchen
8/10
6033 Shawson Drive, Unit 13, Mississauga
The only authentic full-service Indonesian restaurant in the Toronto region. Menu features common foods in Jakarta. Also the only place that has ayam penyet (smashed fried chicken), a dish that has catapulted in popularity in Southeast Asia in the past decade. The national dish, gado-gado (salad with peanut curry dressing), comes in a hulking portion and a piquant peanut sauce.
Little Jakarta
Inside Big Beef Bowl, 8362 Kennedy Road, Markham
Popup inside a featured Chinese restaurant in this list. This is the real deal for Indonesian flavours. The rendang (beef dry curry) is above average and comes apart easily. The pick of the condiments is the sambal ijo (green chilli sauce). Umami from the tiny anchovies and a slight kick from the fresh chillies.
Iran
You know that a city has a strong Persian food culture when you can find Persian brunch. Iranian restaurants are scattered around the downtown core and Little Persia (Yonge Street between Finch and Clark Avenue). The biggest Iranian supermarket in Little Persia is Khorak. Get nuts, dried fruits, and candy from Tavazo.
Queen of Persia
672A St Clair Avenue West
Delicious Persian classics presented in traditional tableware. You can taste every ingredient in the mirza ghasemi (eggplant and egg spread). Kebabs have a nice char and remain moist. Saffron comes through in the rice dishes. More expensive than average.
Garni Bakery
8.5/10
9555 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill
If you ever wondered what an Iranian bakery is, come here to be surprised. Sure, there are traditional breads like barbari (the best in the city and a one metre monster), but French pastries are also part of Iranian cafe culture. Cake rolls, napoleons, and cream puffs can be found here, just like bakeries in Tehran, adapted to Persian tastes of course. The napoleon, in particular, is their specialty and is beautifully light and airy.
Gandom Bakery
815 Major Mackenzie Drive East, Unit 11, Richmond Hill
This bakery has one standout product: sangak. It’s a massive sheet of whole wheat flatbread, cooked on hot pebbles. It’s aromatic and has a good chew. No English signage.
Takht-e Tavoos
1120 College Street
It finally happened: Persian brunch. Dishes are mostly traditional, just presented in a more modern manner. Dizi is a great excuse to play with your food. It’s a meat soup with chickpeas that you can mash once you are done with the soup.
Mr Dizi
1027 Finch Avenue West, Unit 3
The only dizi specialist in the Toronto region. They have a small selection of flavours and they all come on a large, roughly-hewn platter. Traditional but average.
Iraq
Iraq does not have a lot of unique dishes. Most are just minor variations of Middle Eastern staples like hummus and falafel.
Joummar
2575 Dundas Street West, Unit 1, Mississauga
Upscale and elegant Iraqi. Has the national dish, masgouf, which is a grilled, butterflied fish. Lamb quzi (slow roasted lamb) is divine and has no hint of gaminess. Fat is rendered beautifully and meat falls off the bone. The laffa (flatbread) is freshly made and the aroma from the charred bits is mouth-watering. Watch the action behind the enclosed glass kitchen. Don’t expect great service and you will be fine.
Mezgouf
843 Kipling Avenue
Iraqi restaurant with a wider range of specialties than other places. Of course, it has masgouf. The Iraqi kebabs are moist and plump but the accompaniments are fast food quality.
Ireland
Ireland is known more for its alcohol than its food. It’s really difficult to find an Irish restaurant that is not a pub. Good news is that you are not missing out because like traditional British food, traditional Irish food is bland and unimaginative.
Toronto has at least a dozen Irish pubs serving fish and chips, burgers, and other pub fare. PJ O’Brien is popular.
The George Street Diner
129 George Street
Competent brunch spot with a diner aesthetic and an Irish bent. They are probably the only place that makes soda bread in Toronto. It really does taste like baking soda.
Israel
Thriving
Toronto has a large Jewish population that fuels the Israeli restaurants in the city. Israeli cuisine is really Middle Eastern with minor variations. Some restaurants might also serve Ashkenazi Jewish food.
Limon
1968 Queen Street East
Casual Israeli eats like chicken schnitzel and falafel, executed competently with some surprising touches like Yemeni zhug (green chilli paste). Their pita sandwiches are stuffed to the brim and are great value.
Aish Tanoor
994 Eglinton Avenue West
Kosher restaurant with the usual assortment of sabich (fried eggplant pita sandwich), hummus, falafel, and shawarma. Shakshuka (poached eggs in tomato sauce) can be had in a bread bowl. The namesake tanoor (clay oven) takes centre stage behind the counter. Diners can watch laffas (flatbreads) baked fresh to order in front of them. Traditional, large portions, and good quality.
Eisenbergs Sandwich
4580 Dufferin Street
Bagel toasts are flattened bagels covered with sesame seeds and then toasted crisp. Eisenbergs excels at making them and refers to them as Jerusalem toast. The sandwich fillings are ordinary but the entire package is a satisfying lunch.
Sababa
390 Steeles Avenue West
Unassuming grocery store/restaurant/takeout counter. The sit-down restaurant is next to the store and also extends inside it for takeout orders. The falafel sandwich is cheap and tasty.
Italy, Vatican City
Toronto has a ridiculous number of Italian food places. Authentic ones, Westernized ones, cheap ones, overpriced ones, family-style ones, fine-dining ones. Regional specialization is rare. Most restaurants don’t restrict themselves to a regional cuisine and serve whatever strikes their fancy. For gourmet Italian groceries and takeout, there’s Pusateri’s, McEwan, and an Eataly outpost. For fresh pasta, go to Famiglia Baldassarre.
Vatican food is the same as Roman food, so it is included here.
American/Canadian-Italian
The earliest Italian immigrants to Canada and the USA were from Southern Italy. Many household Italian dishes in North America like lasagne and meatball spaghetti are from that region. The cuisine has since diverged from Italy. The main differences are the supersized portions and heavier application of cheese and sauces.
Sugo
1279 Bloor Street West
The rule here is that nobody should leave hungry. Simple, decent quality food at extremely affordable prices. An order of spaghetti is about a kilogram (that’s 2.2 lb for American readers), presented as a towering mound. Generous servings of tomato sauce and cheese, as is typical of this cuisine.
Papamio’s
934 Manning Avenue
Old-fashioned Italian sandwiches. It’s a simple stack of breaded veal and tomato sauce, but the aromatics from the caramelized onions and bell peppers distinguish it from its competitors.
Bitondo’s Pizzeria
11 Clinton Street
Old-school pizza and panzerotti place. No-frills, classic flavours. Come here for the nostalgia and the prices.
National
Terroni
720 Queen Street West and other locations
A long-running institution serving Southern and Central Italian cuisine. You either respect them or hate them for their no substitutions policy. Want sauce on the side, extra cheese, no meat, or slice it differently? Nope! If you have dietary restrictions, let the waitstaff know so they can recommend a different dish. Thankfully, the food is good enough to stand on its own without modifications.
Buca Yorkville
53 Scollard Street
This is the second Buca restaurant. It has some of the same dishes as the flagship but seafood is the focus here. Try octopus salami and cured tuna. Great if you want a change of pace from heavy Southern Italian fare. The pizzas are better than the pastas.
Death in Venice
1418 Dundas Street West
The place for crazy gelato flavours that shouldn’t work but they do. Ricotta-lemon-rosemary (this won a competition), black garlic-fennel-vanilla, truffle-maple-sage, and pad thai are some of the odd ones. They have more “conventional” flavours like pistachio baklava, blackberry-earl grey, and peanut butter-croissant.
Rome
You probably have eaten Roman food without knowing it. Popular pastas like carbonara, cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper), and amatriciana (tomato and pork cheek) came from Rome.As for Roman pizzas, the most well-known format is pizza al taglio: thick rectangular slices sold at takeout counters.
Enoteca Sociale
1288 Dundas Street West
Dark and intimate restaurant that has excellent pasta. It might be too al dente for some.
Bene
Saks Food Hall, basement of Hudson’s Bay, 176 Yonge Street
This is the only place worth eating lunch at Saks Food Hall. Everything else is desserts or poor value. The pizza al taglio base is crisp, almost deep-fried. Quality of ingredients are high but so are the prices. Conveniently located in the downtown shopping district.
Ciao Roma
28 Roytech Road, Unit 12A, Vaughan
Strangely, there are few eateries specializing in pizza al taglio, considering that this street food is perfect for takeout. Ciao Roma prices pizza by weight, just like in Rome. The base is thick and chewy and there is a good variety of toppings like prosciutto and truffle oil. Try to get one within an hour of baking. When it becomes stale, it becomes just like reheated frozen pizza.
Lombardy
The food of northern Italy has less tomatoes and pasta. The capital, Milan, is known for its trinity of cotoletta (schnitzel), ossobuco (veal shanks), and risotto (Milanese-style, coloured bright yellow by saffron).
Stelvio
791 Dundas Street West
You know it is legitimate when they import foodstuffs from Lombardy. They really want to showcase the region’s food and the menu has lots of dishes not found in your typical pan-Italian restaurant. Sciatt is a deep-fried buckwheat ball with a melted cheese filling. Basically, a glorified cheese ball. The risottos are al dente, including the famous risotto alla milanese. Rabbit and veal, both heavily used in Northern Italy, also feature in their secondi. The branding and interior design is casual chic Milan.
Emilia-Romagna
Encompassing Bologna of spaghetti bolognese fame, this region is indeed known for pasta. It also gives the world famous cheeses like Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano.
Rimini Rimini
453 Eglinton Avenue West
The most memorable thing about this restaurant is its bright pink, faux-glam interior. The food is pretty decent too and you can get hard-to-find specialties from the coastal city of Rimini, like lobster passatelli. It’s the closest you’ll get to San Marino in Toronto, if you’re on a world food tour.
Tuscany
There are no Tuscan restaurants that serve the representative dishes trippa (tripe from cow’s stomach) or lampredotto (tripe sandwich). Gee, I wonder why.
Tutti Matti
364 Adelaide Street West
Although Tutti Matti bills itself as a Tuscan restaurant, its menu is broad and Central Italian. There are only a handful of dishes that are unique to Tuscany like peposo fiorentino (veal stew) and ribollita (vegetable and bread soup). Central Italian food is simple. The food is ok but prices are on the high side for the level of cooking and ambience.
Campania
This is the region that many non-Italians associate with Italian food. It is the birthplace of pizza and mass-produced dried pasta. Other familiar favourites are lasagne, parmigiana melanzane (eggplant parmesan), spaghetti alle vongole (clams), mozzarella di bufala (buffalo cheese), limoncello (lemon liqueur), and sfogliatelle (layered pastry with sweet fillings).
Pizzeria Libretto
221 Ossington Avenue and other locations
This is the restaurant that first brought VPN (Vera Pizza Napoletana—real Neapolitan pizza) to Toronto in 2009. It remains popular in spite of the many Neapolitan competitors, and for good reason. Crust has a light char and ingredients are not overworked. The menu has a selection of pizzas for everyone. Seasonal offerings pique the interest of regulars.
Cafe Oro di Napoli
75 Jarvis Street
If you are sick of pizza, there are other Neapolitan dishes here like polpette (meatballs). But the pizzas are still the most popular, blistered in a giant brick oven. High quality, comparable to VPN even though it is not officially certified. The unorthodox Vesuvio pizza combines fried eggplant with the Margherita trinity of fresh basil, tomatoes, and fior di latte, giving it a more satisfying texture.
Calabria
Calabrian cuisine is spicy and similar to its more famous neighbour, Sicily. The trendy, spicy Italian sausage ‘nduja hails from this region.
Morellina’s
146 Christie Street
Hidden gem in a neighbourhood with no other restaurants. The Yorkville prices may raise eyebrows but they’re justified by exemplary Italian cooking: vibrant ingredients, cooked expertly, and not overworked. It’s hard to pinpoint the region that the menu represents, but it’s somewhere between Calabria and Puglia. There are also influences from northern Italy, like the agnolotti (Piedmontese dumplings) stuffed with roast meat and smothered with Sicilian pistachios.
Trattoria Taverniti
591 College Street
Mostly pan-Italian menu of pizzas and pastas with some Calabrian items like ‘nduja. The spicy sausage has a good kick of heat and melts in the mouth. Everything has the seal of approval from the resident nonna.
Sicily
Sicilian cuisine is what would happen if mainland Italian and Arabic cuisines had a child. Some of the most recognizable Italian foods come from this island, like cannoli and arancini.
Holy Cannoli
1 Thirtieth Street
When you open a bakery just making cannolis, you either go out of business or become the best in the city. Guess which camp Holy Cannoli falls under. The cannoli come in a range of sizes from bite-sized to large. All are freshly filled with cool cream, contrasting with the crispy and well-flavoured shell.
Futura Granita and Gelato
964 St Clair Avenue West
This is the only place in Toronto that specializes in granita, which is like a high-quality slushie. Classic flavours are almond or lemon. The granita is smooth and makes a great breakfast, like in Sicily.
Ardo
243 King Street East
Several Sicilian classics are served here, including pasta alla Norma (eggplant, tomatoes, and cheese pasta). Get the panelle (chickpea chips), a delectable junk food. The sfincione pizza (thick pizza with anchovies) isn’t authentic but is just as tasty. Instead of a thick focaccia base, it is done Neapolitan style with a thin base and blistered crust.
Jamaica
Jerk chicken and patties are all widely available in Toronto. Other dishes like fish tea (soup) and escovitch (vinegar-y sauce with onions and peppers) are harder to find. In summer evenings, vendors set up oil drum grills for jerk chicken along Eglinton Avenue West, between the subway station and Dufferin Street.
Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen
8.5/10
104 Portland Street
Trendy, mid-range resto bar. Although the flavour profile is only 80% authentic, the food is lip-smacking nonetheless. Modern twists like papaya slaw with shredded coconut will open your horizons to the possibilities of Jamaican cuisine.
Pattie World Bakery
86 Guided Court
Best patties in Toronto. Their flavours are more complex and the dough is lighter than its competitors. It doesn’t hurt that they have inspired flavours like ackee (omelette-like fruit) and saltfish patties and jerk chicken patties.
Simone’s Caribbean
596 Danforth Avenue
Good mid-range Jamaican restaurants are rare. This is one of them. It has the whole Jamaican family of carbohydrates: festivals (fried dough), johnny cakes (fried pancakes), plantains, dumplings, and rice and peas. Jerk chicken is moderately spiced.
Smoke ‘N’ Roti
3320 Keele Street
This is not strictly a Jamaican restaurant. As its name says, one of its signatures is Trinidadian roti. However, the other signature is one of the best in the city. It’s rare to find jerk chicken this smokey but not overwhelming. All with a touch of heat.
Japan
Before 2010, Toronto had a poor Japanese food scene. There were few authentic places and Japanese restaurants were either sushi joints or generalists that sold teriyaki salmon and ramen. Fast forward to today: Toronto boasts a 8/10 Japanese food scene. It started with a wave of ramen restaurants, then the izakayas, and now you can get specialists for green tea soba (buckwheat noodles), onigiri (triangular stuffed rice cakes), kushiage (deep-fried skewers), and Japanese cheesecake.
There is satisfactory regional coverage but there is still room to grow. Some regions are only represented by a single restaurant.
Canadian-Japanese
Nakamori Japanese Restaurant
2803 Eglinton Avenue East
Forego the traditional food here and go for the creative fusion fare. The star is the lobster coconut curry ramen, taking inspiration from Pai’s (a Thai restaurant in Toronto) khao soi and surpasses it. The broth is lighter than expected but still packs a lot of crustacean flavour. The deep-fried morsels of lobster give the finishing touch.
JaBistro
8.5/10
222 Richmond Street West
A close competitor to Miku for best aburi sushi. The JaBistroll easily beats any single blowtorched sushi from Miku (the scallop and snow crab probably helps) but their other offerings are slightly weaker. They have a better value sampler set called Aburicious.
Miku
10 Bay Street, Unit 105
One word: oshizushi. The blow-torched variant (aburi sushi) is not just for looks or novelty. The extreme heat caramelizes the top of the fish, resulting in a contrast of textures between the crisp cooked parts and mushy raw parts. Get the aburi sampler if you can’t decide.
Kingyo Fisherman’s Market
51B Winchester Street
An upscale izakaya from Vancouver. Japanese food with a Western twist. Deep-fried brussels sprouts are decadent and definitely not healthy. The tantan ramen is surprisingly good for a simple dish. It closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since reopened with a grab-and-go corner.
Kinka
398 Church Street and other locations
Legendary for staff that greet customers loudly and cheer for no apparent reason. Offers fusion Japanese tapas like gyu carpaccio (raw beef slices seared at the sides) and kabocha korokke (pumpkin croquette). Used to be associated with Guu, a similar Vancouver chain.
Tatsu’s Bread
3180 Lake Shore Boulevard West
The baker here combines Japanese and European inspirations to create one-of-a-kind breads. A surprise hit are the “bagels”, which are not really bagels but a blend of filo pastry and bread. Tip: get day-old breads at more than 50% off.
National
Imanishi Japanese Kitchen
8.5/10
1330 Dundas Street West
More like a trendy bar than izakaya. Small plates for sharing. Food is contemporary, on the edge of fusion. All dishes are excellent.
STuu STuu
Upper East Food Club, 5317 Yonge Street and 507 Church Street
This is the best Japanese curry you can get in Toronto right now. It has more depth than store-bought roux and a more complex heat. Edamame, pickles, and corn accompany each order, giving the impression of a healthier meal.
Onnki Donburi
8/10
409 College Street (Closed. Reopening at new location in mid-2023)
As the name suggests, they serve donburi (rice with stuff on top). Donburi are like sandwiches. They are an everyday food and standards vary from supermarket takeout to gourmet fine dining. All you need to know is that Onnki has the best donburi in the city, even though they are Korean-run. The menu is limited, which allows mastery of each item. The signature buta fire don features fatty pork with smokey overtones, well-balanced between sweet and salty.
Patisserie 27
401 Jane Street
Japanese-French bakery with some unique cake creations. Go early for their almond croissants. Puffy and crisp despite the almond paste filling. Toasted almond chunks on a craquelin (cookie top) affirms this as the best filled croissant in Toronto. If you’re looking for a more Japanese and less French bakery, go to Mon K Patisserie.
Bloom Cafe
596 Yonge St, 5317 Yonge St, and 255 Beverley St
Japanese cream puffs on the verge of exploding with cream. They’re better than the renowned Japanese chain, Beard Papa. Try the original one as a baseline, then get floral flavours like jasmine and earl grey.
Sasaki Fine Pastry
3160 Steeles Avenue East
Chilled desserts reign supreme here, especially mochi (glutinous rice balls with fillings). They have over 10 flavours at a time, and every one encapsulates its inspiration literally and figuratively. They’re made fresh, as can be observed from the paper-thin and supple pastry skin.
Izakaya Ju
3160 Steeles Avenue East, Unit 3
This venerable restaurant has been holding its own before the Japanese food scene exploded in Toronto. Located at a corner of J-Town, it gets a reliable stream of Japanese customers. Menu is simple, has good variety, and executed well. Mid-range.
Hokkaido
There aren’t any restaurants that offer a range of Hokkaido food. But there are a handful of ramen joints that specialize in miso ramen, which Hokkaido is known for.
Isshin Ramen
421 College Street
Best overall ramen in Toronto. And it’s not a branch from Japan or Vancouver either. The signature dish is the wok-fried red miso ramen. Noodles have the perfect chewiness and size. Broth is complex and bursting with umami.
Pablo Cheese Tart
5990 16th Avenue, Unit 216, Markham
The Japanese cheese tart originates from Sapporo and spurred a food fad a few years ago. This global chain does it justice with a jiggly filling and a short, buttery crust. They are mildly sweet and taste nothing like cheese, which is how it should be.
Tokyo
The most populous city in the world is big enough and old enough to have its own cuisine. What the rest of the world knows as sushi is just one style of sushi, edomae zushi, that was invented in Tokyo. If you want to splurge more than $150 a person, there are high-end places in Toronto that will happily take your money like Shoushin, Sushi Kaji, and Yasu.
Zakkushi
193 Carlton Street and 620 Queen Street West
Specialists in kushiyaki (grilled Japanese skewers). Each skewer is grilled to the right doneness. If you think you knew yakitori (chicked skewers), this place will surprise you with its dizzying array of choices.
Katsuya
6048 Yonge Street and other locations
One of the best katsu (deep-fried slice of meat) in the city. Exceedingly crunchy panko breading. You can get it in the traditional style, with a mortar and pestle to grind sesame seeds. Or try the more flavourful fusion options typical in South Korea, like carbonara.
Akimitsu
41 Elm Street
The only tempura specialist in the city. No surprise that it is also the best.
Ramen Buta-Nibo
547 Danforth Avenue
Ramen Jiro has a cult following in Tokyo because it’s cheap and filling junk food. Buta-Nibo takes that as an inspiration, minus the low-quality ingredients and adding a pleasant ambience. There’s even an vegetarian option. The broth is garlicky and filled with pork back fat just like Jiro’s. Satisfying.
Fuwa Fuwa
408 Bloor Street West
This was the first restaurant that brought soufflé pancakes to Toronto and remains the best. Imagine a soufflé in pancake form and that’s exactly what you get. Tall, light, jiggly, and very eggy. It’s as much a visual delight as the pancake mecca in Harajuku and Omotesando, Tokyo.
Chubu
The central part of Honshu island gets overlooked by tourists rushing between Tokyo and Osaka. Food specialties aren’t as well-known. Seafood is particularly good but there’s also Nagoya tebasaki (chicken wings) and hitsumabushi (grilled eel on rice).
Megumi Mazesoba
46 St Clair Avenue East, Unit 101
Mazesoba is a dry ramen with minimal broth. It originates from Nagoya. Megumi has several varieties, even vegan ones in a nod to Toronto dietary preferences. All the components are delectable and it makes for a nice change from rich ramen.
Kyoto
Second to Tokyo in culinary importance. This is the home of imperial cuisine. Kaiseki is the epitome of Japanese fine dining and has developed for centuries in Kyoto. Hashimoto is the only place in Toronto that does this elaborate ceremony.
Tsujiri
147 Dundas Street West
This Kyoto-based chain is famous for green tea and associated desserts. Those are good but the things to try in Canada are their savoury dishes. North York was the first location in the world (including Japan) that served full meals but that location closed in 2022. Their legacy lives on in other Canadian outlets. The green tea soba noodles have a light nutty aftertaste and pairs well with a soy milk broth that mimics tonkotsu.
Kansai
Kansai is a region in western Japan and eternal rival to Kanto, the region encompassing Tokyo. It’s anchored by Osaka, the second-largest city in the country and famous for its street foods.
Technically, Kyoto is in Kansai but its cuisine is so distinct that it deserves a section of its own.
Raku
456 Queen Street West
Admittedly, this isn’t a Kansai restaurant. It’s from New York. But it’s the best place for Osaka’s very own udon: kitsune udon. It’s a soup noodle with just aburaage (deep-fried tofu skin) and narutomaki (fish cake). The noodles are freshly-made and very bouncy. Soup has deep flavours. If you want something more complex, you’re in luck as they have the largest variety of udon dishes in the city.
Ushi Shabu Shabu
550 Highway 7, Unit 80, Richmond Hill
Shabu shabu is Japanese hot pot that originated from Osaka. Ushi not only gives a top-notch version, it’s hands down the best value meal in the Toronto region. The lunch special has high quality meats and unique sides for less than $20, enough to feed two people. Of the 7 broths, the coconut Hokkaido milk and sukiyaki (sweet soy) stand out.
Gushi
707 Dundas Street West and 296 Gerrard Street East
Osaka is synomynous with takoyaki (dough balls with a chunk of octopus inside). It can be found all over Toronto in izakayas and Asian food markets. Gushi is particularly accessible with a permanent outdoor stall. It’s also a tad better than average. Don’t miss out on their fried chicken, which is their true signature.
Okonomi House
23 Charles Street West
The newfangled izakayas may have tastier okonomiyaki but Okonomi House wins on price and choice of proteins from bacon to scallops. It’s also the most venerable, running since 1978, before Japanese cuisine was popular in Canada.
Shikoku
The island of Shikoku doesn’t have much famous foods, other than their take on udon.
Zen Sanuki Udon
3720 Midland Avenue, Unit 113
Sanuki udon is the most renowned type of udon in Japan. It’s very thick and bouncy—qualities attributed to the wheat in Sanuki (present-day Kagawa Prefecture). Zen Sanuki Udon boasts imported flour from Kagawa and a large array of hot and cold preparations. Their noodle is top-notch bouncy. They even deep-fry it to make udon chips.
Kyushu
The southern-most part of Japan doesn’t have any world-famous dishes. The big exception is tonkotsu ramen, a milky pork broth noodle that has become one of the national dishes of Japan. It has also gained an avid following around the world. Other dishes from the region show Chinese influences. Like Nagasaki champon (cheap soup noodles with a mishmash of toppings), which you can find easily at Kenzo Ramen.
Ikkousha Ramen Chicken
9/10
257 Queen Street West
A chain from Hakata, but it has the best chicken broth in the city and perhaps this side of North America. It’s amazing how they can concentrate so much flavour in the soup, making it far richer than a consomme but not too salty. This is their second Canadian branch. The first is a few steps down the street and specializes in traditional tonkotsu. That is excellent as well and is a close competitor to Santouka. However, the chicken ramen is even better.
Santouka
91 Dundas Street East and other locations
OK, this is actually from Hokkaido, at the other end of Japan. And yes, it is a global chain, but a very good one at that. The best tonkotsu ramen in the city, beating other Hakata wannabes here. Broth is milky and has intense umami from the pork bones. Noodles are al dente, though Sansotei does it a little better.
Kyushu Yakitori Izakaya
7181 Yonge Street, Unit 31, Markham
Grilled meats are an essential part of the yatai (food cart) scene in the southern port city of Fukuoka. This anime-themed izakaya has them, but other Kyushu specialties steal the show like chicken nanban (sweet and sour fried chicken) with an addictive, homemade tartare sauce. It’s equal parts tangy, sweet, and herbaceous.
Okinawa
The food in far-flung Okinawa is Chinese with a splash of Japanese. No surprise as its capital is twice as close to Taipei than Tokyo.
Tondou Ramen
The only Okinawan restaurant in Toronto. Truth be told, national foods like tonkotsu ramen and takoyaki outnumber Okinawan ones on the menu. Regardless, the delights are the specialties like Okinawa soba (thick egg noodle soup) with koregusu (chillis in rice alcohol). Bean sprouts feature heavily too, like in their ginger-infused Taiwan ramen. Pork dishes are fatty and tender.
Jordan
The food of Jordan isn’t very distinctive. You can find pretty much the same dishes in Syria, Lebanon, or Israel.
Zaad
348 Bloor Street West
There is nothing uniquely Jordanian here, but this fast food restaurant stands up to the best shawarma and falafel places in Mississauga and Scarborough. The decor is more classy and the flavours are a significant notch up from the usual shawarma joints downtown. Taste is very similar to Syrian shawarma.
Petra Restaurant
1100 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Unit 9, Mississauga
Upper mid-range restaurant serving Jordanian specialties, including the national dish mansaf. This is a rice dish with lamb in fermented dry yoghurt. At Petra, they provide the yoghurt on the side. A good thing because it is an acquired taste—there is a gamey taste of sheep.
Kenya
Nyama choma (grilled meats) and ugali (corn meal paste) are the more memorable foods from Kenya. Honestly, Kenya does not have a distinctive cuisine as it shares the same food with Tanzania and Uganda. With the exception of Zanzibar and Ethiopia, East African food reflects the eat-to-live ethos rather than live-to-eat.
There are lots of Indian immigrants in East Africa and they have shaped the region’s cuisine. Almost all the Kenyan and Tanzanian restaurants in Toronto serve grilled meats and East African-Indian foods.
Simba Grill
375 Donlands Avenue
Simba Grill has a slightly larger menu than other East African restaurants in Toronto. You can find staples like mishkaki (grilled skewers) and nyama choma. The quality is akin to a working class restaurant in East Africa.
Kuwait
Yet another minor variant of Persian Gulf cuisine.
Walima
1185 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Gulf rice dishes like machboos and maqlooba. The aromatic rice is definitely the star, garnished with fried onions and firm chickpeas. Accompanying sauces and condiments are so-so.
Laos
Toronto has a handful of Lao-Thai restaurants. For something similar, try Isan (northeastern Thai) restaurants.
Lao Lao Bar
5 St Joseph Street
The owners of a former Northern Thai restaurant decided to expand their Laotian offerings in this sleek location. Som tum tod (fried papaya salad) is a must. Take your pick of any of the grilled meats or try the jeow bong (chilli paste from central Laos).
Lao Thai
4 Gladstone Avenue
For anything you can’t find at Lao Lao Bar. Thai dishes like green curry and pad thai creep into the menu but you should really try the Lao specialties like larb (very spicy minced meat) and nam khao (crispy rice salad). Generous portions, ok quality.
Latvia
Latvia doesn’t have a lot of standout dishes. But its smoked sprats (a small fish) has an outsized reputation and are enjoyed across the former Soviet Union. You can get cans of these at Russian and Eastern European supermarkets.
Latvian Centre Food Market
4 Credit Union Drive
Before the pandemic, the Latvian Centre held a food “market” on Thursdays and Saturdays with Baltic treats like rye breads, kliņģeris (sweet twisted pastry) and štovēti kāposti (sauerkraut). It’s just one counter though. Go early to get the good stuff. There is also an attached shop that sells imported Latvian products and trinkets.
Lebanon
Lebanon is the powerhouse of Middle Eastern cuisine. If there is a Middle Eastern restaurant somewhere, chances are that it is Lebanese. Mezes (procession of small plates of food) are a highlight.
Lawrence Avenue East between Pharmacy and Warden Avenue is known as Lawrence of Arabia for its high density of Middle Eastern businesses. It’s a good place to get groceries, street food, and snacks. For sit-down restaurants, look elsewhere.
By far, the largest Middle Eastern supermarket is Adonis in Scarborough. Lebanese-owned, it carries products from the Arab world, Turkey, and Iran. Lots of prepared foods too, with a Middle Eastern bakery and an European one. The mini pita factory in the middle of the store qualifies as a tourist attraction. Arz is another well-stocked supermarket that is more focused on Lebanese goods.
Tabule
2009 Yonge Street and other locations
Mid-range restaurant that serves better food than most in the Middle East. You can taste the distinct components in the babaganüj (eggplant spread), unlike other places which present it as an indistinct goop. The namesake tabülè (bulgur and vegetable salad) has the right proportion of ingredients (more vegetables than bulgur) and is not overdressed. There is a good variety of vegan and meat dishes to please everyone.
Laylak
25 Toronto Street
Toronto’s poshest Lebanese restaurant also delivers on flavours. Their offerings are traditional but with modern plating in a pink-themed dining room. Of the mezze, the mohamarah (red pepper paste) is the clear winner. It’s smokey and umami, beating Syrian restaurants in Toronto.
Amal
131 Bloor Street West, second floor
Upscale Lebanese restaurant. It’s classics like hummus and kefta, cooked skillfully with good ingredients, and plated beautifully.
Al Deewan Bakery
8.5/10
1415 Kennedy Road, Suite 9
Freshly made manakeesh (flatbread) with various toppings for less than $4. $1 if you go for their weekday special. Toppings are generous and well-seasoned. Dough is very thin and crispy.
Patisserie Royale
1415 Kennedy Road, Unit 26
This patisserie often tops the list of best baklava in Toronto. It’s not sickly sweet but the rich butter in it still telegraphs decadence. Every one of their Lebanese confections is a winner, like their walnut mammoul (shortbread). Crumbly, lightly sweet, and perfect harmony of nuts and butter.
Maro’s Bistro
135 Kerr Street, Oakville
If you are bored of traditional Lebanese food, come to this fusion bistro. Creative dishes inspired by Lebanon and the Middle East, complete with cute names like Lunch in Beirut. Although the menu is not entirely vegetarian, it’s heaven for vegans as Maro innovates beyond falafel and plain hummus. Try one of their most popular signatures like Bella and the Beast: a whole head of fried, browned cauliflower sitting on lavish hummus.
Lithuania
Lithuanian cuisine is an intriguing marriage of Polish and Baltic foods. It’s a mix of dumplings, dairy, smoked fish, beets, and pickles.
Lithuanian House
1573 Bloor Street West
Pre-pandemic, this place only served Lithuanian for Sunday brunch. Now, it’s open for Saturday lunch takeout. Expect root vegetable dishes like cepelinai (large, starchy potato dumplings) and kugelis (potato pudding). Dishes are traditional, heavy, and tastes simple.
Malaysia
Malaysia comprises of two landmasses: Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia on the mega-island of Borneo. It is almost impossible to find East Malaysian restaurants outside of Southeast Asia and Australia. In Toronto, the Malaysian restaurants do an impressive job of trying to serve all the representative dishes of Peninsular Malaysia.
One2 Snacks
8 Glen Watford Drive, Unit 26
This tiny spot is a go-to for the Chinese-Malaysian community. They do a decent char kway teow (stir-fried rice noodles with dark soy sauce) and laksa (curry rice noodles). Homey cooking. Quality is comparable to an above-average place in Malaysia.
Soos
94 Ossington Avenue
Unique in its category: upper mid-range Malaysian food. This family-run restaurant focuses on a few items and does them well. Some creations may look fusion at first glance but are not. Take the kapitan chicken tacos for instance. They are not actually tacos. The chefs merely repurpose a traditional roti canai (griddled flatbread) for the base of the dish. Delicious nonetheless. Since they are located in the hip Ossington Strip, the decor, presentation, and prices match accordingly.
Restoran Malaysia
815 Major Mackenzie Drive East, Richmond Hill
Oriented towards Chinese-Malaysians, the menu is unfocused and covers Indonesian and Thai food as well. But you can still find familiar Malaysian favourites like satay (meat skewers), murtabak (griddled stuffed flatbread), and 8 types of curry.
Malta
Maltese establishments in Toronto only serve cafe food. The most distinctive item is pastizzi, a multi-ridge filo or puff pastry with various fillings. Little Malta is on Dundas Street West between Runnymede and Quebec Avenue.
Nannu’s Pastizzi
7/10
6981 Millcreek Drive, Unit 1, Mississauga
As the name says, the signature food here is pastizzis. And some Maltese grub like rabbit pasta. When freshly made, the pastizzis are flaky. The ridges do not turn out neatly but the taste is good. Frozen pastizzis, qassatats (another filled pastry), and raviolis are also sold here. The ambience here is the most modern and cheerful of the Maltese cafes in the region.
Malta Bake Shop
3256 Dundas Street West
A fixture in the Little Malta neighbourhood. The pastizzis are only worth it when they are freshly baked.
Mauritius
Mauritian cuisine is a melting pot of Chinese, Indian, French, and other cultures that have crossed this island nation.
Leo’s Cuisine
Caterer with a range of Chinese-Mauritian dishes like niouk yen (chayote dumplings) and some Indian-Mauritian ones like briani (a minor variation of biryani).
Mexico
Toronto is weak at Mexican cuisine. Like Italy, Mexico has numerous regional cuisines from the moles of Oaxaca to cochinita pibil in Yucatan. Unfortunately, Toronto’s Mexican food scene hasn’t evolved far past tacos (even though the tacos are really good). I say give it another 10 years for vibrant regional cuisines to appear in Toronto.
See USA for Tex-Mex and Cal-Mex cuisine.
Comal y Canela
8/10
1692B Jane Street
You want authentic Mexican that is not just tacos, here it is. Almost everything is made from scratch, including their masa (corn dough). You can find dishes that are uncommon in Toronto like birria de chivo (spicy goat stew) and enmoladas (tortilla and chicken smothered in mole). Everyone speaks Spanish here, though the chef-owner is conversant in English and there is an English menu. The chipotle sauce is seriously smokey and addictive.
Quetzal
419 College Street
The only high-end Mexican restaurant in Toronto. The highlights are the items that have been kissed by wood fire.
Sinaloa Factory
350 Woodbridge Avenue Unit 3, Vaughan and 551 Danforth Avenue
The sole representative for Northeastern Mexican cuisine in Toronto. Aguachile (shrimp in flavoured water) was born in the state of Sinaloa, and the version here rocks. The chillies are in-your-face and contributes to a symphony of strong flavours. Sinaloa Factory also offers Mexican-style sushi, which is sushi with everything but raw seafood.
Taqueria Gus
225 Augusta Avenue
Nearby Seven Lives Tacos gets all the attention and is worth trying for Cal-Mex tacos, but I find Taqueria Gus more authentic in terms of offerings and ambience. Meats are tender and well-seasoned. Casual fast food.
La Unica Panaderia
850 Wilson Avenue
Finally, an excellent Mexican bakery. They also do tacos but the breads are better. The cookie crust on their concha buns are crumbly and not cloyingly sweet.
Tita’s Mexican Food
2491 Lake Shore Boulevard West, Unit 7
Typical Central Mexican street foods like tacos, sopes, and enchiladas. They’re not gourmet nor do they have explosive flavours. Just classic recipes and taste just like casual eateries in Mexico City. Moles are thick and earthy.
Tacos Casa Sonora
1688 Dufferin Street
Sonora state gets little representation in Toronto. This little restaurant is the only place serving its specialty of beef slices on a wheat tortilla. It’s simply seasoned, letting the quality of the meat speak for itself. Robust but can be over-salted.
Moldova, Transnistria
Few people have heard of this country, let alone the cuisine. Moldovan food is typical Eastern European: meat, potatoes, and cabbage rolls. Dishes are a mix of Romanian and Ukrainian.
Transnistria is a breakaway state that has the same food.
Moldova Restaurant
5000 Dufferin Street
Mostly Ukrainian and Russian dishes, but has a couple of Moldovan specialties like zeamă (chicken soup, also spelled as zamma) and sarmale (grape leaf rolls, also known as golubtzi). If you are curious, try the Moldovan national dish mămăligă. It’s the precursor of polenta and is bland by nature. The flavour comes from sour cream and cheeses on the side. The version here could be smoother. Only a few other restaurants serve this dish, like Stroganoff.
Morocco
Moroccan cuisine is one of the few great cuisines in Africa, but there aren’t any great choices in Toronto. Head to Mississauga for your tagine fix.
Morocco’s Kitchen
3460 Platinum Drive, Unit 24, Mississauga
Try chicken bastilla, a powdered sugar and cinnamon pie with shredded chicken. Is it a dessert or is it a meal? Why not both? The ras-el-hanout (Moroccan spice mix) and silvered almonds blend well with the chicken. They also have other staples like couscous and tagines.
Myanmar (Burma)
Burmese cuisine is underrated. It is highly unique and quite different from its neighbours India and Thailand. Case in point: lahpet, a salad consisting of lightly pickled tea leaves. Burmese curries are pasty in consistency and less spicy than their Thai counterparts.
Toronto lacks a dedicated Burmese restaurant after the excellent Royal Myanmar Restaurant closed in December 2019.
Popa
Bayview Village, 2901 Bayview Avenue, Unit A7
Popa offers contemporary Burmese, Macanese, and Balinese food. It’s certainly a combination you won’t find anywhere else in the world. The flavour profile leans towards Indian-Burmese. For example, the Shan tofu (Burmese snack made with chickpeas, not soybeans) includes an Indian tamarind chutney. The “tofu” has a fantastic bouncy texture but its delicate flavour is better off without the strong sauce. Other typical Burmese dishes like lahpet and mohinga (fish soup noodles) come with modern touches like jalapeños.
Nepal
Nepali cuisine is a cross between Tibetan and Indian. Nepal appropriated Tibetan momos and made it their own with jhol momos (in spicy soup) and open momos (has openings at the top to dribble sauces in). A cluster of Nepali restaurants can be found in Little Tibet in Parkdale.
The Nanglo
2817 Eglinton Avenue East
This authentic Nepali restaurant specializes in thakalis. Thakalis are similar to Indian thalis (rice with various side dishes on the same platter). Flavours are pungent, spicy, and a pleasant change from other South Asian cuisines. The karela (bitter melon) fritters are killer: umami batter tempered with slight bitterness. Momos are not as strong.
Himalayan Kitchen
1526 Queen Street West
Jhol momos, fried momos, and chilli fries are unhealthy but oh so tasty. There are other entrées but the momos are definitely the highlight. Their lunch thali is also one of the better ones in Little Tibet.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a land of junk food and Dutch-Indonesian cuisine. Late-night eateries provide deep-fried treats like frikandellen (butterflied sausages) and bitterballen (meatballs). For something spicier than traditional Dutch foods, try Dutch-Indonesian dishes like mie goreng (fried noodles) or saté (grilled meat on a stick). These are westernized versions of the Indonesian originals: upsized with less complex flavour. The ultimate extravagance is the rijsttafel, a lavish assortment of small dishes (up to 20 is not uncommon), inspired by the dining style of Padang, Indonesia.
In the last two weeks of August, Dutch Frites sets up shop in the CNE fairground and serves up junk food and stroopwafels (wafer cookies).
Borrel
1333 Danforth Avenue
Half the menu is Dutch snacks like bitterballen and maatjesharing (pickled raw herring). The other half is Dutch-Indonesian snacks like saté and nasi goreng (fried rice). A couple of times a year, they organize a rijsttafel night. Tickets need to be purchased in advance for rijsttafel.
New Zealand
New Zealand suffers from the same culinary obscurity as Australia and Canada. The most important claim to fame is pavlova (which Australia disputes), a marshmallow meringue.
Hemingway’s
142 Cumberland Street
This pub has less than 5 identifiable New Zealand dishes, like lamb burger and an affordable pavlova. The rest of the menu is global pub food like linguine, pad thai, and butter chicken. Food is mostly unremarkable but the lamb burger patty is tasty with hints of rosemary.
Nicaragua
Nicaraguan food is hard to pin down, like Costa Rican and Panamanian. It lacks distinctive dishes. Corn, plantains, and rice are part of the diet.
La Bella Managua
8/10
872 Bloor Street West
Proudly Nicaraguan and serves everything from bandeja tipica (cheese, tortilla, rice and beans) to cerdo con yuca (national dish: pork and cassava, also known as vigorón). Generous portions. Try yuccanadas, empanadas made out of yuca dough.
Nicaroma Cafe
357 Oakwood Avenue
This cafe touts itself as the only Nicaraguan one in Toronto. It’s probably the only Nicaraguan cafe in Canada too. Highlights are Nicaraguan coffee and huge tamales. The latter are filled with richly seasoned meats, with a hint of achiote.
Nigeria
The better Nigerian restaurants in Toronto are suya (barbecue) spots. For Nigerian ingredients like locust beans and ehuru, check out the east end of Eddystone Avenue. The wholesalers and grocers there have the sights and smells of West African convenience stores. One of them, Simi African Foods, has a modern branch in Scarborough.
BSTO
1310 St Clair Avenue West
Ever had Nigerian shawarma? It’s looks like a shawarma wrap on the outside but it’s filled with stir-fried beef strips and a whole sausage. BSTO does justice to this street snack. The meat is saucy with a hint of West African peppers.
The Suya Spot
7.5/10
269 Morningside Avenue and 12 Bradstock Road, Unit 10
Just suya and sides. The best suya is the beef one. Intensely aromatic, sweet, and spicy. It’s slow grilled, well-done, and chewy, almost like jerky.
Afrobeat Kitchen
7.5/10
1510 Queen Street West
Finally, a proper mid-range Nigerian restaurant with creative flair. Their party jollof rice is the most complex I’ve had in Toronto, small portion size notwithstanding. It tastes of smokey crayfish and their Naija spice level gives a pleasant heat. Not strictly Nigerian, their fusion creations include kelewele tostones (deep-fried plantains; Ghana x Puerto Rico) and miso mafé (peanut stew; Senegal x Japan).
North Macedonia
Sadly, most of the Macedonian restaurants in Toronto have closed due to the aging of the Macedonian population.
California Restuarant
914 Pape Avenue
This comes off more like a Serbian restaurant than a Macedonian one. Regardless, it is the only place that has the national dish, tavče gravče (stewed beans). Balkan entrées have a greasy fast food quality.
Pakistan
Pakistan shares many dishes with North India. Not surprising when you consider their shared history. East Pakistan is well-represented in Toronto with many Punjabi and Sindhi restaurants.
The largest and best stocked South Asian supermarket in Toronto is Iqbal. It has a halal butcher, fresh and imported produce, and two aisles of rice. The balance tilts towards Pakistani goods but there is also a good range of Indian products. From April to July, look out for imported mangoes like Alphonso (Indian) and Anwar Ratol (Pakistani). You haven’t had a mango until you tried one from the birthplace of mangoes.
Karahi Point
2642 Islington Avenue and 2201 Finch Avenue West
Karahi is like a mini wok. It also refers to the one-pot wonders that are made with the same cookware. This restaurant has mastered the art of the karahi. The assertive karahi curries pair well with the freshly made, fluffy naans. Fresh herbs like ginger and cardamom cut through the rich curries.
Patna Kabab House
1885 Lawrence Avenue East
Nihari (beef stew) is the signature dish and is indeed flavourful. The kebabs are worth trying too, like the tender bihari (sliced beef) kebab. It is one of the few places that offer brain masala. Nobody comes here for the ambience.
Iqbal Kebab
2 Thorncliffe Park Drive
Next door to Iqbal supermarket is this family-style restaurant. It does respectable renditions of Pakistani classics like paya (lamb hoof curry) and aloo gosht (potato and meat curry).
Silver Spoon
4800 Sheppard Avenue East, Unit 124
Come to this takeout place on weekends for Sindhi biryani, a medium-spiced Pakistani biryani. Prices are rock-bottom and they stuff the takeout containers until the rice overflows. Enough for two meals. Beware of other restaurants named Silver Spoon in the region that are not associated with this place.
Palestine
Wedged between other countries, Palestinian food takes on the character of its neighbours: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel.
Shawarma Empire
1823 Lawrence Avenue East
There are many shawarma places along Lawrence Avenue East and everyone has their favourite. Shawarma Empire stands out for its authenticity and value for money. The falafel and shawarma pitas are equally popular.
Darna
1613 Bayview Avenue
Has national dishes like mujadaret bulgur, the Palestinian version of mujaddara. This is a bulgur dish topped with caramelized onions. Very pricey for what is a peasant’s dish but it is beautifully presented. Cooked al dente and tastes above average. Other Middle Eastern favourites get the upscale treatment, like baba ghanoush, interpreted here as a tower of eggplant slices.
Peru
Peruvian cuisine is the most highly-regarded South American cuisine in fine dining circles. Peruvian ceviche is the mother of all ceviches. Other Peruvian creations include papa a la huancaina (potato cubes in yellow aji amarillo sauce) and arroz chaufa (Chinese fried rice adapted to Peruvian tastes). Peruvian Nikkei cuisine is a sub-cuisine developed by Japanese immigrants to Peru. It’s mostly Japanese with some Peruvian overtones.
Aldo’s Restaurant
750 Oakdale Road
Traditional Peruvian restaurant, established long before downtown restaurants jumped on the trendy bandwagon. No pretentiousness here, just good food. The jalea (fried seafood platter) is the signature dish. The ocean aroma hits you before it arrives on the table. Light and crisp. Even though the squid is slightly overcooked, the two salsas more than make up for it, adding creaminess and spice. Ceviche is ok. They have the usual Peruvian staples like chaufa and lomo saltado (beef slices and rice).
El Inka
21 St Clair Avenue East
This restaurant has the most comprehensive menu of Peruvian dishes in Toronto. They’re also upscale, so humble foods like causas (mashed potatoes with avocado and toppings) get the photogenic treatment and premium ingredients like octopus. The taste is adequate.
Chotto Matte
TD Canada Trust Tower, 161 Bay Street
It’s a global chain but considering there are not many cities in the world that offer Peruvian Nikkei cuisine, I’ll take it. Flavour combinations are a work in progress. Pollo den miso with aji amarillo (chicken chunks with miso and yellow chilli) is grilled superbly but the marinade can be uneven. The truffle oil in their Nikkei sashimi detracts from the dish but the jalapeño gives it a light boost. Very pricey.
Philippines
Filipino restaurants in Toronto offer food from Luzon and the Visayas. Despite the large population of Filipinos, there are no Mindanaon restaurants and few excellent Filipino restaurants. Traditional Filipino food is not sophisticated and reflects its roots in an agrarian society. To put it nicely, flavours are unexciting, techniques are simple, and energy value is high. Fortunately, fusion Filipino has stepped up to elevate traditional cuisine and has a growing presence in Toronto.
Little Manila is at Bathurst and Wilson Avenue. For groceries, Seafood City in Mississauga and Scarborough has the most extensive selection.
iSLAS Filipino BBQ and Bar
1690 Queen Street West
Easily beats most restaurants in the Philippines. Their menu isn’t fancy but excellent seasoning and technique showcase the potential of traditional Filipino dishes. Their lechon (deep-fried pork belly) is luscious and the crackling is airy.
Mineral
1027 Yonge Street
Top spot for upscale Filipino cuisine. Creative fusion dishes. For example, the kare kare (peanut stew) substitiutes pork for duck confit, resulting in a lighter yet more complex dish. The tasting menu is a great deal, considering it costs about the same as two and a half main dishes.
Bao Mama
4419 Sheppard Avenue East
A fusion of Western Chinese flatbreads (bao) with Filipino toppings. The baos are freshly-made and light. Toppings include pinoy BBQ pork, boasting balanced flavours from the sweet soy sauce marinade, citrus, and creamy mayo.
Super Bakers
8/10
1122B The Queensway
Hidden gem that has the best Filipino empanadas in the region. Their winning move is to use hopia dough instead of standard pie dough. Hopia is a Southern Chinese pastry that spread to the Philippines. The dough is laminated and results in many layers of thin, flakey pastry. The empanadas at Super Bakers show off how good this dough can be. Fillings have simple seasonings but are tasty enough. Their hopia is excellent too. They supply to other businesses in Toronto but it’s worth coming to their store to get them fresh out of the oven.
Perlas de Pilipinas
Inside Al Premium Food Mart, 1970 Eglinton Avenue East
If you’re looking for a decent carinderia (Filipino hot table), this stall inside a supermarket is surprisingly palatable. Dishes have vivid flavours and aren’t overworked with oil, salt, and sugar, as is typical of carinderias. However, you pay a premium for superior cooking.
Tinuno
31 Howard Street
The place to try kamayan. This is a communal feast of grilled items and rice, laid out on large banana leaves for sharing. You are supposed to eat with your hands and disposable gloves are provided. Minimum 2 people for kamayan. Above average.
Poland
Toronto saw a large influx of Polish immigrants between the early- and mid-twentieth century, so it is no surprise that there are good choices for Polish food. Roncesvalles Avenue is regarded as the Polish hub, but there aren’t many Polish restaurants left on that strip. The Polish community has drifted westwards towards Mississauga, with businesses scattered along the entire stretch of Dundas Street. For Polish groceries, Starsky has the largest selection.
Café Polonez
195 Roncesvalles Avenue
This is the place to get stuffed with Central European fare. Their signature placek po węgiersku (Hungarian potato pancake) is rich, to say the least. The hungry can opt for the Platter, a wooden board piled with bigos (sausage and fermented cabbage stew), sznycel (breaded pork cutlet), pierogi (dumplings), and gołąbki (cabbage rolls). Authentic and satisfying.
Hastings Snack Bar
5 Hastings Avenue
Best pierogies in Toronto. Textbook quality: well-filled, lightly seasoned, dough is not too thick, and comes with a dollop of sour cream. This cafe also has Polish snack platters for a quick lunch. Everything is made fresh and tastes like home cooking.
Kovalsky Restuarant
667 The Queensway
A quaint restaurant serving all the Polish classics, including less common ones like kopytka (potato dumplings). Their potato pancake is perhaps the best in the city, with a Q texture and simple but effective aromatics.
Basket Of Bread
2783 Lake Shore Boulevard West
Humble bakery and a small section of imported Polish foodstuffs. Their bestseller has to be the pączki (filled doughnuts); not cloyingly sweet and with a textbook-quality enriched dough.
Portugal
If you think Portuguese food is just frango de churrasco (roast chicken) and pasteis de nata (egg tarts), give these restaurants a try. Toronto’s Portuguese food scene isn’t large, but is more diverse than most places on the continent, excluding Brazil.
Little Portugal is on Dundas Street West between Ossington and Lansdowne Avenue. A branch of Nosso Talho is situated there and is the place to get Portuguese meats. For Portuguese groceries, Távora is the most well-known and also has Brazilian goods like farofa.
Mercado Restaurant
682 Caledonia Road
The place for petiscos, the lesser-known Portuguese equivalent of tapas. Don’t fret, they also have proper main courses and sharing platters. Old world dishes are elevated with contemporary flair, like their pica-pau (pan-fried beef) which switches beer gravy for Madeira wine and balsamic vinagrette. Top-notch cooking and feels like an upper-end restaurant in Lisbon.
Chiado
864 College Street
A rarity: Portuguese fine-dining. Serves a variety of seafood dishes. Old-school and formal, with starched tablecloths. Everything tastes as it should be for this price point.
Bimbas in Toronto
469 Rogers Road
A breath of fresh air in an aging neighbourhood, this hidden gem has 2 Portuguese street food that can’t be found anywhere else in the Toronto region: tripa de Aveiro (chewy folded pancake with sweet fillings) and cachorro (hot dog loaded with toppings). Both are made-to-order and carefully assembled.
Nova Era Bakery
1172 Dundas Street West and other locations
Good pasteis de nata, although it is average compared to the amazing ones in Belém and Lisbon. Has other Portuguese breads and cakes.
Romania
Toronto does not have a dedicated Romanian restaurant. Since the food is similar to Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Balkan, you can satisfy cravings at those places.
Carpati Euro Delicatessen
4665 Central Parkway East, Mississauga
Fairly large Romanian deli and bakery. It also has prepared foods and imported goods. The love for Romania is obvious here. There is Romanian bric-a-brac and even traditional clothing for children. The sarmale (cabbage rolls) are one of the best in the region. Tightly packed with more minced meat than rice. They are bite-sized and the ratio of leaf to filling is perfect. Neatly rolled too, which is sadly uncommon.
Russia
The largest country in the world doesn’t have many regional cuisines. Most of the diversity is on the European side and even then, the food is almost the same as its neighbouring countries. For distinctive Russian cuisine, head to the regions around Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
Toronto has few conventional Russian restaurants. Most double as banquet halls with tacky decor, catering to special events like weddings and parties. If you have a group of 4 or larger, you can book an all-inclusive package that covers entertainment and a procession of Russian food throughout the night.
Little Moscow is centred on Dufferin and Steeles Avenue West. Yummy Market is the largest purveyor of Russian groceries and prepared foods. Odessa Deli is a small independent business with a decent selection.
Stroganoff
10 Headdon Gate, Unit 2-3, Richmond Hill
The menu is not strictly Russian but it is designed to appeal to Russians. It has some Ukrainian and Georgian dishes. Modern decor, traditional food. Obviously, they have stroganoff, made up of tender beef strips and mushrooms. In the summer, they also have okroshka (cold soup made with kvass, a fermented malt beverage). Dill and sour cream make frequent appearances. Overall, food tastes authentically tame.
A Yiddishe Mame
1416 Centre Street, Unit 19-20, Vaughan
For something less mainstream, try Russian Jewish food. Russia used to have a large Ashkenazi Jewish population. At this restaurant, you can find Ashkenazi dishes like latkes (potato pancakes) and gefilte fish (minced, poached fish), alongside Russian pelmeni (dumplings) and Olivier salad (potato salad). The esik fleisch is a simple, aromatic beef stew with an unorthodox flavour profile. Sweet and sour from prunes, tomatoes, cinnamon, and bay leaves. If you don’t have access to Ashkenazi Jewish home cooking, this is the next best alternative.
Victoria K Cakes
1450 Clark Avenue West, Unit 24, Vaughan
Russian and Ukrainian sweet goods like ryzhik (honey cake) and Napoleon (alternating layers of puff pastry and cream). Their smetannik (sour cream cake) isn’t as heavy as its competitors.
Saint Lucia
There are no Saint Lucian restaurants in Toronto but there is a caterer.
Ti Kay La
3220 Dufferin Street, Unit 6
The chef-owner sells sauces and spice mixes. She also does catering. Offerings include accra (fried cod cakes) and fish meals. Catch them at various events and festivals in the city.
Saudi Arabia
There are almost no Saudi restaurants in Toronto, but it’s no big deal. The cuisine is a minor riff on general Middle-Eastern food like shawarma and falafel. More distinctive dishes like mandi (meat and rice cooked in an underground oven) and mutabbaq (stuffed pancake) are Yemeni in origin.
Daymi
1376 Queen Street West
A contemporary take on Arabian cuisine but it doesn’t stray far from tradition. Their kabsa, a Saudi dish of chicken and rice, has aromatic oils and plump raisins, finished with a fresh tomato sauce. The star is undoubtedly the chicken, roasted separately and retaining its crispy skin.
Serbia
Serbian restaurants are scattered in the west end of Toronto all the way to Mississauga. Serbian food is similar to food from other Balkan nations, featuring lots of meat, cheese, and potatoes.
Bonimi
3319 Bloor Street West
Hearty and satisfying meals. The signature is the unusual national dish, Karađorđeva šnicla (schnitzel rolled into a tube with cheese stuffed inside). The šopska salata (salad liberally topped with shredded cheese) is surprisingly tasty.
Fancy Kafana
4910 Tomken Road, Mississauga
Proficient renditions of Serbian classics. Their golden crisp Karađorđeva šnicla is accompanied with aromatic grilled vegetables. They prove that traditional Balkan recipes don’t have to be dreary and one-dimensional. Upper mid-range setting.
Singapore
Singaporean food is similar to Malaysian food with some small differences. For example, Chinese dishes tend to be sweeter than Malaysian counterparts. As a cosmopolitan city state with wealthy diners, the food scene is multicultural and caters to all budgets. You can literally get a Michelin star meal for $7 or $330 (Canadian dollars).
I’m a little hot crab
633 Silver Star Boulevard, Unit 121
This restaurant with a cute name doesn’t proclaim itself as a Singaporean restaurant, but it’s the only place to get 2 iconic dishes: chilli crab and cereal prawns (breaded with sweet oat cereal and curry leaves). Since we’re in Canada, the crab used is Dungeness instead of the traditional Sri Lankan ones. The flesh is tender and the recipe is authentic, down to the accompanying fried buns for scooping up the tomato-ey sauce. Lunch deals for crab.
My Pandan Cake
8/10
246 Gerrard Street East
Specialists of pandan chiffon cakes, a light and tall sponge with a grassy fragrance. It’s the unofficial national cake of Singapore. The execution is textbook. An original creation is their “magic box”, which is a personal-sized cake in a round tin. Fans of a certain controversial spiky fruit shouldn’t miss their durian pandan cake; standards are the same as the better bakers in Singapore.
Kiss My Pans
567 College St, Unit 1
This started off as a cheese store but after a few successful popups, it now morphs into a Singaporean brunch spot on weekends. It offers a representative range of breakfast dishes, like “carrot” cake (actually savoury turnip cubes) and roti prata (griddled flat bread with curry on the side). Not quite authentic but tasty enough. Their sambal (chilli paste) is killer, redolent of lemongrass.
Slovakia
Slovak food is yet another variation on Central European schnitzels, sausages, and sauerkraut. A distinctive dish is halušky, potato dumplings with cheese or meat.
The Golden Pheasant
7/10
733 Lakeshore Road East, Mississauga
Everyone agrees that the portions are massive. It’s enough for two meals. Slovak specialties include bryndzové halušky (potato dumplings with sheep’s cheese) and vyprážaný syr (fried cheese). Halušky is a coronary killer with loads of cheese, flour, potatoes, and dried bacon. No fresh herbs in sight. But, it is authentic.
V’s Schnitzel House
6/10
448 Brown’s Line
As the name implies, lots of schnitzels are available here. Also, Slovak halušky, goulash, and fried cheese. Large portions that can last more than one meal, but not as enormous as Golden Pheasant. Average taste.
Slovenia
There are no Slovenian restaurants, only a small Slovenian deli in Toronto.
Family Meat Deli
278 Brown’s Line
Small butcher and Eastern European deli. Roast meat counter at the back. There are four shelves of imported goods on one side of the store, mainly from the Balkans. Even though it is Slovenian-run, there are hardly any Slovenian products. Understandable since there aren’t a lot of foods that are mass manufactured there.
Somalia, Somaliland
You know you are in a Somali restaurant when curried meats come with spaghetti and you get a banana at the end of the meal. Somali dishes are at the crossroads of the Middle East and Ethiopia, with some confused Italian flourishes.
Toronto’s Somali businesses are along Rexdale Boulevard between Islington Avenue and Woodbine Mall.
Xawaash
130 Queen’s Plate Drive, Unit 1
Casual Somali restaurant in a modern setting. For first-timers, get the Xawaash Bowl. This is a Somali sampler with suqaar (sauteed meat cubes), rice, hummus, mbogga (carrot, potato, and spinach mash), ful mudammas (fava beans mash) and salad. All for less than $10. Everything tastes freshly made and balanced.
Istar Restaurant
235 Dixon Road, Unit 11
The quality and ambience here are remarkable for a 24h restaurant. Choose your proteins and carbs from a hot table and get a complimentary drink for less than $15. The suqaar has a high rurnover and is a safe bet.
South Africa
The only regional cuisines in South Africa are Cape Malay around Cape Town and Indian-South African around Durban. Toronto has the latter and the quintessential South African feast: braai (barbecue).
Plan B
9/10
2943A Bloor Street West
This isn’t just the best South African restaurant in the region. It’s also one of the best barbecue restaurants across all cuisines and budgets. Homesick South Africans can get their fill of boerewors (sausage) and mealie pap (cornmeal mash), unusually served with tomato chutney. Meats are tender and have the right amount of caramelization and crispness on the outside. Contemporary setting. Halal.
Hyperama
2110 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
This is a microcosm of South Africa, stocked with South African knick-knacks and a bewildering array of iconic foodstuffs that will put the average supermarket in South Africa to shame. They also make sausages and offer a solid variety of takeaway foods. The must-try here is bunny chow. It’s curry in a loaf of hollowed-out bread, packed in an imposing box commissioned by Hyperama. Originally a fast food for labourers in Durban, it’s enough to feed 2 or 3 sedentary people.
Eat Sum More
7700 Bathurst Street, Unit 6, Vaughan
South African specialty goods. Small but well-stocked. They are butchers too and make their own biltong (dried meats) and boerewors. Sometimes, they bake pastries like melkterts (milk custard tarts) and koeksisters (dough twists drenched in syrup). Also does catering.
South Korea
Toronto has a large Korean population and two Koreatowns, so you can expect good food. The oldest Koreatown is on Bloor Street West between Christie and Bathurst Street. This remains popular with downtown residents. Most Koreans have moved further north in the vicinity of the second Koreatown, Yonge Street between Sheppard and Clark Avenue. This Koreatown shares the same space with Little Persia and is probably the only place in the world where you can find Korean businesses on one side of the road and Iranian on the other.
Almost all full-service Korean restaurants have free banchan (side dishes like kimchi, potato cubes, fishcakes, etc.), which is good for hungry or value-seeking eaters.
The big Korean supermarket chains are Galleria and PAT. The Galleria flagship at Thornhill has a Korean food court with cheap eats. Both make their own kimchi and banchan.
OddSeoul
8.5/10
90 Ossington Avenue
Canadian-Korean fusion small bites. The squash poutine is not technically a poutine but who cares? It’s a delicious morsel of fried squash with a gooey mess of Korean-Japanese ingredients. Bulgogi cheesesteak is just as messy and satisfying. The restaurant is geared towards the late night bar crowd. Even if you aren’t drunk, it’s worth coming here to try elevated pub grub.
156 Cumberland
156 Cumberland Street
Upscale Korean fusion designed for sharing. The mainstay is the mushroom jook, combining Korean congee with Italian risotto into a umami powerhouse. Other creative dishes include a beef tartare delightfully packed into tofu pockets, like yubuchobap (rice stuffed in sweet, deep-fried tofu skins). Their traditional offerings like ssambap (lettuce wraps), while decent, is best skipped in favour of the unorthodox menu items.
Diner Seoul
1351 St Clair Avenue West
Korean fusion dishes. Signatures include the kimchi rosti, which is the Swiss dish of grated potato pancake, mixed with kimchi, and topped with a deep-fried potato swirl. Other dishes, like beef tartare with seaweed chips, won’t look out of place in trendy downtown spots.
Guksu
364 Huron Street
Guksu means noodles in Korean, so it’s no surprise what the specialty is at this humble food court stall. They have a small but diverse menu. Every dish is a winner. The jjajangmyeon (black bean sauce with pork) is gooey, sweet, funky, and aromatic with pork. Their broths are clarified and intense in flavour.
Cho Sun Ok
7353 Yonge Street, Markham
This place is famous for its naengmyeon (ice-cold arrowroot noodles). The noodles are very springy. Extremely popular in the summer. You will hear a lot of Korean spoken here.
Daldongnae
6034 Yonge Street
One of the best Korean barbecue places in Toronto. The staff will helpfully change grills as necessary. Although barbecue is the star attraction here, don’t forget about the snack foods. Haemul pajeon (seafood scallion pancake), the representative dish of Busan, is crisp and not greasy.
Dessert Fox
635 Bloor Street West
Top purveyors of croffles, which is croissant dough baked in a waffle press: croissant x waffle. It was a food fad from South Korea and took a while to reach Toronto. The ones here are meticulously prepared but pricey.
Myeongdong Gyoza Kalguksu
7117 Bathurst Street, Unit 106, Vaughan
Slurping-good Korean soup noodles. The broth has depth and noodles are freshly made. Their mandu (dumplings) are humongous.
Woojoo Bunsik
6026 Yonge Street
This tiny restaurant is the place to get Korean street food, especially tteokbokki (rice cakes in spicy soup). The soup is more flavourful than those found at street stalls; it’s redolent of seafood and gochujang (spicy fermented soy paste).
BBQ Chicken & Pub
5906 Yonge Street and other locations
Nevermind the misleading name, there’s a good reason why BBQ Chicken is the top Korean fried chicken franchise in South Korea. Frying in olive oil does make a difference in taste. It gives a light yet crisp batter. Although there are many branches now in Toronto, the one at Yonge and Cummer is an unofficial flagship. It has the most (14) flavours, other non-chicken meals, and a hopping atmosphere.
Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu
691 Bloor Street West and other locations
Specialists in sundubu jjigae (silky soft tofu in spicy broth). It’s more than tofu. The soup can come with seafood, beef, mandu (dumplings), or vegetables. Perennially popular, especially amongst students for its long hours. Cheap and satisfying. If this place is full, there are other competitors within walking distance like Tofu Village.
Bap.zip
5 Glen Cameron Road, Unit 7, Thornhill
The humble bibimbap (rice with assorted vegetables and sunny-side-up egg) is available at nearly every Korean restaurant and is easily forgettable. The sauce makes or breaks the dish. Fortunately, this restaurant creates a robust sauce that doesn’t taste like it came from a factory bottle. The ingredients are fresh and flavourful too. Stone bowl versions available.
Yubu
364 Huron Street
Yubu sells deluxe yubuchobap: sweet tofu pockets stuffed with rice and topped with anything you can think of. Obvious choices are bulgogi and torched salmon. It’s assembled photogenically but is rather expensive for what it is. Don’t forget to check out other Korean stalls in the same space.
Spain
Spanish cuisine in Toronto is limited to fancy tapa bars. The food scene hasn’t differentiated into regional cuisines yet, other than Catalonian and Castilian.
Madrina Bar y Tapas
2 Trinity Street
This tapas restaurant is more forward-thinking than others in Toronto, with hints of molecular gastronomy. It has spherified olives, the poster child. Even familiar favourites like tortilla de patatas (potato omelette) come with olive oil “caviar”. Like molecular gastronomy, it’s a hit and miss affair: avoid the raw raw egg yolk with truffles. For conservative diners, there are traditional tapas too.
Spanish Pig
77 Roncesvalles Avenue
Spanish fine grocer with lots of imported goods like jamón ibérico (black Iberian ham). If you don’t want to buy a whole slab of cured meat, they make deli sandwiches too. It’s a simple affair with just meat and bread (sourced elsewehere), so you can focus on the potent flavours.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan cuisine is influenced by Tamil Nadu in South India. Most Sri Lankan restaurants in Toronto are located in Scarborough. They are cheap and cheerful joints. Eraa on Finch Avenue East is the least cluttered Sri Lankan supermarket in Toronto and occupies a modest strip mall with its own restaurant, butcher shop, and video store.
Döner King
8/10
5651 Steeles Avenue East, Unit 10
Your might be wondering what is Sri Lankan about Turkish döner. Well, this place introduces döner kothu roti to the world. The kothu roti (spicy stir-fry of shredded flatbread and meat) is surprisingly good. Aromatic and drenched with gravy, with lime and raw onions to cut through the strong spice. Portions of chicken döner are very generous but is sadly overwhelmed by all the strong flavours. Ask for the spiciest level to get regular Sri Lankan spicy.
Quality Bread Bakery
1970 Ellesmere Road, Unit 12
The place to get short eats (snacks). Turnover is high, food is freshly made and authentic, and prices are rock bottom.
Babu
4800 Sheppard Avenue East, Suite 201 and 9590 McCowan Road, Markham
An institution in Toronto. This place is mainly for takeout and has a huge table of Sri Lankan dishes ready to go. Kothu roti is made-to-order. They do not hold back on the spice. Low prices, above-average quality, and a multitude of offerings ensure a loyal stream of customers.
Hopper Hut
880 Ellesmere Road
This is a good place to try appom, also known as hoppers. Fermented rice batter is heated in a wok and optionally topped with savoury or sweet ingredients. For a very spicy and filling treat, get lamprais (rice, meat, and vegetables bundled in banana leaves and baked).
Bhai Biryani
3859 Lawrence Avenue East
Biryani is easy to find in Toronto but have you tried a Sri Lankan one? Bhai Biryani touts their signature dish as a Colombo-style biryani. Slightly more expensive than other styles of biryani but it comes with a delectable variety of food like a slice of pineapple, fried grated coconut, and a duo of fried chicken and curry chicken.
Sweden
Not counting the Ikea restaurant, Toronto has zero Swedish restaurants. But there is a Swedish cafe and some grocers. For some reason, Scandinavian restaurants don’t seem to fare well in Toronto even though the climate is similar.
FIKA Cafe
8/10
28 Kensington Avenue
This cozy, hip cafe has Swedish-inspired sandwiches and baked goods. Actual Swedish things are the kanelbullar (cinnamon roll) and semlor (cream bun).
Switzerland
Swiss cuisine is an amalgamation of French, German, and Italian. Each region remains distinct and there is little crossover. Trivia of the day: müesli was invented in Switzerland and you can find it pretty much everywhere now. See France, Southern Germany, and Northern Italy for similar foods.
Swiss chocolatiers Läderach, Lindt, and Teuscher are in Toronto too.
Le Swan
892 Queen Street West
This place bills itself as a French diner. Indeed, most of the offerings are typical of French bistros and are not really Swiss French. However, it is the only place where you can get fondue after 11pm. There is also raclette: pungent Swiss cheese, melted and poured over whatever you can think of.
Syria
Syrian cuisine features the standard Middle Eastern repertoire of shawarma, falafel, hummus, and so on. There are some unique dishes like muhammarah, a spicy red pepper dip from Aleppo. There is also a surprisingly large number of kibbeh (bulgur and minced meat) variations.
Crown Pastries
2086 Lawrence Avenue East
Middle Eastern sweets are the second sweetest in the world (India takes the crown). A lot of bakeries drench their confections in too much syrup and honey. So, it is a pleasant surprise to find a place with desserts that are not cloyingly sweet. Layers of filo pastry retain their crunch in sweets such as baklava and borma (filo nest). They are also pretty to look at. More expensive than average.
Zezafoun Syrian Cuisine
4 Manor Road East
Cozy and comfortable place to try Syrian food. Home-cooked meals made from fresh ingredients. They have muhammarah and organic makdous (stuffed eggplant pickles). Contemporary setting.
Taiwan
The standouts of Taiwanese cuisine are street food and desserts. Bubble tea (flavoured ice tea with tapioca balls) originates from Taichung and has been embraced by cosmopolitan cities around the world. Taiwanese beef noodles are also famous, but I haven’t found a rendition here that is comparable to Taipei.
Maeli Market
18 William Sylvester Drive
Chic lifestyle store that wouldn’t look out of place in Taipei’s art districts. Large variety of Taiwanese imports are displayed tastefully on sleek furniture. But the star attraction is the cooked food. The same commitment to design reflects on their bentos (rice meals)—they’re delicately prepared and plated like Japanese ones but taste 100% Taiwanese. In fact, they are far better than street bentos in Taiwan.
Taiwanese Style Railway Bento Box
5455 Yonge Street
Railway bentos are a hit or miss in Taiwan because they’re essentially rice with side dishes. There are no fixed ingredients nor recipes, so how good it turns out depends on the chef and ingredients of the day. Thankfully, it’s a solid hit at this restaurant. Textbook recipes for classics like lu rou fan (braised minced meat with rice). Even vegetables are treated well.
Simpl Things
269 Dunn Avenue
Fusion Taiwanese bar food. The signature is a Sichuan beef tartare, served with an impressive bone marrow. Combinations are not too crazy. Portions are small for its price. Don’t come in the day if you want Taiwanese food, because the restaurants switches to Italian with a different chef and concept.
Monga Fried Chicken
692 Yonge Street and other locations
Taiwanese fried chicken is a massive, flattened, deep-fried chicken cutlet sprinkled liberally with seasoning salts. This store is not a bad place to try them. The most popular flavour is taiker, which is smothered with fine seaweed powder. Somehow the batter remains crisp but the cutlet could be thinner.
Sunny Taiwanese Breakfast Club
915 Bay Street
Taiwanese breakfast spots are a rarity outside of East Asia. Take advantage of this handy spot to try comfort foods like glutinous rice rolls filled with Chinese sausage and pork floss.
Tiger Sugar
348A Yonge Street
This is the Taiwanese chain that started the craze for brown sugar bubble tea around the world. People buy it just to snap a photo of the brown sugar syrup oozing down the side of the cup, like tiger stripes. Presentation aside, it tastes like a fairly good bubble tea.
Tanzania
Everyday food on the Tanzanian mainland is more of the same unremarkable East African grub. Boiled, fried, or grilled meats served with fries. Food on Zanzibar island, on the other hand, is a different world. Culturally distinct from Tanganyika (the mainland), the cuisine is closer to the Middle East and India.
Jikoni Grill
2535 Warden Avenue
Tanzanian-Indian food. Less aggressively spiced than Indian counterparts. It’s mainly for takeout. Mishkakis (grilled meat on a stick) are the main attraction and adequately seasoned.
Bongo Swahili
The island of Zanzibar has a cuisine distinct from the rest of Tanzania. This caterer offers a small taste of it with its Zanzibar Mix: fritters, cassava, and potatoes, in a coconut curry. Check social media for where they may pop up.
Thailand
It may be strange to come all the way to Toronto to eat Thai food, especially since it is widely available around the world. However, I still recommend going to these places because they provide an amped-up experience not found in Thailand.
Thailand has four regional cuisines: Northern, Northeastern (Isan), Central, and Southern. Toronto has weak representation of Isan and Southern Thai cuisines. There are few places to get kai yang and khao niew (barbecued chicken and sticky rice). However, Toronto has a trump card that few cities have: Imperial Thai cuisine.
Canadian-Thai
Favorites Thai
8/10
141 Ossington Avenue
What’s Canadian-Thai? How about smoked trout curry, duck confit red curry, or grilled broccolini with sweet chilli? Not-quite-Thai, somewhat Canadian, and definitely delicious.
Lamoon Thai Cafe
713 Gerrard Street East
Known for their drinks in a bag, the owners decided to stand out from the pad-thai-khao-soi restaurants by offering innovative dishes. And what a success it has been. The most intriguing are their pinsas: Italian flatbreads in origin but with Thai toppings like tom yum and pad krapow (holy basil and meat). It’s classic Thai cuisine in a different light.
North
Pai
18 Duncan Street
This is the restaurant that cemented Toronto’s position in a superior era of Thai food. For first timers, try the khao soi (egg noodles in curry coconut soup). This version is more flavour-intense and well-presented than the ones in Chiang Mai. Whereas traditional ones have a few bits of fried noodles thrown in, this one has an impressive tower of deep-fried noodles sticking out of the bowl. They are very generous with the coconut milk, to the point where Thais might feel it is too rich. They are probably the reason why most Thai restaurants in Toronto feel obligated to put khao soi on their menus. If this place is full, head to its rival, Khao San Road which has similar offerings and does some dishes better.
Northeast (Isan)
Som Tum Jinda
76 Gerrard Street East
Finally, a proper Isan restaurant in Toronto. The northeastern region of Thailand features simple “peasant foods” like kai yang and khao niew. Som tum is also renowned there and this restaurant lives up to its reputation by offering 13 types, by far the most in Toronto and the most well-balanced. Their grilled meats are luscious with lemongrass marinades. Spice levels can be fiery.
Central
Eat BKK
4704 Yonge Street
Dependable source of traditional and fusion Thai cuisine. One of the first to offer boo kem (salted crab) with som tum (green papaya salad). Don’t get too excited about the crabs. They’re meant for seasoning and are too tiny to pick out any meat. Aside from Central Thai food like green curry and pad krapao (holy basil, ground meat, and rice), they also have fusion creations like chicken wings zaab (larb flavoured) and khao soi poutine. This is the original location and has the best selection. Menus differ slightly at other branches.
South
Koh Lipe
35 Baldwin Street
Toronto’s first restaurant that advertises itself as Southern Thai. In truth, it also includes Central Thai crowd-pleasers like pad see ew (fried flat rice noodles) and green curry. But you should really come here for Southern Thai dishes that are hard to find in the city, like gaeng kua gling moo (dry pork curry). The dishes are a notch above your average Thai restaurant. Popular during lunch hours and has cheap lunch specials too.
Royal
Kiin
326 Adelaide Street West
From the same empire as Pai, this restaurant presents a side of Thai food that most people (including Thais) won’t recognize: imperial cuisine and fusion. As befitting the origins of the cuisine, the setting and prices are upscale. Dishes are well-conceived. The popular khao yum (rice salad) has been on the menu since the opening of the restaurant. Another success is the deep fried clams with betel leaves—an umami bomb. The use of raw leafy vegetables as a palate cleanser is genius. Temporarily closed since winter 2020.
Trinidad and Tobago
Trini cuisine is strong in Toronto. Not only is there a wide selection of roti (curried vegetables or meat wrapped in a flatbread), it is also possible to find lesser-known items like pelau (rice and meat cooked with coconut milk), macaroni pie, and saheena (taro leaves fritter). A bunch of roti shops can be found on Queen Street West between Spadina and Lansdowne Avenue. Venture out of downtown for other Trinidadian food.
Leela’s Roti and Doubles
900 Rathburn Road West, Mississauga and 2573 Victoria Park Avenue
Huge range of Trinidadian foods, including uncommon ones in the region like Trini-style fried rice and bake and shark (battered shark sandwiched with fried dough). Bright sauces, fresh ingredients, and adept cooking keep the crowds coming in. Doubles are slathered with a piquant mix of chutneys and are one of the best. Economical weekday specials.
Miss Likklemore’s
433 King Street West
A rarity in Canada: high-end Trinidadian. Its location in glitzy King Street West might explain why patties cost 3 times more than normal, but Miss Likklemore’s has the cooking chops to back it up. Classics like doubles are elevated with small touches like pickles.
Island Foods
1310 Don Mills Road
Best doubles in Toronto (curried chickpeas sandwiched between two round pieces of deep-fried dough). The secret is in the curry sauce: umami with a small kick of spice. The rotis are excellent too.
Chadon Beni
936 Queen Street West
This resto-bar is named after the Caribbean herb that tastes like coriander. And they put it in literally everything. They’re also the first Canadian-Trini fusion restaurant (finally!) with creative offerings like venison sliders with scotch bonnet peppers or tempura-fried lobster tacos.
Ali’s Roti
1446 Queen Street West
This place is a mainstay in the Parkdale neighbourhood. The roti shell is toasted to the right degree and curries are spiced well. Good portions.
Turkey
The Turkish food scene in Toronto is decent. It’s missing Eastern Turkish and Black Sea region restaurants.
The largest Turkish supermarket is Anatolian Fine Foods. It even has a butcher and Turkish deli meats. A similar, more upscale supermarket is Urla Fine Foods, boasting a large selection of gourmet lokum (Turkish delights).
Flame Food+Design
2197 Bloor Street West
Stands heads and shoulders over other Turkish restaurants in the Toronto region. While other restaurants are content with the usual kebabs and pides, Flame Food+Design pushes the envelope of Turkish cuisine. Design is at the core of the business; a designer boutique and educational food events are part of its repertoire. Its Neo-Anatolian offerings include lamb kebabs with chimichurri and a modern presentation of çerkez tavuğu (sweet shredded chicken paste).
MaBelle Baklavacisi
1110 Wilson Avenue
Hands down the best Turkish baklava in Toronto. It’s also better than most in Turkey. The ground pistachio has concentrated flavour and the filo pastry remains light and crispy. Best of all, it’s not cloyingly sweet so one can taste all components.
Mustafa Restaurant
866 Wilson Avenue
Best pide (elongated flatbread with toppings) in Toronto. For those who can’t decide, the karışık (assorted) arranges the bestselling flavours on different sections of the pide. Every one is a winner. Meats are juicy and the marinades are flavourful. Extremely popular. Waitlist process is a bit chaotic.
Meat Point
1021 Wilson Avenue
Döner kebabs can be found at almost every Turkish restaurant in Toronto. This one stands out for its bread. Instead of regular dürüm (flatbread roll), Meat Point uses a homemade pide (pita) that is well-salted, browned, and aromatic. Oh, and the meat is tasty too. Döner sandwiches available for lunch only. This is a kebab house, so don’t expect to find many other Turkish dishes.
Pink Ice Cream
666 St Clair Avenue West
This young ice creamery is quickly garnering attention for its Turkish ice cream. Flavours are mostly Turkish-inspired, from dried figs to its signature “burnt milk”. Don’t miss anything pistachio; they come chockful of said ingredient.
Helvaci Ali 1900
3535 Odyssey Drive, Unit 89, Mississauga
Purveyors of Turkish helva (sweet semolina pudding). They have a handful of flavours, but all are based on a strong foundation of gooey semolina. Its sweetness is tempered by the dondurma (ice cream made with mastic gum) it sits on top of. A delightful contrast of textures and temperatures.
Uganda
There are no Ugandan restaurants in Toronto but there is one grocer.
Chakula Tamu
1690 Eglinton Avenue West
Ugandan imports and ingredients for making East African food. Small shop with few items on display. They do have a large freezer of matoke (green bananas). Sometimes has nsenene (grasshoppers).
Ukraine
Ukrainians are one the largest ethnic groups in Toronto. Canada has the third largest Ukrainian population in the world, after Ukraine and Russia. Unfortunately, the best food is at someone’s grandma’s house. The Ukrainian restaurants here are pedestrian except for one stellar exception. Wander down Bloor Street West between Jane and Runnymede Road for Ukrainian delis, financial institutions, and other businesses.
Barrel House Korchma
2385 Lakeshore Boulevard West
Rural hip restaurant that recreates an Ukrainian izba (cottage). Menu has hearty traditional dishes, including uncommon ones like salo (cured pork fat). Presentation and technique have been updated gently to the modern age. Borscht shows excellent balance of flavours. A refreshing change from the dreary Eastern European delis of yesteryear.
European Delight
St Lawrence Market, 93 Front Street East, Lower Level Unit B6
One of the few places in St Lawrence Market that is worth eating at. Has Ukrainian and general Eastern European food like cabbage rolls and varenikis. They have sauerkraut cabbage roll, which is a rarity. Also, deruny (potato pancakes; labelled as latkes) and knishes (meat buns). Amazingly inexpensive considering the tourist traps around it. A Ukrainian deli, Dnister, is opposite this takeout place.
United Arab Emirates
Emirati food isn’t very distinct and falls under the general umbrella of Middle Eastern food. There is a lot of overlap between the dishes of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen.
Mandi Afandi
5120 Dixie Road, Unit 1, Mississauga
Technically, this isn’t an Emirati restaurant but it serves dishes from that region. Emirati dishes like madfoon (chicken and rice cooked in an underground oven) and thareed (bread and vegetable stew) mingle with Saudi and Yemeni dishes like mandi (another variation of meat and rice). On weekends, they have specials like Jordanian mansaf. Fast food restaurant vibe and quality. It even has a drive-thru. Free dates, coffee, and tea.
United Kingdom
Traditional food of the British Isles is awful. Bland and nasty dishes like steak and kidney pie, jellied eel, and Marmite. Some dishes are more tolerable, like pasties (meat pie) and shortbreads. British and Scottish establishments in Toronto stick to the more palatable dishes. There are no Welsh restaurants. For Northern Irish food, see Ireland as they share the same heritage.
British, Scottish, and Irish specialty shops are scattered in the outskirts of the Toronto region. Some even have Marks & Spencer and Tesco products. None stands out in particular; try The British Grocer or Simply British Foods.
Kitchen on Sixth
8.5/10
2976 Lake Shore Boulevard West
UK pub grub like bangers and mash, balti, and chicken tikka masala. For brunch, they have Ulster fry (lots of meat, eggs, and beans; of Northern Irish origin). For dessert, banoffee crepes. They also do a mean Sunday roast. Strangely, I get better traditional British food here than recommended places in London. That’s probably because they are not afraid to deviate from tradition ever so slightly. For example, their Yorkshire pudding comes with curds and blue cheese. Classics done well and updated to the modern age.
The Olde Yorke
96 Laird Drive
Best fish and chips in Toronto. Flour batter is crispy and has good flavour. Fish is fresh and moist. Reasonable prices.
The Dorset
457 Wellington Street West
The menu is loosely inspired by the Dorset coast where the chef grew up in. Of course, there’s fish and chips but elevated with curry sauce. The treacle rye bread is faintly sweet and full-bodied. Other non-English dishes are respectable too.
Baker and Scone
693 St Clair Avenue West
It’s too easy to create dense and heavy scones but the ones here are buttery and have a good crumb. Decent variety of sweet and savoury flavours.
The Caledonian
856 College Street
Stereotypical Scottish snacks like Finnan haddie (smoked haddock) and haggis (ground sheep heart, lungs, and liver, cooked in stomach casing). Haggis is imported from Scotland and appears in various incarnations, including a baseball-sized fritter with microgreens. Meals are surprisingly tasty, like a gastropub. Also has the Scottish delicacy known as the deep-fried Mars bar.
United States
If you asked a Canadian what Canadian food is, the response might be “I don’t know what it is but it sure isn’t American.” There might be some truth to this. You don’t see a lot of restaurants in Toronto proudly claiming to serve food from the USA or trying to mimic American restaurants. Unless they are actually branches of American restaurants like Morton’s, The Cheesecake Factory, and Chick-fil-A. The USA is close by and anybody that wants authentic food can take a short trip, assuming no visa issues. That said, there are more similarities in the cuisines of both countries than most people would care to admit.
The major regional cuisines of the USA are:
- Northeast
- Midwest
- South
- Louisiana
- Texas
- California
- Southwest
- Pacific Northwest
- Hawaii
- McDonald’s
There are no Southwest Native American nor Puerto Rican restaurants in Toronto. For American-Chinese, see Canadian-Chinese for more ideas. Or you can go to Panda Express. For American-Italian, see Italy.
Canadian-American
Whether intentionally or not, some restuarants cook up food that has a passing resemblance with its American counterparts. Upon closer examination, you might notice differences that warrants a style of its own.
One Night Only Pizza (ONO Pizza)
581 Pape Avenue
Places such as this and Danforth Pizza House are defining what Toronto-style pizza is. At ONO, the dough is chewier than the typical NYC pizza and fermented for 3 days. It’s packed with local ingredients, which gives it a subtle Canadian touch.
Grandma Loves You
1084 Yonge Street and other locations
This operation has a menu which invokes New York City: deli sandwiches and hot dogs. However, the style is anything but. Hot dogs come with gourmet toppings like brie cheese and blueberry jam. Their sandwiches represent the best in grandma cooking: unfussy and leaving you with a fuzzy feeling.
National
Burger Drops
116 Atlantic Avenue
A silver lining of the pandemic is the surge of fine burger joints in Toronto. It’s hard to pick the best, but Burger Drops is a paragon of the classic burger. No fancy flavours. Just a petite bun, onions, pickle, cheese, and sauce but all done impeccably.
White Lily Diner
678 Queen Street East
Gentrified diner that whips up unfathomably tasty brunches. Influences from New York to California show up on their well-thought menu. Try their signature dish, the OG Patty Melt (it’s a glorified grilled cheese sandwich).
Better Days Coffee and Donuts
963 Dovercourt Road
These are not just the best cake dougnuts in Toronto; they’re one of the best cakes in Toronto. Remarkably moist, risen high, and a decadent bite. And a steal at $3.39. Flavours are intense.
The Donuterie
327 Carlaw Avenue
It’s difficult to find great yeast doughnuts in Toronto. The Donuterie gets the basics right without overwhelming the bread with accoutrements. But for the price, Krispy Kreme is probably more satisfying.
Northeast
The heavyweight in this region is of course New York City. New England has a few minor claims to fame like clam chowder and lobster rolls.
Pizzeria Badiali
181 Dovercourt Road
Finally, a New York-style pizza that can compete with the best in NYC. The slices are huge. The dough is well-seasoned, flops to the right amount, and is crackly around the edges. They have classic cheese and pepperoni flavours, but their non-traditional ones like vodka are worth a try.
Illstyl3 Sammies
300 Richmond Street West, Unit 102
Pretty decent cheesesteaks. The notable difference from famous Philadelphia ones is that they don’t offer Cheez Whiz (artificial cheese sauce), which is either a blessing or curse depending on where you stand on that ingredient.
Duff’s Famous Wings
558 College Street and 1604 Bayview Avenue
The place to get authentic Buffalo wings. These are vinegary, spicy chicken wings customarily served with a blue cheese dip and a stick of celery. Choose your spice level from mild to armageddon. The latter is for those with something to prove (that they are idiots). Duff’s Canada is affiliated with the original Duff’s in Buffalo, which has the best wings of all the touristy restaurants there. Not quite as good as the American HQ but decent.
Midwest
Chicago is the culinary king of this region, giving the world deep-dish pizza and lesser-known specialties like stuffed pizza. The food here is simple and very filling.
Descendant Detroit Style Pizza
1168 Queen Street East
Detroit pizza is the lesser-known cousin of Chicago deep-dish pizza. The most obvious difference is in shape. Detroit-style pizza is rectangular and almost as thick as deep-dish pizza. This restaurant has Toronto-inspired toppings on its Detroit-style pizza like jerk chicken and kothu roti. Best pizza in Toronto across all cuisines and budgets.
Marq’s Chicago Beef
707 Dundas Street West
Italian beef sandwiches are a minor specialty in Chicago. You can find out what the fuss is about at Toronto’s only Chicago-style sandwich spot. The pickled peppers and beef could be sliced thinner but the flavour is legit. For an unusual experience, get it “dipped”, where the bottom of the sandwich is blanched in beef broth.
South
Southern food is associated with comfort food: an euphemism for gloriously rich and unhealthy food. Grits (boiled cornmeal), cornbread, fried chicken, and the like are on the rise in Toronto.
Memphis BBQ
8074 Islington Avenue, Vaughan
Memphis-style barbecue is characterized by lots of pork. Memphis BBQ (the restaurant) delivers that and excellent wings. Ribs are wet, meaning slathered with sauce, but not cloyingly so. Platters come with a bit of everything for sides. All are competently executed. You know it’s doing something right when it’s garnered BBQ trophies and thronged with customers for over a decade.
Kansas King BBQ
10447 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill
Kansas-style barbecue is all about the sauce and this fast food restaurant delivers a smokey sweet one. Meals are satisfying and come with fries, slaw, pickles, and grilled challah bread—a welcome change from the usual Texan white bread. Oh, and the meats are juicy and seasoned adequately. Not the best barbecue but the best value.
PG Clucks
610 College Street and 384 Bloor Street West
Best fried chicken sandwich in Toronto. The menu is tiny, so they have perfected every component. Juicy chicken, crunchy batter, moderately spicy sauces.
Oklahoma Burgers
10 Kingsbridge Garden Circle, Mississauga
Take a smashburger, add some griddled onions, and you get a Oklahoma burger. This epnonymous restaurant shared the same space as a few other food concepts. Pretty decent though there are better smashburgers (sans onions) in Toronto.
Cubano Kings
141 Spadina Avenue
This is the only place in the city to get Miami-style cubanos (Cuban sandwiches; flat-pressed with ham). The sanwiches are ok though the guava filling of the pastelitos could be more vibrant.
Louisiana (Creole, Cajun)
Louisiana is home to two famous regional cuisines: Creole and Cajun. They are almost the same thing. Both are a mash-up of French, Spanish, West African (by way of the Caribbean), and American influences. Famous dishes are jambalaya (rice cooked with sausage and vegetables), gumbo (rich and thick stew), étouffée (seafood simmered in a light sauce), and blackened fish (from burnt spices).
Cajun refers to the settlers from Acadia, French Canada. Their cooking methods and flavours lean towards rustic French. Creole refers to the descendants of the French and Spanish colonists. They had access to a greater variety of produce, hence their food has more varied flavours. Note that Creole is a general term that is not limited to the USA. The mixed ancestry descendants in some parts of the Caribbean, South America, and Africa are also Creole, but their culture and cuisine are very different.
New Orleans Seafood & Steakhouse
267 Scarlett Road
Their menu isn’t huge but is extremely focused on Creole. The specialty here is jambalaya. It comes packed with an array of high-quality proteins like mussels, shrimp, fish, andouille sausage, and a crawfish to top it all. The rich seafood and tomato broth adds to a mouth-watering riot of flavours. The beignets are light and dusted with the right amount of sugar and cinnamon powder. Not as good as Cafe du Monde but close.
Upper Beaches Bourbon House
3655 St Clair Avenue East
No-frills soul food. They do a textbook shrimp and grits, which is strangely difficult to find in Toronto.
Texas
Texan food is known for two things: Tex-Mex and barbecue. Great Tex-Mex doesn’t exist in Toronto, so you will have to settle for Texan barbecue.
Beach Hill Smokehouse
172 Main Street and 429 Danforth Avenue
Central Texan barbecue. This style uses a dry rub so that the quality of the meat can shine through. Sauces are served on the side. Their brisket is decent if somewhat peppery. Sandwiches are a better deal and make a satisfying lunch.
Hotmess Tex Mex
615 College Street
If for some reason you are craving Tex-Mex instead of Mexican food, try Hotmess. The food here is openly Tex-Mex, unlike other places that claim to be Mexican but are really Tex-Mex. The menu isn’t very big but has some classics like chimichangas and Frito pies. Both are junk food. The taste is average but the presentation is a step higher than regular Tex-Mex joints. The standout is actually the boisterous decor that transports diners to Texas.
Sneaky Dee’s
431 College Street
An average Tex-Mex option. You can get fajitas (grilled skirt steak), enchiladas smothered with shredded cheese and sauces, tortilla bowls, and other stereotypical foods. Brunch is cheap and satisfying. The real reason most people come to this dive bar is for the live music. Sneaky Dee’s is a venerable performing venue.
California
Californian cuisine is hard to pin down. How about healthy, organic, seasonal, and sometimes pretentious? Californians come up with sacrilegious twists on dishes from elsewhere. They put barbecue chicken on pizzas, use cream cheese in sushi, and add rice to Hawaiian poke.
The other strand of Californian cuisine stems from its traditional Mexican roots: Cal-Mex. This is a variant of Mexican food that uses, what else, healthier ingredients.
Seven Lives Tacos Y Mariscos
72 Kensington Avenue
The busiest restaurant in Kensington Market and for good reason. Baja fish tacos are the crowd’s favourite. The other Cal-Mex tacos are good too. Practically no seating area.
Hawaii
There are not many Hawaiian restaurants in Toronto, unless you count the hordes of poke places that popped up when the food fad swept Toronto in 2016.
Umami Poke
1252 Yonge Street
One of the top 3 poke spots in Toronto. Well-marinated fish, vibrant toppings, and a good variety of flavours.
Liko’s Hawaiian Barbecue
Their menu isn’t large but it has typical Hawaiian celebration dishes like kalua pork and whole roasted pig. They are caterers but they also participate in summer markets and festivals. Avoid the plate lunch (rice, macaroni salad, and proteins) if the meats have been sitting out long—they get tough and dry. Average. Check out their social media channels to see where they are headed next.
Uruguay
Uruguay and the Pampas (central) region of Argentina have the same cuisine. There aren’t many distinctive Uruguayan dishes. Chivitos (steak sandwiches) are the national dish and are kinda boring. Thanks to the many Italian immigrants in Uruguay and Argentina, the region has developed its own style of Italian cuisine. It can be summarized as “lots of cheese”.
Montevideo Bakery & Cafe
2728 Jane Street
This nondescript bakery in a small plaza has a charming cafe at the back. The front is a deli and bakery featuring empanadas and sweet pastries. Their chivitos are the best in Toronto, thanks to the soft milk bread that is baked on premises. All sandwich components are prepared with care and are better than most in Montevideo.
La Pasiva
896 Wilson Avenue
The only place in Toronto that has both chivitos and fainás (chickpea bread). The Uruguayan/Argentinean variation of milanesas (deep-fried pork cutlets), pizzas, and pastas can be found here, served with lots of cheese. Chivitos are typical of those in Montevideo. Meaning, fast-food quality and unremarkable. The Canadian chivito adds ham and cheese. Skip the tasteless potato salad.
Uzbekistan
Uzbek is the most well-known Central Asian cuisine, especially in the former Soviet Union. All representative dishes of the region can be found in this country: plov (rice cooked with meat, carrots, and other spices), lagman (hand-pulled noodles), manti (dumplings), samsa (samosas), and different kinds of kebabs. Uzbek restaurants are to the Russians what Indian restaurants are to the British.
Puff Samosa
8/10
30 Bertrand Avenue, Unit A3
Samsa specialists. These are flatter than North Indian varieties and have a different spice profile. Flakey and moist. Their manti are outstanding: as big as billiard balls and with wrapper dough so thin that it’s translucent.
Venezuela
Venezuelan food is similar to Colombian. It’s hearty and country-style. The national dish, pabellón, embodies this with rice, black beans, and shredded beef. But the most famous food has to be arepas. These cornmeal pancakes can be sliced in half and stuffed with all sorts of fillings, making it the perfect hand-held sandwich.
The Arepa Republic
76 Densley Avenue
This is a food truck that sells the namesake, arepas. Pabellón is served in arepa form. Also recommended is the reina pepiada, a mix of shredded chicken and avocado. These are the best arepas in town: crisp and grilled perfectly on the outside, soft on the inside.
El Venezolano
818 Danforth Avenue
A rare Venezuelan restaurant with a casual contemporary ambience. The menu tends towards fast food like arepas, empanadas, and patacones (deep-fried plantains). They have a brilliant sampling platter called El Venezolanito that contains mini versions of their greatest hits. Arepas are good in a greasy diner kind of way. Reina pepiada is seasoned well but could use more avocado.
Dulcinella
7 Coxwell Avenue
Dulcinella is in an odd location away from Venezuelan communities in Toronto but that hasn’t stopped them from visiting. Their empanadas cost twice as much as their competitors but they’re twice as tasty too: juicy, well-seasoned, and high-quality meats..
Latin Dough
533 Evans Avenue
Tequeños are the name of the game here, as are other deep-fried foods. They’re Venezuelan dough sticks formed by spiralling a strip of dough around some filling. The traditional filling is queso fresco (soft cheese) but Latin Dough also offers ham, pizza, guava, and Nutella variants. Textbook quality.
Vietnam
Toronto has great Vietnamese food on account of its large Vietnamese population. Aside from the usual phở (soup noodles) and bánh mì (baguette sandwiches), you can find Northern, Central, Southern, and even Canadian-Vietnamese food. Most Vietnamese restaurants have an encyclopedic menu that spans the country’s cuisine.
Canadian-Vietnamese
Foxley
207 Ossington Avenue
This is the original fusion restaurant on the Ossington Strip before it became foodie central. The menu isn’t just Vietnamese. It covers Thai, Chinese, and Japanese fusion. The offerings change regularly but the signature blue crab and avocado salad is a mainstay. Generous amount of crab meat, creamy avocado, and the unctuous dressing makes this one of the best salads in the city.
Konia Kitchen and Bar
403 Roncesvalles Avenue
This restaurant looks like it came straight out of a tourist village in Vietnam. Kitschy decor aside, the food is solid. It’s a remix of traditional Vietnamese components, not a fusion with foreign ingredients. Unique in Toronto, they have a platter with chicken hearts and livers. It’s hearty.
Baguette & Co
2772 Dundas Street West
Moderately creative takes on bánh mì. No mystery meat here. The ingredients are fresh and recognizable. Seoul Food is their most popular and explodes with umami from gochujang, kimchi, and marinated meats. Sandwiches are more carefully assembled and complex in flavour than Banh Mi Boys.
Banh Mi Boys
7/10
392 Queen Street West and other locations
There is a satisfying variety of bánh mì here, including Canadianized offerings like duck confit and breaded squid. Not the best but it’s the original modern bánh mì joint in Toronto. And don’t forget about the Kimchi fries that will put you into a coma. Very affordable.
North
Northern Vietnamese food is more bland than Southern—simple ingredients and not too much spice. The mighty phở came from this region and mutated a little as it travelled south to Saigon.
Phở Sơn
8.5/10
2319 Keele Street, Unit 100
The place to get northern specialties like bún chả hà nội: grilled lemongrass pork patties with rice vermicelli. It comes with a bowl of fish sauce to douse the noodles in. Herbs are fresher than average—not a bad leaf in sight. Vegetables are meticulously carved. On weekends, they have hard-to-find offerings like cháo lòng dồi (offal congee).
Bong Lua Vietnamese Restaurant
2572 Birchmount Road
For northern-style phở. Bún riêu (crab noodles in tomato broth) is authentic and one of the most popular dishes here.
Que Ling
248 Boulton Avenue
Their signature dish is bánh cuốn, stuffed and steamed rice rolls similar to Cantonese cheong fun. The rolls are thin and translucent. They are deliberately plain so that you can season them to taste with the accompanying nước mắm (fish sauce dip) and bouquet of herbs. Authentic and surprisingly filling.
Central
The imperial capital Hue is also the culinary hub of central Vietnam. Dishes here are the spiciest in the country. The most famous one is bún bò Huế, a spicy noodle soup with assorted beef and pork parts.
Đà Nẵng Restaurant
8/10
2725 Jane Street
There are not many restaurants that specialize in Central Vietnamese dishes, so it’s delightful to have a smorgasbord of them at Đà Nẵng restaurant. If you like sweet and salty foods, get the bánh bèo. They’re thin discs of rice cake with a sweet dried-shrimp topping. Other specialties are bánh bột lọc (shrimp and pork dumplings) and the tourist favourite, mì quảng (semi-dry turmeric noodles). Respectable quality. Please don’t come here looking for phở.
South
Southern Vietnamese food is recognizably Southeast Asian. Coconut milk appears alongside fresh chillies. French influences are the strongest here, giving rise to bánh mì and sweet Vietnamese-style coffee.
Pho Dau Bo
2437 Finch Avenue West, Unit 4
The phở broth at this restaurant is deceptively clear and packs an intense beef flavour. Noodles are silky smooth. There are other “Pho Dau Bo” restaurants in the region but this is the best.
Pho Linh
8/10
1156 College Street
Venerable Southern Vietnamese restaurant. Their phở is pure and flavourful. One of the rare restaurants where the cơm tấm (broken rice) is worth ordering. Cooking skills are a step up from others. Their weekend bún bò Huế has a pleasant heat but has been adapted to squeamish palates—there are no blood cubes.
I Love Pho
848 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga and 1248 Dundas Street East, Mississauga
Bò 7 món is a southern Vietnamese feast of 7 courses of beef. Not many places offer it in Toronto, let alone do it well. I Love Pho stands above its competitors with its flavourful cooking and reasonable prices.
Banh Mi Que Huong
2437 Finch Avenue West, Unit 12
For traditional bánh mì, complete with mystery meats. Fresh baguettes and crisp đồ chua (carrot and radish pickles) at dirt cheap prices.
Yemen
Yemeni cuisine is a distinct variation of Middle Eastern food and demonstrates Indian influences. The most common Yemeni dish in Toronto is mandi. This is a rice and meat dish traditionally cooked in an underground oven.
Monasaba
8/10
2273 Dundas Street West, Unit 11, Mississauga
The best restaurant in the Toronto region to try mandi. They have a wide variety of formats, including a quarter-chicken mandi for small eaters. The spicing is simple and bold: cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. Every ingredient is handled well, from the protein to the raisins and silvered almonds. Unlike other mandi restaurants, Monasaba’s interior is modern and actually a delight to eat in.
Mutabak Karak
3480 Platinum Drive, Unit 98, Mississauga
The restaurant’s name spells out their two specialties. Their karak chai (spiced tea) is the smoothest in the Toronto region, balancing mild sweetness with cinnamon and cloves. Their mutabak (stuffed pancake) is competently assembled, mildly spiced, and fried crispy brown.
Matari Coffee
3465 Platinum Drive, Unit 97, Mississauga
The place to get Yemeni coffee. Actually, it might be the only place in the Toronto region. Although their name says “coffee”, they brew an excellent and strong tea too.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe cuisine is very close to South Africa. They have different names for the same thing, like sadza for pap (cornflour paste).
Mnandi Pies
Meat pies that are indistinguishable from their English counterparts. Simple and safe flavours. They closed their physical storefront in 2018 but still have an online presence and appear at events like Withrow Park Farmers’ Market in summer.
No representation
I am not aware of places that have food from the following independent states. Let me know if you find any. Toronto so needs a Bhutanese restaurant. Other weak spots are Scandinavia, Central Africa, Indian Ocean islands, and Pacific islands.
- Abkhazia
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Artsakh
- Bahrain
- Belarus
- Belize
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Botswana
- Brunei
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cabo Verde (Cape Verde)
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Cook Islands
- Cyprus, Northern Cyprus. The last Cypriot restaurant, Rikkochez, was a casualty of COVID-19. You can get your sheftalia fix at the annual summer festival held by the Cypriot Community of Toronto.
- Djibouti
- Dominica. Once every summer weekend, Taste of Dominica is held at Mel Lastman Square to celebrate Dominican food and culture.
- East Timor (Timor-Leste)
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eswatini
- Fiji
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Honduras. The short-lived Baleadas Latin Food in Brampton closed in 2019.
- Iceland. There are no Icelandic restaurants in Toronto but the Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto throws a belated þorrablót (thorrablot; a mid-winter festival) in April. Taste of Iceland holds an Icelandic feast in November as part of their North American tour.
- Kazakhstan
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Maldives
- Mali
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritania
- Micronesia
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Mongolia. Note: Mongolian hot pot is not from Mongolia.
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Niger
- Niue
- North Korea
- Norway
- Oman
- Palau
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Qatar
- Rwanda
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Solomon Islands
- South Ossetia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Tajikistan
- Togo
- Tonga
- Tunisia. The last Tunisian restaurant, Taste of Tunisia, closed in 2013. The nearest ones are in Montreal.
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu
- Zambia