Riley’s is one of Toronto’s most hyped restaurant openings of the year. The Vancouver-founded steak and seafood house waltzed into a prime spot on Wellington in the spring, right next to the Ritz-Carlton, brandishing a glitzy menu packed with high-end proteins. One surprising item accounts for 40 per cent of its business. Not the seafood towers. Or the steaks. It’s their daily special, the Lunch 45. The price tag? Just $25. Dishes range from a porchetta sandwich and meatloaf to prime rib beef dip and rigatoni Bolognese.
Once the exclusive sustenance of lawyers and finance bros with fat expense accounts, the power lunch has evolved. It’s faster. It’s often healthier. And while it still feels luxe, it generally no longer requires a platinum Amex to partake.
Staking their business on it
Lunch service at steakhouse Blue Bovine Steak + Sushi House is “critical” to its establishment, according to general manager Ashley Tollis. “A strong business lunch service introduces new guests to the restaurant, builds rapport and strengthens our relationships with our neighbourhood community,” she says, adding that many power lunchers return for happy hour before heading to Union Station to catch their train home. Now, they also offer a prix-fixe lunch menu, entitled Bullish on Bay, for $45.
“We’re doing 100 covers and are sold out for lunch,” said Riley’s owner Emad Yacoub, who runs the same special at his Black + Blue Steakhouse, where options include beef bourguignon and chopped steak. “It’s a great way to still go out and enjoy life for lunch and not break the bank.”
Yacoub figures an $18 salad at the mall, once you add protein and avocado, can easily become a $30 lunch. “(Instead) they say, ‘I’m gonna sit with a white tablecloth, I’m gonna have a waiter that serves me, I’m gonna feel like I’m spending lots of money where I’m not.’” Yacoub’s mantra to his staff is: people might go out once a week for dinner, but they will go out for lunch five days a week.
The rise of healthmaxxing
Power lunch players once ruled the land and O&B was a big hitter, thanks to its ownership of see-and-be-seen spots like Canoe. District executive chef Ryan Lister moved to Toronto in the 2010s, when he witnessed the last, pre-COVID gasp of big expense accounts and bougie two-hour lunches. He says dishes like braised meats and patés “just flew.” Now, Lister says, many diners want nothing over-the-top rich and gluttonous: something that’s a bit healthier and to be in and out of the restaurant in 45 minutes. Even the soups at O&B’s The Joneses are more broth and less cream. And 50 per cent of lunch sales at The Rabbit Hole are salads and bowls — and that’s at a British pub. Lister’s new ethos? “It’s delicious, but it’s not decadent,” he says.
Long-standing power lunch locale ONE Restaurant has also added a plant-based menu featuring dishes like eggplant schnitzel ($38) and plant-based salmon with veggie glass noodles ($48), along with a dedicated salad section; quicker items like the turkey Cubano ($36) have also proved popular.
It’s still common for ONE’s well-heeled regulars to recognize other high rollers at nearby tables and get up to network. “We’ve spent so much time connecting over Zoom that there’s a real appreciation for sitting across the table from someone and having a conversation over a meal,” director of marketing and communications Jessica Rodrigues says. “It’s also a little less formal than it used to be. We’ve gone from those ‘Mad Men’-style, long, elaborate lunches, to almost doing away with them entirely during COVID, and now they’re coming back in a different way. You don’t necessarily need to spend two or three hours eating and drinking to accomplish that.”
Seafood supremacy
Newer power lunch hubs like Estiatorio Milos have also noticed the shift. “It is less about excess and more about choosing where you spend your time, what you are eating,” says CEO Joey Simons. They offer a $50 four-course, prix-fixe lunch menu; dishes include a raw platter of tuna sashimi and salmon tartare, grilled octopus, and a whole grilled dorade. “Guests can have an important lunch, eat well and maintain the pace of their day.” Lunch is served in one hour or it’s free.
Seafood is an ascendant star in the city’s power lunch scene. Chotto Matte runs three popular lunch sets from $45 to $69, featuring a colourful range of sushi, nigiri and fish. “For a while, there was a question about what the Financial District would look like with hybrid work and fewer people coming downtown five days a week. What we’re seeing now is that when people do come downtown, they’re increasingly looking to make something of that day,” says general manager Hassan Younes. “Lunch becomes part of that. Instead of sitting in an office and ordering something to their desk, there is value again in taking a client or colleague somewhere memorable.”
In the bustling business building a few blocks up, you’ll find Sushi Yugen, No. 62 on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants, an oasis tucked away behind a curtained door. They do a brisk weekday business, offering an $80, one-hour sushi omakase lunch, complete with high-end service perks like frequent napkin re-folding and attentive sake refills.
Go on a random Wednesday and every one of the 10 seats are filled. “Power lunches are all about building relationships,” says owner Kamen Sun, and the format is perfect for that. “Omakase feels high-end but you don’t need to order; the chef has already curated the menu. People want that experience.” They’ve had business people eschew the usual group steakhouse stuff-up for a sushi counter buyout. These days, she says, “some people want fish, not meat — healthier options, no mayo or heavy sauces.”
For those who want to keep talking shop after the hour is up, Sun set up a small indoor patio where patrons can have a few more rounds of drinks. (They bring in a lot of seasonal sakes to keep the menu fresh for their regulars.)
The city’s other buzziest new restaurant, Shinji, chose to open in the Financial District as the high-end Japanese steakhouse is a good match with the moneyed locals. Still, they “curated a special express lunch menu to be able to capture the crowd and make people feel comfortable to come dine with us,” says Jia Zhou, partner and Harlo Entertainment director of culinary and chef.
They started with a wagyu bento box ($26), then added salmon and tofu options, along with a sushi lunch set. They reduced the number of fried items on their original menu, as those proved less popular with the healthmaxxing clientele. Now, boxes and sets make up half the lunch traffic; the other half still indulges in more leisurely multi-course meals.
Betting on luxury
Restaurant Lucie is taking a different approach. They recently launched lunch service with $55 and $69 prix-fixe options, while also offering an even more indulgent, old-school take on the power lunch.
“We looked at what was already out there and most of it is burn and turn, prix fixe, in and out in an hour. That has its place and I’m not knocking it. But nobody was doing the other thing, so we went at it a bit over-the-top on purpose. Long lunch, no clock on the table,” says owner Adam Teolis. Bring back the three-martini lunch, he says. “Sit down, hold court, do the business over drinks — stay two hours if you want, make the bar your office instead of running back to it.”
Indulgent lunch treats include a $135 raw bar assortment, $78 wagyu steak frites, a fancy $46 burger and tagliolini pasta with add-ons of lobster ($56), caviar ($79), black truffle ($85) or all three for $110.
People have been going for the $110 option at dinner, and Teolis is betting some business folk will want to indulge come lunch, too. “Life’s too short. There’s a lot going on in the world, everything is moving too fast, and it’s nice to slow down for a couple of hours and enjoy the things that actually make life worth living,” he says. “That’s more what we’re selling than any one dish on the menu.”
