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Norma’s Patties’ Spicy Beef Patty, $4.10, 384 Keele St. (inside When The Pig Came Home)
The dish
I’ve eaten a lot of Jamaican patties across the city, but when it comes to ones with a homemade taste, Norma’s spicy beef is among my favourites. The classic spicy beef packs a sharper, more astringent Scotch bonnet heat than most — where “spicy” often means mild — and the beef-and-gravy filling isn’t overpowered by thyme. For lack of a better descriptor, it’s very beef-and-stew-forward.
The pastry is flaky with a rich, buttery flavour that’s not greasy, and its slightly imperfect curvature shows it’s made by hand, not machine. Because many of the city’s top patty shop owners are interconnected (many worked at the same bakery decades ago), it’s sometimes hard to taste a difference — but Norma’s patties stand out.
The restaurant
A few Star readers recommended Norma’s Patties when I was compiling the Patty Bracket last month, but the shop was on a brief summer break at the time, and I didn’t want to send readers to a closed restaurant.
Norma’s is a side project inside When The Pig Came Home, a smokehouse and deli from Kim Hannam and her husband and co-owner Ryan Gatner. The couple started out on the farmers’ market circuit in 2012 before opening a brick-and-mortar location in High Park in 2016, eventually moving to their current Junction space in 2021.
The patty recipe comes from Hannam’s mother, Norma, who made them at home in Spanish Town, Jamaica. “Growing up, it was very normal for my mom to make everything from scratch — from rundown to oxtail,” says Hannam. “What made her patties unique is the care and love in the ingredients she used. The flavours in our patties come only from Scotch bonnets from Jamaica, and we follow her recipes to a T. The spicy beef were the ones we always had at home.”
The restaurant makes around 1,000 patties each week — sold hot, stuffed with add-ons like cheese and coleslaw, or frozen in boxes.
It’s a tight space with limited counter seating, but Hannam’s jovial energy gives WTPCH a warmth that sets it apart from your typical takeout spot. She’s the kind of person who’ll recognize a customer’s voice over the phone and recite their order before they can, then chat up visitors and recommend other places to check out in the neighbourhood.
Also on the menu
Hot sandwiches are the main specialty here including peameal, smoked brisket and porchetta, but keeping within the patty theme, Norma’s also makes a great vegetarian sweet potato and coconut-thyme curry patty ($4.10), in which the crust is made with butter, rather than the typical lard. There’s also ackee and saltfish patties ($4.60), as well as a braised oxtail and cheese ($5.10). The 1/4lb jerk chicken sandwich is another standout ($15.40): chicken thighs marinated for 48 hours in a housemade jerk marinade punctuated with lots of scotch bonnets and green onions that’s then smoked and topped with creamy coleslaw in a milk bun.
Explore the area
I’ve listed my Junction recommendations before so I asked Hannam for help. She’s a fan of popular spots seafood restaurant Honest Weight (2766 Dundas St. W.) as well as Noctua Bakery (3014 Dundas St. W.), as well as slightly more hidden places like Gaspar Cafe (10 Sousa Mendes St) for coffee and pastries along the West Rail Toronto Railpath.
