Top 100 under $100
555 Boat Noodle Downtown Toronto Thai 
Acute Pizzeria West Toronto Pizza 
Afrobeat Kitchen West Toronto Nigerian 
Aloette Bay Downtown Toronto Canadian 
Amber Kitchen East Toronto Israeli 
Ardo Downtown Toronto Italian 
Banh Mi House Plus Markham Vietnamese 
Bar Avelo Downtown Toronto Vegan 
Bar Raval West Toronto Spanish 
Beast Pizza West Toronto Pizza 
Beisl West Toronto Austrian 
Belle Isle East Toronto Canadian 
Bereket Kebab Scarborough Turkish 
Brazilian’s Choice West Toronto Brazilian 
Budapest Hungarian East Toronto Hungarian 
Buk Chang Dong West Toronto Korean 
Burger Drops West Toronto Burgers 
Butt Karahi Mississauga Pakistani 
Caribbean Queen West Toronto Jamaican 
Casa Portuguesa North Toronto Portuguese 
Chadwicks Midtown Toronto Canadian 
Charcoal Kebab House Downtown Toronto Chinese 
Cheng Du Downtown Toronto Chinese 
Chica’s Chicken West Toronto Fried Chicken 
Churrasqueira Martins West Toronto Portuguese 
Conejo Negro West Toronto Caribbean 
Darna West Toronto Middle Eastern 
De Chou Scarborough Korean 
Descendant Pizza East Toronto Pizza 
Donna’s West Toronto Canadian 
Dotty’s West Toronto Canadian 
The Dum Spot West Toronto Indian 
Eggstatic Midtown Toronto Canadian 
Falafel Plus Mississauga Palestinian 
Famiglia Baldassarre West Toronto Italian 
Fearless Meat East Toronto Canadian 
Flo’s Grill Vaughan Nigerian 
Foxley Bistro West Toronto Canadian 
Gonzo Izakaya West Toronto Japanese 
Guru Lukshmi Mississauga Indian 
House on Parliament East Toronto Canadian 
Imanishi West Toronto Japanese 
Kiss My Pans West Toronto Singaporean 
Koh Lipe Downtown Toronto Thai 
La Bella Managua West Toronto Nicaraguan 
La Guanaquita North Toronto Salvadoran 
La Morena West Toronto Ecuadorian 
Lao Lao Bar Downtown Toronto Laotian 
Le Paradis Midtown Toronto French 
Le Swan West Toronto French 
Linny’s West Toronto Jewish Deli 
Los Compas Downtown Toronto Mexican 
Makilala Downtown Toronto Filipino 
Maple Leaf Tavern East Toronto Canadian 
Mapo West Toronto Korean 
Masrawy Mississauga Egyptian 
Mattachioni West Toronto Italian 
Meataa 7 North Toronto Chinese 
Milou West Toronto French 
Momo Ghar East Toronto Tibetan 
Mona’s Roti Scarborough Trinidadian 
Mozy’s West Toronto Canadian 
Mustafa North Toronto Turkish 
Oji Seichi East Toronto Japanese 
Okonomi House Downtown Toronto Japanese 
Old Avenue North Toronto Azerbaijani 
Omusubi Bar Suzume West Toronto Japanese 
One2Snacks Scarborough Malaysian 
Oroshi Fish Co. West Toronto Sushi 
Pape Village East Toronto Greek 
Pho Ngoc Yen 3 Downtown Toronto Vietnamese 
Puerto Bravo East Toronto Mexican 
Punjabi by Nature Brampton Indian 
Quality Bread Bakery Scarborough Sri Lankan 
Rhum Corner West Toronto Haitian 
Romi’s Bakery Midtown Toronto Israeli 
Saffron Downtown Toronto Sri Lankan 
Sam’s Congee Markham Chinese 
Samara Kitchen Mississauga Indonesian 
Sea Witch Midtown Toronto British 
Shambhala Kitchen West Toronto Tibetan 
Shamshiri Downtown Toronto Iranian 
Skyview Markham Chinese 
Sumaq Scarborough Iraqi 
SumiLicious Scarborough Jewish Deli 
Sun Chinese Cuisine Mississauga Chinese 
Supreme Taste East Toronto Chinese 
Takht-e Tavoos West Toronto Iranian 
Tân Định Quán West Toronto Vietnamese 
Tinuno North Toronto Filipino 
Vit Beo West Toronto Canadian 
Wazema East Toronto Ethiopian 
When The Pig Came Home West Toronto Canadian 
White Lily East Toronto Canadian 
Wok Theory Downtown Toronto Chinese 
Wong’s Scarborough Indian 
Xawaash Etobicoke Somali 
Yin Ji Chang Fen Downtown Toronto Chinese 
Yuzuki Downtown Toronto Sushi
The raucous room jams the best of Toronto’s frenzied food scene into a single menu of snack-sized items. Nab a spot at the bar
Andrew Rowat
416 Snack Bar
- West Toronto
- Canadian, International
- Under $75
The house specialty at this raucous room is jamming the best parts of Toronto’s frenzied food scene — Chinese-style steamed buns, steak tartare, patatas bravas, Trini doubles and jerk fish — into a single menu of snack-sized items. Loud flavours, big textures and zero cutlery. Somehow, it works, and breathtakingly well. The “general tso-fu’s” sweet, crisp-fried tofu on sticks all but explodes into your mouth. The steamed bun comes loaded with sticky, slow-roasted pork belly; it’s fluffy, fatty, five-bite heaven, licked with pickled celery and ginger and fresh watercress crunch. The brisket for the Reuben is smoked in-house, and the tempura-fried Singaporean pepper crab is so good you’re liable to finger mop its darkly fermenty sauce right off the plate. If you can, nab a spot at the horseshoe bar, staffed by elite bartenders. Most nights, it devolves into a very good time. Jake Edmiston
- 181 Bathurst St. (at Queen St. W.)
- 416-364-9320
- 416snackbar.com
This tiny downtown specialist spot does Thai boat noodles beautifully
Carmen Cheung
555 Boat Noodle
- Downtown Toronto
- Thai
- Under $75
Before Bangkok had paved roads, tuk-tuk taxis and motorcycles by the millions, the town was interlaced with canals; enterprising cooks in narrow kitchen boats travelled them selling little bowls of noodles in broth. Those boat noodles, as they’re known, are beloved around Thailand even today. This tiny specialist spot does them beautifully. The shop’s richly aromatic broth, laced with ginger and star anise, earthy, gently medicinal black cinnamon, tropical herbs and dark, sweet soy, is warming and satisfying but also light enough for summer evenings. Its velvety texture is largely thanks to the soup’s customary splash of pork blood — it thickens the broth, without adding flavour. The bowl and its noodles build up from there with a choice of beef or pork, plus meatballs, herbs and vegetables and other options. It’s one of the most complex and delicious noodle soups you’ll find. There are other (more accessible) dishes, too, including soups and rice bowls. Among the many shareable appetizers, the tangy yum woonsen glass noodle salad is all fantastic flavours and textures: minced pork and shrimp, tomato, onion, snow fungus and Chinese celery. To drink, the longan pandan juice is the next best thing to a plane ticket to Southeast Asia. There’s gently jiggly coconut custard and fluffy toddy palm cake for dessert. Jennifer Chan
- 252 Queen St. W. (at John St.) and other locations
- 416-597-0048
- 555noodles.com
There’s serious craft coming out of the oven at Acute Pizzeria, co-founded by Hugh Nguyen
Andrew Rowat
Acute Pizzeria
- West Toronto
- Pizza
- Under $50
This Little Portugal pizzeria has all the low-charm charm of a legit slice joint — the flimsy paper plates, the solitary shaker of red-pepper flakes, the tear-as-you-go roll of paper towels. But there’s serious craft coming out of the oven here: a unique, sourdough hybrid of Neapolitan (the light, puffy lip) and New York-style (it’s easy to fold in half and eat on the go). Husband-and-wife co-founders Thalia Ly and Hugh Nguyen settled on a 48-to-72-hour cold fermentation to produce the eggshell-crisp bases for their pies, which come out of the electric deck oven with the kind of blistering more readily associated with wood-fired. Toppings lean classic but with subtle flourishes: The Snow in Marinara pie is an ideal showcase for the crust, with a generous layer of house-blended sauce, accented with creamy blobs of burrata hiding little pools of olive oil. And their take on the Hawaiian swaps ham for thick, curly strips of smoky bacon. They even make their own Buffalo sauce for the hefty, flour-dredged wings, which come out crispy, saucy and ready to dunk in their own buttermilk ranch. Just be sure to grab extra paper towels. Alex Baldinger
- 1745 Dundas St. W. (at Lansdowne Ave.)
- 416-588-6666
- acutepizzeria.com
Nigerian tradition with thoughtful modern touches at Afrobeat Kitchen
Andrew Rowat
Afrobeat Kitchen
- West Toronto
- Nigerian, West African
This snug Parkdale dining room glows under intimate lighting as mellow Afro-pop sets the stage. The menu here balances Nigerian tradition with thoughtful modern touches. The party jollof is essential: tangy, tomato-rich rice topped with smoky seared chicken thighs. Served with creamy slaw and sweet plantains, it’s medium-hot by default; the hotter you order it, the more flavour you get. The kelewele tostones — green plantains fried in red palm oil for an earthy, savoury depth and shattery-crisp texture — are dangerously easy to demolish; they’re dusted in smoky spices and come with scotch bonnet mayo. You’ll find the pounded cassava meal called fufu here, and the classic ground melon seed and seafood stew called egusi and greens, but also Southeast Asian-inflected coconut rice. The vegan miso mafe, an off-menu favourite among regulars, is worth asking for. It combines tender chickpeas, peanuts, eggplant and meaty-textured jackfruit, all grounded in savoury Japanese miso paste. It’s the kind of dish you settle into, served with both fufu and soft pounded yam. Akrit Michael
- 1510 Queen St. W. (at Macdonell Ave.)
- 416-672-065
- @afrobeatkitchen
The $10 Mini Martini at Aloette Bay comes with a perfectly shucked halfshell oyster
Andrew Rowat
Aloette Bay
- Downtown Toronto
- Canadian
Near the start of the menu at the Alo group’s Financial District hot spot, there’s a simple but almost magical phrase. “Aloette Mini Martini $10,” it reads. Maybe you only came for the $29 pre-game burger, fries and beer special or for the superlative calamari fritti and a couple of snacks. Maybe it’s a splurgy steak you’re after (Aloette goes both low and high) or the best-in-show — best in any show, anywhere — lemon meringue pie. But damn, that $10 martini is something. It’s served on a gold tray, with an olive, a pickled onion and a lemon twist. It comes with a perfectly shucked half-shell oyster, also, on a miniature bowl of pebbled ice. It’s an affordable actual luxury, which is pretty much the ethos of the place. That burger is excellent, the meat properly pink in its middle, deeply beefy, on a house-baked bun. The sea bream: moist, crisp-skinned, just kissed with smoke and char. Sure, there’s a Dubai chocolate sundae for dessert, but the lemon meringue pie is the can’t-miss. It is impossibly tall, silky and sunshiney sweet-sour; its torched meringues explode as you eat them, like mini campfire marshmallows, the perfect ending to a three- or four-mini-martini meal. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 81 Bay St., 4th Floor (at Front St., in CIBC Square) and other locations
- 416-260-3444
- aloetterestaurant.com
Breakfast is revitalized at Amber Kitchen and Coffee
Carmen Cheung
Amber Kitchen and Coffee
- East Toronto
- Israeli, International
- Under $75
In a city where brunch most often means basic eggs benedict or avocado toast, Michael Semidotski, George Grabsky and Abraham Zerea, the partners behind this airy Riverside room, look to Ukraine, Israel and Eritrea, their homelands, to revitalize the mid-morning meal. The trio, previously of Parallel Brothers, use North African merguez sausage, made with their own berbere spice mix, in their egg-and-potatoes skillet; whipped labneh on their smoked salmon sandwich; and the cilantro, garlic and chili mix called zhug as the house hot sauce. Their Amber Eggs marries eggs benedict and shakshuka, serving poached eggs and spinach on potato-bread bruschetta, all on a tangy savoury tomato sauce. And oh, that bread — it’s baked in-house, soft and sublime. (Even the kids’ pita toasts and the breakfast sandwich here start with house-made breads.) Their creamy polenta, topped with nicely chewy mushrooms and poached eggs, offers a European spin on a warm bowl of oatmeal. The breakfast sandwich combines a thick slab of frittata and a whole wheat sourdough bun with a zesty swipe of zhug mayo. Janet Hurley
- 4 Boulton Ave. (at Queen St. E.)
- 416-778-7272
- amberkitchen.ca
Ardo is a downtown destination for Sicilian cooking, helmed by chef Roberto Marotta
Carmen Cheung
Ardo
- Downtown Toronto
- Italian, Sicilian
The joy around this well-run little room is half the show: the after-work aperitivo-seekers and fresh-faced couples drinking sunny white wine by the glass, the pre-theatre quartets just happy to be some place nice. Chef Roberto Marotta’s Sicilian cooking provides the other half and then some — it’s as close as you’ll find here to the flavours of southernmost Italy. There are puffed and golden chickpea flour panelle to start, hot and crisp straight from the fryer, seasoned with wild fennel and a pop of good salt. They seem understated at first, and they take your breath away. There are fish and meats done simply, as in Sicily, as well as prodigiously cheesy arancini and glistening white anchovies in emerald-green oil. Marotta’s pastas are exquisite: rich, sweet, deep-tomatoey, stracciatella-topped pomodoro sauce, say, on noodles he sources from Sicily, their manufacture so rigorously pre-industrial they’d be a parody if not for their deliciousness. In cooking this simple (big asterisk there), ingredients mean a whole lot. Or take the squid-ink-stained conchiglie special late this winter, tossed with pistachio-mint pesto, crunchy house sourdough pangrattato, and delicate, candy-sweet shrimp, the sort of dish you hope will never end. For dessert, there’s house cannoli — they even make their own candied orange peel. Perfetti. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 243 King St. E. (at Sherbourne St.)
- 647-347-8930
- ardorestaurant.com
Vinh Luu’s goal for Banh Mi Plus is to offer top-quality Vietnamese food for working people
Carmen Cheung
Banh Mi House Plus
- Markham
- Vietnamese
- Under $50
The first bite at this best-in-town Vietnamese sandwich specialist makes you reconsider every mediocre bánh mì you’ve tried. Start with the crispy pork belly version, its roast meat deliciously juicy, its skin lacquered and crackly. Beneath it, a deeply savoury pâté lays a velvety base, along with garlic butter (bơ) that melts into the bread, while tangy pickled carrots and daikon (đồ chua) cut cleanly through the fat. Every bite is crunchy, bright and beautifully balanced. This is as great a bánh mì as you’ll find around town, and as good as in Vietnam. The price: just $7 a pop. Owner Vĩnh Lưu opened in 2024 with a simple goal: to turn out top-quality Vietnamese food for working people. For his incredibly silky pâté, he marinates fresh pork liver in a secret blend of spices before cooking it down. Don’t be shy about asking for extra; along with the bơ and đồ chua, it’s on the house. They sell more than a dozen bánh mì variations here, all excellent, from charred lemongrass pork sausage to assorted cold cuts layered with giò thủ: Vietnamese head cheese with a telltale pig’s ear crunch. Chi Nguyễn
- 6545 Hwy 7, Unit 20 (At Wooten Way S., in the plaza) and other locations
- 289-554-1915
- banhmihousemarkham.ca
This downtown vegan spot offers a superb $45 prix fixe, consistenly creative cocktails and superb sourdough flatbread by chef Fernando Anrango
Carmen Cheung
Bar Avelo
- Downtown Toronto
- Vegan
Tucked upstairs in a Victorian-era row house, Bar Avelo feels like a discovery. Its vegan dishes treat vegetables not as a compromise but as a canvas for creativity. Chef Fernando Anrango’s $45 prix-fixe menu rolls out in three courses, starting perhaps with a rich terrine of carrots, parsnips and beets encased in buttery cashew pâté and savoy cabbage. Or maybe a dollop of rich, earthy mushroom pâté to spread on house-made bread. Though the portions here are small, Bar Avelo’s grilled maitake is umami-rich and substantial, with a kick from Peruvian chili pepper, and balance from both sautéed broccolini and cauliflower purée. The superb sourdough flatbread — a favourite from Avelo owner Roger Yang’s previous venture, Awai — turns up as the base for a gorgeous combination of nutty pesto, oyster mushrooms and whipped, tofu-based ricotta. Desserts include house-made vegan cheeses, but it’s the cocktails that really hit the sweet spot, switching out the non-vegan egg foam in a Handsome Frenchman, and the Campari (it’s clarified with animal gelatin) in a Goji Negroni, for instance, for inventive vegan twists. Janet Hurley
- 51 St. Nicholas St., 2nd Floor (at Cottage Ln.)
- 647-643-3132
- avelorestaurant.com
When you enter the transportive Bar Raval, surrender to the Catalonian way
Andrew Rowat
Bar Raval
- West Toronto
- Spanish, Catalonian
Few Toronto spaces are as transportive as this one. Walk through the heavy wood doors and you feel almost as if you’re in Barcelona’s Old City, sitting beneath breathtaking overhead carpentry evocative of Gaudi. While you’re here, you might as well order an injudicious number of pintxos and tapas. Surrender to the Catalonian way. The skewered snacks and small plates might feature Blackbird baguette beneath creamy stracciatella and the vinegared anchovies called boquerones; cured mackerel hunks you dunk in rosemary-garlic olive oil; or a standout take on classic patatas bravas — thinly layered slices of potato packed into golden, domino-sized pavé and drizzled with aioli. Larger dishes include a pair of curled, grilled Moroccan octopus tentacles, which run from blackened and crispy at one end to pleasantly chewy; they’re great with their accompanying red pepper sofrito. There’s also a hamburguesa made with house-made, sherry-spiked botifarra sausage and served with two olives on top; after a few of the vermouth spritzes here, it looks like they might be winking at you. Yes, the drinks menu is extensive; don’t ignore the sensational non-alcoholic riff on the red wine and cola refresher called kalimotxo. Alex Baldinger
- 505 College St. (at Palmerston Ave.)
- thisisbarraval.com
Beast Pizza serves up serious pies. The superb 72-hour sourdough crusts pop with fermentation-borne microblisters
Andrew Rowat
Beast Pizza
- West Toronto
- Pizza
- Under $50
It’s hard to imagine a stronger evolutionary tale than Beast’s adaptation from bacchanalian nose-to-tail bistro to bona fide pizza parlour. In its present form since 2022, Beast Pizza is the rare restaurant in this delivery-obsessed city where you can still have a top-quality, hot-from-the-oven pizza placed on a table before you. And it’s certainly the only place you’ll find beef tongue or, yes, even hot dogs, on a pie. These are serious pizzas; chef Nate Middleton’s superb 72-hour sourdough crusts pop with fermentation-borne microblisters. Toppings range from upgraded classics (cheese and oven-cupped Venetian pepperoni) to totally out-there (the aforementioned Wiener Wheel), with nods to Toronto’s culinary landscape along the way. If the idea of an aloo gobi pizza with a coconut milk base sounds strange at first, the source material is treated with reverence and executed deliciously. (You can even order extra brinjal pickle.) And believe it or not, the best Jamaican beef patty you’ve had in years might just be here, in pizza form. They make only six of them each night, with properly spiced ground beef atop a mozzarella base, and turmeric in the dough to give the crust a golden glow. Alex Baldinger
- 96 Tecumseth St. (at King St. W.)
- 647-352-6000
- thebeastrestaurant.com
Inspired by Vienna’s neighbourhood taverns, Beisl is one of the most exciting places in the city right now | Chef Caleb Way
Andrew Rowat
Beisl
- West Toronto
- Austrian
Austrian food? Really? We had that reaction, too. But this modern, polished and delicious homage to Vienna’s humble neighbourhood taverns, called beisls, is easily one of the more exciting places in the city right now. Consider its sublime, Emmenthal-smothered kasespätzle — cheesy noodle-dumplings, roughly — the spätzle springy, firm and beautifully twisty; the Parm and gruyère-spiked bechamel voluptuous and elegant as an operatic heroine; it all comes shrouded in golden-fried onion crunch. There may be no better mac and cheese, (but let’s please not call it that). Beisl’s goulash brings a slow-braised beef cheek roughly the size of a beer stein, tender enough that a knife just falls through. It’s glazed with dark, paprika-laced sauce, a masterpiece. But then so is the schnitzel, light and crisp, puffy yet greaseless, lolling over the edge of the plate. (Yes, they do offer a few lighter, less stick-to-your-ribs dishes, too.) Beisl, happily, is set in True History Brewing’s well-run bierhalle; the specialty is easy-drinking Euro brews. Beisl’s young chef, Caleb Way, tweaks his menu with the seasons; when you think “late spring,” he’ll be thinking white asparagus with beery hollandaise and ’nduja. Or as the Austrians would call it, Spargelzeit. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 1154 St. Clair Ave. W. (at Westmoreland Ave.)
- @beisltoronto
Belle Isle serves up exhilarating modern Cantonese-Canadian cooking | Co-chefs Ronan Shaftoe, left, and Keith Siu
Andrew Rowat
Belle Isle
- East Toronto
- Canadian, Chinese
This curvy, candle-lit funhouse, the younger and somehow even cooler sibling to Lake Inez, could almost coast on style points alone. The seating was hand-moulded by a skate park designer, the decor includes both a giant swordfish mosaic and a poster of David Lee Roth, and the drinks list, from all-star bar manager Linh Phan, is built for wild nights out; Belle Isle’s jiggly, curacao-blue jell-o shots—a signature dessert—bear the inscription “fuck it” on their tops. Yet that’s just a backdrop to the young co-chefs Keith Siu and Ronan Shaftoe’s often exhilarating modern Cantonese-Canadian cooking. Along with the crews at Mimi Chinese and Sunnys, the two are creating a distinctly Toronto subcuisine in realtime, built, as Siu puts in, on “what it feels like to grow up in Toronto as a Chinese immigrant kid.” Their take on Chongqing hidden chicken forgoes the usual Szechuan-spiced wings for wet lemon pepper (aka “strip club”) ones; it’s both hilarious and delicious. Their sensationally tasty crudo appetizer, a nostalgic play on Hong Kong curry fish balls, combines mild, creamy-textured curry with sweet yellowtail tuna slices, punchy yellow tomato halves and tiny goldfish-shaped potato chips they painstakingly cut and fry in-house. The cheung fun rice rolls are all rich, decadent, lip-coating deliciousness, stuffed with roasty-tasting beef shank and tendon terrine, while the peanut-brittle topped dan dan noodles come sweet, cheap and compulsively inhalable. Is this drinking food or fine cuisine? It’s probably best just to say: both. Another can’t-miss: their coarsely-chopped beef tartare served with crispy chives, deep-fried sesame bread and a brightly tingly cumin and green Szechuan peppercorn mayo; it follows almost none of the rules of beef tartare and is also quite possibly the most delicious version in town. Though there are other excellent desserts, the jell-o shot is more interesting than at first blush. One recent rendition was flavoured with milk tea, black-sugar-seasoned tapioca pearls and Ontario rhubarb—as well, of course, as a healthy bit of booze. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 1455 Gerrard St. E. (at Craven Rd.)
- @belleisle__
Juicy kebabs are one of many standout dishes at this 180-room Scarborough destination
Carmen Cheung
Bereket Kebab House
- Scarborough
- Turkish
The kebabs hit the table with heat from the charcoal grill still rippling across their surface, smelling like dusk at a summer barbecue. The Urfa kebab, and the spicier Adana, both have lamb fat mixed in with the beef. They’re served on fresh flatbread that’s full of dimples from the baker’s fingertips. The bread soaks up the drippings and the smoke. Bereket’s modern, 180-seat room is airy and elegant, an unofficial hangout for the Turkish diaspora. The menu goes deep, into crisp, crackling, beef-topped lahmacun flatbreads and cheese-pull pide pizzas bearing shavings of doner meat and creamy pearls of fat. The lentil soup is deep orange from sun-dried tomato paste, buzzing with mint and garlic, shockingly tasty. A squeeze of lemon brings it into full harmony. There’s classic rice pudding, custards and milk cake for dessert, but the kunefe — mild, melted cheese wrapped in wispy pastry strands, soaked in syrup — is a star. The goat milk ice cream’s $10 upcharge seems like a lot, until you try it. It’s so thick and rich you almost need a knife. Jake Edmiston
- 245 Morningside Ave. (at Lawrence Ave.)
- 416-724-0868
- bereketkebabhouse.ca
Brazilian’s Choice is a family-run spot offering homestyle cooking
Carmen Cheung
Brazilian’s Choice
- West Toronto
- Brazilian
- Under $75
This family-run spot does homestyle Brazilian cooking for the local diaspora, with a store downstairs selling imported household staples. They absolutely nail the classics, as they must. The picanha steak, Brazil’s prized rump cap, with its pearly white fat, gets the respect it deserves — a hot grill and a shower of salt, alongside black beans and salsa and the crunchy, fragrant, fat-fried cassava flour nubs called farofa. Baião de dois, a rice, bacon, beef and beans dish from the northeast, where the Morais family has roots, is a blissful, disorienting mouthful. The dish requires dried beef, common in Brazil but hard to come by here. So they make it themselves, as well as a sharp, vinegary hot sauce coloured orange from Malagueta peppers. Moqueca, a claypot seafood stew made with deep red dendê oil, also gets first-class treatment: plump shrimp in a silky broth of coconut milk and tomato, packed with sweet peppers and aromatics. On the side, they serve banana slices tossed in more of that farofa, which you mix into the stew. It works. Jake Edmiston
- 2096 Eglinton Ave. W. (at Ronald Ave.)
- 416-783-9000
- brazilianschoice.ca
At Budapest Hungarian Restaurant, the Budapest Platter is a veritable meat castle complete with schnitzel, pork chop and snappy-skinned sausages
Carmen Cheung
Budapest Hungarian Restaurant
- East Toronto
- Hungarian
- Under $75
Diners nostalgic for the Hungarian schnitzels that were once a staple around town will be delighted at this spacious spot, with its paprika-red walls. The traditional menu is replete with stews, soups, stuffed crepes and Hungarian sweets, but schnitzels are a specialty. The towering meat castle called the Budapest Platter for Two includes a puffy, golden, breadcrumb-battered wiener schnitzel and a crispy, floured (but unbreaded) Parisian schnitzel, and that’s just the start. There’s a tender grilled pork chop, also, as well as snappy-skinned debreceni sausages with sweet onions on top. The sides include a moat of creamy fried potatoes, refreshingly tart cucumber salad and plump nokedli egg dumplings — palate cleansers, relatively speaking. The platter also bears a nicely porky cabbage roll, bathing in a luscious tomato sauce, but thanks to completely understandable space limitations (there’s no room on the meat mountain), it’s served on a separate plate. The tender beef pörkölt here is also worth ordering, a traditional Hungarian paprika-spiced stew. For dessert, the eggy palacsinta crepes come filled with poppy seeds, a relatively light and simple finish to the meal. Karon Liu
- 2183 Danforth Ave. (at Cedarvale Ave.)
- 647-347-5047
- visitbudapestrestaurant.com
Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu serves up dishes that are marvels of depth and delicious balance
Andrew Rowat
Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu
- West Toronto
- Korean
- Under $50
This Bloor Street Koreatown go-to has always been a specialist in the bubbling, red chili-stained stews called soondubu jjigae. Available in spiciness increments from gently warming to blow-your-face-off and served with hot stone bowls of purple rice, they are marvels of depth and delicious balance, grounded with the house-made sesame, garlic and chili paste called dadaegi, and enriched with custard-soft nubs of tofu. The jjigae come in varied combinations of pork, beef, shellfish or vegetables; the soybean paste (doenjang) variation is a can’t-miss outlier, rich and velvety with a top note of fermenty tang. It’s what miso soup aspires to but will never quite be. Whichever one you pick, crack in the raw egg (it cooks in no time), then scoop it all up with spoonfuls of rice. It’s hard to think of a better use for $16. Chef and co-owner Miyoung Kim’s kitchen recently expanded its offerings; highlights include excellent tteokbokki, the springy rice cake noodles in sweet-spicy broth, and a wildly satisfying pork bone soup. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 691 Bloor St. W. (at Clinton St.) and other locations
- 416-537-0972
- bukchangdongsoontofu.com
Burger Drops offers two of the best cheeseburgers in town | Chef-owner Greg Bourolias
Andrew Rowat
Burger Drops
- West Toronto
- Burgers
- Under $50
There are exactly two items of note at Burger Drops. The first of these, the Original double, is a potato-roll-enveloped stack of prodigiously juicy griddle-crusted beef, oozy processed cheese, the sweet-mellow hum of savoury, slow-caramelized onions and a homemade pickle’s tangy snap, all of them in just the right balance to grab every human blisspoint, hard. If not for Burger Drops’ other standout item, it might be the single-best cheeseburger in town. That other item, the American double, is similar, except with iceberg lettuce instead of pickles, and a sauce that Burger Drops’ menu calls “ketchup relish,” but which chef-owner Greg Bourolias (ex of Aloette) refers to as “chunky fermented pickled umami textures and peppers and vegetables.” No matter the name, it’s a masterpiece worthy of the Flavour Engineering Hall of Fame; it takes what already would be a standout smash-burger way up into a league of its own. Burger Drops’ fries (from-frozen curlies) and breaded, heavy onion rings, by contrast, aren’t at the same level, but really, those aren’t why you’re here. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 116 Atlantic Ave. (at King St. W.)
- burgerdrops.com
At this family-run Pakistani restaurant, the recipes are passed down through generations
Carmen Cheung
Butt Karahi
- Mississauga
- Pakistani
Even amid Mississauga’s vibrant Pakistani food scene, this family-run spot shines. It’s the offshoot of a Lahore mini-chain dating to the 1970s. The recipes, passed down through generations, shape a menu of hearty, shareable dishes. The chicken malai boti is a good place to start: marinated breast turned tender and smoky in a charcoal-fired tandoor oven. The chicken arrives hissing on a hot platter, strewn with caramelized onions, its nicely bitter char softened with the creamy cashew marinade. The Butt Special Chicken Karahi, by contrast, is a robust curry in tomato-forward gravy; its flavour builds in layers rather than all at once. It arrives in a wide metal karahi pan, slicked with shimmering oil and topped with peppery ginger. Tear off a bite of garlic naan to scoop it up. (As with many of the dishes here, a half portion is good for two, even three.) Save room for the veal pulao, an aromatic rice dish built on fennel-spiced meat broth. The long-grain basmati is lightly glossy with veal fat yet remarkably light — the kind of celebratory dish usually reserved for feasts. Akrit Michael
- 3015 Winston Churchill Blvd., units 7-8 (at Dundas St. W.) and other locations
- 416-494-5477
- buttkarahicanada.com
At Caribbean Queen of Patties, you can taste the handmade quality with every bite thanks to chef Georgia Hamilton
Andrew Rowat
Caribbean Queen of Patties
- West Toronto
- Jamaican
- Under $50
There’s a glorious imperfection in what Georgia Hamilton does. Her Jamaican patties, huge by any measure, have misaligned folds and whole chunks of meat inside. Rather than being a machine-produced emergency snack, hers are an entire meal unto themselves; you can taste their handmade quality with every bite. Hamilton’s spicy beef patty practically bursts with savoury, coarse-ground meat and warm, slow-building Scotch bonnet pepper. Her chicken patty sings with tender, deep-browned chunks; the thyme and allspice are unmistakable. And the veg patty here — so often an afterthought at other spots — contains whole, steamed chunks of Jamaican pumpkin, breadfruit, callaloo, sweet potato, whatever Hamilton finds fresh that day; when she hands one over, enormous, you almost need to shift your weight to carry it away. Hamilton is a one-woman show, scratch-making her patties in the back of the shop, listening out for the door’s wind chimes as she does. Before leaving with an order recently, one customer mentioned that a friend, visiting Montego Bay, was disappointed he couldn’t find patties as good as here. The Queen chuckled. “No one in Montego Bay can make patties,” she said. Angelyn Francis
- 1294 Bloor St. W. (at Lansdowne Ave.)
- 416-538-1732
The fire-roasted chicken is superb, slapped with blushing pink sauce, bright with lemon and vinegary chiles
Nick Lachance
Casa Portuguesa
- North Toronto
- Portuguese
- Under $50
This is a hot table of the highest order: grilled meats and seafood, salads and golden-roasted potato orbs, bubbling trays of bacalhau com natas, an ever-changing assortment of traditional Portuguese dishes and standout fire-roasted chicken, too. Workers pile into the bright, sunny room at mealtimes, the too-small parking lot sardined with European sedans and pickup trucks. It feels civilized here, a sit-down meal. The hot table’s chouriço sausages glower brightly red, glistening; they snap with torrents of sweet, smoky pork and paprika. The chicken is superb, slapped with blushing pink sauce, bright with lemon and vinegary chiles, so much creamier and more complex than commodity piri-piri sauce. The drippings-soaked potatoes on the side burst at the slightest pressure from a fork. And then there is that tray of bacalhau in cream sauce: delicate, silky potatoes and flakes of cod. “I feel light,” one customer says, trying it. There’s Super Bock beer in the fridge and affordable wines. The custard tarts are warm and smooth, their crusts layered with crispiness; it feels like eating one for the first time. Jake Edmiston
- 180 Bentworth Ave. (at Caledonia Rd.)
- 647-300-1182
Bold Central and South American flavours inform the menu at Chadwicks
Andrew Rowat
Chadwicks
- Midtown Toronto
- Canadian, International
- Under $75
They make almost everything from scratch at this cosy Annex institution, from the condiments and sodas to the bacon and desserts. That ambition extends through the polycultural menu, with its focus on bold, Central and South American flavours; this isn’t your typical neighbourhood hang. Chadwicks chef Alexia Rio balances the sweet and spice of lavender hot honey chicken tacos with pico de gallo and garlic potato crema; the beef curry comes velvety rich and nutty with a satisfying kick. There’s Japanese-inflected black cod with miso, and Peruvian-style fried fish, while the house fried chicken gets much of its bright, warming flavour from a Costa Rican brine. Though evenings typically draw couples out for date nights, families flock for brunch, when the house-smoked brisket hash delivers deliciously chewy, tangy, garlicky bites, and the omelette — dense yet fluffy and oozing strings of melty cheese — swims in a pool of vibrant green and red salsas. Janet Hurley
- 268 Howland Ave. (at Dupont St.)
- 416-944-1606
- chadwicks.ca
The hand-pulled lamian noodles at Charcoal Kebab House Downtown are superb | Chef-owner Avi Kerim
Carmen Cheung
Charcoal Kebab House Downtown
- Downtown Toronto
- Chinese, Uyghur
- Under $75
The hand-pulled lamian noodles at this TMU favourite come thick, firm and deliciously messy, glistening with vegetables, veal and a spicy-sweet Sichuan peppercorn and tomato sauce. Though lamian appear through much of China, the wok-fried ones here reflect the Uyghur, predominantly Muslim traditions of the country’s Xinjiang territory. They’re superb. As you might expect, Charcoal Kebab House’s spicy, cumin-kissed lamb kebabs carry the taste of the kitchen’s charcoal grill. They’re blackened just enough to bring out a smoky, bittersweet char, and served on sesame flatbread that sops up the flavour-packed juices and fat. The lamb kidney kebabs are also excellent: tender with a bit of bite, and the underlying iron flavour complements the caramelized crust. Between each kidney is a thin slab of juicy, sizzling lamb fat. The portions are generally large. Platters of spicy stewed chicken and potato dapanji, stacked on a bed of noodles, will feed four or five. Karon Liu
- 108 Mutual St. (at Gould St.) and other locations
- 437-880-7873
- charcoalkebabhouse.com
Cheng Du Street Food, a modern, tavern-like spot, skillfully layers complex textures and aromatics
Andrew Rowat
Cheng Du Street Food
- Downtown Toronto
- Chinese, Sichuan
- Under $75
Though Sichuan cooking is best known for the málà spice mix of tingly, tongue-numbing peppercorns and sinus-searing red chiles, any place can do that. The kitchen at this modern, tavern-style spot skilfully layers in complex textures and aromatics; depending on the dish you’ll also get some combination of salty, sour, sweet, bitter, funky and smoky notes as well as the requisite numbing-spicy buzz. The wide-ranging menu runs from cold starters to stir-fried duck and vegetables to mapo tofu, noodles and oil-poached fish. The spicy and sour fish soup is excellent: an enormous bowl of tender fillets in a sea of brightly yellow, chili-studded oil, with tart pickled green peppers. Ask for extra vermicelli noodles to dip in the broth — you’ll want them. The stir-fried cabbage has a wonderful crunchy-soft texture, copious amounts of chopped garlic and a sweet and malty tang from black vinegar. The spicy garlic tripe, too, is excellent, its deeply garlicky base given strong crunch and freshness from the Chinese lettuce stems called celtuce, vibrant cilantro and a hint of wasabi. This is a busy place, even at 6 p.m. Be prepared for a wait. Jennifer Chan
- 405 Dundas St. W. (at Beverly St.)
- 416-596-8800
- chengdustreetfood.ca
At this Nashville hot chicken spot, the meat is dry-brined for juiciness and fried to order
Andrew Rowat
Chica’s Chicken
- West Toronto
- Fried Chicken, American
- Under $50
The old-school vibes at this simple, celebrated Nashville hot chicken spot are hard to miss. The former diner space has ancient faux-wood panelling, a Formica counter, seen-better-days bar stools and Mulroney-era ceiling fans; it’s either charming or grotty, depending on your take. (We’re on team chotty.) The chicken, meantime, is dry-brined for juiciness and fried strictly to order. It comes crunchy, chili-stained, deeply seasoned and almost awkwardly juicy, in spice levels from none to mild to what the kitchen calls Hot AF. (Medium is where most post-pubescent mortals will start to feel the burn.) You can get wings and tenders, also, in a variety of sauces. The chicken bites, for what it’s worth, are just OK: with bits that small, the batter starts to get in the way. But Chica’s sandwiches, made from boneless thighs, are breathtakingly tasty, particularly the versions served on tender toasted brioche and topped with the creamy house slaw. The sides include skin-on waffle fries and freakishly delicious fried pickle slices. NB: fried-to-order whole chicken pieces can’t be rushed; order ahead or be prepared to wait. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 2853 Dundas St. W. (at Keele St.)
- 647-343-6562
- chicaschicken.net
At this special occasion restaurant, the chicken is grilled on a rotisserie from Portugal and basted with the owner’s special piri piri sauce
Carmen Cheung
Churrasqueira Martins & Grill House
- West Toronto
- Portuguese
On a Saturday night in this glitzy Portuguese grillhouse, there’s a family celebrating something at almost every other table. This is a special-occasions place. A lineup of clear-eyed fish lay on a bed of ice in the dining room, waiting to be butterflied and barbecued, head-on, simply, with a slice of lemon. The glossy chouriço sausage arrives in a ceramic pig, which the waiter, in a crisp white shirt, sets alight, so the smoky, garlicky sausage crackles to a deep brick red. The grilled squid comes so tender it’s almost creamy-textured, in white wine, garlic and parsley. They grill their chicken on a rotisserie from Portugal, basting constantly with piri piri sauce, the owner’s recipe. The birds come out crisp enough to look deep fried, bursting with juice and flavour. They’re served with little jugs of that same piri piri and a spoon so you can mix and re-emulsify the mashed garlic and lemon back into the chili oil. But the pork and clam stew might be the restaurant’s most shining accomplishment: tender cubed pork and sweet clams, potato and cauliflower in a hazy sauce of garlic, beer and shellfish liquor. Jake Edmiston
- 605 Rogers Rd. (at Bicknell Ave.) and other locations
- 416-657-4343
- churrasqueiramartins.com
This bustling College Street bistro features a Caribbean, Latin and Creole menu
Andrew Rowat
Conejo Negro
- West Toronto
- Caribbean, International
There are two modes to choose from at this busting College Street bistro. The intimate front room is pure date night, with flickering tea lights just barely illuminating tables for two. But walk through the hidden hallway to the rear dining room and it’s brighter, more casual, fitting for after-work drinks and a dinner hang. Either way, the Caribbean, Latin and Creole menu, with its blackened fish, jerk chicken and mango-sweetened ceviche, unifies the spaces: familiar favourites sized for sharing. There’s a crisp watercress, radish and snap pea salad under tangy chimichurri vinaigrette and nutty tahini. The Caribbean-style braised beef cheek is luscious and fork-tender, over silky-textured cheddar grits and tender collards, doused in peppery sauce. The juicy fried chicken thighs, in smoked hot honey sauce, come beautifully crisp and just sweet enough; mop up the sauce with the Brazilian cheese puffs, made satisfyingly chewy with tapioca flour. Karon Liu
- 838 College St. (at Ossington Ave.)
- 416-637-3868
- conejonegrotoronto.com
At this west end Middle Eastern spot, the dishes taste fancy and home-cooked all at once
Andrew Rowat
Darna Middle Eastern Kitchen
- West Toronto
- Middle Eastern
The menu at this comfortable Middle Eastern spot goes way beyond the usual mezzes and kebabs. There’s juicy roasted za’atar-spiced chicken and delicate stews of beef, or shrimp, vegetables and Ontario lamb, braised in clay fukhara pots that the owners commissioned in Jerusalem. They serve profoundly tasty rice-stuffed grape leaves and earthy, tangy, garlicky muhammara, the fire-roasted red pepper and walnut dip. At Darna the dishes taste fancy and home cooked all at once, and the staff welcome regulars as if they’re old friends. From the menu’s sawani section — oven-baked casseroles — the kufta tahini combines beef, lamb and sweet caramelized onions in thick and velvety sesame sauce; it’s gorgeous. The grilled lamb chops are excellent, tender and juicy, with zucchini dip and crisp-skinned potatoes. A smart move for groups: the four-dip Darna sampler, with its richly smoky eggplant mutabal and light, creamy labneh, with hummus so smooth it’s decadent-tasting, scattered with whole tender chickpeas and minced green chili on top. For dessert, there’s layalina, the creamed semolina dish with a rice-pudding-like texture. It’s layered with rose water syrup, as well as pistachios; it tastes like a dream. Angelyn Francis
- 413 Roncesvalles Ave. (at Howard Park Ave.) and other locations
- 416-534-3456
- darnatoronto.ca
At this Korean Scarborough restaurant, they finish their meats in a white-hot wok
Carmen Cheung
De Chou
- Scarborough
- Korean
- Under $75
Most Korean restaurants are known for their specialties: Owl of Minerva for its pork bone soup, for instance, and Finch JungSooNae for its marinated crab. This enormous spot, by contrast, does it all, in many cases exceptionally well. The gukbap (translation: soup-rice) is a great place to begin, its long-simmered pork broth homey and comforting, its add-ins delicious. There’s relatively plain daeji gukbap if you’re feeling fragile, or the nose-to-tail fever dream called soondae gukbap if not. Either way, this is food for homesickness, heartache and epic hangovers; don’t neglect the little bowls of chili paste and fermented shrimp — deep-marine umami seasoning — that come alongside. An icy take on de Chou’s tangy, beefy mul naengmyeon: the cold noodle soup here is nearly as good as at Cho Sun Ok. Another standout: the voluptuous pork hock dish called buljokbal chulpan bokeum, served sizzling and lustrous, lacquered with caramelized chili paste. At de Chou, they finish their meats in a white-hot wok. This is not ordinary. Behold the smoky, synapse-stroking scent of wok-hei. Among many (many) other dishes, they do KFC here, too. It’s good enough, but nobody orders Korean fried chicken at a generalist restaurant. For that, they go to bbq chicken. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 3601 Victoria Park Ave. (at McNicoll Ave.)
- 416-497-8883
- dechourestaurant.com
The cheesy-crusted, focaccia-like pie at Descendant Detroit Style Pizza
Carmen Cheung
Descendant Detroit Style Pizza
- East Toronto
- Pizza
- Under $50
Toronto can thank Detroit for exporting its signature pan pizzas here before cross-border trade turned ugly. Descendant Detroit Style Pizza opened in Leslieville in 2015 and remains the go-to for the cheesy-crusted, focaccia-like pies. The secret is in the pan: deep, heavy-duty anodized aluminum that transfers enough heat to practically fry the oil-slicked base of the dough, producing a telltale border of frico (fried cheese, basically) around the edge. A three-day cold fermentation gives Descendant’s sourdough crust an unexpected lightness, yet enough strength to hold all the toppings. The shop’s basic cheese-and-tomato base model showcases Descendant’s excellent sauce, which cuts a bright, fresh-tomato streak atop the cheese-pull-ready blend of Detroit-standard brick cheese and grass-fed Australian mozzarella. But its maximalist approach to flavour and topping pays off with the Electric Avenue (pineapple, jerk chicken, curried lime aioli and hot sauce) and the Jaffna (yes, that is Sri Lankan kothu roti and coconut sambol on there) — two multicultural pies that could only have been born in Toronto, but not without an assist from Motown. Alex Baldinger
- 1168 Queen St. E. (at Jones Ave.)
- 647-347-1168
- descendantdsp.com
The chefs at Donna’s elevate everyday dining. Standouts include a celebrated roast beef sandwich
Andrew Rowat
Donna’s
- West Toronto
- Canadian
- Under $50
At Donna’s, fine-dining discipline elevates even the everyday sandwich. With the chefs Peter Jensen and Jed Smith at the stoves and Ann Kim running the room — all three are Momofuku veterans — the casual spot channels years of high-end training into well executed and affordable offerings, particularly at lunchtime. Take Donna’s celebrated roast beef sandwich: honey-marinated, medium-rare beef lifted with sharp horseradish bite and sweet boiled parsnip — it’s like a mini Sunday roast perfectly tucked into a soft Portuguese bun. Their tempura-fried mushroom sando delivers savoury richness and an audible crunch. And the salads are far more delicious than their no-fuss names imply. In Donna’s green salad, a brown butter and sumac dressing brings nutty, red fruit and citrus leanings to a plate of mixed greens, pickled green beans, egg and buttery croutons. In the potato salad, chunks of gochujang-kissed Korean sweet potato — a nod to Kim’s heritage — pack serious flavour. (The partners’ backgrounds — Jensen is Danish and Smith, British — play throughout the menus.) Their casual spirit spills into the space itself: mismatched crockery and eclectic curios evoke the neighbourhood’s working-class roots, even as the food itself remains unmistakably refined. Janet Hurley
- 827 Lansdowne Ave. (at Wallace Ave.)
- 416-536-1414
- donnas.ca
At Dotty’s, the focus is on deceptively straightforward dishes executed with precision and care
Andrew Rowat
Dotty’s
- West Toronto
- Canadian
- Under $75
Comfort is in every detail at this Junction Triangle gem — from the small menu of burgers and sandwiches, salads and seared fresh fish, to the contemporary diner-style space where parents, rocking babies between bites, are equally at home as the carefree regulars sipping inventive cocktails at the bar. Even the service is relaxed and intuitive: Staff greet regulars with hugs and, unprompted, replenish the Ritz crackers that come with the kitchen’s addictive pimento dip, so patrons can savour every last bit. Behind it all are co-owners Susan Beckett (Dandylion) and Jay Carter (Susur, Dandylion), who opened the bistro in 2022, and who maintain a refreshingly hands-on approach. At Dotty’s, their focus is deceptively straightforward dishes executed with precision and care. Jammy eggs in mayonnaise become a velvety, tangy delight, with little pops of pickled mustard seeds adding brightness. A hearty habanero chicken sandwich, piled high with peppery coleslaw, delivers a lively balance of textures and flavours, while a juicy cheeseburger — layered with both cheddar and processed cheese and topped with classic accompaniments — makes for a deliciously messy meal. Fat, crispy fries are a can’t-miss, and the soft-serve ice cream ends any meal in a wave of nostalgia. Janet Hurley
- 1588 Dupont St. (at Franklin Ave.)
- dottys.ca
The Dum Spot is a destination for South Indian soul food
Andrew Rowat
The Dum Spot
- West Toronto
- Indian, South Indian
- Under $50
The specialty here is the dense, deeply flavourful, short-grain-rice-based biryani of South India — a rare find in a city dominated by the airy, basmati-based variants of the North. They rely on an ancient technique, called the dum, to turn a pot into a pressurized flavour chamber; its spice-laden steam pushes the essence of bone-in chicken deep into the nutty-flavoured rice. The result is South Indian soul food. The Dum Spot’s Ambur chicken biryani leads with a tangy tomato and sun-dried chili gravy; the rice grains, stained vibrant red, come out with the texture of risotto. It offers a gently building heat, supported by the earthy, melt-in-your-mouth richness of ghee-caramelized onions and the heartiness of chicken thighs. The donne chicken biryani, by contrast, is the Ambur’s blazing Bengaluru cousin. Mint, cilantro and chilies tint the rice a signature green, while spices bloomed in hot ghee ensure you feel the aromatics as much as you taste them. It is bright, herbaceous, punchy and unapologetically spicy. The accompanying yogurt raita will help to tame the chilies’ creeping fire. Akrit Michael
- 615 Queen St. W. (at Portland St.)
- 437-505-0999
- thedumspot.com
There’s something for everyone at Eggstatic, from decadent pancakes to crispy falafels atop velvety hummus
Carmen Cheung
Eggstatic
- Midtown Toronto
- Canadian, Palestinian
- Under $75
This is a breakfast spot worth getting up early for. The playful, Palestinian-inspired cooking, from chef-owner Faris Awwad, is decadent, delicious and beautifully presented. The portions are generous and the service attentive; no wonder this original Leaside location gave rise to a 17-restaurant empire. The menu runs from fried halloumi sticks and cheesy manakeesh pastry to classic Canadian-style pancakes, Oreo milkshakes and crispy chicken waffles; there is something for everyone here. Highlights include comforting, creamy scrambled eggs in a roasted tomato (The Tomato Jacket), and crispy falafels and egg on velvety hummus and shakshuka sauce, with fluffy, flavourful pita (The Protos Optimus.) Counterbalancing the savoury options is a dreamy stack of Biscoff Lotus pancakes — named for the buttery Belgian cookies — drenched in sweet cookie butter and topped with ice cream. Drink options include an indulgent pistachio affogato, which also comes caffeine-free for those morning types who don’t need the extra kick. Janet Hurley
- 1568 Bayview Ave. (at Belsize Dr.) and other locations
- 647-352-1568
- eggstatic.ca
Hisham Amleh makes falafel fried-to-order for peak texture and flavour
Nick Lachance
Falafel Plus
- Mississauga
- Palestinian
- Under $50
Hisham Amleh has spent his adult life fixated on falafel. In Hebron, where he grew up, his mother made them green and fragrant with parsley and coriander and more than a dozen different spices. She always cooked them fresh, no sitting around, so their delicate shells burst with savoury chickpea and herb-garden steam. At Amleh’s stellar all-day breakfast and falafel spot, he’s honoured that food memory, and then some. He does his falafel strictly fried-to-order, for peak texture and flavour. For a delicious variation, you can get them stuffed with tangy, sumac-spiked onions as well. But the breakfast dishes here are every bit as great. The fattet samneh layers Amleh’s superbly smooth and fresh-tasting hummus — spiked with lemony green chiles — with soft, whole chickpeas and yogurt, so it’s extra creamy, with fried almonds and super-rich ghee over top. There’s shakshuka, and charred eggplant mutabal, plus omelettes, salads and excellent, earthy-lemony-garlicky foul mudammas, which combines long-stewed whole and split fava beans; it’s complex and satisfying. The thick, fluffy pocket breads here — pita-like khubz — are baked in-house; there aren’t many shortcuts to Palestinian cooking this good. Angelyn Francis
- 1065 Canadian Place, Unit 133 (at Tomken Rd.)
- 905-867-6650
- falafelplus.ca
Chef and owner Leandro Baldassarre writes his menu on a chalkboard each morning: two ever-changing pastas and a few select starters
Andrew Rowat
Famiglia Baldassarre
- West Toronto
- Italian
- Under $50
Leandro Baldassarre’s celebrated 10-seat space, set in a corner of his bustling pasta factory, is what it looks like when a ridiculously well-pedigreed chef-turned-noodle-supplier opens a casual lunch spot for fun. Baldassarre writes his menu on a chalkboard each morning: two ever-changing pastas and a few starters, typically including a plate of the knee-bucklingly delicious mozzarella his crew makes daily. The pastas are rolled fresh, by hand, or extruded through bronze dies. Maybe it’s silky, deep yellow fazzoletti stuffed with porcini mushrooms, glazed with good butter and cheese. Maybe it’s twirly trofie noodles in summery tomato sauce, or the to-die-for house gnocchi or spaghetti’s muscular cousin, bigoli, in a luscious, long-simmered veal ragu. They sell for less than $20 a plate; plenty of other places sell pasta half this good for twice the price. The catch is the lineup; there is no getting around that. But the payoff is like seeing a rock star play a pub gig. Once you’re through the line, you can ask them to hold the next-available seats; they’ll fire your lunch as soon as you sit down. Jake Edmiston
- 122 Geary Ave. (at Westmoreland Ave.)
- 647-293-5395
- famigliabaldassarre.com
Whoever said you can’t get fast, cheap and good clearly has never eaten at owner David Brown’s Fearless Meat
Carmen Cheung
Fearless Meat
- East Toronto
- Canadian
- Under $50
You can learn a lot from chicken fingers. At this proudly old-fashioned Kingston Road Village diner, they’re not previously frozen afterthoughts, but juicy, craggy-crusted, deep golden-brown beauties, cut in-house from actual chicken breasts, marinated in buttermilk, then fried fresh to order. The cost for three (served on superb fresh-cut fries) is just $9. Whoever said you can’t get fast, cheap and good clearly has never eaten here. The chicken cordon bleu sandwich is almost shockingly tasty; Fearless Meats’ drippy, beefy, double-stacked cheeseburgers taste like the 1990s in the very best way. Another standout from the enormous breakfast-lunch-and-dinner menu (it’s even got a sizable vegan section): the onion rings, which come battered (light, oniony sweet and crispy) instead of breaded (a modern crime against taste). David Brown, the owner, is affordability-obsessed — his other day job is as a prolific builder of community housing. And so, at Fearless Meat, the vegan soft-serve mini-cones come free for the asking, whether to otherwise paying customers or passersby on the street. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 884 Kingston Rd. (at Pickering St.)
- 647-484-4488
- fearlessmeat1.com
This vibrant Nigerian night spot is a destination for peppery grilled meats and jollof rice | Co-owner and head chef Moe Vincent at the grill
Sophie Bouquillon
Flo’s Grill & Kitchen
- Vaughan
- Nigerian
The smell of asun hits the moment you enter: the warmth of grill smoke and peppery spice — of crisp-edged, fire-roasted goat with vegetables and herbs. Asun is an ideal drinking dish, especially with the ginger sorrel juice that’s bottled just down the street. That asun is also an excellent introduction to Moe Vincent and Olanrewaju Folarin’s vibrant Nigerian night spot, which they opened in 2021. Peppery grilled meats and jollof rice anchor their menu, the jollof’s grains stained orange-red from simmering in tomato and spice, and deeply smoky where they caramelized at the bottom of the pot. Their egusi soup is nutty and spicy: ground melon seeds stewed with earthy greens and briny dried crayfish, delicious. Tear off a piece of tangy fufu, the soft, elastic pounded cassava and plantain dough, then dip it into the peppery soup. That depth of flavour starts with the ingredients themselves: Vincent imports many of them direct. NB: the service can be slow. Chi Nguyễn
- 4040 Steeles Ave. W., Unit 17 (at Scholes Rd. in a plaza)
- 905-856-9930
- flosgrill.ca
Foxley Bistro’s Tom Thai leans on slow-building flavour and impeccable ingredients | The melty-textured miso-yuzu eggplant
Andrew Rowat
Foxley Bistro
- West Toronto
- Canadian, International
Nearly two decades on, the chef Tom Thai’s friendly and inventive bistro remains a rare constant on Ossington Avenue. His cooking leans on texture, slow-building flavour and impeccable ingredients, blending Vietnamese roots with flavours drawn from across Asia and the city he calls home. His ceviches are standouts, the sea bream version lush and almost buttery, bright and floral with herbs and yuzu, with crackling fried shiso leaf shooting a rush of earthiness through the fish. Bite into the braised pork cheek bao and the meat collapses instantly into the steamy bun, rich and silky until the pickle cuts through. The hanger steak tataki comes in thick glistening slices, the tataki’s garlicky chimichurri, packed with herbs and lime, offering a deliciously contrasting jolt. Vegetables receive the same care: melty-textured miso-yuzu eggplant, say, or a seaweed papaya salad that snaps with freshness, the crisp fruit tangling with slippery wakame while toasted sesame oil hums underneath. Black rice coconut pudding offers a gentle finish, the grains gently chewy in the coconut milk as a soft perfume of orange blossom drifts upward, warmed with cinnamon and nutmeg. Chi Nguyễn
- 207 Ossington Ave. (at Halton St.)
- 416-534-8520
- foxleybistro.ca
You can order almost any part of the chicken at Gonzo Izakaya, a loud and friendly west end booze palace
Andrew Rowat
Gonzo Izakaya
- West Toronto
- Japanese
- Under $75
You can order almost any part of the chicken here: thighs and tenders, wings and gizzards, hearts, tails, oysters (not the same thing as prairie oysters) and even the knees. Japan’s beak-to-tail charcoal grilling tradition, called yakitori, is a specialty at this loud and friendly ’90s-themed booze palace, and they do it extremely well. A standout order, though in limited supply: the hatsu moto skewers, which the servers will explain are chicken heart arteries. They arrive bundled onto the sticks, sizzling and charry-edged: chewy, crunchy, juicy, all the textures, seasoned simply with sea salt or the house tare, $2.80 a stick for the other, other other white meat. If chicken bits aren’t your thing, they do deliciously juicy beef flank, pork belly, shishito pepper and vegetables, too. The non-grilled side to Gonzo’s menu is also superb. There’s deep-fried crispy cabbage bites; cooling, sesame-forward cucumber salad; and chewy, tangy, savoury yakisoba noodles drizzled with horseradish mayo. The place is loaded with ’90s-era Easter eggs: Dragon Ball Z manga and cassette tapes, an old tube TV and even a camcorder; it’s all a bit nerdy, in the best possible way. Angelyn Francis
- 940 College St. (at Dovercourt Rd.)
- 416-901-3246
- gonzofoodcompany.com
At Guru Lukshmi, each bite of dosa is a study in texture and heat
Carmen Cheung
Guru Lukshmi
- Mississauga
- Indian, South Indian
- Under $50
As with any thrill ride, you may spend longer getting to Guru Lukshmi and waiting for a table than actually eating your dosa. At least you’ll have time to study the menu beforehand, a 43-page (!) PDF that surveys nearly every corner of South Indian vegetarian cuisine. There are the fried lentil-flour doughnuts called vada, steamed rice idly cakes (the toonie-sized minis are superb, drenched in ghee and sambhar, the tangy lentil stew that acts as a sidekick to nearly everything on the menu), and at least 10 different categories of dosa, the specialty here. Order a paper dosa: a golden cone of fermented rice-and-lentil batter, crisped in ghee and curled until it’s roughly as long as a cricket bat. Though there’s any number of fillings available, they’re typically savoury and at least a little fiery, like the Mysore Bhaji, built on potatoes, roasted garlic and chili paste. Each bite is a study in texture and heat, and after a dunk in the cool tomato, coriander and coconut chutneys that come alongside, temperature, too. No fire is too great to be put out by a glass of shikanji — the savoury, supremely refreshing lemonade spiked with cumin and black salt. Alex Baldinger
- 7070 Saint Barbara Blvd. (in Derry Village Square)
- 905-795-2299
- gurulukshmi.com
What sets this Cabbagetown favourite apart from other classic British pubs is the kitchen
Carmen Cheung
House on Parliament
- East Toronto
- Canadian, British
It has all the hallmarks of a classic British pub: pints poured from a long, well-stocked bar, portraits of royals presiding over cosy seating, a lively neighbourhood buzz and TV screens tuned to the match. Where this Cabbagetown favourite sets itself apart is in the kitchen, where standards like scotch eggs, bangers and mash, and steak and mushroom pies reach gastropub quality. And the place is slammed. Attentive servers move briskly between tables; the large menu includes a page of daily specials to keep regulars pleasantly surprised. Staples include a delicious smoked duck breast salad that perfectly balances warm, tender, gently gamey meat with sweet greens, a tangy relish and the satisfying crunch of crostini. The steak pie is rich and earthy, heavy on the mushrooms, enveloped in golden buttery pastry. The house cheeseburger is also excellent: half a pound of juicy Wagyu, plus fixings, in a perfectly apportioned bun. The desserts bring playful twists to traditional indulgences, like a sticky toffee pudding infused with malty Guinness, drenched in silky crème Anglaise and topped with shards of sweet brandy crisp for a surprising blend of textures. Janet Hurley
- 454 Parliament St. (at Carlton St.)
- 416-925-4074
- houseonparliament.com
Imanishi’s affordable small-plates menu offers hit after hit
Andrew Rowat
Imanishi Japanese Kitchen
- West Toronto
- Japanese
If you ordered nothing else at this warm and softly lit College Street izakaya beyond the corn kakiage, you’d probably leave the place happy, if not even a little awed. That kakiage is tempura-fried clusters of high-summery corn: golden, salty, juicy-crunchy niblets of batter-shrouded sunshine that burst somehow with a buttery, popcorny kiss. It’s tasty stuff, and $12 a plate. But you shouldn’t stop there — Imanishi’s affordable small-plates menu offers hit after hit. There’s sultry monkfish-liver mousse served with Robinson Bread baguette toasts, and richly tasty miso-roasted mackerel. There’s crispy, crazy-delicious boneless chicken karaage bites, too. The fall-apart tender pork belly katsu could send any lover of crispy fried meat into shuddery reveries; better still is its thick and tangy, chopped-egg-enriched tartar sauce. You’ll want the comparatively simple tofu and mizuna salad after that, if not a few pulls on a cigarette. The Tokyo toast dessert here, topped with sweetly milky taro ice cream, is good, if not great; it’s so popular nonetheless that one fan even had an image of the treat tattooed on her thigh. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 1330 Dundas St. W. (at Rusholme Rd.)
- 416-706-4225
- imanishi.ca
At Kiss My Pans, the menu revolves around deliciously complex Singapore street food | Owner Jeanne Chai
Andrew Rowat
Kiss My Pans
- West Toronto
- Singaporean
- Under $75
It can only be a good sign when the menu description for char kway teow, Singapore’s smoky, wok-seared shrimp-and-noodles staple, includes the promise: “Wok hei guaranteed! (No, it is not burnt.)” That gently charry “breath of the wok,” borne from skilled cooking and a roaring fire, is the essence of much of Singapore’s street food. At this counter-service café, the dish comes as promised, its broad, flat rice noodles, juicy shrimp, just-set eggs and fatty Chinese sausages smoky, caramelized and unstoppably tasty. Kiss My Pans’ food menu revolves around deliciously complex hawker fare. Among the standouts, the fried appetizer sampler that includes crispy chicken wings marinated with lip-smacking shrimp paste; paper-thin bean-curd skins wrapped around a mixture of ground pork, shrimp and crunchy water chestnuts; and tofu mixed with juicy cucumber matchsticks in a sweet peanut sauce. The curry chicken with potatoes is creamy with a mild heat thanks to its coconut milk base; sop it all up with the flaky, blistered roti prata served on the side. Also brimming with wok hei are the jiggly-soft, daikon-based black carrot cakes, sweet and peppery in molasses-thick soy, with a side of fermented shrimp sambal. The strong house coffee, Singaporean kopi, makes an excellent ending, especially when mellowed with sweet condensed and evaporated milk. Karon Liu
- 713 College St. (at Montrose Ave.)
- kissmypans.com
Koh Lipe Baldwin is perhaps the most deliciously polished Thai place in town
Andrew Rowat
Koh Lipe Baldwin
- Downtown Toronto
- Thai
Sure, you could always just order the pad Thai here, or the stir-fried chicken-in-a-pineapple dish, but you might never know you’re eating in perhaps the most deliciously polished Thai place in town. If you follow the menu at this cheery Southern Thai spot just past the farang-bait, the pleasures of Koh Lipe’s impeccable cooking and sourcing quickly come to light. Try the blue crab curry, for instance, which is simultaneously bright-flavoured and mellow and voluptuously oceanic. That curry comes with rice noodle nests stained wild electric blue from butterfly-pea flowers, and a salad made from wing beans and feathery dill. Or try the sensory-savoury overload called goong moun: a crunchy, punchy, ridiculously juicy mix of shrimp and aromatic betel leaves wrapped in tofu skin so deeply burnished and all-over bubbly you could almost mistake it for Peking duck. There’s simple, excellent mango salad, just-like-in-Thailand pad gra prao, and a steamed curry custard that looks like a Southern Thai-style Fabergé egg. For dessert, the durian coconut sticky rice is a dozen kinds of beautiful: mild, sweet, custardy and creamy, crunchy from rice puffs and sesame, sublime. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 35 Baldwin St. (at Henry St.) and other locations
- 416-599-9988
- kohlipe.ca
It’s hard to leave this Nicaraguan dining room without feeling starry-eyed | Chef Jesus Morales
Andrew Rowat
La Bella Managua
- West Toronto
- Nicaraguan
- Under $75
Some of the best restaurant experiences feel like a family function, the tables happy and raucous with conversation, all eyes turning as heaping platters float across the room. This rare Nicaraguan dining room has that feeling nailed. The heaping platters here might contain juicy, smoky pollo a la parrilla chicken laid over gallo pinto rice and beans. Maybe they’re heaped with churrasco beef or whole fried sea bass in a savoury crust of freshly ground white corn, with sides of sweet plantain or tostones. Nicaraguan cooking blends Latin, Caribbean and Spanish influences; that isn’t always easy to pull off this far north. And yet for chef Jesus Morales’ salty, crispy, thrillingly gooey fried cheese, he helped develop just the right queso duro blando with a Portuguese-Canadian cheesemaker. Another treasure here: the kitchen’s off-menu nacatamales: corn masa filled with a mix of onions, peppers, olives, tender marinated pork loin and mint, wrapped in fragrant plantain leaves. The flavours and textures whirl around you; it’s hard not to leave feeling starry eyed. Angelyn Francis
- 872 Bloor St. W. (at Ossington Ave.)
- 416-913-4227
- labellamanagua.com
This busy, family-run Salvadoran spot serves up more than excellent pupusas and empanadas
Sophie Bouquillon
La Guanaquita
- North Toronto
- Salvadoran
- Under $75
The main draw at this busy, family-run Salvadoran spot is the traditional griddled corn cakes called pupusas, which come as big around as dessert plates, thick and piping hot with gooey cheese that envelops fillings like pork and refried beans. A pile of curtido cabbage slaw and a squeeze of sweet tomato salsa on top add crunchy, fruity contrast. La Guanaquita’s Colombian-style empanadas are also excellent, the crisp-fried corn pockets fat with creamy potatoes and ground beef. But it’s worth delving deeper into the menu here than just the snacks: There are meal-sized Salvadoran soups, fish and shrimp ceviches and grilled meats. The excellent mixed grill platter is a carnivorous feast of grilled flank steak, chicken and butterflied shrimp. Alternate the meaty bites with the sides: crumbly cubes of cow and goat cheese, sweet caramelized plantains on rice and gently nutty Salvadoran tortillas. Karon Liu
- 1621 Wilson Ave. (at Jane St.) and other locations
- 416-249-4141
Marcelo Rosero’s cosy Ecuadorian spot serves some of the best empanadas in town, their blistered crusts crimped tight and glossy
Andrew Rowat
La Morena
- West Toronto
- Ecuadorian
Golden empanadas glow behind the case at Marcelo Rosero’s cosy Ecuadorian soups, ceviche and snacks spot, their blistered crusts crimped tight and glossy. Crack one open and steam billows, fragrant with warm spice. The Ecuadorian empanadas — they serve different varieties here from across the continent — form golden half-moons, tender pastry wrapped around deeply seasoned beef, sweet carrots and bright green onions, juices dripping with every bite. La Morena’s ceviche de camarón is bright and brothy without the usual hard citrus edge, the shrimp delicate and savoury, scented with bay leaf and warm black pepper, in a tomato-laced marinade that drinks like chilled seafood consommé. Toasted chulpe corn crackles overtop; use the plantain chips to scoop up every last drop. There are corn husk -wrapped tamales and humitas made with fresh corn masa, plus sublime hornado sandwiches and tuna-spiked encebollado de pescado soup. The stews are also gorgeous here: a bowl of sancocho de res fragrant with chayote squash, silky-edged yucca and green plantain; its tender beef sinks into a deeply seasoned broth. The tres leches cake, for dessert, may be the best in town. Chi Nguyễn
- 1175A St. Clair Ave. W. (at Dufferin St.)
- 416-849-6370
- @lamorenastclair
This exuberantly hospitable Laotian bistro is built for good nights out | Owners Jason Jiang, left, and Seng Luong
Carmen Cheung
Lao Lao Bar
- Downtown Toronto
- Laotian
Slip past the heavy curtain here, and giant fringed lights glow overhead, a table’s “Happy Birthday” rising over 1990s dance tracks. Seng Luong and Jason Jiang’s exuberantly hospitable Laotian bistro is built for good nights out. The menu, bright with ginger, fresh herbs and galangal, centres on the food the pair grew up eating: laap (aromatic minced-meat salads) and rice dishes, curries and silky hand-cut drunken noodles. Start with the fritters: airy green papaya nests made for dunking in tamarind chili sauce, alongside striking blue-mushroom-and-peanut-filled dumplings that you wrap with lettuce leaves and herbs and eat out of hand. Other standouts include incredibly juicy pork belly sausage and barbecue chicken served with a spicy lime, chili and cilantro-based jeow som dipping sauce you’ll want to slather on nearly everything. Seasonal dishes rotate throughout the year, and the old-world-leaning wine list focuses on lively whites and food-friendly reds. Save room for sorbets made in collaboration with Toronto chocolate maker Soma. Eshun Mott
- 5 St. Joseph St. (at St. Nicholas St.)
- 647-948-8018
- laolaobar.com
Le Paradis is a sexy-feeling space that nails classics like mussels and steak frites | Chef Sasha Leliavin
Carmen Cheung
Le Paradis
- Midtown Toronto
- French
- Under $75
Never mind that the steak frites sells for $28, and less on Mondays. This isn’t just good for the price. This is a humble cut of beef elevated to the tender, perfectly seasoned point that it swaggers nearly like rib-eye, cloaked in its creamy peppercorn sauce. It’s the sort of well-executed, honestly priced bistro classic Le Paradis, tucked away at the north end of the Annex, has been famous for since the mid-’80s. Yes, they do host a lot of octogenarian birthdays here. (You’ll also find plenty of students and theatregoers.) The banquettes are red, the walls deep yellow and hung with vintage advertisements for brandy and Champagne. Somehow, it’s remained a sexy-feeling space. They’ve got superb veal kidneys, moules marinières, great boeuf Bourguignon and chocolate marquise. (Also: Pray they’re serving the creamy, tarragon-spiked vol-au-vent with sweetbreads when you go.) But perhaps the biggest asset here is the veteran wait staff, who enforce an effortlessly high standard. If you try to eat the escargots with a fork, they will notice, and they will gently direct you to your spoon, because with a spoon, you get more garlic butter in each bite. Jake Edmiston
- 166 Bedford Rd. (at Pears Ave.)
- 416-921-0995
- leparadis.com
Le Swan is a collision between a Parisian bistro and a retro diner in the best possible way
Andrew Rowat
Le Swan
- West Toronto
- French, Canadian
Step inside Le Swan and it’s as if a Parisian bistro and a retro diner collided in the best possible way. Vintage light fixtures cast a cosy glow over snug booths in a room that partner Jen Agg has resurfaced from top to bottom. Then there’s the menu: French classics on one side, nostalgic diner favourites on the other, each half offering a different price point and a playful counterpoint — rotisserie chicken or a hot chicken sandwich; steak frites or chicken-fried steak. Chef Eileen Martin puts her own twists on tradition: She serves smoked trout rillettes instead of the more common duck or pork, topping them with a smoky, oceanic kick of caviar. Her wedge salad adds tomato concassé, radish batons and puffed wild rice to the usual elements; it’s excellent. Le Swan’s red snapper fillet is a standout, served in a rich and zippy vadouvan curry beurre blanc sauce and accompanied by glazed rutabaga and delicata squash. Even a side of firm, flavourful blistered green beans shines. It’s comfort food served at an easy, unhurried pace by attentive servers, even as the bustling restaurant teems with diners. Janet Hurley
- 892 Queen St. W. (at Crawford St.)
- 416-536-4440
- leswan.ca
Linny’s Luncheonette uses beef navel, not brisket, for its pastrami — way more old school, more evenly marbled, and more expensive
Andrew Rowat
Linny’s Luncheonette
- West Toronto
- Jewish Deli
- Under $50
Toronto used to be a genuine deli town — a land of kishke, knishes and corned beef, today mostly the stuff of black-and-white photos. If there is to be a comeback, it might well be led by chef David Schwartz (Mimi Chinese, Sunnys Chinese), who opened Linny’s Luncheonette last year. It’s a next-door sibling to his deli-inspired steak house, Linny’s, and he runs it with obvious reverence for the past. It’s probably the only restaurant in the city that uses beef navel, not brisket, for its pastrami — way more old school, more evenly marbled and more expensive. Schwartz rubs the beef with high-quality black pepper, salt and coriander seed; smokes it for 12 hours; and hand-slices it for every sandwich. The payoff: the sort of sandwich you devour with abandon after promising yourself you’d only have half. Double up on the meat if you’re feeling like a true chazzer or get the $40 platter for two, which comes with enough smoked meat, mustard, pickles and deli-perfect light rye to build your own picnic sandwiches. Grab a few of the pastrami-stuffed potato knishes and full-sour pickles on your way out the door. Alex Baldinger
- 174 Ossington Ave. (at Foxley St.)
- linnysluncheonette.com
The everything-from-scratch ethos at Los Compas Tacos is a big part of why this downtown spot should be near the top of every taco lover’s list
Andrew Rowat
Los Compas Tacos
- Downtown Toronto
- Mexican
- Under $50
Every time someone orders a taco at this deceptively simple downtown shop, a cook in Los Compas’s kitchen flattens a ball of scratch-made corn dough, and then slaps the resulting disc onto the heat of her stove, where it puffs and blisters into perhaps the freshest, steamiest, most deliciously tender tortilla you’ll find around town. That everything-fresh-from-scratch ethos, which extends even to the taqueria’s icy aguas frescas, is a big part of why the place should be near the top of every taco lover’s list. The al pastor brings a still-steaming tortilla enveloping spit-roasted pork, the smoky warmth of chipotle salsa and the sweet-sour punch of griddled pineapple spears; it’s a thing of beauty. They chargrill their steak here until it’s dark and crisp-edged and wondrously complex; you will know this from the carne asada tacos. The mushroom tacos’ filling — a substitution when the kitchen can’t source fresh nopal cactus leaves — packs more profoundly mushroomy flavour than seems conceivable; it’s every bit as satisfying and balanced as the meat. As a side, order the gorgeous-tasting griddle-charred onions. They’re a thing in Mexico, but a little like those made-to-order tortillas, you almost never see them here. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 140 Spadina Ave. (at Richmond St. W.)
- 416-369-1777
- loscompastacos.com
Chef Nuit Regular brings an extra layer of flair to Pinoy favourites
Carmen Cheung
Makilala
- Downtown Toronto
- Filipino
- Under $75
Though she’s best known for her Thai cooking, at home, the chef Nuit Regular (Pai, Kiin) long ago mastered Filipino favourites like pork belly adobo and lumpia Shanghai; her husband and business partner, Jeff Regular, grew up in a Filipino-Canadian household. At Makilala, the couple’s fun and meticulously prop-styled new room (the bric-a-brac is everywhere), Regular brings an extra layer of flair to Pinoy favourites. The deliciously salty, briny and sweet noodle dish called palabok, for instance, which mixes a sauce made from punchy smoked mackerel and bubbly-fried pork-skin chicharrón with hard-boiled egg, shrimp and ground pork. Or her gorgeous cassava cake, served warm and shot through with the chewy-tender coconut confection known as macapuno strings. The baking here is a strength: a dreamy mousse of whipped durian butter melts into every crevice of Regular’s steaming pan de sal bread. Makilala’s fried pork belly lechon kawali combines melt-in-your-mouth-tender meat and crispy, deeply amber skin that’s as light as phyllo; a pork-liver-based dipping sauce mellows everything out with a sweet, earthy finish. Karon Liu
- 105 Church St. (at Richmond St. E.)
- 416-366-7444
- makilala.ca
The roast chicken verges on the Platonic ideal, basted with garlic butter and rosemary | Executive chef Monica Emilia Adarme
Carmen Cheung
Maple Leaf Tavern
- East Toronto
- Canadian
If there is a tavern in your mind, this one’s probably better. Soft light and dark wood, framed drawings of race horses, blood-red banquettes and stained glass. It’s the kind of place where parents bring their teenage children as an introduction to the finer parts of a responsible adult life. The most fun on a Saturday night is in the dining room, where the empty-nest set gets buzzed on classic cocktails. But in an alcove at the back, you get an uninterrupted view of the kitchen. (“All right,” executive chef Monica Emilia Adarme called out one evening, reading a ticket. She smiled a mischievous smile. “Butter allergy.”) Keep an eye on the brick oven, burning maple and fruit wood, where this disciplined team produces most of its magic: soy-ginger broccolini with a whisper of char and scallion; blushing salmon with bubbling skin; grilled bacon to drape over a proper, yolky caesar salad; and hanger steak brushed with beef fat. The roast chicken verges on the platonic ideal, basted with garlic butter and rosemary. And the whole place screams “very good burger.” Do not ignore the call. Jake Edmiston
- 955 Gerrard St. E. (at Pape Ave.)
- 416-465-0955
- mapleleaftavern.co
At Mapo Korean BBQ, the service is smart, the dishes superb, and the room is always a blast
Andrew Rowat
Mapo Korean BBQ
- West Toronto
- Korean
Good luck finding a more entertaining dinner out than around a roaring grill here — your table heaving with food, the air alive with grill smoke and the smell of sizzling fat and the whooshing flames of the blowtorch-slinging staff, the festivities lubricated with soju liquor and Korean beer. Mapo’s service is smart, the dishes superb, and the room is always a blast. The haemul pajeon seafood pancake is a standout appetizer: its wafting green onion and seafood aura intoxicating, its golden-crisp surface glistening pink with shrimp. The chewy, slippery tteokbokki rice cakes, in their fiery chili sauce, are also nice. The most crowd-pleasing side of all is the free “cheese corn” that toasts and bubbles quietly at the edge of the grill; watch your more gluttonous tablemates closely; they’re liable to eat it all. The meat, however, is Mapo’s real show. The staff will do the cooking if you need, though where’s the fun in that? Most of it comes thinly sliced, but if you order the whole rib-eye, hold onto your eyebrows; that’s when the blowtorch comes out. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 708 Bloor St. W. (at Clinton St.) and other locations
- 647-797-7708
- mapokoreanbbq.com
This family-friendly Mississauga restaurant has one of the largest Egyptian menus in the GTA | Owner Mohamed Salah Saleh
Carmen Cheung
Masrawy Egyptian Kitchen
- Mississauga
- Egyptian
- Under $50
This regal and family-friendly spot has one of the largest Egyptian menus in the GTA, spanning grilled skewers, layered rice and pasta dishes, sandwiches, dips and meal-sized soups. Its fans have been following owner Mohamed Salah Saleh’s cooking since he began as a caterer in 2014. Start with kobeba: hot and crispy croquettes of ground beef, bulgur and nuts drizzled with lemony tahini. The mombar are also excellent, dill-flecked rice in natural sausage casings, seared to delicately blistered and juicy, cooled with a yogurt dip. Veg dishes are equally tantalizing — the ultra-creamy and garlicky lentil soup, for instance, blended with carrots and onions for a sweet finish. Save room for the sharing platters. The lamb shank fatta comes braised and roasted to fork-tender, on fluffy rice and crunchy baladi bread croutons that soak up the lamb drippings and the bright tomato-based sauce. To end, there’s kunafa: angel-hair strands of golden pastry sandwiching pastry cream and lightly sweet syrup, topped with crushed pistachios. Karon Liu
- 2275 Britannia Rd. W., units 1-2 (at Millcreek Dr.)
- 647-654-4444
- masrawykitchen.com
Exceptional pasta, pizza and sandwiches lead the way at this Junction Triangle café-bakery-restaurant | Owner David Mattachioni with his perfect sourdough
Andrew Rowat
Mattachioni
- West Toronto
- Italian
This Junction Triangle café-bakery-restaurant is a draw at any hour of the day — do not leave without bringing home a best-in-the-city sourdough Pullman loaf, baked fresh every morning. But the real magic happens after sunset, when the all-day list of Mattachioni’s wood-fired pizzas (not quite Neapolitan, but still, you should order the Napoli, topped with big, salty Agostino Recca anchovies) and exceptional sandwiches (the mortadella and mozzarella on tomato focaccia is an all-timer) are joined by real-deal homestyle specials, scrawled on a chalkboard and practically invisible on social media. (It’s exciting to dine out these days having not already previewed your whole meal on Instagram.) Pasta usually leads the way: Chef-owner David Mattachioni makes his lasagna like they do in Bologna, using circular sheets of spinach-infused pasta instead of the rectangular standard. Each layer hides a hearty beef-and-pork Bolognese ragù, held together by creamy bechamel and lots of Parm. The only move left is an after-dinner espresso and a slice of the irresistibly moist lemon-olive-oil cake, perched on a creamy bed of lemon curd that perfectly straddles the border between sweet and tangy. Alex Baldinger
- 1617 Dupont St. (at Edwin Ave.)
- 416-519-1010
- mattachioni.com
This North York Chinese-Korean charcoal barbecue spot combines an all-ages beerhall vibe with endless platters of ready-to-cook meat
Sophie Bouquillon
Meataa 7 Authentic Charcoal BBQ
- North Toronto
- Chinese, Korean
The specialty here is as specific as they come: Chinese-Korean charcoal barbecue from the Xita district of Shenyang, China. Which might sound rarefied until you take the place in, with its endless platters of ready-to-cook meat, its happy, all-ages beer hall vibe and the spitting, smoke-breathing, live charcoal grills at the centre of every table — the only ones we’ve found in town. These are universal pleasures through and through. The pork and pickled cabbage combo makes a great start. The cabbage crisps and sweetens in the charcoal’s heat, while its flavours meld with the sizzling pork belly, Chinese-Korean-style choucroute garni. The garlic beef plate’s fat-ribboned brisket slices dance over the charcoal to dripping tender. (NB: brisket, handled right, makes a slam-dunk grilling cut.) The kalbi combo: melty short-rib and fat-capped offcuts sliced large enough for grilling to sizzly crisp but rare. They’ve got ready-to-cook eel and pineapple, chicken knees (knobbly but tasty), tofu, vegetables and an all-meat birthday cake, too. The sides, by contrast, are simple but effective: tasty cucumber salad, cold noodle mul naengmyeon (made with chewy, ramen-like lye noodles here), and seasoned rice stirred through with hard-fried eggs. For dessert, there are roasted marshmallows on sticks. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 5285 Yonge St., 2nd floor (at Norton Ave.)
- 416-733-9777
- meataa7.com
Fall-apart duck confit at Milou
Andrew Rowat
Milou
- West Toronto
- French, Canadian
This energetic room is loud and fun, loaded with 20-somethings dressed for a night out. While the French-inspired food hails from a centuries-old tradition, there’s something different here — something specific to Toronto, and to Dundas West. At Milou, the fall-apart duck confit comes on crisp, seared sushi rice, lathered in a floral orange sauce with a dab of kimchi seasoning swirled in. The flavour of that sauce crawls up through the rice to lick the crispy duck skin, as if driven by lust. The ratatouille tastes like full-on summer, with shimmery streaks of zucchini swimming through its tomato sauce and a welcome twist from creamy flecks of feta. There is a little surprise in each element of Milou’s terrific burger. Paper-thin shavings of onion, not the sharp, harsh slices. Sweet pickles, not dill. The chuck-brisket mix is beefier than you expect. And the cheese is Swiss, not American, so it announces itself with some funk. That burger, much like Milou, feels like a friend who’s been dating someone younger — new earring, different hair, more fun-loving outlook, same beloved friend. Jake Edmiston
- 1375 Dundas St. W. (at Beaconsfield Ave.)
- miloutoronto.com
At Momo Ghar, you can order sampler platters of a dozen momos prepared four ways | Sonam Pontsang
Carmen Cheung
Momo Ghar
- East Toronto
- Tibetan, Nepali
- Under $75
If you think of momos, the savoury dumplings from Tibet and Nepal, as a no-frills foodstuff, you haven’t yet been to this cosy Cabbagetown spot. You can get them cooked in tandoori-style yogurt marinade here and topped with cilantro chutney, filled with house-made paneer or vegan cabbage, even panko-crusted and fried. And no matter their stuffing, Momo Ghar’s dumplings come steaming with enough broth inside them to rival Chinese xiaolongbao. Another plus: You can order sampler platters of a dozen momos prepared four ways. (NB: they’re cooked to order; but they’re worth the wait.) The menu’s jhol momos are a standout; they’re not only deliciously soupy on their insides, but come bathed in complexly tart, sweet and toasty-tasting broth. Get them filled with the paneer and peas; the cheese pairs well with the tomato, toasted sesame and red-chili-based johl, making it even richer. To balance the heat, try a plate of vegan laphing: cooling, jelly-textured noodles wrapped around crispy instant-noodle bits, garnished with onions, tomatoes and a lip-smacking garlicky soy sauce. Karon Liu
- 568 Parliament St. (at Amelia St.) and other location
- 416-920-8224
- momoghar.ca
Mona Khan built her empire on Trinidadian flatbreads
Carmen Cheung
Mona’s Roti
- Scarborough
- Trinidadian
- Under $50
Mona’s is always buzzing. Groups of teens deliberate on their orders, disgruntled uncles mutter at having to wait in the line, and behind the counters, an army of aunties cooks mountains of enormous, golden, dark-spotted Trinidadian flatbreads. Mona Khan has built her quarter-century-old empire on those roti, which they stuff with complex meat, vegetable and mango curries. The soft and flaky paratha variety works well with the shop’s spiced curry goat, while Mona’s dhalpuri roti, layered inside with spiced, ground split peas, help to soak up saucier options like the oxtail. For many fans, though, the draw here is Mona’s doubles — the beloved Trini street snack of soft bara flatbreads sandwiching curried chickpea chana. These ones could be the best in town. The breads come notably thick, bright turmeric yellow and deliciously puffed; they’re fried fresh in batches through the day, for a gentle crispness, instead of microwaved as at many other spots. (NB: doubles production often doesn’t start until around 11 a.m.) Those still-warm breads and the buttery softness of their chunky, well-spiced chickpea filling meld into a perfect bite. Say yes to the pepper and tamarind sauces if you like what’s good, then eat them hot at the little counter; doubles this great don’t travel well. Jennifer Chan
- 4810 Sheppard Ave. E., units 209-210 (at Shorting Rd.)
- 416-412-1200
- monasonline.com
Mozy’s, a brilliant counter service spot in Liberty Village, serves up impossibly juicy, crazy-delicious charcoal chicken | Chef Barbode Soudi
Andrew Rowat
Mozy’s
- West Toronto
- Canadian
- Under $75
What do you call chicken that’s spit-roasted in Toronto on a Portuguese charcoal grill by an Iranian-Canadian chef who made his name in French-style fine-dining and loves to season fresh-cut fries with Australian-style chicken salt? At Mozy’s, the former Alo chef Barbode Soudi’s brilliant new counter-service spot in Liberty Village, you just call it impossibly juicy, smoky, crazy-delicious charcoal chicken — quite possibly the best in town. You can order by the quarter, half or whole bird; however you get it, the skin is crackly-crisp, the wet-brine seasoning simple, finished with confit garlic oil. Soudi lets the chicken and charcoal speak for themselves. The sides are superb, the salad more vibrant and fresh-tasting than you’d ever expect from takeout, sparkling with mint and citrus dressing. Mozy’s fries, with their golden exteriors and plush middles, sing when tossed in a sumac and savoury chicken-bouillon-based spice blend. And the rice! Toasted in nutty brown butter and studded with creamy lentils and crispy onions, it’s the menu’s sleeper hit. At $65, the whole chicken meal — with two sides, Turkish flatbread, a dip, two sauces and tahini miso cookies — will handily serve two or three. As for the sauce, there’s plenty of choice, but the herbaceous cilantro lime — inspired by Peru’s aji verde — reigns supreme. Camilla Wynne
- 114 Atlantic Ave. (at King St. W.)
- @mozyscharcoal
Mustafa Restaurant’s Iskender kebap has sizzling meat laid over crunchy, sesame-studded bread | Owner Mustafa Ardiç
Sophie Bouquillon
Mustafa Restaurant
- North Toronto
- Turkish
- Under $75
This busy Turkish doner specialist feels like an ancient hideout — the dining room’s walls and ceilings are painstakingly sculpted into rocky-textured crags and rough-edged stalactites, to resemble the caves of Cappadocia. Mustafa’s cooking is just as spectacular. The doner here, shavings of slowly spit-roasted beef, come buzzing with onions, black pepper and cumin; in the case of the Iskender kebap, one of the kitchen’s tastiest iterations, the sizzling meat is laid over crunchy, sesame-studded bread and draped with sweet-tart tomato sauce. The bread soaks up the beef fat and sauce; a dollop of light but luscious yogurt takes the bread-beef-tomato dance to a whole new and orchestral place. The kebabs are a must-try as well, especially the chicken — crimson with Turkish pepper paste, sweet and charred at the ends. The lahmacun flatbread, pressed with deeply browned beef, arrives in a shimmer of fat and oven heat, but is also startlingly fresh, threaded with parsley and shredded onion. The first bites crunch so loud they drown out conversation; you can almost hear them echo around the cave. Jake Edmiston
- 866 Wilson Ave. (at Northgate Dr.)
- 416-631-0300
- mustafarestaurant.ca
Oji Seichi focuses on lighter, Tokyo-style broths paired with house-made noodles that have a satisfying chew
Carmen Cheung
Oji Seichi
- East Toronto
- Japanese
- Under $75
Oji Sechi approaches ramen with a sensibility that feels distinctly Toronto. Run by chef Mitch Bates (Momofuku Shōtō) and partners, the restaurant focuses on lighter, Tokyo-style broths paired with house-made noodles that have a satisfying chew. The classic shoyu is excellent, its clear broth deeply savoury, topped with thick slices of roast pork that arrive lightly grilled, smoky and tender. The spicy sesame bowl adds creamy richness and heat, while the veggie miso ramen, built on satisfying, richly flavourful mushroom broth, is a standout in its own right. Across the board, the bowls arrive with enough toppings to keep textures varied and flavours engaging to the last bite. Beyond noodles, the menu branches out in playful ways. “Sandys” include a terrific shrimp sandwich disguised as fast food. A strong drinks list, soft-serve sundaes and a steady rotation of specials keep the place worthy of return trips. Eshun Mott
- 354 Broadview Ave. (at Gerrard St. E.)
- 416-519-4356
- ojiseichi.com
Okonomi House’s savoury Japanese pancakes are cooked to order and served steamy hot
Carmen Cheung
Okonomi House
- Downtown Toronto
- Japanese
- Under $50
The dreamy red lanterns glowing from this retro okonomiyaki spot have beckoned city diners for generations now. The attraction goes deeper than mere atmosphere, though — Okonomi House’s savoury Japanese pancakes, cooked to order and served steamy hot, are delicious enough to bring fans back again and again. The seafood deluxe okonomiyaki is a favourite for good reason, the thick, cabbage-strewn batter loosely bound around whole shrimp, surimi fish sticks, mini scallops and squid. Its briny, sweet seafood beautifully contrasts the dark-browned crust and creamy interior; the tangy, savoury okonomiyaki sauce and a dollop of house mayo put the deliciousness nearly over the top. Don’t overlook another star main: the yakisoba, chewy and slurp-worthy wheat noodles tossed with beef, chicken and shrimp in sweet soy sauce. It’s a sweeter counterpart to the creamy okonomiyaki, but both will send you to umami nirvana. Karon Liu
- 23 Charles St. (at St. Nicholas St.)
- 416-925-6176
At this Azerbaijani restaurant and bakery, the main event is the rice and tender braised lamb encased in golden lavash dough | Chef Mahmud Allahverdiyev and team
Carmen Cheung
Old Avenue
- North Toronto
- Azerbaijani
- Under $75
This Azerbaijani restaurant and bakery, decorated with a collection of very-much-still-in-operation grandfather clocks, makes for an utterly dramatic dining experience. Almost everything here is theatre, even the bread. The kutab with greens, a spinach, herb and feta-stuffed flatbread, arrives so oven-puffed that with one poke of a fork it bellows wood-smoky steam; the whole table gasps. Familiar dishes from around the South Caucasus run through Old Avenue’s expansive menu: herb-packed salads, cheese-filled blintzes, beet-red borscht, stunningly tasty roast vegetable spreads, gorgeous grilled meat, butter-glossed pide dressed with Turkish pastrami and melty mozzarella. The dushbere soup, packed with intricately handmade meat-stuffed dumplings, builds up from a deep, minty, turmeric-yellow chicken broth. But the main event is the Shah Plov — rice and tender braised lamb encased in golden lavash dough. As a server carves it tableside and the slices unfurl, saffron-stained rice spills out, studded with sweet bursts from raisins. All is quiet, stunned by deliciousness, until one of the grandfather clocks bongs its alarm. Jake Edmiston
- 1923C Avenue Rd. (at Brooke Ave.) and other locations
- 416-781-1117
- oldavenue.ca
Omusubi Bar Suzume is a one-woman operation focused on the Japanese comfort foods omusubi and donburi
Andrew Rowat
Omusubi Bar Suzume
- West Toronto
- Japanese
- Under $50
Picking up an order at Omusubi Bar Suzume feels like reaching into a tiny home kitchen. This one-woman operation, set in the 707 shipping-container market, focuses on the Japanese comfort foods omusubi and donburi. The omusubi rice balls (also known as onigiri) come wrapped in toasted nori; those seaweed jackets snap crisply as they give way to tender, lightly vinegared rice and well-seasoned centres. Here, the omusubi are generously stuffed, and unlike in convenience stores, where they typically languish on refrigerator shelves, they’re made to order. Standout fillings include albacore tuna that’s dark with soy and green onion, and a deeply savoury garlic shiitake mushroom mix. Keep an eye out for seasonal varieties, which often sell out. The donburi rice bowls are hot and well balanced, the pork version especially satisfying, its meat stir-fried with ginger, soy and sake until glossy and deeply savoury. It’s piled over the rice with crunchy shredded cabbage and a delicious hit of pickled ginger. This is fast food that tastes like anything but. Eshun Mott
- 707 Dundas St. W. (at Carlyle St., in Market 707)
- 416-939-3718
- omusubibarsuzume.square.site
At this Scarborough spot, the servings are generous, the prices improbably cheap and the cooking consistently terrific
Carmen Cheung
One2Snacks
- Scarborough
- Malaysian
- Under $50
This tiny, family-run spot is a Malaysian street food standard-bearer. The menu is tight, the portions generous, the prices cheap and the cooking consistently great enough that it would be hard to oversell the place. Start with the kitchen’s wat tan hor, which shows exactly what a ripping hot wok can do. Its flat rice noodles, tender bok choi and chicken arrive perfumed with deep wok hei: that charred, almost campfire smokiness. Glossy egg gravy coats every noodle; it’s messy, deeply savoury and meant for slurping. The char kway teow offers darker flavours but similar thrills, while One2Snacks’ curry laksa is rich and velvety, its fragrant, spice-laced coconut broth spilled over noodles and tofu puffs. Bryan Choy runs the counter while his parents, Chon and Tracy, cook. If you see their colourful Malaysian desserts (kuih), do not think twice. Varieties rotate, from gently herbal pandan leaf and coconut kuih talam to the palm sugar and coconut-filled crepes called kuih dadar. The durian kuih is a beginner-friendly intro to the pungent fruit: a gently salty rice base with sweet, floral custard in a deliciously balanced bite. Chi Nguyễn
- 8 Glen Watford Dr., Unit 26 (at Sheppard Ave. E., in Dynasty Centre plaza)
- 647-340-7099
The sushi at Oroshi Fish Co. is almost shockingly flavourful
Andrew Rowat
Oroshi Fish Co.
- West Toronto
- Sushi
The first bite of sushi from this stellar College Street shop is a disorienting thing: rich and sweet and almost shockingly flavourful, as if its chefs have found the trick to distilling the goodness in every piece of fish they touch. Which they have, in a way. Chef-owners Jeff Kang and Edward Bang dry-age most of the fish here — a practice that firms its texture and focuses its flavours. This level of care is rare even at sushi’s high end; it’s unheard of among Oroshi’s more affordable peers. The go-to order for two: start with the $59 omakase set — deep-streaked fatty tuna; pert orange uni perched battleship-style on well-seasoned rice; firm, top-quality Scottish salmon; deep-creamy scallops and other maritime delicacies, plus good tamago and a superlative tuna handroll. Add the shop’s $22 Regular Sushi set, for excellent nigiri, plus actually delicious California rolls. Add the rich and strangely decadent miso soup — it’s scratch-made here with fish stock instead of powder. To finish, get the toasted green tea (hojicha) tiramisu, a fog of creamy deliciousness. You’ll never want takeout sushi from any other place. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 962 College St. (on Bill Cameron Ln.)
- 416-901-5288
- oroshifishco.com
Downhome gem Pape Village Original Greek Restaurant offers one of the most thrilling Greek feasts in town | The servers will call you “honey” here
Carmen Cheung
Pape Village Original Greek Restaurant
- East Toronto
- Greek
- Under $75
There’s all manner of thrills on Danforth Avenue’s Greektown strip: flaming cheese, fancy wine cellars, suave modern rooms run by air-kissing hosts. What none of those places offer, however, is a stand-alone charcoal rotisserie shack, where every weekend they slow-roast their meats to sizzling, smoky, melty-juicy succulence. For that, you must travel a few blocks north, to this distinctly down-home gem. The servers will call you “honey” here. When you order a glass of the (very nice) house red, it arrives filled right to the brim. The mezes — mild, sherbet-pink taramasalata; melitzanosalata whipped from charred-to-collapsing eggplant — are wonderful (be sure to drizzle on the olive oil); the lemon potatoes roasty-soft and oregano-flecked. And to be sure, seven days a week, they do a brisk trade in souvlaki and chargrilled meats. But the thrill is in the Friday-to-Sunday cooking, when that little shack’s puff-puffing chimney conclaves its pork-and-chicken-scented smoke. Those kontosouvli meats, $20 or so per plate, are worthy, at least to us, of the keys to the city. (When you reserve, by telephone, because it’s still the 1990s here, ask them to hold a plate of each of the pork and chicken; they do run out.) For dessert, there’s excellent baklava, a simple finish to one of the most thrilling Greek feasts in town. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 942 Pape Ave. (at Westwood Ave.)
- 416-421-8228
- papevillagerestaurant.com
The specialty at Pho Ngoc Yen 3 is vibrant, family-style Vietnamese dishes | Final image: chef and co-owner Trí Trần, left
Carmen Cheung
Pho Ngoc Yen 3 Toronto
- Downtown Toronto
- Vietnamese
The specialty at this enormous and elegant downtown room is vibrant, family-style Vietnamese dishes, made with skill, care and cultural pride. The short-rib phở comes packed with flavour: a whole braised rib sits submerged in its broth; lift it, and the yielding meat slips away in one clean pull. Chicken thighs follow, balancing smoke from the grill and the fragrance of lemon leaf, the juicy meat set against crackling fried sticky rice. Chef and co-owner Trí Trần’s cooking combines time, technique and deep-rooted tradition. That shows in his seafood-laden gỏi ba bía đu đủ salad, its translucent green papaya ribbons balancing citrus sours, subtle sweetness and fish sauce’s salt; the salad’s toasted peanuts add depth, and fermented crab brings a delicious layer of briny funk. Trần’s cơm chiên thập cẩm — house special fried rice — mixes fluffy broken rice, sweet, crispy shallots and juicy pork in a savoury slick of wokked egg and soy. It’s the kind of dish you keep reaching for long after you think you’re done. End with the avocado milkshake: thick, buttery, stirred through with strands of fresh coconut, not too sweet. Chi Nguyễn
- 350 Adelaide St. W. (at Peter St.) and other locations
- 437-836-2764
- @phongocyen
Seafood is the focus at this cheery taqueria in Little India | Chef Luis Bautista
Carmen Cheung
Puerto Bravo
- East Toronto
- Mexican
- Under $75
It’s strange what can happen when you try Luis Bautista’s cooking. Take his fabulously decadent shrimp and octopus-based birria tacos, which he serves in a shallow pool of ceviche-style broth. They’re crunchy and saucy from high-heat griddling, darkly warm with guajillo chiles, complex with the taste of top-quality seafood and also brightly citrusy-zingy. They are quite liable, as well, to make you forget where you are — in a cheery, seafood-focused taqueria in the heart of Little India, where the kitchen trades in the likes of Hokkaido scallops and soft-shell crab. Seafood-focus notwithstanding, Puerto Bravo’s carne asada tacos are a minor miracle: their charcoal-grilled beef prodigiously delicious, their refreshing chopped radish and melty, milky asadero cheese garnish perfectly judged. (Pro-tip: The fiery house habanero salsa is superb.) After eating here recently, one homesick native of Mexico City turned to the server, a salsa-borne flush having taken up residence in his cheeks. “Estos son los mejores tacos en la ciudad,” he said — these are the best tacos in the city. He wasn’t even remotely wrong. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 1425 Gerrard St. E. (at Hiawatha Rd.)
- 647-920-1251
- puertobravoto.com
This Brampton institution specializes in stuffed Punjabi flatbreads | High heat with Virendra Singh in the Punjabi by Nature kitchen
Nick Lachance
Punjabi by Nature
- Brampton
- Indian, Punjabi
- Under $75
Tangy Indian street snacks and flaky, stuffed Punjabi flatbreads anchor the menu at this Brampton institution — all at a level of quality and variety that is rare around the GTA. Order the Delhi-style aloo tikki chaat, a crisp potato patty stuffed with soft paneer cheese and the heat of garam masala. It’s crunchy, bright-tasting and spicy all at once, doused with cooling sweet yogurt and tart tamarind chutney. The butter chicken here sidesteps the usual cliché, trading bland sweetness for deep, smoky flavour. The dish called sarson da saag and makke di roti — a mustard green curry with golden cornmeal flatbread — offers a taste of comfort food from the region. The kitchen’s Punjabi aunties cook the greens down into a garlicky, ghee-kissed purée (the saag); the nutty, chewy roti are the perfect vessels for the saag’s peppery bite. The Amritsari Kulcha — a stuffed, tandoor-baked flatbread — is a master-class in texture: thin layers of dough folded over butter again and again, then filled with potato and paneer before a low-and-slow bake in a dedicated clay oven; think of it as a stuffed Punjabi-style croissant. Akrit Michael
- 8887 The Gore Rd., Unit 57 (at Fogal Rd.) and other locations
- 905-794-4667
- punjabibynature.ca
Quality Bread Bakery is one of the GTA’s most respected Tamil bakeries | Owner Anthonipillai Francis
Carmen Cheung
Quality Bread Bakery
- Scarborough
- Sri Lankan, Tamil
- Under $50
This is one of the city’s most respected Tamil bakeries, known far and wide for its short eats, the savoury and sweet hand-held rolls, patties, balls and cutlets. The mutton roll here crunches as loud as a sound effect, the tender meat and potato filling bathed in a fiery Tamil curry, with hints of cardamom and cinnamon. The fish cutlet, buzzing with cumin, is green inside from chiles and packed so tightly with flaky mackerel it’s a trick to keep it together on the way to your mouth. There are sweets, as well, and curries, plus butter chicken roti and griddle-chopped kothu roti. Nothing’s labelled; let the other customers guide you if you’re new. You can fill a brown paper bag with short eats for less than $10. Start with those. That bag will soon blush with oil, a signal that you should heed. Do not wait to eat, even if you’re in a newish car, or better still, in somebody else’s newish car. Within a minute, the crispy, flaky, sweet and chili-savoury crumbs will be down your front and their front, in the cupholders, on your lips and their lips and fingertips. What a dream. Jake Edmiston
- 1970 Ellesmere Rd., units 12-13 (at Bellamy Rd.)
- 416-431-9829
Roland Jean and Jen Agg’s Rhum Corner is one of the most enthralling nights out in Toronto | Roland Jean
Andrew Rowat
Rhum Corner
- West Toronto
- Haitian
- Under $75
Roland Jean and Jen Agg’s rum-soaked room has become a hub for the GTA’s Haitian diaspora; with Jean perched at the front most evenings playing Konpa and Rabòday hits and everyone’s shoulders swaying as they sip at cocktails, the place is one of the city’s most enthralling nights out. The kitchen, run by chef Jose Souffrant and an all-Haitian crew, does (mostly) traditional dishes: dreamy braised oxtail; tuna ceviche in a creamy sauce that soaks into fried banane frite plantains; deep-fried pork griot that can make otherwise well-behaved diners clutch at their tablemates and moan. That pork is crisp and tender, juicy with dripping fat, cut through with refreshing jolts of bitter orange acidity and heat. The macaroni au gratin arrives bubbling; it’s exquisite. As for that room, expect the attention to detail that Agg (Grey Gardens, Le Swan) is known for, the light the right kind of dim, the music loud enough to make the place a party, but you don’t have to shout. The rum and Coke service is the best anywhere (ask for the Daiq’d Up, which adds daiquiri slushy into the mix); even the ice cubes are sexy. Jake Edmiston
- 926 Dundas St. W. (at Bellwoods Ave.)
- rhumcorner.com
Every night at Romi’s feels like a Friday night kitchen party | Chef Tomer Markovitz
Andrew Rowat
Romi’s Bakery
- Midtown Toronto
- Israeli
Yes, you can pop in here morning or midday and eat very well. But every night at Romi’s feels like a Friday night kitchen party chez Tomer Markovitz, one of Toronto’s masters of modern Israeli cooking. The soundtrack is vibrant Turkish and Levantine pop; the lighting makes everyone look younger; kids are treated with genuine reverence; and the food is a procession of the Libyan, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavours that shape so much of Tel Aviv cuisine. Markovitz’s gifts shine through most in contemporary updates to homestyle cooking. His trademark bright-green falafel balls, which first came on the scene at Parallel, where he was the opening chef, are easy contenders for best in the city. Safta Leah’s Schnitzel, named for his grandmother, is as crispy and juicy as the best fried chicken. And his take on braised brisket — the star of so many Jewish family tables — gets a gorgeous savoury-sweet zing from paprika, caraway, cumin and a generous lick of honey. No celebration is complete without dessert, none as show-stopping as the babka — as in, a full babka — which arrives stuck-through dramatically with a steak knife for slicing and smearing with vanilla gelato. Alex Baldinger
- 744 St. Clair Ave. W. (at Rushton Rd.)
- 416-656-1525
- romisbakery.com
Whatever you choose at Saffron Spice Kitchen, the flavour goes on and on | Chef and co-owner Johnne Phinehas
Andrew Rowat
Saffron Spice Kitchen
- Downtown Toronto
- Sri Lankan, Tamil
- Under $50
The can’t-miss order here is the kothu roti, the Tamil tangle of steaming curry, eggs, chiles, onions and house-made roti all chopped up together on a blazing hot griddle. Chef and co-owner Johnne Phinehas swears he can tell a good kothu roti just from the clanging of the metal paddles hitting the flat-top: It has to be rhythmic and mesmerizing, the gravy-soaked bread, aromatics and braised meat doing paddle-borne backflips above the heat. However Phineas does it, it seems to be working. You pick your curry; the choices range from fiery, lamb-based, cinnamon and cardamom-spiced Jaffna curry, to cheese and butter chicken, vegetarian and a variety called Neruppu Da, which the menu boasts is “REAPER-LEVEL HOT, not for the weak.” Whatever you choose, the flavour goes on and on. Phineas’s menu, built around South Indian and Sri Lankan staples, also includes rice-and-curry combos, soups, samosas and wraps; his eggplant curry, tangy with tamarind, is so tender the pieces all but liquefy on your tongue. On weekends, they also do lamprais, the intricate and enormously tasty assortment of curries, roast chicken, egg and fish cutlet, all wrapped in a banana leaf — by early afternoon, it’s usually sold out. Jake Edmiston
- 459 Queen St. W. (at Cameron St.) and other locations
- 416-203-0222
- saffronspicekitchen.com
At Sam’s, the congee menu spans dozens of different toppings
Carmen Cheung
Sam’s Congee Delight
- Markham
- Chinese, Cantonese
- Under $50
Congee, at its core, is just rice porridge, but few places in the city do the breakfast staple right. It’s often too watery, lacking rice’s sweet, nutty character. Not at Sam’s, which started as an open-air food stall in Hong Kong before relocating to Toronto in the 1990s. The congee menu spans dozens of different toppings. You can get ground beef, sliced chicken or fish, offal or preserved egg, mushrooms or corn. The “assorted” congee (“little boat congee” in Cantonese) is the staple here. It’s creamy, thick and bursting with umami, topped with dried squid, ground beef, chewy pork skin, green onions and peanuts. But a bowl of congee isn’t complete without youtiao, the deep-fried, savoury Cantonese crullers that Sam’s makes in-house. They’re excellent, though the sweet, salty, umami fermented bean-curd paste fritter is also superb. The straight-up sweet fritter, meanwhile, is probably the greatest possible pairing with a bowl of warm soy milk — highly recommended. Sam’s rice noodle rolls are also excellent; if you’re short on stomach space, order number 203, the sweet, tender sheets wrapped around a freshly fried youtiao — two delicious specialties in one. Karon Liu
- 7354 Woodbine Ave. (at Denison Ave.)
- 905-479-1074
- samscongeedelight.com
Mississauga’s Samara Kitchen serves up real-deal Indonesian cooking
Sophie Bouquillon
Samara Kitchen
- Mississauga
- Indonesian
- Under $75
This 14-seat gem does real-deal Indonesian cooking for Indonesian patrons — for everyone else, it’s hard not to feel lucky just to take it all in. Samara’s menu runs from sweet grilled meat skewers to coconut milk curries, complex stews and expertly wok-fried noodles and veg. The batagor dumplings make a great start, their savoury minced fish interiors wrapped in crispy, golden-fried tofu skin, topped with chunky peanut sauce and a drizzle of dark, sweet kecap manis soy. They’re nutty, salty, just a little sweet, made for impulsive eating. The bakso rodal features an enormous stuffed meatball resting in an aromatic clear broth, with noodles, crisp celery and fragrant fried shallots; delicious. If you don’t speak Indonesian or Malay, a bit of smartphone menu decoding is rewarded here. The kangkung belacan is one such prize: crunchy water spinach stems wokked with funky-spicy fermented shrimp paste. Also excellent: the mild sambal chili-paste-smothered fried “smash chicken,” and the lontong sayur coconut milk curry served with cubes of compressed rice. For dessert, don’t miss the best-in-town es cendol, an iced fruit, coconut and caramelized palm sugar drink that’s lushly tropical-tasting, laced with the grassy, floral notes of pandan leaves. Jennifer Chan
- 6033 Shawson Dr., Unit 13 (at Britannia Rd. E.)
- 647-772-3130
At Sea Witch, fries, thick and auburn, crackle when you touch them. The fish batter is almost dangerously crisp | Owner Kevin Kowalczyk is a student of chip shop tradition
Carmen Cheung
Sea Witch Fish & Chips
- Midtown Toronto
- British
- Under $50
It looks like a regular fish and chips shop, complete with the compulsory painting of a ship. But wait, that’s not a fisherman in the portrait near the wall-mounted potato chipper, it’s Steve Zissou. And hang on, there are decidedly non-nautical coffee-table books at each booth, including one about Mick Jagger. “He’s been with a lot of women,” one customer sighs. No, this place is not what it seems. It’s much, much better. Owner Kevin Kowalczyk, in the business 23 years now, is a student of chip shop tradition, fixated on the details. He cuts his chips from Ontario Gold Rush and Burbank russets and double-fries them in beef drippings. And the batter for his fish — haddock, pickerel, halibut and trout — is as time-tested as it gets: just flour, baking powder, salt and water. The result is a masterpiece, the fish fresh and sweet and the batter almost dangerously crisp, all sharp corners and craggy wisps that shatter when they hit your teeth. No peel-and-serve tartar sauce here, either: Sea Witch mixes up more than 40 litres of its own each week, loading it with capers, gherkins and lemon. And you know the fries, thick and auburn and almost lacy at their tips, are going to be good. They crackle when you touch them, leaving the lightest kiss of oil on your lips. Jake Edmiston
- 636 St Clair Ave. W. (at Wychwood Ave.)
- 647-349-4824
- seawitchfc.com
The momos at Shambhala Kitchen are thin-skinned and deliciously juicy
Andrew Rowat
Shambhala Kitchen
- West Toronto
- Tibetan
- Under $50
The momos at this Little Tibet standard-bearer come thin-skinned, delicate and deliciously juicy. The fillings, which range from ground beef, chicken, pork, vegetables and paneer, pop, especially when seared or deep-fried. It’s worth dining in; they’re far better fresh than from a takeout box. Complement them with a big bowl of thenthuk: flat, irregular squares of chewy, hand-pulled soup noodles made in-house. The menu’s appetizer page is also a gem of lesser-seen Tibetan staples like dropa khatsa: bouncy strips of tripe wok-tossed in a tomato sauce with pops of green chili, garlic and onions. The tripe’s tender chewiness compliments gyuma, a steamed, melt-in-your-mouth blood sausage that’s thickened with ground beef, rice and peppercorns. Karon Liu
- 1406 Queen St. W. (at Dunn Ave.)
- 647-350-1406
- shambhala-kitchen.square.site
Shamshiri is slow food, served fast, at fine dining-level deliciousness
Andrew Rowat
Shamshiri
- Downtown Toronto
- Iranian
- Under $50
It would be easy to mistake this Iranian-Canadian mini-chain’s downtown spot as a basic kebab shop. The feel of the space is more fast food, after all, than slow-cooking specialist. And Shamshiri’s vast range of kebabs, from the juicy, beefy, chargrilled koobideh (be sure to shake on some sumac) to the sensational, pomegranate-soured veal tenderloin torsh, are easily among the best in town. But Shamshiri’s menu also goes deep, into complex soups and herb-kissed salads, to exquisitely layered vegetable stews and fall-off-the-bone braises. This is slow food, served fast, at fine-dining-level deliciousness. Like the juicy, wobbly whole lamb shank with decadent dill-and-fava-strewn rice, served with rich, golden lamb jus on the side. It’s $15, with a drink and a salad, and large enough to feed two (the servings here are off-the-charts generous); that price makes exactly zero sense. The ghormeh sabzi stew — earthy spinach simmered down with moist, cubed veal and kidney beans — is also worth the trip here, but then so is the fesenjan, the Iranian culinary classic that thrums with its darkly grounding walnut paste and the bright purple buzz of pomegranate overtop. To drink, don’t sleep on the house-made doogh, the refreshing fermented dairy beverage that’s brightened with mint. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 646 Yonge St. (at Irwin Ave.) and other locations
- 416-578-4000
- shamshiri.ca
Skyview Fusion Cuisine gets all the dim sum details right, including generously filled pork siu mai with glistening orange fish roe for salty pop
Carmen Cheung
Skyview Fusion Cuisine
- Markham
- Chinese, Cantonese
- Under $50
If you have to pick just one GTA dim sum spot, this is it. The room, with its modern chandeliers, its satin-covered chairs and its wall of aquariums, is just on the right side of ostentatious. And the Skyview kitchen’s elegant dim sum staples get all the details right: the telling snap of the shrimp in translucent-skinned har gow dumplings; the generously filled pork siu mai with glistening orange fish roe for salty pop. The pan-fried turnip cakes look almost like quartz, with shards of sausage gleaming through the translucence and clean turnip flavour that gives way to the crust from the pan. The cheung fun rice noodle rolls come magnificently sheer and satiny, with fresh-tasting pea shoots peeking out. The char siu bao nail the steam-bun-to-pork ratio, and the chicken feet arrive perfectly braised, in a sauce that gets the dark soy and fermented black bean funk just right. No place is perfect: The egg tarts are just OK, and you can find better squid tentacles elsewhere. But the brown sugar cake, a rare take on Malaysia’s bolu sarang semut, is all lacy, honeycomb-like channels, with a faintly gelatinous stretch and deeply complex caramelized sugar notes that linger in memory long after the cake is done. Jennifer Chan
- 8261 Woodbine Ave., Unit 8 (at Yorktech Dr.)
- 905-944-9418
- skyviewfusioncuisine.com
This Scarborough shawarma standard bearer offers one of the best open-kitchen shows in town
Carmen Cheung
Sumaq Iraqi Charcoal Grill
- Scarborough
- Iraqi
- Under $50
The best time to visit this Shawarma Row standard-bearer is when it’s busiest, when the little shop practically heaves with a crush of humanity. The choreography of how Sumaq’s dozen-odd cooks, bakers and counter staff handle that crush is one of the most flat-out delicious open-kitchen shows in town. In a quiet back corner, the baker at Sumaq’s clay-walled tanoor spins out blistered and steaming stacks of impossibly stretchy flatbreads at a rate that would make even the most accomplished pizzaiolo’s head spin. At the shop’s hulking vertical rotisseries — on a busy Saturday, they go through an incredible 560 kgs of intricately spiced and seasoned veal and chicken here — the countermen sabre off razor-thin slices that baste in the drippings where they land. They dress five or six shawarmas at a time, at blurry-fast speed, with rich, garlicky toum; with punchy cucumber and turnip pickles and onions; with the puckery, purple-fruit smack of pomegranate molasses or dark-flavoured HP Sauce (a popular colonial holdover in Iraq). They then dip each wrap in drippings before griddling it crisp. It all happens fast — you’re in and out in 20 to 30 minutes, usually. And the thing you leave with, that steamy and tender-chewy griddle-seared tanoor bread; the pop and crunch of the pickles and perfectly seasoned onions; the deep-carnal cardamom and nutmeg and lemon-zest-spiced satisfaction of the rotisserie’s meat; the zing (or glowering, pith-helmet hum) of that sauce, could be the most delicious wrap this side of Baghdad. Chris Nuttall-Smith and Angelyn Francis
- 1961 Lawrence Ave. E. (at Wayne Ave.) and other locations
- 416-901-4404
- sumaqrestaurant.ca
SumiLicious’s Sumith Fernando learned his smoked meat craft at Montreal’s Schwartz’s Deli | Shalika de Fonseka, left, and Sumith Fernando immigrated from Sri Lanka more than 20 years ago
Carmen Cheung
SumiLicious Smoked Meat & Deli
- Scarborough
- Jewish Deli
- Under $50
Sumith Fernando spent 17 years practicing at the altar of smoked meat that is Montreal’s Schwartz’s Deli. In 2018, when he was ready to pursue the craft on his own, he chose a strip-mall unit on Steeles Avenue in deep Scarborough. From there, word began to spread about the Catholic Sri Lankan immigrant cooking halal Jewish-Canadian soul food with the devotion of a true believer. The cure on the meat is Fernando’s peppery, proprietary secret, but his start-to-finish process — rub, rest, smoke, steam, slice — is almost better measured in weeks than days, and results in a bite that makes you shake your head in awe. The smoked meat sandwich combo is the move: thinly sliced layers of brisket piled onto soft rye with yellow mustard, alongside good fries, a vinegary slaw and a Putter’s pickle. That they also sell karnatzel, a dried beef sausage so niche it barely exists outside the old-school Jewish deli canon, tells you how seriously Fernando takes the tradition he’s evangelizing. And if your cardiologist isn’t watching, the smoked meat poutine is the ultimate homage to the Montreal roots that make this deli a true pilgrimage spot. Alex Baldinger
- 5631 Steeles Ave. E., Unit 5 (at Middlefield Rd., in Milliken Crossing)
- 647-347-8899
- sumilicious.ca
Sun Chinese Cuisine offers nine varieties of hand-pulled noodles | The noodle master at work
Carmen Cheung
Sun Chinese Cuisine
- Mississauga
- Chinese
- Under $50
If you’re mesmerized by the open kitchen’s noodle master, who deftly twists, slams, stretches and folds blocks of wheat dough into armloads of metre-long lamian, you won’t be the first. Hand-pulled noodles, offered at this busy Mississauga specialist in nine different shapes and thicknesses, are a staple in Chinese cooking; the Langzhou-style beef noodle soups that anchor Sun Chinese’s menu are perhaps their most famous iteration. Here, they come in broad bowls of clear chicken and beef broth that’s rich with the scent of cinnamon and star anise, topped with braised beef, vegetables and chilies. The noodles soak up the umami-rich soup, turning red and slick with chili oil. Start with the regular thickness as a baseline before working your way to the “flat, very wide” ones that offer a completely different experience: They’re chewier and thicker, with a texture that allows them to hold even more broth. Don’t hesitate to slurp; the servers have plastic bibs ready. Pair the noodles with grilled lamb skewers, a cool cucumber salad or niangpi, a cold and silky appetizer of, yep, noodles tossed in sesame dressing. Karon Liu
- 3480 Platinum Dr., Unit 110 (at Ridgeway Dr., in Ridgeway Plaza) and other locations
- 905-828-9090
The roast pork is a standout at this Chinatown east mainstay
Carmen Cheung
Supreme Taste
- East Toronto
- Chinese, Cantonese
- Under $50
Chinese barbecue is notoriously hit and miss. Most of the old si-fus, the barbecue masters, are long retired, and few if any places consistently nail the cuisine’s four staples: barbecue pork, roast duck, roast pork and poached chicken. But the regulars at this Chinatown east mainstay come for the kitchen’s roast pork, its skin consistently delicate and crackly, and the meat well enough seasoned that dipping sauce seems beside the point. Save the sauce — they make their own here — for the glistening roast duck, it allows the fatty waterfowl to shine. For what it’s worth, the poached chicken is nicely chickeny — high praise in many quarters — and the char siu comes sweet and sticky and properly full-flavoured; ask for the end pieces if you’re into super-concentrated crusty bits. Cantonese staples round out the menu: congee, wok-fried rice, noodles and vegetables. Pro-tip: Barbecue and steam-filled takeout boxes don’t mix; grab a table instead in the bare-bones dining room. It is always alive with the neighbourhood chatter of Chinatown. Karon Liu
- 351 Broadview Ave. (at Gerrard St. E.)
- 416-778-8029
Iranian brunch spot Takht-e-Tavoos is all soulful, homestyle cooking
Andrew Rowat
Takht-e Tavoos
- West Toronto
- Iranian
- Under $75
This Iranian brunch spot’s patterned tiles and pottery-filled shelves lend the easy warmth of a lived-in home — a feeling only amplified by chef Alireza Fakhrashrafi’s soulful, homestyle cooking. His guisavah alone is worth the visit: sunny-side-up eggs tucked beneath crisp-edged dates and apricots softened overnight in orange blossom water. The layers of deliciousness go on and on: It’s lush and sticky, with flickering bitterness from nigella seeds and tahini’s deep nuttiness; add a bite of the zeitoon parvardeh — walnut and pomegranate-molasses-marinated olives — for bright, briny pop. The dizi, by contrast, arrives in a tall clay pot, with a small metal mallet called a goosht-koob. First, you sip the dizi’s rich amber broth, savouring the dried lime, lamb and warm spice with bites of torn barbari bread. Then you goosht-koob the remaining lamb and legumes into a thick, comforting mash and spread it onto the bread. Another bit of gorgeousness: the haleem porridge, glossy with butter, threaded with tender brisket, dusted with cinnamon and sugar. What lingers, afterwards, is the rhythm of the meal itself: steaming chai sipped from tiny glasses; mint and cucumber and feta-laden plates passed between friends; the quiet ceremony of Persian breakfast. Chi Nguyễn
- 1120 College St. (at Dufferin St.)
- 647-352-7322
- pomegranatetoronto.com/takht-e-tavoos
This family-run Vietnamese spot offers the sort of cooking that resonates with diners far from their homeland
Andrew Rowat
Tân Định Quán
- West Toronto
- Vietnamese
- Under $75
The dishes at this family-run Vietnamese spot taste unmistakably like home. Start with the turmeric-stained rice cakes called bánh khọt, a beloved Vietnamese classic. They arrive straight from the pan, crispy edged but custardy in their centres, crowned with juicy shrimp. Wrap each one in lettuce, then dip it through the sweet-tangy nước chấm. Chef-owner Thị Dương Phạm’s superbly made bánh cuốn đặc biệt — savoury wood ear mushrooms and pork in silky rice noodle sheets — are the sort of cooking that resonates with diners far from their homeland. Alongside them sit squid cakes scented with dill, and sausage flecked with chili, each bite adding depth and gentle heat. The phở đặc biệt here is outstanding: charred onion and ginger, cinnamon and star anise rise from the steam; the soup’s tender beef slips between springy rice noodles and squeaky beef balls, brightened by herbs and sliced white onions. Tân Định Quán’s chalkboard specials are worth exploring; don’t hesitate to ask the staff for help translating. And for those so inclined, the kitchen’s snail dishes are terrific: try the ốc len xào dừa, small snails simmered in coconut milk and lime leaf until the broth turns fragrant and rich. Chi Nguyễn
- 2428 St Clair Ave. W. (at Runnymede Rd., in the plaza)
- 289-317-3699
- tandinhquan.com
The $25 per person communal feast is the main draw for families who want a bit of everything | Tinuno co-owner Cathy Ortega
Carmen Cheung
Tinuno
- North Toronto
- Filipino
- Under $75
“Kamayan” is the Filipino term for eating with your hands; in Toronto it usually means a communal feast laid out on banana leaf platters. The $25 per person kamayan at this North York favourite is the main draw for families who want a bit of everything: whole, vinegar-marinated bangus fish charred on the grill, along with tender, fatty pork skewers that glisten with banana ketchup glaze, plus irresistible okra turned smoky and sweet. There’s grilled squid, too, mussels and shrimp and a trio of sauces; the kamayan’s quality-to-price-to-quantity ratio is eye-poppingly good. If that’s not enough food (it definitely is, but never mind), add on a basket of the crisp and garlicky two-bite pork lumpia spring rolls; Tinuno’s two locations sell up to 20,000 a month. The hot and crunchy lechon kawali — roast pork — is also excellent; it’s freshly fried a second time for every order. The menu here goes deep: There’s a dozen varieties of the breakfast dish called silog, plus savoury, tamarind-soured sinigang soup and countless other specialties; the desserts array includes shaved ice halo-halo, as a rule among the most extra frozen treats you’ll find. Karon Liu
- 3520 Bathurst St. (at Baycrest Ave.) and other locations
- 437-929-9294
- tinunothirtyone.com
Vit Beo is rooted in Vietnamese cooking with inspired influences from around the world | Chef-owner David Huynh
Andrew Rowat
Vit Beo
- West Toronto
- Canadian, Vietnamese
- Under $75
The sharing plates that pour from Vit Beo’s tiny kitchen aren’t meant to taste just like in Vietnam. They’re rooted in chef-owner David Huynh’s Vietnamese heritage, but with inspired influences from around the world. Vit Beo’s shrimp toast is Cantonese in spirit, but with Japanese milk bread and mayo that’s seasoned like in New Orleans; the turnip cakes come dark and crisp, with meaty chew, as if their lineage includes Korean ttokboki and fried Italian polenta. Whatever the origins, they’re crazy tasty. The egg fried rice, too, is way more delicious than you’d expect: it’s made with broken rice grains, deliciously crunchy, loaded with garlic and furikake. Eating here, you have to remind yourself to take a moment and breathe. Even the cucumber salad is thrilling somehow. The beef brisket noodle dish called PBK — for pho bo kho — is also superb, along with the comparatively straight-up (but not at all straight-up) pho. NB: the restaurant is planning a move to a bigger space this summer. With luck, the cooking stays the same. Angelyn Francis
- 858 Bloor St. W. (at Carling Ave.)
- 416-792-3333
- vitbeo.com
At Wazema, the menu is pure Ethiopian classics, executed with exceptional finesse
Carmen Cheung
Wazema
- East Toronto
- Ethiopian
- Under $50
Though the mirrored ceilings and LED strip lighting lend the room a nightclub vibe, the menu here is pure Ethiopian classics, executed with exceptional finesse. The menu covers off the traditional sautéed meats called tibs, plus plenty of stewed vegetables, sandwiches, and even spaghetti. Your best bets for variety are Wazema’s excellent combos. The meat version divides an enormous round of injera–the spongy, tangy flatbread made with fermented teff flour–into a delicious pie chart, with different beef dishes spooned into each section. Among them, the Derek tibs is spectacular: chunks of tender beef sautéed to-order until a caramelized crust forms on the outside. Contrasting that is the finely minced raw beef kitfo, which comes mixed with cardamom-spiced butter, with sides of cottage cheese and stewed collards; the texture of the delicate tartare perfectly mirrors the mild creaminess of the cheese. (They’ll also cook the kitfo to well-done if you’d prefer.) The equally vibrant vegetarian platter avoids the common pitfall of watery legumes that result in soggy injera: A fiery red berbere chili blend brings chunky, tender red lentils to life while softened yellow split peas are infused with the warm glow of turmeric. Karon Liu
- 1360 Danforth Ave. (at Gillard Ave.)
- 416-466-5713
The lushly smoky meat in the jerk chicken sandwich is roasted over wood the way co-owner Kimberly Hannam’s mother Norma always made it
Andrew Rowat
When The Pig Came Home Delicatessen
- West Toronto
- Canadian, Jamaican
- Under $75
The sandwiches at this superb Junction deli may look simple, but the work behind them begins long before they reach the counter. Order the beef cheek pastrami and you immediately taste that care. A deep stack of silky, house-cured slices spills over mustard-slicked rye; the fat in the meat — all smoke and spice and gentle acidity — melting into the bread, while the mustard sharpens its beefiness. Owners Kimberly Hannam and Ryan Gatner believe neighbourhood hubs still matter: little rooms where regulars go by name and a truly great sandwich can make the day lighter. Their menu jumps effortlessly across occasions and cuisines: breakfast sandwiches built on the house peameal bacon; the ribeye-based Philly cheesesteak with its softly slumping peppers and onions; the lushly smoky meat in their jerk chicken sandwich, roasted over wood the way Hannam’s mother, Norma, has always made it, charred at its edges, fragrant with Scotch bonnet spice. Norma still tastes each batch of the shop’s Jamaican beef patties, too, their savoury fillings stuffed into flaky pastry and lovingly crimped by hand. Chi Nguyễn
- 384 Keele St. (at Dundas St. W.)
- 647-345-9001
- whenthepigcamehome.ca
At White Lily Diner, the bread is baked twice a day and the meat is smoked on-site
Sophie Bouquillon
White Lily Diner
- East Toronto
- Canadian
- Under $75
The scratch-made, Southern-leaning comfort cooking at this Riverdale favourite is revered for good reason. This is diner food dialed in: deceptively simple dishes grounded in precision, freshness and a deep commitment to local farms. The pimiento cheese lands sharp and perfectly seasoned, thick over buttered sourdough, with house-pickled daikon, beets and carrots on the side. The Southern Breakfast is rich and satisfying, its jiggly-yolked eggs set over creamy grits and gravy, anchored by bracing fermented mustard greens so good they almost steal the show. The meat loaf arrives deeply seared but tender, its craggy edges lifted by tangy tomato relish. Then there’s the chicken buttermilk dumpling soup: smoked thigh meat and bouncy dumplings in a clear maitake mushroom broth so deeply layered it halts conversation. Owner Gajan Panchadcharam, who took over the business in 2024, still bakes the breads twice daily, cures and smokes the meats on-site and sources largely from Ontario farms — quiet, quotidian dedication that shows up on every plate. Chi Nguyễn
- 678 Queen St. E. (at Hamilton St.)
- 416-901-7800
- whitelilydiner.ca
At Wok Theory, one of the best bets for dim sum downtown, they make everything in-house
Andrew Rowat
Wok Theory
- Downtown Toronto
- Chinese, Cantonese
- Under $50
At just three-years old, Edwin Lam and Trinh Tieu’s busy modern Chinese spot is the new kid on the Spadina Chinatown block. It’s also among the best bets for dim sum downtown. While many of its neighbours have farmed out their dim sum prep — the skilled but often tedious labour of stuffing and folding dumplings just so, or getting just the right egg custard texture in dan tat tarts — at Wok Theory they make everything in-house; Tieu runs the kitchen herself. There is much skill evident in her kitchen’s har gow dumplings, a benchmark for any dim sum house. Here, the wrappers come thin and satiny, with meticulously scalloped edges and the blush of good shrimp showing through; they’re lovely. So too are the kitchen’s steamed bean curd rolls, which come nicely filled with pork, shrimp and the refreshing crunch of bamboo shoots; just enough sauce clings to the soft and stretchy tofu skin wrapper. The steamed barbecue pork buns almost float like fluffy clouds, a little sweet, a little salty, everything you could ask for. And don’t miss the plump pan-fried shrimp patties, with their juicy interiors of pork, shrimp and the lifting bite of chive. Jennifer Chan
- 530 Dundas St. W. (at Spadina Ave.)
- 416-979-2480
- woktheory.com
The Bombay chicken at Wong’s Asian Cuisine is spicy, tangy and smoky all at once | Chef Christopher Wong
Carmen Cheung
Wong’s Asian Cuisine
- Scarborough
- Indian, Hakka
- Under $50
To anyone unfamiliar with Indian-style Hakka cooking, the Bombay chicken at this Scarborough classic is the ideal intro course. The dish, with its hard-wokked peppers and onions and crimson-sauced meat, looks reminiscent enough of food-court chicken, except chef Christopher Wong, who grew up in Kolkata, dresses it with tandoori spices — cumin, coriander and Kashmiri chili powder — so it’s spicy and tangy and smoky from the cumin, instead of the usual sweet and sour. Wong’s standout spicy fried lobster drips with thrillingly delicious juice, each piece just lightly coated with the house chili sauce. Wong has a light hand with breading and sauce, and his frying is typically delicate instead of heavy; the technique here sets his place apart. His crispy beef comes sweet and savoury, perfectly balanced between crunchy breading and its melty, meaty centre; pair it with his paneer fried rice — your Chinese classic, essentially, but studded with golden cubes of Indian cheese. Wong’s spicy eggplant, his breaded and fried cumin fish and the juicy, garlicky, crowd-pleasing chili chicken are also worth your time. Angelyn Francis
- 2173 Lawrence Ave. E. (at Birchmount Rd.)
- 416-285-0289
- wongsasiancuisine.net
The menu at Xawaash is anchored by juicy lamb, kebabs, shawarma and four kinds of homemade bread | Owners Leila Adde, left, and Abdullahi Kassim
Nick Lachance
Xawaash
- Etobicoke
- Somali
- Under $50
Leila Adde and Abdullahi Kassim’s fan base goes back to the early 2010s, when they launched a Somali recipe blog and YouTube channel highlighting the Arabic, Indian, Italian and East African foundations of their melting pot cuisine. So, when the couple finally opened Xawaash in 2015 (it has since expanded to two locations), the community came to them. Their menu, built on generous platters of juicy lamb and kebabs, shawarma, vegetable stews and not just one but four different kinds of house-baked bread, packs the room most nights. For the uninitiated, the couple’s Xawaash rice bowl has a bit of everything. It’s loaded with stewed suqaar beef cubes in luscious gravy, as well as the hearty spinach, potato, carrot and tomato stew called mbogga, and the bright, fava bean stew called ful mudammas. At the side of the bowl, a scoop of hummus and a salad add a hint of tangy contrast. Among the breads, the fluffy, semolina-based muufo and the fried, gently sweetened mahamri are also worth trying here; so are the dreamy yogurt-marinated chicken kofta meatballs. End the meal with a cup of labaniyad: chewy, tapioca-like sago pearls suspended in ultra-creamy coconut pudding. Karon Liu
- 130 Queens Plate Dr., Unit 1 (at Rexdale Blvd.)
- 416-747-7222
- xawaashrestaurant.com
This Hong Kong-based specialist has been plying the chang fen rice noodle trade since 1958
Andrew Rowat
Yin Ji Chang Fen
- Downtown Toronto
- Chinese, Cantonese
- Under $50
There’s an incredible amount of skill behind good chang fen, the silky, gloriously slippery rice noodles that are nonetheless considered a “simple” breakfast or snack. They’re made from just rice flour, a bit of starch and water, typically; the thin batter is quickly steamed. But when executed well, the subtle perfume of rice rises from the glossy sheets; they’re strong enough to roll around savoury ingredients, to douse in the darkness of warm, sweet soy sauce, then to survive a ride at the ends of chopsticks — but they should also be delicate enough to tear. This Hong Kong-based specialist long ago mastered those paradoxes; they’ve been plying the trade since 1958. Here, you can get them filled with sweet corn or vegetables, beef brisket stew, shrimp and scallops and myriad other combinations; they are also gorgeous eaten plain. The shrimp and chive version is a great place to start: the snap of seafood and the allium bite intermingle with the sweet-salt of soy and the simple pleasure of a perfect noodle in just the right proportions. The youtiao fried dough sticks are also good: golden, airy, crunchy and gently chewy. For dessert, pair a hot HK-style milk tea with the peanut butter and condensed milk toast, a nutty, sweet, velvety indulgence. Jennifer Chan
- 369 Spadina Ave. (at Nassau St.) and other locations
- 416-585-7888
- yinjicanada.com
At Yuzuki Fish Market, the shrimp are sweet, tiny and tender
Andrew Rowat
Yuzuki Fish Market
- Downtown Toronto
- Sushi
When you set out in search of good, cheap sushi, a few sad realities quickly emerge. The fish itself is never quite right: the shrimp dry and flubbery; the tuna too soft; the flabby, farmed salmon all tongue-embalming pong. The rolls are usually filler, mostly, the wasabi always fake. Which makes the little-known counter at this superb Japanese fish and specialty foods importer such a refreshing exception to the rule. Yuzuki’s $47 basic sushi set, though not the cheapest of the cheap, is about as close as you’ll find in this city to an everyday sushiya lunch in Japan. The shrimp are sweet and tiny, tender, nearly, as opalescent pink sea fog. The roasted eel comes moist and flaky and deliciously smoky, burnished with rich tare glaze. You learn more about madai, hirame, hotate, toro and pearly ika in a single meal here — they actually taste of themselves, lightly seasoned only with real wasabi — than you’d get in a lifetime of the quantity-over-quality stuff. It’s just really good sushi, in other words, a procession of fleeting ecstasies sold on the sort-of-cheap. Chris Nuttall-Smith
- 119 Spadina Ave. (at Adelaide St. W.)
- 647-350-8100
- yuzukifishmarket.ca
