Toronto, often dubbed ‘Canada’s Downtown,’ is a foodie’s heaven. With thousands of restaurants to choose from, eating out in Toronto is an exciting experience, but it can also be an investment.
Chef-owner Corinna Mozo’s retro diner, decked out in pastel hues and squeaky vinyl banquettes, pays tribute to the original restaurant her grandfather owned in Cuba in the 1950s. Everything here is made from scratch, including the bread, pastries, and desserts. The serotonin-boosting barbecue beef short ribs are braised for hours and given a lacquer of sweet-savory guava sauce; the dish is served with piquant slaw, speckled rice and beans, and meaty palm-sized tostones.
The restaurant is only a little over two years old but is already a neighborhood favorite, especially around brunch. Traditional offerings like ful are served alongside modern twists on familiar dishes, like a tahini-topped po' boy.
Whether you forgot to make your lunch, didn’t have time or just hate doing it altogether, these are some places you can head for lunch that are both yummy and easy on the wallet.
For raucous and lovable celebrity chef Matty Matheson (you may have caught his turn on a little show called
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Moxie’s: This is another restaurant chain that will give you a free dessert on your birthday. However, there’s no need to sign up for anything in advance. Simply inform the server that it’s your birthday in order to receive the dessert.
Owner Dawn Chapman’s farm-forward philosophy stems from her childhood experiences growing up on her grandparents’ farm in Midhurst, Ontario. Her beloved brunch spot (with a newly minted dinner menu) has become a community pillar in the city’s east end of Leslieville (and beyond). People clamor for the legendary high-rise biscuit sandwiches, the stuff of down-home country dreams. These fluffy cushions embrace decadent fillings such as fried chicken with honey butter and jalapeno cheese, Mennonite smoked bacon cradling a runny egg and melty aged cheddar, or eggs with portobello mushrooms and vegan cheddar.
Copy Link Chef Jinda Witthayarak’s restaurants are cherished in Laos and northeastern Thailand, so it’s a gift to have her open her first North American location in Toronto. Her daughter, Khun Jiab Nattanid, runs the day-to-day operations, serving a menu that echoes the family’s Southeast Asian eateries. There’s a section dedicated to som tum (papaya salad) in its vast iterations, including tum Thai puu, which glitters with bits of salted crab, garlic, chile, peanut, green beans, and dried shrimp — combined together with enough heat to burst through your skull.
It’s par for the course these days for steak menus to list the pedigree of meats like a wine list, but the practice was jarring in the early aughts when this steakhouse first splashed onto the scene. For its efforts revising the norm, the restaurant has become a premier spot for decadent steaks and embellished accoutrements. The waitstaff will happily guide you through the heritage breeds, touching on elements like geography, marbling, feed, certification, and more.
The workers are located in the greater Toronto area and all delivery and assembly activities in other sites will continue normally, a Bombardier spokesman said. “Our collective goal remains to swiftly reach a mutually beneficial agreement,” he said.
For nearly 20 years, this Iranian restaurant has been a humble darling of Queen Street West. Co-owned by executive chef Amir Mohyeddin and his sisters, Salome and Samira, Banu — a term of endearment for get more info their mother, loosely translated to “lady” or “dame” — offers a considerate take on the home cooking of Tehran. The food speaks volumes about the power of slow cookery. Roasted eggplant emerges creamy, a touch pungent, and nutty thanks to several stages of peeling, frying, and low-and-slow cooking to extract every ounce of flavor.
While chef and owner Eddie Yeung owns an additional Wonton Hut location in the suburbs of Markham, his newer locale in downtown Toronto arguably allows him to flex more. New to this location, his street eats menu (shrimp paste toast, deep-fried cuttlefish skewers, Hong Kong-style brick toast) honors the legacy of dai pai dongs, stalls that used to fill the labyrinthine alleyways of Hong Kong.
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