August 04, 2005

• If price is no issue, I'd recommend Bellini's on Yorkville. If you're looking for a great steak or an amazing wine list, try Tom Jones Steakhouse (also not cheap, however).
• There's an amazing Greek restaurant that's off the Chester stop on the subway. Walk north to Danforth, and then make a...I want to say, left. If all else fails, just walk along King Street (make sure you wonder West of University), and you'll come across some amazing restaurants that specialise in deliciousness. Or just head down to 'Little Italy' (on College Street) and, at random, pick a restaurant to dine at. There are thousands of restaurants you can find by just simply wondering around TO.
• Check out Chowhound Toronto
• I have some relatives there that I visit reasonably regularly. If you're a foodie, some of the premiere choices that I've greatly enjoyed include Susur, Splendido, and Avalon. You should be able to get reservations in all of them with about a week's notice. Maybe less if you're lucky. Other names on the short list that I haven't tried include The Fifth, Via Allegro (out in the west end of the city, a bit gimmicky), and Scaramouche. Here's a list I wrote up for a friend of very reasonably priced places. The Entertainment District is full of mediocre over-priced restaurants that prey on tourists and theatre goers stuck down there at the wrong time. Here are some random suggestions that are decently priced and the food is good. We're talking $15-$20 person here, maybe with a drink too. Golden Thai - Church Street south of Queen. Accept no imitations. Optimum combo - Pad Thai, coconut rice, Golden Thai pork. Smokeless Joe's - John St just south of Queen. Tasty cheap mussels, oysters, every beer in the world, intimate. By the Way Cafe - Bloor west of Spadina. Outstanding omelet brunch for under $10 on weekends. Decent tasty fusion cuisine every other night of the week. Aunties and Uncles - quirky cafe with cheap tasty breakfast and lunch, brunch on weekends, no dinners. Just north off College St, east of Bathurst. Kalender - College St, west of Bathurst St, north side. Middle Eastern-Italian fusion cuisine. Good stuff. Kensington Kitchen - Harbord St west of Spadina. Middle Eastern influence, vegetarian choices. Humus, domadas, lamb, etc Boulevard Cafe - Harbord St about 4 blocks west of Spadina Ave. Slightly pricier, but very good. South American influenced. Pizza - Spadina and Harbord. Cora's or its neighbour. There are few places as good in the city, but none better. They look like holes, but sell a crazy amount of pizza each day. Garage Sandwich Company - Church St north of Wellesley, heart of the gay village. Right downtown? Want to great sandwich? Go there. Phil's Original BBQ - the only genuine southern BBQ in Toronto. It's good BBQ. 838 College, western edge of downtown. Everything's fantastic except the hush puppies. Margarita's - 14 Baldwin St. On this little strip of restaurants in the middle of 4 blocks of houses. Good mexican. Yeah, I know, come to Toronto and eat Mexican! It's still good. Free Times Cafe - College St west of Spadina Ave. Folk music HQ of Toronto. Outstanding brisket sandwiches, nothing else remarkable on menu EXCEPT for Sunday Brunch. All you can eat traditional Jewish. Arrive early and hungry. It's awesome. Hope you like fish though.
• Japanese If you like sushi you've come to the right city. For reasons unknown to the laws of economics, Toronto is almost overwhelmed with sushi places. Ask anyone on any street corner in downtown TO and there will be a sushi place within a couple blocks. Let's make it easier though. Grab a cab to Bloor and Spadina, or take the subway to Spadina station. Walk west on Bloor St. Within four short blocks there are 5 (6? 7?) sushi places. Pick one, none are bad. I like Japan Sushi towards the end myself. There's a place on the south side halfway along that's tiny, beside Dooney's coffee house, supposed to be better than most, but it's always so packed I can't be bothered waiting (Sushi on Bloor). If you want high quality sushi... Sushi Kaji - one of the top restaurants in the city (not hyperbole). Way out in the west end surrounded by dry cleaners and donut shops, you can't get there without a car. Three prix fixe menus start at $65 a person last time I went. I think it's gone up since then. No a la carte at all. The sushi is outstanding. If you can afford it, go. Hiro Sushi - King St E. not too far from downtown. The original sushi artiste in Toronto. Supposed to be excellent, but equally famous for the eponymous tempermental chef Hiro who will forget half your order, the staff who only speak Japanese, and the bill that is unintelligle. Chinese Chinese in Toronto is a different story. You cannot get really good, cheap Chinese in downtown Toronto. Toronto loves to mention its Chinatown, but the Chinese mostly moved out to the burbs a generation ago. Toronto's Chinatown on Spadina Ave is mostly Vietnamese now. If you want pho, it's fine (Pho Hung rec'd, look for the laughing cow). If you want Chinese, most of it's horrible. The Chinese still come to Chinatown to shop, but not to eat. For that they stay in Richmond Hill and Mississauga, which are inaccessible unless you have a car and a knowledgeable guide since the restaurants aren't all in a nice little strip out there in the burbs. Even I can't help you there because the Chinese places I've been introduced to in the burbs have names in Chinese, so I don't even know what they're called. Limited Downtown Choices: Lai Wah Heen in the Metropolitan Hotel by City Hall - everyone agrees this is premium Chinese, but it's also premium pricing. It's also a different category of cuisine. Just like a great street hotdog is nothing like a gourmet nouvel sausage, so Lai Wah Heen is not really like the downhome Chinese most people are used to, and Chinese cooking lends itself to so well. Dynasty - Bloor St just east of University Ave, 2nd floor. Good, but pricey for what you get. On the Spadina strip, such as it still is... Swatow - it's good, but this is Cantonese cuisine and can seem rather boring to people who cut their teeth on Szechuan. Bright Pearl - mediocre at best. The dim sum is frankly pathetic. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be insulting to those who like it, it's simply the truth. I don't know any decent dim sum in downtown TO right now, except for Lai Wah Heen, which is a different kettle of fish. I'm not picky, but I've had good dim sum and this ain't it. Lee Garden - ingredients extremely fresh. Expensive. Never seem to see any Chinese eating there. Food tastes somehow safe, as if it's been cleansed for silly Western palates. King Noodle - Spadina just north of Dundas. Solid, decent, well priced, unremarkable. Peter's Chung King - College St just west of Spadina. Decent but unremarkable, except for the garlic eggplant and firey orange beef, which are terrific. If you know anyone Chinese in Toronto, get them to take you to Mississauga or Richmond Hill, where the real food is and where the deals can be excellent if you know where and when to go and what to get.
• A late addition to this list is East, down on Queen St W at John St. It's a new resaurant from the people responsible for the popular and serviceable (but cheap!) Springrolls at Bloor and Yonge streets. East is better than Springrolls and has very nice decor and decent dim sum all the time. Not great dim sum, but very decent and interesting. Try the taro fries.
• Well that's me starving now. Thanks a bunch, Nal!!
• Yonge street has tons and tons of resteraunts. While I was in Toronto I ate at several around the downtown and was never dissappointed. The sole exception was the Richtree Market Resteraunt which was craptastic. They give you a card with different icons on it and you wander around these stupid simulacras of mediteranian ye olden days outdoor markets (which are of course indoors) and nothing has a price on it and no one knows what is going on. Hated that place so much and that was even before i started eating. it sucks sucks sucks. There's also a great bar across the street from the muchmusic-chum-citytv building. I think it was called the beverly, but i can't find it online. my friends and i went there every day while we were in toronto.
• The best dinner I've had in Toronto so far was at Cafe 668. Vegetarian Vietnamese food. Not expensive at all, and absolutely delicious. I can't wait to go back.
• That's interesting about the 'Richtree'. It used to be the Movenpick Marche. Very popular with some people, but I always found it a frustrating struggle to get what caught your eye, which then proved to be distinctly disappointing.
• I dislike the Richtree, but for different reasons. The food is fresh, and good, but it's just a glorified cafeteria that automatically adds 15% to your bill, which is in hieroglyphics. As has been pointed out, there are a lot of trendy but mediocre places, especially on College, Queen West, and King West. I do agree with most of Nal's list, with the exception of Golden Thai. It's the best of the noted Thai places, but some small dingy neighbourhood places are better. I do recommend Focaccia near Yonge and Bloor, and its sibling Bloom has a good reputation. The local places that I get to most often are El Sol at Danforth and Coxwell for Mexican; Ten Feet Tall at Danforth and Greenwood, and a small string of Indian/Pakistani places on Gerrard East. Or for variety, check out the Toronto Serial Diners. (No actual website anymore, otherwise I'd have FPPed it long ago, but their schedule is publically available here. (Full disclosure - Serial Diner since 1990)
• Was in TO last week and enjoyed going to the Green Mango on Yonge Street. Thai food, mid price range. Okay, now i hope i'm not violatin' the Chinese restaurant secret halls of great eatings but here's one you should check out: 7131 Kennedy Road, Unit E-3. It's near Steeles East. It's out in the burbs alright but you get Fabulous Dim Sum at smashing prices. Congee the best i've ever had. We lined up for 40 minutes at noon on Friday so best be careful about picking a time to go.
• I was only in Toronto for a weekend many years ago. I thought the Movenpick (now Richtree) was OK, but chaotic. The food I got was pretty good; it varied by station. It WAS overpriced for what it was. I also remember a small, diner-like Chinese restaurant that was on Spadina somewhat south of Queen (within a few blocks). If you were heading south, it was on the right side of the street, and just south of one of those huge disorganized stores with tons of Asian goods, the kind that has a lot of things hanging from the awning out front. The restaurant was noted for chickens in the window, VERY cheap food that was good for the price. But it wasn't a fine or adventurous dining experience.
• While only tangently related to the post, are any monkeys planning on attending Taste of the Danforth?
• Apache Burger - the best, bar none, burgers in the WORLD. Take the subway west to the end of the line (Kipling) and walk up to Bloor - it's a classic burger joint, family run, and just brilliant. Also Kingsway Fish and Chips - on Bloor just a block or so west of Royal York (and Royal York station on the Bloor subway). Some English people told me these are the most British fish and chips they've had in Toronto. Only shame is that they close early (like 6pm) most nights. Amato's Pizza: family run, with a couple of stores. The one I knew was on Yonge, south of College. Good toppings - they also deliver. Best sushi I've had in the city (ever, actually) was just a few weeks ago at Yumei Sushi in the Beaches. More expensive than the ones on the Bloor strip (between Bathurst and Spadina - most are very cheap, but quality is not quite as high), but cheaper than the one Nal suggests above (and more convenient to the east end). Wonderful fresh succulent fish - two of us split 10 pieces of sashimi and 10 pieces of nigiri, along with having miso soup, unagi tempura and green tea ice-cream for about $45 (tax and tip included). The Beaches (Queen street east) has several good sushi places. Guide to Toronto sushi places. There are several strips of good restaurants, where you can just wander. The Danforth (east of Bathurst) is famous, especially for Greek, but Bloor at Royal York has a bunch of good restaurants now (Indian, Italian, a Spanish Tapas place, etc), Little Italy (College west of Bathurst) has many, Bloor between Bathurst and Spadina has been mentioned a few times. I've never really been, but there is also a Little India down on Gerard in the east end that would be worth exploring. I once went to a good Pakistani restaurant on the north side of Bloor, just west of Spadina, but I can't for the life of me remember the name. For good and super cheap Indian food, you need to head way out to Rexdale and Islington - next to where my mom lives, there are samosas on sale 4/$1. It's cheap, but yummy. My favorite Chinese food in town is off the trucks at the University of Toronto - It's greasy and nasty, but wonderful when you are hungry and dirt cheap. : ) Also, you must try Toronto street hot-dogs. Unlike some places, they are perfectly safe, and really really good. Ball-park sized, flame broiled and ranging $2-4 (more expensive in the touristy areas). If you are on St George in the UofT campus, you have to buy Mama's.
• verbminx - I seem to remember being in a place like that, but it was on Spadina between College and Dundas. It was delicious, but I could never remember the name - and the person I was with had ordered in Chinese. I've just remembered where you can get very good, though different, Chinese food. Buddha's is an all vegetarian Chinese place on Dundas just east of Bathurst. Delicious hot sweet and sour soup, great fake roast duck. Lots of soy and other products, which they do yummy things with. Also Annapurna, a vegetarian Indian restaurant. It's been years since I was there, but it was delicious.
• Two cosy, stylish and affordable restaurants I always recommend: Caffe Volo (excellent Italian food and beer), just north of Wellesley on Yonge, and Caffe la Gaffe (euro fusion) on Baldwin. For lunch, Izakaya is a great new place on Front Street which specializes in Japanese noodles. I'm going to go out on a limb and warn you to stay away from Spring Rolls which maybe used to be good but has overextended itself and become mediocre, and Amato which reheats limp, stale pizza that wasn't very good to begin with. If you're looking for cheap pizza on Queen West, go just west of Bathurst to Pizzaiolo for an improvement, or better yet, Massimo's at College and Bathurst - a Toronto legend which makes up for what it lacks in atmosphere by serving fresh pasta and some of the best pizza on the planet.
• Calimehtar - Which Amato's did you go to? Everytime I went, it was great.
• Bibiche Bistro is worth a visit. Also Grapefruit Moon, Giovanni Trattoria (on College), Addis Ababa, and Fat Cat.
• jb, mostly at Queen and Bathurst. The question is, have you tried Pizzaiolo? If you haven't, that might change your mind about Amato's.