Discover some of our favorite restaurants in Toronto, Canada. From charming neighborhoods to downtown hotspots, these culinary wonders will tantalize your taste buds.
A veteran travel writer once told me to never compare cities or destinations. “From San Francisco to Shanghai, it’s the Paris of this, the Paris of that,” she said. “There is only one Paris. Describe a place on its own merits.” Rules are meant to be broken, though, and in Toronto’s case, it carries its long-time association with New York City.
“Like NYC, Toronto is this incredible weave of urban villages that form a connected, cohesive whole,” said Trevor Lui over lunch at Fat Bao, his “neo-Chinese small plate” concept near Fort York, where Toronto was founded in 1793. “Those community pockets are where you find the city.”
The only son of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong, Lui’s food journey began as a child working the grill in his family’s Cantonese-Canadian restaurant, Highbell. After catering hotel, convention center, and casino events, he traveled throughout Canada and Europe, gathering ideas along the way.
Fat Bao’s home, Stackt Market, a classic Toronto hub for “bringing people together,” is constructed entirely from shipping containers. Reviving a long vacant former smelting plant and slaughterhouse site, the 100,000- square-foot complex is North America’s largest modular marketplace, housing pop ups, creative incubators, retailers, and food and beverage vendors. Fat Bao shares a 200-seat covered patio with a Belgian Moon brewery. Amenities include basketball and pickleball courts, and cultural programming.
Toronto’s kitchen kinship with NYC includes global-spanning variety. More than half (53%) of Torontonians were born outside of Canada, representing 250-plus communities and more than 180 languages and dialects. More mosaic than melting pot, the associated menus around town will fill your culinary passport many times over.
Like New York, Toronto is home to many food markets and halls where tourists and locals dine for quick lunches, early dinners and quick bites. Toronto’s original community-focused shipping container market, Market 707, features Ethiopian, Syrian, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese, and other global cuisines
Near Stackt in downtown’s King West neighborhood, Waterworks Food Hall is a globally-inspired culinary destination that debuted in summer 2024. Devoting eight years to researching food halls around the world, founder Eve Lewis realized her European-style “community hub” in a retooled 1930’s machine shop for water systems.
Favorites at Waterworks include The Arepa Republic celebrates Venezuela’s essential grilled, white corn meal, round sandwich. Or Karak Stuffed Naan & Chai Café for savory Pakistani treats. Other draws include the glam Civil Works cocktail bar on the mezzanine level and Hong Kong-born celebrity chef Susur Lee’s legendary Asian-French fusion flagship Lee Restaurant relocated here in a standalone space.
Kensington Market in the neighborhood where Lui was born, is the apotheosis of Toronto’s multicultural heritage. Evoking yesteryear London, NYC’s Lower East Side, or even Haight Ashbury, this eclectic, colorful hive harbors nearly 100 restaurants, cafes, and bars. My favorites include El Trompo for beef tongue tacos and margaritas, and Venezuelan-owned NU Bügel for wood-fired bagels and menu items like the Smoked Trout Sandwich with sweet horseradish jam.
Kensington Market rubs shoulders with Chinatown, where old school anchors include Hong Shing, serving a diverse regional menu including dim sum, seafood, and sensational Ma La chicken wings, fried and tossed in a face numbing blend of sichuan peppercorn, black cardamom, cumin, and fennel.
As the Toronto of tomorrow takes shape, old guard institutions proudly maintain their posts. Anchoring Old Town since 1803, globally renowned St. Lawrence Market, Toronto’s first city hall and then a prison, is essential to the city’s identity. More than 100 vendors can be found here, including all-day breakfast spot Paddington’s Pump, my go-to for their peameal bacon sandwich.
Steps away, the iconic Flatiron, or Gooderham Building, was headquarters of the mighty Gooderham and Worts Distillery (1832 and 1990), about 15 minutes away by foot. Once producing half of all spirits in Canada, the industrial icon was reborn in 2003 as the Distillery District. Featuring North America’s best-preserved collection of Victorian Industrial Architecture, the mixed-use cobblestone campus’s culinary collection includes coffee, chocolate, oysters, tacos, tapas, pizza, sake, craft beer, and spirits.
I lunched at Cluny Bistro & Boulangerie, an exquisite rendition of a classic Parisian bistro with gorgeous interiors and warm service. Here, each bite was memorable, from the escargot on sourdough toast and “Earl Gray Teacup” chicken liver pâté to the hearty poutine of hand-cut chunky potatoes and braised beef cheek in beef jus topped with melted raclette cheese.
The party continued at Coffee Oysters Champagne, a unique two-tiered Entertainment District experience that uncorks in a glam pink and gold space serving oysters, light fare, and Canada’s largest sparkling wine list. Or check out their 1920’s inspired speakeasy à toi.
Other honorable mentions include Mediterranean flagship restaurant of Toronto nightlife giant Charles Khabouth Byblos Downtown, traditional Middle Eastern fare at Azhar Kitchen + Bar, and NYC-style slices at Pizzeria Badiali.
As Lui told me during this visit, “never underestimate the power of a shared meal.” That is among Toronto’s gifts to the world, and having never dined at the same GTA restaurant in three decades of visits, I am looking forward to the next round.
Read more about our favorite restaurants in Toronto at PassportMagazine.com
