michelle

WE ARE HEADING TO TORONTO THE WEEKEND OF THE 29TH {NOV}. WE PLAN ON STAYING AT THE SHERATON DOWNTOWN. WE ARE GOING TO THE LION KING ON SATURDAY,WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOME SUGGESTIONS ON OTHER SIGHTS TO SEE IN THE AREA. ALSO SOME RESTAURANTS IN THE DOWNTOWN AREA TO TRY [COSTING 30 TO 40 DOLLARS A PERSON] OPEN TO DIFFERENT CUISINES.

Mike

Lots of Japanese (ematei) and Chinese restaurants downtown. Shop with your exchange rate. Hockey game, basketball game, Art Gallery of Ontario.

Nicole

Michelle - I love Toronto and we always stay in the Sheraton now. Great central location. If you like beef, you might want to try Barbarians. Great steak in a cozy atmosphere. It's on a little side street about two blocks north of the Eaton Centre off of Yonge. There are so many restaurants in Toronto...<BR><BR>If you like hockey at all, head to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I usually have to get dragged out of there. The Eaton Centre is an enormous shopping mecca, so take a look inside. I really like walking around the University of Toronto's campus. It's very Ivy-League looking. There's the CN Tower and the tour of the Skydome which can be pretty interesting too. During the summer, there would be a few other things I would mention. But you can't go wrong just walking down Yonge Street and people watching.

Dee

Verona is a restaurant that we highly recommend to our friends and none have been disappointed. It is across the street from the theater and the price range you are looking for. You will need reservations and tell then you are going to the theater. For additional information look in Fodors rants and raves for Toronto restaurants. We took my sister-in-law there last summer and she is still talking about the pistachio encrusted sea bass.

Brian Kilgore

On the opening page of the Fodor's web site at www.fodors.com there's a link to Toronto, which in turn has a three-day itinerary.<BR><BR>I discovered this yesterday.<BR><BR>The three-day plan's not bad. You might try to find it.<BR><BR>Anyway, depending on your interests --<BR>just go out of the hotel onto Queen Street West, and turn left (toward a parking lot, away from the Toronto City Hall) and keep walking west until you get bored. You'll pass interesing shops, some good restaurants, antique dealers, weird people, some galleries, and more.<BR><BR>You'll get to Spadina Ave, extra wide with streetcars down the middle. Either cross it can keep looking at the stores (funkier afteryou cross, continuing west) or turn north (right) on Spadina, and walk through Chinatown, up as far as the Kensington Market maze of streets, a couple of blocks north of Dundas, west of Spadina.<BR><BR>Retrace your steps down Spadina to Dundas, turn left (east) and walk to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Visit the art, visit the gallery shop, and if you're hungry, visit the restaurant.<BR><BR>Continue east on Dundas past the fancy cop-shop, the run-down empty sotres for a block or two, to the Eaton Center giant indoor mall.<BR><BR>Once inside, head south past the stores, buying as you go. At the south end, cross by tunnel, second-storey walk-way or just cross the street to The Bay, the giantest branch of Canada's oldest store, The Hudson Bay Company.<BR><BR>Buy more stuff, and work your way to the basement. Walk west to the food selling area, get some snack stuff, and continue west into a tunnel and back to the hotel.<BR><BR>Have a nap, go to dinner, enjoy the show.<BR>If you want a Barbarian's steak, leave the hotel, walk to Yonge Street or the Eaton Center, and, depending on the westher, walk north on Yonge or north trhough the Eaton Center as far as you can go. Get back on Yonge, and walk north from Dundas to Elm, which is two blocks, and turn left (west) and Barbarians is just a few steps ahead of you.<BR><BR>For more Continental fare, keep walking in the same block to Oro, near Bay at the end of the block.<BR><BR>Both are excellent restaurants, and it would be a shame to rush a meal in order to get to the theatre. Both are in the opposite direction from the hotel-theatre route, incidentally.<BR><BR>Dee mentioned Verona. I've heard the same positive stories from several people. Plus Verona is close to the theatre, and used to getting partons paid up, coats on and out in time to walk the block to the Princess of Wales. There's another dozen good restaurants in the same block, too.<BR><BR>$30 is tight. I spent part of last night reading Toronto Life's restaurant guide, and it's hard to find a good restaurant that hits the $100 for two, tax and tip included. <BR><BR>Le Bifteque, in the hotel, is about one-half to two-thirds the price of Barbarians, and I like LeBifteque very much, but I'm a fan of straighforward, medium rare, large pieces of beef.<BR><BR>For barely seared sea bass accompanied by blanched asparagus tips dipped in foie gras, at some trendy spot run by a showcase chef, the prices jump.<BR><BR>I like Oro because the showcase chef there can do the fancy stuff for my companieons, and still create a good steak, albeit served strangely -- for me.<BR><BR>Bargain food -- if there are french fry and hot dog trucks opposite the hotel, in front of the City Hall, try the French Fry and Hot dog combo for $3.50.<BR>I do this more often than I should.<BR><BR>BAK<BR><BR>

Dee

If I remember correctly, most of the pasta dishes at Verona are about $12 CD and I think they come with salad. Sea Bass, Veal, etc. is more.

Susan

Brian, thx for the tip about the link to To &amp; other cities! I did not know it was there until I read your post!<BR>Susan

michelle

THANK YOU FOR THE MANY SUGGESTIONS SO FAR. WE ARE CELEBRATING OUR ANNIVERSARY THAT WEEKEND NEED A ROMANTIC RESTAURANT COST NOT REALLY AN OBJECT FOR THAT EVENING ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED. THANKS

al

You can check out torontolife.com which has a restaurant listing including Best For Romance list. From that list, my recommendations are Pangaea and Scaramouche. Both are expensive with great food and service. Pangaea is on Bay St just north of Bloor which is a $7 taxi, subway ride or longish walk. Scaramouche is further away (approx $12 taxi). I haven't been but Cafe Brussels would be moderately priced.<BR><BR>Another expensive recommendation is Canoe which is on the 54th floor of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower. Great view and food but I think it is tad overpriced.

Brian Kilgore

Apaprently http://www.veronaristorante.com/dinnermenu.htm gets you to the Verona dinner menu.<BR><BR>If that does not work, <BR>try<BR>http://www.veronaristorante.com<BR><BR>Appetizers, $8 - 13<BR>Pastas, $14 - 21<BR>Entrees, $18 - 26<BR>Wines<BR>By the glass, red or white, $7, 8 and $9<BR>By the bottle<BR>Italian whites from $30 to $49<BR>French whites start at $40<BR>Italian reds $40 and up<BR>New World wines, red and white, mostly $30 to $40<BR>Lots of desserts at $8, ice cream at $7, berries at $10<BR><BR>Looking at midpoints for food and lower priced wine, my math for appetizer, meat based entree, one glass of wine, split a desseert, and have coffee<BR>is around $55 before tax and tip. In Ontario, there are two taxes totalling 15 percent, and let's say a 15 per cent tip, adding thirty percent to $55, for $55 plus $15, or about $70 per person.<BR><BR>Switch to one glass of wine per person, and knock about ten bucks off the total.<BR><BR><BR>On the way to the office today, i read the Canyon Creek mid-range steak house menu. Steaks, including salad and potato, or no salad but two vegetables, are in the $20 - 28 range.<BR><BR>Add dessert, a second vegetable, mushrooms perhaps, a glass of wine, etc., and this mid-priced restaruant gets up to $40 per t&amp;t, and $50 total, and it isn't even the kind of place I'd pick for grownups to go on a special occasion.<BR><BR>This, of course, from a guy who took his wife to Swiss Chalet for her birthday last night. Who am I to say, but at SC the food was good, and they gave my little boy an extra kid's meal toy.<BR><BR>And, more time spent on the Toronto Life restaurant guide last night failed to reveal any $100 for two restaurants open for dinner, but I'm still fairly close to the front of the book, and skipped the Chinese restaurants, except for a qucik glance that shows they are expensive, too.<BR><BR>At the moment, I think my wife is spending about $100 for three at the Chinese dim sum restaurant in the Colony Hotel, and that's not a fancy place, and it's lunch, not dinner.<BR><BR>Japanese: she and a friend spent $100 for two for sushi (and very good sushi, she reports) and a bit of Sake at Fune the other night before the symphony. Good service, special food, and a light enough meal that there was no temptation to go to sleep during the performance.<BR><BR>BAK<BR><BR>BAK<BR>

Brian Kilgore

So yesteday in the rain I go talk to the chef at Urban, which is in the same block as Verona, and ask him about $40.<BR><BR>He says it's easy at Urban, if you stick to pasta, and believes you could hit $40 with careful planning at most of the restaurants in the block.<BR><BR>As far as getting to the theatre; the procedure at Urban is that they put a rubber stamp on your bill, telling the server, cooks, etc., that you need to get out in time, and service is then organized to get you to the show when you need to get there.<BR><BR>I shot some pictures of Verona and the neighborhood yesterday. If I can figure how to get them out of my camera and onto my web site, I'll do that later today, and come back here with an address. You can see Verona from the Sheraton, and visa versa, I noticed.<BR><BR>BAK

Susan

I've eaten at the Queen Mother on Queen Street West a few times and enjoyed it. Menu is varied, but quite good for South east Asian. According to Toronto Life, price is $90 for 2. Another one is the Rivoli (may be owned by the same people), but I prefer Queen Mother.

Susan

Another good area for restaurants is the Danforth. Many restaurants, many of them Greek, and mostly with reasonable prices. We like Ouzeri, but there's others as well. <BR><BR>I haven't been to the Cafe Brussels since they moved around the corner onto the Danforth, but apparently the mussels and frites are still good (as is the Belgian beer) and prices are ok.

Brian Kilgore

Michelle, I've put a photo of Restaurant Row in Toronto up in my web site, with Verona in the foreground.<BR><BR>Just go to www.BrianKilgore.com and acroll a bit, and you'll see a thumbnail. Click on it, and there's a bigger picture.<BR><BR>The theatre is at the end of the block, opposite the tall building in the photo. All the other lights in the photo are various restaurants between Verona and the theatre.<BR><BR>But there are lots of other restarurants in the city, too, of course.<BR><BR>Please tell us how you enjoyed your weekend, and where you ate, and how good it was.<BR><BR><BR>BAK