Toronto Restaurants
 

We will be visiting Toronto 5th to 15th April and are looking for good restaurant recommendations. We are great foodies and like good food. Any style of food is acceptable although not particularly taken with Chineese food. Like fish and contemporary restaurants although by no means exclusive! When visiting Vancouver we found many websites with lists o top recommended restaurants but cannot find the same for Toronto.

We would also welcome suggestioins of non-touristy thing sto do in or around Toronto as we are staying for 10 days.

Thanks in anticipation,
Eric
Glasgow, Scotland

Give torontolife.com a shot, they do most of the respected reviews in town. menupalace.com has a lot of the menus right online. Without knowing exactly what you want to spend or eat, the following is a short list of high end restaurants in the city that I like:

Jamie Kennedy (both 'At the Gardiner' near Yorkville, and the 'Wine Bar' near Esplanade)
Chiado (College West)
Jump (Financial District)
Far Niente (Financial District)

Try Toronto Life's guide too:
http://www.torontolife.com/guide/restaurants/

For non-touristy: In April it will still be chilly, but on sunny days you'll no doubt find hordes on the patios along Queen (particularly the Black Bull) and college (particularly Cafe Diplomatica). Hitting a patio and wearing shorts way before most people think of doing so is quintassentially Toronto!

You could also try:
-Going to see live music - anything from emerging/international bands at Lee's Palace and the Horseshoe Tavern, to jazz at The Reservoir Lounge or even better, The Rex Hotel.
-Going dancing - anything from hardcore clubbing in the 'entertainment district' (Richmond/John and environs) through to dinner and Flamenco dancing lessons at Plaza Flamingo (Bathurst/College). For the former, I recommend 'Circa' on John street.
-Go grab dinner on King West and then hit a show at the nearby Princess of Wales theatre.
-Opera at the georgeous new Canadian Opera Company digs at Queen/University.
-Go for a walk/pub crawl with the hipsters - start at Queen/Bathurst and end near Queen/Dufferin at the Drake, The Beaconsfield, and if you're still standing, watch the locals sing Karaoke at the historic Gladstone.

You'll probably run into a lot of scots in the city.

Jeff

Also check out chowhound.com - there are lots of posts on Toronto.

We tried a new place last night on the Danforth (Greek area). It's called Lambros, and it was Greek, but a little different. Served lots of smaller tapas type dishes which overall were very good. Service was excellent and prices were good. The whole area was busy. That's not far from where I live, so we do tend to go to that area a lot.

(just a little off-topic: Susan, I'm glad to hear you liked Lambros. I used to love Aristedes' other restaurants in Toronto and can't wait to try it!)

Hi Eric,

I've recently written a long post about Toronto on this thread. It's somewhere near the bottom and describes several neighbourhoods. Here it is:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=29

Also check out www.nowtoronto.com to see what's happening in the city. It comes out every Thursday and you can also pick up a free hard copy in newspaper boxes and many restaurants.

Other websites are:

www.toronto.ca
www.torontolife.ca

This is a wonderful city of ethnic neighbourhoods and good music. Have a great time!

Thanks everyone. Good suggestions

Sorry, eric, here's that thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...ogo&fid=29

For non-touristy, check out the Auld Spot on the Danforth, I guess it's what you'd call a "gastro-pub". It's a great neighbourhood place to have dinner or a drink, the atmosphere is really cozy and low key.

http://www.auldspot.ca/

Another great non-touristy area for restaurants is the east end stretch on Queen from Queen & Broadview to the film district/Leslieville. Some good spots are Barrio, Gio Rana's Really, Really Nice Restaurant, Tomi-Kro, and Edward Levesque's Kitchen. You can find all of these listed over on on Toronto Life or toronto.com. And if you're adventurous, try a burger at Dangerous Dan's one night.

If you go to the Auld Spot, you can have that Canadian gourmet specialty (to be pronounced 'spe-cee-al-ee-tay), POUTINE! :-D

I've never been there, Apres, but I might give it a try. I'm often in the neighbourhood. The nice thing about these Toronto posts is that you learn a lot about your own city!

The food at Allen's (just west a little about 2 blocks down the danforth) is also phenomenal. Their sister pub next door (Dorah Keog) is also great.

Adventurous is right at Dangerous Dan's - the time I ate there the place was crawling with ants.

If the weather's nice (and the snow is all gone!), Allen's has a nice back patio.

>>>Adventurous is right at Dangerous Dan's - the time I ate there the place was crawling with ants<<<

That means you got off easy, Sally! Usually the place is crawling with raver or punk kids, the odd stripper or hooker, and criminal laywers grabbing a bite to eat after visiting their clients up at the Don Jail. It's kind of an eat-there-when-you're-drunk sort of place. But that's what I love about that area of the east end. All the hipsters and yuppies co-existing happily with the old-timer neighbourhood freaks.

eric, if Dangerous Dan's doesn't appeal, you can walk two short blocks further east on Queen and eat at Bonjour Brioch. It has neither hipsters nor freaks, but for some reason dull, affluent types who would normally never set foot in the area flock from all over the city to eat Sunday brunch at Bonjour Brioch. Actually, it would be more accurate to say they DRIVE from all over the city. Luckily for the rest of us, they don't hang around- once brunch is over they jump back in their cars and race back to wherever it is they come from.

goddess: you'll love the Auld Spot, and since it's at Danforth and Chester, you can spend time browsing at Book City beforehand. Just make sure you pay your bill! Did you see on the Auld Spot website, under "News" they had something like: "We still haven't received payment from ---- ------, who skipped out on her bar tab last month" They posted this person's first and last name, lol.

You might also go to www.martiniboys.com . Since you mentioned a preference for contemporary dining, the Martini Boys website is a good one as they tend to recommend places that deliver on both substance and style.

If you want to dine somewhere special...Colborne Lane, Bistro Thuet
Susur (the latter being a contemporary Asian place whose chef has been on Iron Chef, and where the dishes are served in reverse order).

Apree_Londee, I chuckled when I read your description of the crowds around Queen/Broadview over to Leslieville. That's my neighbourhood you're talking about - yes, it's a real mixed bag! I used to go to Bonjour Brioche, but it's usually too crowded to get into now. However, the bread pudding (which I think is actually called something else) is wonderful. Another good place for breakfast is Edward Levesque.

So many restaurants opening up in that area - it's great. When we first moved there, there was nothing.

That strip of Queen Street is also the area for stores selling 'midcentury modern'. furniture, accessories, etc. We're also getting more art galleries - in May, there's RAW (Riverdale Art Walk).

You've probably seen my pink lawn chairs in Ethel! :-d

Thanks everyone for such wonderful recommendations

We were in Toronto over New Years and had some great meals at Jamie Kennedy (brunch), Lee and Swan. The shoe museum is really fun.

Another vote for the Auld Spot! Good prices, friendly faces, good service and very loooow key!

The restaurant "One" in the new Hazelton hotel seems to
be very popular; my husband ate there monday night and the place was packed. He could not give me details of what he had, just said it was heavenly .

here's the website

http://www.thehazeltonhotel.com/one_01.html