Toronto Travel - Foods and Restaurants

Toronto is generally considered to be one of North America's top food cities. It has the same variety as New York or San Francisco, while the compact, safe, and clean downtown core ensures that many renowned food neighbourhoods and restaurant venues are within a quick and pleasant walk's distance of one another. As one of the most (if not the single most) multicultural cities in the world, Toronto has authentic cuisine from most of the world's cultural and ethnic groups. It is easy to eat out in Toronto and have a superb meal for cheap, while even the more distant neighbourhoods in the city frequently contain one or more ethnic grocers' with both local stock and freshly imported products and brands from all over the world.

As a visitor is quickly bound to notice, Torontonians virtually subsist upon coffee and tea, and the city contains an extremely high density of coffee shops of all types, from affordable franchise locations, to classy bars, to trendy independently owned locales with idiosyncratic brews. An unguided walk through literally any part of the city will take one past many shops selling hot beverages, snacks, and light meals, oftentimes at a rate of several per city block. This makes it exceptionally convenient to fuel a long day of walking, shopping, and sightseeing, as a traveller is certain to be no more than a few minutes travel from a seat, a meal, and a hot drink.

Interesting food districts

• 'Cabbagetown,' is a designated Historic District in the eastern half of the downtown core.

• University District, small section of Baldwin Street (east of Spadina, north of Dundas) has many small outdoor cafes ideal for summer lunches.

• Chinatown, now features many Vietnamese and Thai restaurants.

• Hakka Food, is a style of Chinese food that originated in India with the migrant Chinese of Kolkata. Also known as India-Style Chinese food, outside of India and certain Southeast Asian countries, Toronto is the only city in the world to have such a variety of Hakka Restaurants.

• King Street between University Avenue and Spadina Avenue has many restaurants appealing to theatre goers.

• Queen Street East between Empire and Leslie has a number of casual, trendy restaurants that match the vibe of Leslieville.

• College Street to the east of Bathurst has a cheaper set of eclectic restaurants popular with university students from nearby University of Toronto.

• Bayview Avenue south of Eglinton, is the location of some of Toronto's best French pastry shops.

• Bloor Street to the west of Spadina in the Annex has a similar set of restaurants to College, with a particularly heavy concentration of budget-friendly Japanese restaurants. Most restaurants here tend to be very laid back. Continuing west on Bloor, past Bathurst, one heads into Koreatown which has a number of Korean restaurants.

• Yorkville, it's more about being seen than actually eating but there are a few hidden gems, and this area is famous for sightseeing celebrities. Restaurants often charges premium for otherwise mediocre meals. Mere 1 subway stop away from Yorkville, a meal of similar size and quality can be purchased for nearly half the price.

• The city's largest newspaper, the Toronto Star, once chose the Downsview Park Flea Market food court as the best in the city. Although it is open only on weekends and rather remote, it offers a variety of authentic food from Afghan to Trinidadian and lacks the chain restaurants that dominate the city's food courts. It is located north of downtown, but is accessible from the Downsview subway station on the Spadina line and shares space with over 400 independent retailers.