The Top 100 Restaurants Near Oaklands at The Riverbend Inn
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Rank 8. Trius Winery Restaurant
Contemporary
Chef Frank Dodd's kitchen at this Niagara winery commands attention with seasonal cooking grounded in local farms: gin-cured salmon with potato pancakes, maple-brined pork chops, scallops with pea and mascarpone ravioli. The patio overlooks vineyards, the sparkling bar awaits, and lunch remains the civilized time to settle in.
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Rank 10. Pearl Morissette
Contemporary
On a sprawling Niagara farm, chefs trained in Paris and rural Belgium craft spontaneous tasting menus anchored to vegetables and fish sourced within hours. The Scandi barn setting and accomplished juice pairing elevate what could be agrarian simplicity into something genuinely consequential.
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- 50 Best 2025 · #3 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #1 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 11. Fat Rabbit
Steakhouse
A casual butcher shop with a restaurant attached, Fat Rabbit transforms whole animals into house-made charcuterie and charcoal-grilled steaks with unfussy confidence. Chef-owner Zach Smith works the seasons into every plate—lamb ribs glazed with Vietnamese heat, pork schnitzel layered with whatever produce peaks that week—and the zero-waste ethos feels earned rather than announced.
- World's 101 Best #91 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Air Canada 2024 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #48 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 12. AG Inspired Cuisine
Seasonal New American
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- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Italian Cuisine Restaurant
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · Canada's Best Hotel Restaurant
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In a small St. Catharines dining room, chefs Justin Duc and Scott White move fluidly between caviar service and burger, fried chicken and foie gras pancakes, each dish executed with the same technical precision and assertive seasoning. The range could feel scattered in lesser hands; here it reads as confident eclecticism, a kitchen that knows exactly what it's doing. The place fills nightly.
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Rank 18. Jay’s Artisan Pizza
Neapolitan Pizza
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Rank 20. Southern Junction
Texas-Style Barbecue
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Ryan Fernandez
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Ryan Fernandez
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Rank 22. Don Alfonso 1890
Elevated Italian
Forty stories above Toronto, floor-to-ceiling windows frame the city and waterfront while Davide Ciavattella's eight-course tasting menu commands the view. Wild-rose tagliatelle with eel gelato sits alongside seared duck and porchetta with honey glaze—a vision that layers Amalfi Coast tradition with local precision. This is a room built for occasions that demand a certain formality.
- 50 Top Italy 2025 · #10 · The Best Italian Restaurants In The World
- AAA Four Diamonds
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · World's Best Fine Dining Experience
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Rank 23. Reign
Canadian
- AAA Four Diamonds
- The Pinnacle Guide 2026 · 1 Pin
- VineRoutes 2025 · Vine Award Winners · Restaurant Awards
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Rank 24. TOCA
Traditional Italian
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Air Canada 2011 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
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Rank 25. Canoe
Contemporary New American
A sleek tasting room suspended above the city, where the kitchen's ambition matches the view. Wild Pacific halibut arrives with Savoy cabbage and champagne cream; lamb saddle comes paired with its braised shoulder. Service operates with the precision of a practiced institution, and the tarte au sucre closes the evening with quiet confidence.
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Rank 26. Louix Louis
European
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · Canada's Best Hotel Restaurant
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Rank 27. SAMMARCO
Steakhouse
Sammarco arrives as a steakhouse unafraid of elaboration: oxblood leather banquettes and gold leaf frame Ontario beef dry-aged sixty days alongside composed salads and theatrical seafood. The tableside Martini trolley and polished desserts suggest a restaurant that treats restraint as a suggestion, not a doctrine.
- Canada's 100 Best 2025 · #7 · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #37 · Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 28. Edulis
Spanish Mediterranean
A modest house on Niagara Street where Michael Caballo and Tobey Nemeth cook the tasting menu with the discipline of classical European dining, phones off, table yours for the evening. Impeccable seafood and house-cured charcuterie speak to their debt to Spain and France, down to the crusty red fife bread and langoustine tartare that justifies the ritual.
- Air Canada 2012 · #1 · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #5 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 31. Alo
Contemporary
Patrick Kriss's renovated dining room pairs European technique with Asian flourishes across a surprise tasting menu, the marble chefs counter offering ringside views of an unhurried kitchen. The bar treats walk-ins like regulars, and the whole place hums with the confidence of a restaurant that has learned not to take itself seriously.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best French Cuisine Restaurant
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #7 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 32. Jacobs & Co
Steakhouse
A sleek steakhouse in CIBC Square where bookmatched veneer and marble converge beneath a live pianist's touch. The kitchen moves deftly between raw bar seafood and an austere selection of aged beef—striploins sourced from Canada, Australia, Japan—while warm popovers studded with garlic and oregano arrive unbidden. This is a room built for the kind of meal that wants both ambition and grace.
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Rank 34. Cherry Street Bar-B-Que
Barbecue
A 1920 bank marooned in construction now radiates warmth through its red neon, where pitmaster Lawrence La Pianta's Southern barbecue traditions—brisket, ribs, charred wings—emerge from a shipping-container smoker on the patio. The snappy sausage and judicious smoke speak to years spent on the Kansas City circuit, though weekend visitors should arrive early before the meat sells out.
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Rank 35. Yan Dining Room
Chinese
Chef Eva Chin serves an eight-course tasting menu three nights weekly, weaving seasonal Canadian ingredients through regional Chinese traditions with restless fusion sensibility. The private dining room demands advance planning but rewards with dishes that feel both rooted and inventive.
- Air Canada 2025 · Best Concept · Best New Restaurants
- Air Canada 2025 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · Recommends
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Rank 37. Alder
Wood-Fired Mediterranean
Dark brick and tall windows frame Patrick Kriss's Mediterranean kitchen at ground level of the Ace hotel, where a serious brigade works a wood-fired program around roast chicken, lamb, and beef. The cucumber salad—shaved fennel, dukkah, hazelnuts—outshines its reputation, and the coconut cream pie arrives almost weightless.
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – Canada
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – Canada
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 38. Lucie
French
Yannick Bigourdan named this French restaurant for his grandmother, and her influence settles into the warm dining room like soft light filtering through pendant fixtures above an open kitchen. The cooking is rooted in classical technique but tilted toward the present—the cocktails, too, carry a French sensibility.
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Rank 39. Ricky + Olivia
Creative
The dining room sprawls in cheerful compartments, its walls collecting art and whimsy like a cabinet of curios. Chefs Ricky Casipe and Olivia Simpson assemble plates that prioritize pleasure over logic—roasted carrots crowned with bay leaf ice cream, kofta dressed in rhubarb yogurt—and the effect is a restaurant that refuses solemnity.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Foodism 2025 · Local Icons · ICON Awards · Ricky Casipe, Olivia Simpson and Adrian Proszowski
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Rank 40. DaNico
Fine Dining Italian
A historic bank vaults into fine dining: dark walls, linen, plush seats, and irreverent art strike an unlikely balance between formality and playfulness. Chef Daniele Corona's Italian cooking—anchored by Ontario produce and refined with almost kaiseki precision—reveals itself in details like spaghettoni boiled in mushroom extract and crab finished tableside with Sicilian olive oil.
- 50 Top Italy 2025 · #3 · The Best Italian Restaurants In The World
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
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Massimo Zitti's fermentation-forward cocktails—kombucha, lacto-ferments, house distillates—anchor a bar where technique meets ingredient obsession. The minimal backbar and chiaroscuro lighting frame drinks like the Toasted Chai Piña Colada with a restrained elegance that feels earned rather than affected.
- 50 Best 2026 · #22 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Europe
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #48 · Best Bars
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Rank 44. Restaurant 20 Victoria
Contemporary Mexican
In a compact financial-district room with an open kitchen, chef Rafa Covarrubias delivers a tasting menu of vivid, finely executed Mexican cuisine—bluefin tuna with salsa macha, crisp-skinned Pekin duck with chilmole negro. The space is polished yet unstuffy, the service unhurried and warm, the experience calibrated to feel both sophisticated and genuinely at ease.
- Air Canada 2022 · #1 · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #10 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 46. Linny’s
Jewish American Steakhouse
A mid-century steakhouse wrapped in golden light, where David Schwartz channels Jewish-American nostalgia through impeccably seared beef brushed with pastrami tallow and whole roasted lamb. The menu's intelligence—from chicken liver mousse on dark rye to kasha varnishkes—cuts through richness with pickles and a bar that builds cocktails from deli ingredients.
- Air Canada 2025 · Best Cocktail · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #14 · Best Restaurants
- Air Canada 2025 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
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Rank 47. Restaurant Tiflisi
Central Asian
In the Beaches, the Pkhakadze family cooks Georgian food with uncommon care—cold leek salad yields to khachapuri, a bread cradle of melted cheese and egg yolk that announces itself as pure comfort. Lamb khinkali and kebabs follow in portions built for sharing, each plate seasoned with the kind of confidence that suggests a kitchen cooking from memory.
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Rank 48. Le Swan
French
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Restaurant Bar – Canada
- Air Canada 2019 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Restaurant Bar – Canada
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Rank 49. Quetzal
Mexican
A 10-metre grill dominates this sleek dining room where chef Steven Molnar builds nearly every dish around open flame and ember, from daily-ground corn tortillas to grilled secreto and charred scallops with popcorn and Tajín. Eight years in, Quetzal's upscale Mexican cuisine rewards the discipline this primal cooking demands, its flavours crackling with smoke and sophistication.
- 50 Best 2025 · #11 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #4 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 50. Lai Wah Heen
Cantonese Chinese
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
- Chinese Restaurant Awards 2025 · Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada
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Rank 51. Prime Seafood Palace
Steakhouse
A pale wood cathedral softened by tan leather and civil-volume soundtrack, Matty Matheson's steakhouse has matured into a serious venue for special occasions and indulgent evenings alike. The Australian wagyu ribeye under black truffle and bordelaise, the Sicilian crudo, the inventive vegetables—each element settles into place with the confidence of a kitchen that knows exactly what it's doing.
- Air Canada 2022 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #41 · Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 52. R&D
Fusion
In a Chinatown storefront born from a mentorship between two televised chefs, R&D serves dim sum and mains that blur continents without apology: sou pastries harboring foie gras, bao stuffed with kimchi and galbi, lobster poached in butter and finished with dashi. The cooking is playful rather than precious, more interested in what works than what's proper.
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Rank 53. Maha's
Egyptian Middle Eastern
Maha Barsoom's Leslieville cafe smells of cardamom and butter, a small homesick shrine to Cairo where you climb to the counter and wait without a reservation. The lentil soup arrives in a warm bowl, vinegar onions and charred pita conspiring to prove why she opened the place at all.
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Rank 54. White Lily Diner
Creative
A bright yellow corner diner where the kitchen smokes its own bacon, bakes biscuits and donuts from scratch, and grows vegetables out back—a working reminder of what diners can be when they commit to doing things right. The hash browns arrive impossibly light, sandwiches built on house bread justify their own meal, and breakfast anchors a menu that treats every hour with equal care.
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Rank 55. Mott 32
Elevated Chinese
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Rank 56. Lunch Lady
Street Food Vietnamese
A cavernous room on Ossington hums with the energy of a Vietnamese street kitchen transplanted through Vancouver and now run by Benedict Lim and chef Allan Lu. The late Nguyen Thi Thanh's recipes—crispy shrimp with nuoc cham, eggplant glazed in tamarind and soy—land somewhere between Saigon memory and Toronto appetite.
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Rank 58. ARDO
Italian
In a King Street corner that catches the afternoon light, ARDO trades fussiness for a Southern Italian ease—chickpea fritters and arancini emerge golden and unselfconscious, while a dry-aged beef ragu and grilled octopus with marinated artichoke suggest a kitchen that knows when to restrain itself. The cannoli arrive as a small statement of competence, ricotta creamy and unfussy.
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A narrow College Street trattoria where owners Kolomeir and Imola fold Italo-Jewish culinary history into house-made pastas and charcoal-grilled secondi built from local vegetables and proteins. The liver toast—bridging Tuscan and Jewish traditions—and the rugelach on dessert charts suggest a kitchen working in deliberate conversation with two deep roots.
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Rank 60. Osteria Giulia
Ligurian Italian
Candlelight softens cream walls and blond oak at Chef Rob Rossi's assured dining room, where a poised staff moves with quiet confidence. The menu pivots on Liguria's seafood traditions—vitello tonnato arrives ethereal, snow crab tagliolini gleams with bottarga—while a deep Italian wine list and exceptional cocktails complete an experience of real refinement and warmth.
- 50 Top Italy 2025 · #50 · The Best Italian Restaurants In The World
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · World's Best Italian Cuisine Restaurant
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
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Rank 61. Puerto Bravo
Mexican
A cramped Mexican seafood counter on Gerrard turns out crisp tostadas and tacos built around octopus and shrimp with minimal fuss and maximum spice. The wera tostada's macha mayo and the charbroiled octopus with poblanos arrive bold and exact, finishing with a creamy carlota.
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Rank 62. Café Boulud
Luxe French
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
- Air Canada 2013 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
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Rank 64. One Restaurant
French/Italian
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- 50 Best 2026 · #90 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Canada
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Rank 66. Linny’s
Steakhouse
A steakhouse with deli inflections and an old-school convivial hum, Linny's trades croutons for crispy chicken skin and serves challah with house-made sauerkraut and whipped cheese dotted with berry jam. The caramelized apple cake, finished tableside with chantilly cream, suggests a chef who understands that comfort, seasoned properly, never goes out of style.
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Rank 67. Aanch
Indian
A modest room on Wellington Street houses a kitchen that moves with quiet confidence through the landscape of Indian regional cooking. Chicken 65 arrives deep-fried and urgent; vindaloos burn with Goan spice; butter-rich dal bukhari and garlic naan anchor the menu. The plating gestures toward refinement, but what matters here is the cooking itself.
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Rank 68. Black + Blue
Canadian
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Rank 69. Campechano Adelaide
Mexican
A narrow taco counter where heirloom corn becomes fresh tortillas daily, and the kitchen's smoke and clatter fill a austere room of tile and weathered wood. The barbacoa arrives smoky and urgent, the haddock beer-battered and brisk—a place built for speed and appetite, not lingering.
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Rank 71. GEORGE Restaurant
Contemporary
A red brick room with industrial bones and bistro polish draws a steady crowd to Queen Street East. The kitchen executes a disciplined hand—seared halibut arrives over potato puree with crispy lardons and peas—while the chef's spontaneous tasting menus reward repeat visits. Half pours and modest wine glasses suggest a place that respects restraint as much as appetite.
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Rank 72. PAI
Northern Thai
A former nurse named Nuit Regular cooks family recipes and street food in a mod bohemian room that fills nightly with people studying the sprawling menu. The North Thai dishes—khao soi, kanom jin nham ngeaw, gaeng panang—arrive fresh and portioned for sharing, each one calibrated with care.
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Rank 73. Enigma
Contemporary
Sam Corkum, an Alo alumnus, commands this Yorkville kitchen with restrained sophistication—a scallop arrives with potato chowder and spicy XO oil, nothing wasted. The eight-course tasting menu unfolds with Nordic and Japanese influences in careful balance, each plate a study in complementary flavors and deliberate texture.
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Rank 77. Hexagon
Contemporary
A glass-walled room overlooking the lake, all clean lines and easy elegance. The kitchen works familiar ingredients—scallops, short rib, pasta—into composed, unfussy dishes: Hokkaido scallop arrives with potato foam and brown butter; corn agnolotti plays off Manchego; a cheesecake leans savory with strawberries and almond. Refinement without pretense.
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Rank 78. Opus Restaurant
Global
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Rank 79. SARA
Contemporary
Sara's austere dining room—phones stowed in table compartments—enforces a kind of secular monasticism around globally inflected shared plates. Butternut squash latkes arrive crowned with smoked ikura and maple kombu; Alaskan king crab swims in nuoc cham and crispy rice. The kitchen moves with evident precision, and half-portions let you chart its range alone.
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Rank 80. Que Ling Restaurant
Vietnamese
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Rank 81. Chubby's Jamaican Kitchen
Jamaican
Island cooking arrives on Portland Street with homey curry goat and jerk chicken that justifies the line out the door. Wood smoke and spice marry in dishes humble in appearance but surprisingly deep in flavor.
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Rank 82. Mhel
Japanese Fusion Korean
A modest storefront on a residential Toronto street conceals a kitchen where Korean-Japanese small plates rotate with the seasons, each one assembled with quiet precision from imported luxuries. The husband-and-wife team demonstrates particular mastery with fish—witness charcoal-grilled grouper finished with anchovy oil and karasumi—and a thoughtful sake list anchors the experience.
- 50 Best 2025 · #44 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Air Canada 2024 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #30 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 83. Beast Pizza
Canadian
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Rank 84. 苍蝇馆子 Cheng Du Street Food
Sichuan Chinese
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Rank 86. Scaramouche
Traditional French
Descend into what feels like a basement and emerge into a dining room suspended above the Toronto skyline, where Keith Froggett's classical French kitchen has held steady since 1983. Foie gras terrine with sour cherry, rabbit loin wrapped in bacon—the menu trades novelty for rigor, each plate an argument for why some things need not change.
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The counter at Lonely Diner stretches beneath wood panelling and vintage paper, a refuge for regulars nursing cold beers and cocktails that drift toward the savory and strange—Szechuan peppercorn in a White Negroni, black garlic brine in the Martini. Greasy spoon classics get lifted: Atlantic cod arrives beneath yuzu-tartar and caviar. It's comfort food in conversation with itself.
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Rank 88. Maven
Polish-Jewish Eastern European
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By day a butcher shop, by night a narrow wine bar where the knife work on steak tartare matters as much as the meat itself. The namesake 48-ounce côte de bœuf and steak frites anchor a Parisian-leaning menu; the butcher's table, scrubbed clean, opens for private bookings. French wines by the glass at the zinc counter.
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A basement room painted in bold hues serves som tam with the fermented fish funk of Isan tradition, the salted-crab version a textbook example of the form. Grilled pork jowl arrives succulent and charred; the heat scale climbs to eleven for those who want it. No liquor, but drinks flow from the adjacent café—a straightforward operation that trades comfort for conviction.
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A narrow room on Ossington where Tom Thai has spent two decades threading pan-Asian and Latin flavors into ceviches with startling clarity and beef preparations—grilled steak tataki meets chimichurri, beef cheek swims in red curry—that feel less like fusion than conversation between two kitchens. Order small plates and share.
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Rank 92. DaiLo
New Asian/French
At DaiLo, chef Nick Liu treats the sharing table as theater: whole fried trout arrives glossy with nam jim and soy, while Hainanese chicken harbors black truffle beneath its skin, paired with foie fat rice. Hand-folded dumplings shift with the seasons, and the cocktail list matches the kitchen's generosity of spirit.
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You thread through a coffee shop into a narrow dining room where binchotan grills anchor an airy kitchen, and Thai cooking snaps with fresh herbs and chilis across a menu built for sharing. The fried calamari salad and beef tartare with fish sauce show a kitchen that thinks beyond rote execution.
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Rank 94. MIMI Chinese
Regional Chinese
Lipstick-red banquettes and dim light frame David Schwartz's polished take on regional Chinese cooking, where shrimp toast and four-foot belt noodles arrive with the precision of fine dining. The kitchen handles high-quality ingredients and refined technique without ceremony, leaving room for the chef's judgment and a wine list that knows what it's doing.
- Air Canada 2022 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Chinese Restaurant Awards 2025 · #12 · Elite 30 Canada
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · Recommends
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Rank 95. Henry's Restaurant
Contemporary
The mid-century modern dining room—globe lights, forest green banquettes, a backyard patio—signals Henry's ambitions as a wine bar willing to play loose with cuisine. A menu of beef tartare, shrimp toast, and skate wing in fiery curry proves the kitchen serves the wine list, not the other way around.
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Rank 96. BB's
Filipino
A sea foam and pink Filipino diner where breakfast pancakes yield to dinner's pancit and calamansi pie, the cocktail bar humming with a come-as-you-are crowd. BB's trades earnestness for color and appetite—adobo fried chicken with pineapple habanero heat is the kind of detail that matters here.
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Rank 97. Takja BBQ House
Korean Barbecue
On College Street, two chefs have rebuilt Korean barbecue around sourced proteins—Kansas hanger steak, Guelph rib-eye, Australian wagyu aged in-house—grilled tableside with practiced restraint. The sides matter as much as the meat: house-fermented ssämjang and kimchi, seafood pancakes crowned with uni, cocktails and natural wines that honor the cuisine rather than distract from it.
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Rank 98. Sunnys Chinese
Chinese
Down a narrow Kensington Market hallway, Sunnys occupies a retro diner space where David Schwartz and Braden Chong chart a fiery course through Chinese regions, each dish animated by chili oil and regional heat. The kitchen refuses restraint—tripe glazed in Sichuan peppers, cumin-coated chicken thigh, charred noodles—and servers navigate the spice taxonomy with ease.
- Air Canada 2021 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best 2026 · #94 · Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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Rank 99. The Cottage Cheese
Indian
Sunlight floods the windows of this Kensington Market dining room, where an Indian kitchen takes familiar classics—chaats, curries, claypots—and renders them with uncommon care. The butter chicken arrives vivid and silken; a coastal fish curry tastes of depth and salt. Naan comes crisp and garlicked, though rice proves essential for the generous, well-seasoned sauces that demand mopping up.
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A two-floor Chinatown spot with a terrace where young staff and lively crowds make eating feel like an event. Southern Thai curries deliver serious heat alongside gentler noodle dishes, each plate arriving with the kind of speed that keeps the inevitable line moving.