City guide
Best restaurants in Toronto
74 restaurants across six areas, each scored on food, service, value and room, each with the dishes actually worth ordering. Etobicoke has its own guide — start here for the west end — as does the Bloor West corridor. Drinking first? Happy hour is here.
By area
A search for somewhere “near me” resolves against wherever you are standing rather than against the words on a page, so here is what each part of the city actually is.
Downtown
The core, Chinatown, Kensington and King West — tasting menus above storefronts, dim sum until 4am, and the densest concentration of good eating in the country.
14 reviewedWest End
Ossington, Dundas West, Little Italy and Parkdale. Where a room opens, sets a standard the rest of the city copies, and is loud about it.
23 reviewedEast End
Leslieville, Riverside, Greektown and Little India — brunch queues, charcoal grills on Gerrard, and the best-value big tables in the city.
10 reviewedMidtown
Yonge & Eglinton up to Summerhill, plus Yorkville. Occasion restaurants, no-reservation Italian, and the money to keep both full.
9 reviewedNorth York
Willowdale’s Korean and Sichuan strip, Persian along Yonge, and Balkan charcoal on Lawrence East. The most under-covered good eating in Toronto.
9 reviewedScarborough
Hakka, Sri Lankan, Filipino, Afghan and Cantonese seafood. Nowhere in the city eats better for the money, and nowhere gets written about less.
9 reviewedDowntown
The core, Chinatown, Kensington and King West — tasting menus above storefronts, dim sum until 4am, and the densest concentration of good eating in the country.
West End
Ossington, Dundas West, Little Italy and Parkdale. Where a room opens, sets a standard the rest of the city copies, and is loud about it.
East End
Leslieville, Riverside, Greektown and Little India — brunch queues, charcoal grills on Gerrard, and the best-value big tables in the city.
Midtown
Yonge & Eglinton up to Summerhill, plus Yorkville. Occasion restaurants, no-reservation Italian, and the money to keep both full.
North York
Willowdale’s Korean and Sichuan strip, Persian along Yonge, and Balkan charcoal on Lawrence East. The most under-covered good eating in Toronto.
Scarborough
Hakka, Sri Lankan, Filipino, Afghan and Cantonese seafood. Nowhere in the city eats better for the money, and nowhere gets written about less.
Frequently asked
- What is the best restaurant in Toronto?
- It depends what you are after. Alo on Spadina is the city’s best tasting menu, Scaramouche in Forest Hill is the best occasion room, and Bar Isabel on College is the most enjoyable place to eat late. For value, Mak Deli on Lawrence Ave E and Bamiyan Kabob in Scarborough are hard to beat.
- Where should I eat in Toronto on a budget?
- Scarborough and North York give you the most for the money. Bamiyan Kabob does a full charcoal plate for under $20, Mak Deli does ten cevapi for $15.59, and Federick on Ellesmere feeds a table of six Hakka food for less than two mains downtown. In the core, Seven Lives in Kensington Market and Swatow on Spadina are the value picks.
- What restaurants in Toronto are open late?
- Rol San in Chinatown serves dim sum until 4am and Swatow runs until 2am. Bar Raval on College is open to 2am, Han Ba Tang at Yonge & Finch until 2am, and Sunrise House in Willowdale never closes at all.
- How do you score Toronto restaurants?
- Every restaurant gets four scores out of ten — food, service, value and room — plus an overall figure. Splitting them out matters: a 9 for food with a 5 for service is a very different evening from a flat 7, and a single star rating hides that.
- Do you cover restaurants outside downtown Toronto?
- Yes, deliberately. Downtown is the most written-about part of the city and the least under-served. North York and Scarborough carry a large share of the best value eating in Toronto and almost none of the coverage, so both have full sections here.
- Do you accept payment for reviews?
- No. WhereToEatNow takes no payment, free meals, hosted visits or affiliate commission from any restaurant listed. Every review is written first-hand and published unpaid.