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besson3c · Dec 16, 2010, 03:16 PM

Hey Guys,

I'm visiting my Toronto family and bringing some friends along with me. I'm wondering if you guys have any specific restaurant suggestions for when we're out and about and doing stuff?

We generally prefer non-North American food, it doesn't have to be fancy and we don't need the expensive yuppy ambiance sort of thing either - a hole in the wall is fine as long as the food kicks ass... I've never eaten Cuban, so this would be one possibility/example of something to recommend, but I'm sure there are many other unusual forms of cuisine up there too that would be similarly new and enjoyable as well.

So, suggestions?

nonhuman · Dec 16, 2010, 03:35 PM

It's because of people like you that American and Canada are losing their identities!

imitchellg5 · Dec 16, 2010, 04:58 PM

Ask your family that lives there?

turtle777 · Dec 16, 2010, 05:16 PM

Any McDonald's will do.

-t

Oisín · Dec 16, 2010, 05:36 PM

Originally recommended to me by (and tried out with) Phileas: Mother’s Dumplings. Not in any way a fancy place, but the dumplings and the pasties are to die for.

Phileas will know more.

ShortcutToMoncton · Dec 16, 2010, 06:00 PM

There's a restaurant on King St. called N'awlins that is fairly solid and also does jazz in the evenings...might be nice. Unfortunately the Montreal Bistro jazz club closed down a few years ago - it was the most popular/best spot for that sort of thing.

Otherwise, if you have a car and don't mind driving up out of the downtown area, Fahmee Bakery (in a tiny strip mall off Brimley, just north of Finch) has absolutely stellar Jamaican food, in that take-out-and-eat-in-your-car variety. When I say stellar, I mean seriously seriously mind-blowingly good. One of those spots where you take people and they're all like "wtf u goin" and you've got this shit-eating grin on your face and you take them into this semi-dirty little bakery filled with asian people and one stool, and blow their ****ing minds.

greg

MacinTommy · Dec 16, 2010, 07:46 PM

Movenpick

turtle777 · Dec 16, 2010, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by MacinTommy

Movenpick

Yeah, they have those all over Europe. It's a nice idea and yummy, but hardly mind-blowing ethnic food. Not sure if European food is enough "non-American" for Besson.

-t

Phileas · Dec 16, 2010, 10:47 PM

Toronto is a dream city for foodies.

Suggestions:

Mother's Dumplings for the most awesome Northern Chinese food on the planet. All prepared by three elderly Chinese women in an open kitchen. Cheap and cheerful.

Oyster Boy on Queen West, for seafood and, duh, oysters. Good fun, great service, the best and freshest oysters in town.

Cuban, Delux on Ossington is one of our go-to places. Bruch is fantastic, dinner is always reliably above par but can get expensive.

Pizza, Terronis on Queen West makes a great, thin crust, blistered pie.

I could sit here all night listing great places to eat up here, let me know where you'll be staying and I'll send you some more specific recommendations.

besson3c · Dec 16, 2010, 11:04 PM

Thanks Phileas!

We're staying at my parent's place in East York, we're fairly close to the Danforth so Greek food is an obvious option. However, we'll be doing some sightseeing and checking out the different neighborhoods. One of the friends with us is Tibetan, so we'll definitely hit Spadina. Mother Dumplings sounds pretty cool!

Feel free to share more, as much as you'd like

Dork. · Dec 16, 2010, 11:29 PM

Let the foodies keep Toronto and all their wonderful "Non-North-American" food.
Take a day trip down to Rochester for some Garbage Plates!
Your guests will love it! (Your intestines may not....

)

Eug · Dec 17, 2010, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by Phileas

Mother's Dumplings for the most awesome Northern Chinese food on the planet. All prepared by three elderly Chinese women in an open kitchen. Cheap and cheerful.

I'm not sure why people keep saying that. When I went there the food was good, but the restaurant that was beside its old location was actually better. Unfortunately, the restaurant beside it was even more of a hole-in-the-wall, and the service was less responsive, and it didn't get a review in the Globe and Mail either, so I think it finally closed.

That said, maybe I just went to Mother's Dumpling's on a bad day. I'll have to check out the new location, which looks noticeably nicer too.

If you do want an excellent hole-in-the-wall Chinese place, I like Chinese Traditional Bun. It's very much a dive though.

Pizza, Terronis on Queen West makes a great, thin crust, blistered pie.

Terroni is great. Note there are multiple locations.

Another great one is Queen Margherita.

I don't know any Cuban restaurants. However, for Latin in general there is Torito tapas bar. Great tapas, but not cheap. Or if you want take out or an eat-in Latin dive, there's the Chilean restaurant Jumbo Empanada a block south on the same street. I don't actually go there for the empanadas. I go there for the humitas and corn pie.

For decent a little bit more upscale Portugese food, I'd recommend Adega. Chiado is better, but costs almost twice as much.

Closer to East York? Hmmm... Globe Bistro is good, but it's that bistro yuppie style that you might not like. Another one that fits that category in that area is Avli.

For really non-North American there's also Blue Nile for Ethiopian food.

SpaceMonkey · Dec 17, 2010, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by Dork.

Let the foodies keep Toronto and all their wonderful "Non-North-American" food.
Take a day trip down to Rochester for some Garbage Plates!
Your guests will love it! (Your intestines may not....

)

ShortcutToMoncton · Dec 17, 2010, 10:34 AM

Also, if you'd like another to class it up a little, there's a great French restaurant up in North York called Auberge du Pommier. It's just off Yonge Street, north of York Mills. It will hurt your pocketbook, but it'll be a good hurt (although they might have Winterfest on depending when you're going...much cheaper meals).

Eug · Dec 17, 2010, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton

Also, if you'd like another to class it up a little, there's a great French restaurant up in North York called Auberge du Pommier. It's just off Yonge Street, north of York Mills. It will hurt your pocketbook, but it'll be a good hurt (although they might have Winterfest on depending when you're going...much cheaper meals).

Yeah, that's getting into the Chiado category for cost. I only put one very high cost restaurant in my list because it seemed they weren't really interested in the high cost yuppie restaurant scene.

FireWire · 02:48 PM

I've only been to Toronto a couple of times so there may be better places, but I've been impressed by two restaurants I tried last summer. The first one is actually in Missisauga (30 min drive). It's a serbian restaurant named Zam (ZAM RESTAURANT & BAR). I was sceptical at first but the taste blew me away. We ordered The sword, which allows you to taste different specialties. Unfortunately I wasn't the one who ordered for the group so I don't know exactly what we ordered, but beside the sword, the mushrooms in a creamy sauce are really excellent. Try to go there early in the evening as the place transforms in a d.ouchebag club in the night (go figure!).

The second place is perfect for breakfast/brunch or coffee. It's called Spice Safar, 510 King St W (SpiceSafar). Excellent food, reasonnable pricing, the owner is very friendly and the attention to details is amazing. I even had to take pictures of the restroom! I tried the eggs benedict and they were the best I've had. A really nice place. In the evening they install a small stage in the corner and it changes into a jazz lounge.

If you happen to want to try the CN tower restaurant, if you don't care that much for the revolving floor (the 360°), you can save a few bucks by choosing the restaurant just below (or above, I'm not sure). The menu is about the same, the class is the same, but you pay maybe 10-15$ less for the same meal (fewer choices but most items are found on both menus).

(WTF, MacNN, d.ouchebag is deemed too offensive for the poor little eyes on the forum? Come on, even the FCC allows it.. I find Guidos is far more offensive..)

Eug · Dec 18, 2010, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by FireWire

The second place is perfect for breakfast/brunch or coffee. It's called Spice Safar, 510 King St W (SpiceSafar). Excellent food, reasonnable pricing, the owner is very friendly and the attention to details is amazing. I even had to take pictures of the restroom! I tried the eggs benedict and they were the best I've had. A really nice place. In the evening they install a small stage in the corner and it changes into a jazz lounge.

Sounds good, but what is it with all these restaurants with the stupid multimedia websites that say absolutely nothing?!?!?

moonmonkey · Dec 21, 2010, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by Dork.

Take a day trip down to Rochester for some Garbage Plates!

Jesus christ that looks amazing, i'm making one of those tonight.
Thank you!

Eug · Dec 21, 2010, 09:18 PM

Those garbage plates look awesome, but in Toronto another gluttonous competitor would be Dangerous Dan's. It's not that far from East York either.

Dangerous Dan's Diner - Home of Toronto's Best Burger

My favourite is the plain burger, but my second favourite is the Elvis burger, which has peanut butter, bacon, and fried banana, on top of an 8 oz burger.

Oisín · Dec 21, 2010, 09:31 PM

peanut butter, bacon, and fried banana, on top of an 8 oz burger

Surely that’s in violation of at least a dozen Geneva conventions and human rights thingamajigs.

imitchellg5 · Dec 21, 2010, 10:16 PM

I hate this thread. I have the stomach flu right now and can't keep anything down and I'm absurdly hungry.

Eug · Dec 21, 2010, 11:55 PM

besson3c · Dec 24, 2010, 10:32 PM

Thanks for all of your suggestions guys! Our time will be so limited I'm sure you have come up with more than enough options... I'll let you guys know what we decide to do and what we thought of our choice

besson3c · Dec 24, 2010, 10:35 PM

I'm compiling all of these locations now, and several of these are at the Kensington Market area. It looks like just showing up at this market hungry is a good strategy

Phileas · Dec 25, 2010, 04:28 PM

It is. My office is in Kensington Market, we have the best lunch options in town.

besson3c · Jan 3, 2011, 02:14 PM

Thanks for all of the suggestions guys... I didn't get to do much eating due to prior family plans, but we did get to a Peruvian restaurant which was excellent!

ShortcutToMoncton · Jan 4, 2011, 06:37 AM

Which one? Was it the one on St. Clair just west of Bathurst?

besson3c · Jan 4, 2011, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton

Which one? Was it the one on St. Clair just west of Bathurst?

Yeah, sounds right... My wife remembers the name of it, I just remember it was in the Annex. This sounds right.

ShortcutToMoncton · Jan 4, 2011, 12:08 PM

There's one called El Fogon at St. Clair/Bathurst (right across from Albert's Jamaican food), and I think there might be a couple more in that area.

Anyway, our condo is a couple hundred feet away from it (although we don't live there) and I have family in that area, so I spent some time there over Christmas - it's a very nice area of town that hasn't yet had too many yuppies like me screw it up.

I've been to El Fogon a couple times - there's a ton of great food in that area.

*Edit - that's north of the Annex though as I would define it.

greg