Advertisement

Toronto Life - The Dish

The latest buzz on restaurants, chefs, bars, food shops and food events. Sign up for the Dish newsletter for weekly updates. Send tips to thedish@torontolife.com

Read All About It

5 Comments

May 7, 2012 | 4:20 pm

Reaction Roundup: what keeps Canadian restaurants out of the world’s top 50?

The idyllic Langdon Hall made the top 100 list back in 2010 (Image: Gabriel Li from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)

Last week, we told you about Restaurant magazine’s annual list of the world’s best restaurants, which, once again, featured no representation from Canada, either in the top 50 list or in the consolation prize territory of numbers 51 to 100. Amid the usual status anxiety and self-flagellation that broke out on Twitter (along with a few yawns), we found some fairly insightful commentary on What It All Means.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

Comments

April 12, 2012 | 10:52 am

Five things we learned about Toronto’s huge food processing industry from the Globe’s recent feature

Silverstein’s Bakery is responsible for that bread smell at the corner of McCaul and Baldwin (Image: spDuchamp)

While it might seem as though much of the food you ingest comes from a million miles away, a lot more of it is processed in Toronto than you’d imagine. Yesterday, the Globe and Mail ran an in-depth piece about the economic impact of an industry that often chugs along below the radar (the restaurant component of it very much excepted, of course). Below, five things we learned:

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

Comments

March 28, 2012 | 4:00 pm
Dining-happy condo dwellers push up lease rates for downtown restaurants 

The condo boom in the city’s dense downtown core—filled with young professionals with disposable incomes and no pesky kids to stand in the way of a good time—is drawing more and more restaurateurs to the area, even if the spaces for rent aren’t exactly ideal. The Globe explains that the conspicuous success of places like Earl’s has potential owners clamouring for spaces in the downtown core—and that demand is driving up lease rates. As well, because the condo boom is adding density and attracting people who like to eat out frequently, restaurants are actually prepared to pay more (which, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association warns, could drive small, independent restaurants out of the area). The current real estate gold rush is also causing certain spots to resort to some pretty wacky MacGyvering in their kitchens. The American chain the Tilted Kilt is opening a location on the Esplanade this summer, where they’ll store kegs “in the parking area underneath the restaurant, with the beer piped up through the floor”—which, we suppose, leaves more space for the chain’s main attractions. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

Read All About It

3 Comments

March 8, 2012 | 4:46 pm

Check out version two of the Toronto Life Best Restaurants app

Last Thursday, Toronto Life released its new Best Restaurants app, which brings our reviews of Toronto’s top 400+ restaurants to your iPhone or iPad for $1.99. Today, we released the first update, which adds a couple new features:

• You can now email restaurant reviews, along with the address and phone number, right from the app

• You can now view a map of just your filtered search results, wherever they may be in the city

Click here to find out how you can get the app now »

Read All About It

1 Comment

March 5, 2012 | 5:28 pm

Six things we learned about how chefs are dealing with rising food prices from today’s Star

The prices of many agricultural commodities are determined by traders at the Chicago Merc (Image: Matt Griffin)

Though the proliferation of exorbitantly priced hamburgers may make it hard to believe, most chefs hate passing the high price of food onto their customers. In the face of rising costs, Toronto chefs are taking steps to ensure that more expensive food doesn’t necessarily lead to more expensive meals, according to a piece by Tony Wong in today’s Star. After the jump, six things we learned from it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

6 Comments

March 1, 2012 | 11:34 am

Introducing: the Toronto Life Best Restaurants app

Introducing: The Toronto Life Best Restaurants App

The Dish is very pleased to announce the launch of Toronto Life’s Best Restaurants app for the iPhone and iPad. Easy to use and frequently updated, the app presents informed, opinionated reviews of Toronto’s top 400 restaurants, as selected by our team of critics (we’ve been using the app in-house for months, and it’s quickly become indispensable). You can search according to neighbourhood, star rating, price range and cuisine, and you can set the app to provide recommendations based on the criteria that are most important to you (a patio, for example). Using your iPhone’s GPS, this app will also tell you which Toronto Life–recommended restaurants are close by. Click here to find out how you can get it now »

Read All About It

Comments

January 11, 2012 | 4:57 pm
The Canadian Culinary Book Awards get an extreme makeover 

The Canadian Culinary Book Awards have a new name, a new logo and, the organizers hope, some newfound relevance. TV consultant Karen Gelbart (who helped bring the Food Network to Canada) took over as national chair a few months ago and has already put her stamp on the awards, now called Taste Canada—The Food Writing Awards. Gelbart told the Toronto Star that she wants to move away from the “insider feel” of years past to attract more media coverage and more widespread public awareness. In other words, make like the James Beard Foundation and the Giller Prize to generate buzz. As Cookbook Store manager Alison Fryer put it to the Toronto Star: “We’ve got awards for everything—playwrights, poetry, non-fiction, children’s books. For heaven’s sake, cookbooks are always the elephant in the room because they probably sell more than any other category outside of fiction.” Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

Read All About It

Comments

December 2, 2011 | 4:58 pm

Reaction Roundup: what Toronto is saying about its new, hockey-themed grocery paradise (i.e., Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens)

(Maple Leaf Gardens image: Kevin Naulls)

In the seven years since news broke that the Maple Leaf Gardens would be turning into a grocery store, it’s become something of a bad joke, a symbol of modernity callously stomping on the past. But after Wednesday’s grand opening of the Loblaws flagship store, Torontonians have suddenly opened up to the idea with surprising vigour. And there’s a lot to love, what with walls of cheese, cupcakes, tea and aging meat, as well as plenty of relics from the days of yore, like a giant leaf sculpture made out of the stadium’s original plastic chairs and a red dot in aisle 25 marking the former location of centre ice. Here’s some of what other Torontonians had to say:

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

Comments

November 11, 2011 | 5:00 pm
Colonel Sanders: chicken magnate, farm boy and now author 

Deep in the Kentucky Fried Chicken archives (yes, KFC has archives), a staffer has made a startling discovery: a “food autobiography” of the late Colonel Harland Sanders, the man famous for his fried chicken and immaculate white suits. According to the Toronto Star, the document contains “recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner and instructions on the right way to make biscuits, pancakes, omelettes, casserole and pies.” A spokesperson for Yum! Brand, KFC’s parent company, said the company would release the manuscript online for free some time next year. Although Sanders has been dead since 1980, his words live on: “I was a farm boy and lean toward farm cooking. To me, my recipes are priceless.” There’s no word yet on whether the work contains tips on factory farming and shopping mall food court cuisine. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

Read All About It

7 Comments

September 22, 2011 | 10:56 am
Calgary’s mayor on street eats: truffle fries (theirs) vs. hot dogs (ours) 

Given Rob Ford’s incessant and dour gravy train mantras, it helps to be reminded that some mayors actually enjoy the role of civic booster. Case in point: Calgary’s Naheed Nenshi, who’s apparently on a cross-country Cowtown sales tour. Nenshi told the Toronto Star that although he likes our ubiquitous hot dogs just fine, they don’t quite compare to Calgary’s truffle-oiled french fry trucks or the burger truck—presumably the one run by Charcut, Top Chef Canada finalist Connie DeSousa’s restaurant—that serves a lamb burger with an egg on top. And of course Nenshi’s right. But at least we’re catching up. Read the whole story [Toronto Star] »

Read All About It

1 Comment

February 17, 2011 | 4:39 pm

iPads popping up in dining rooms across the USA

(Image: uhuru1701)

The era of high-tech kitchens is fading, but it seems as though gizmos are now colonizing the dining room. Stacked: Food Built Well, a food chain from Southern California, has announced that iPads will be replacing menus and waiters as a means for customers to order their meals.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

Comments

November 9, 2010 | 5:05 pm

Magic weight-loss crystals coming to Canada for some reason

Does the secret to weight loss lie in exercise, a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle? Probably. But why waste all that time? Sensa’s coming to Canada. These diet crystals have been available for the past two years in the U.S. and promise weight loss with little to no effort, aside from having to sprinkle them on every meal. They work on the following comical premise: the crystals manipulate one’s sense of smell, triggering a sense of satiety in the imbiber.

And no, this is not a joke.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

1 Comment

November 4, 2010 | 3:13 pm

Three GTA hot spots make it onto En Route’s list of the best new restaurants in Canada

En Route’s annual best new restaurants list is out, and it contains good news for the culinary scene in and around Toronto. A few deserving but predictable downtown spots have made the cut: Buca, King West’s rustic Italian joint, is at number nine; Local Kitchen, Parkdale’s rustic Italian joint, sits at number four. As for quasi-Toronto mentions, Singhampton’s Haisai takes the top spot—just as it did for us—while the Scaramouche vets at Dundas’s Quatrefoil came in seventh.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

2 Comments

October 29, 2010 | 3:14 pm

Richard Florida declares Toronto best trick-or-treating city in Canada

Boo! ya: Torontonian kids reap the most ghostly booty (Image: Paul Sapiano)

Toronto’s cool factor has just grown exponentially. Urban theorist and imported know-it-all Richard Florida announced today that, according to his (probably infallible) Trick or Treater Index, Toronto is the best trick-or-treating city in Canada.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read All About It

17 Comments

October 7, 2010 | 2:56 pm

Mark those calendars: KFC’s Double Down coming to Canada in 11 days

Colonel sends his latest creation to invade Canada on October 18 (Image: Mike Saechang)

Few sandwiches have received as much attention as the Double Down, KFC’s grease-fest that features bacon and cheese squeezed between two pieces of boneless fried chicken. Morbidly curious Torontonians interested in trying it, however, were disappointed to learn that their local Colonels were not selling the thing. Well, that’s all about to change. The Double Down will be available in Canada from October 18 to November 14.

Read the rest of this entry »

Advertisement

Current Issue
Current Issue

Advertisement

Advertisement

Links and Offers
  • Learn how to say money with thousands of money-saving tips on insurance, your mortgage, electric bills, credit cards, cell phones, and more at billeater.com.
  • Play online bingo in the best new bingo sites in the UK for your bingo pleasure.
  • Fashion4us is an online Asian fashion (Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese) wholesaler. Consumers will be satisfied with the original quality and huge discount on wholesale clothing collections.

Advertisement