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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
(Image: Andrew Brudz)
From the CNE to Pride, Rodney Bowers’ meatballs have won him followers throughout the city. Since last summer, he’s had a more permanent home to call his own in Little Italy—the lighthearted Hey, Meatball! On the menu, naturally enough: a meatball sandwich, pasta dishes with meatballs and even a mushroom risotto with vegan meatballs.
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This meal is best enjoyed picnic-style (Image: Renée Suen)
Black Camel’s small menu might offer only five sammies and a couple sides; nonetheless, this Rosedale sandwich bar is practically a neighbourhood institution.
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Chocolate for lunch? Not quite (Image: Andrew Brudz)
Ever since its King West location opened last summer, Soma Chocolatemaker’s decadent treats have no longer been consigned to weekend jaunts to the Distillery District. For more savoury lunch fare, longtime Soma collaborator (and former Canoe sous chef) Simon Blackwell, operating as the Blackbird Baking Co., creates an exclusive lineup of organic breads, all stuffed or topped with fresh ingredients like mozzarella, Fontina, eggplant, proscuitto and sundried tomatoes.
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(Image: Renée Suen)
The latest addition to the downtown grab-and-go market is housed in a new condo building built on what was once the rundown Bay Street Motel. Although dine-in options include four hot-pressed sandwiches, many instead head to the back refrigeration case for the freshly made and cardboard-packaged wedge sammies.
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(Image: Andrew Brudz)
With their old, cold salads and half-dead sandwiches, grocery store lunches are usually to be avoided. But the long-awaited Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens, which finally opened late last year, has much more attractive offerings. In addition to the already-legendary wall of cheese, this location boasts a pretty impressive selection of prepared foods, including sandwiches, soups, roasted chicken, crab cakes, beet salad, ratatouille and other sides, all created by executive chef Mark Russell.
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A fine spread (Image: Renée Suen)
In the pantheon of Toronto dim sum restaurants, Bay Street’s Crown Princess is decidedly among the more refined options. The cushy room hums with activity as groups dig into small plates chosen from a checklist of fanciful twists on conventional dishes.
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(Image: Andrew Brudz)
Café Plenty, the gourmet take-away and catering shop of policy-advisor-turned-restaurateur Melissa Patterson, has flown under the radar since opening two months ago down the street from the AGO. The small space, with its sparkling white marble floors and shellacked wooden counter seating, is like a quaint country kitchen gone just a little glam.
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(Image: Renée Suen)
Known to many as the Vietnamese place on Ossington that’s not Golden Turtle, Pho Tien Thanh is not without its own fiercely loyal following. At midday, the long dusty-rose and powder-blue room is packed with hungry diners hunched over steaming bowls (it’s not uncommon for couples to find themselves sharing a table with strangers).
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A porchetta sandwich with rapini, truffle sauce, Parmesan, hot sauce and mustard (Image: Andrew Brudz)
Since it opened on Dundas West in December 2010, Porchetta & Co.’s iconic pig logo has been a beacon to meat lovers looking for a quick fix. Each day, a steady stream of customers lines up (sometimes out the door of the tiny sandwich shop) for Nick auf der Mauer’s do-one-thing-right menu focused around his pork triple threat: marinated pork shoulder that’s wrapped in prosciutto then wrapped in cured pork belly, all of which is slow-roasted until the whole thing is melting (see the informative infographic on their website). The house specialty porchetta sandwich ($6.45, plus extras) piles a four-ounce dose of the stuff on a sourdough roll, right before your eyes. We add sharp Kozlik’s mustard, hot sauce, freshly grated Parmesan (95¢), creamy and smoky truffle sauce (75¢) and, to alleviate the meat-guilt, some rapini (75¢), before parking it on one of five vintage stools and savouring each rich, spicy and crackly bite. If you’re passing by from 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. on a Saturday, don’t miss the breakfast variation with a fried egg.
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Pan-roasted sole fillet (Image: Renée Suen)
At Modus, one of our Best New Restaurants for 2012, executive chef Bruce Woods (Centro, Brassaii) services refined Italian classics in a restrained and modern room that caters to the Bay Street crowd (along with their padded expense accounts).
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(Image: Andrew Brudz)
Pizzeria Via Mercanti, Kensington Market’s month-old pizzeria, is already starting to give Pizzeria Libretto and Queen Margherita Pizza a run for their, er, dough. Of course, that’s not really a surprise: co-owner Romolo Salvati used to be Queen Margherita’s head pizza chef before he called over his buddy Massimo Di Lascio to open their own place (the restaurant gets its name from the Salerno street on which they each owned a business years ago). Closer to downtown than its rivals, Via Mercanti is a viable lunchtime option for those in more westerly offices, especially with no wait for a table (yet) and speedy service.
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Calamari po’boy and a roasted beet salad (Image: Renée Suen)
Fuel House is tucked away in a cozy Victorian house behind Café Diplomatico on Clinton Street, just north of College. The demure neighbourhood joint offers an ever-changing menu of sandwiches and snacks with prices topping out at $12.
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A hot bowl of Udon, along with a nama grapefruit sour and black croquettes (Image: Andrew Brudz)
DonDon, the new Dundas Street izakaya, is starting to gain some of the popularity of its two-year-old competition, Guu. But there are a couple crucial differences: DonDon takes reservations, and it’s open for lunch, at which the staff greets guests with the same ceremonial bang of the drum and cry of “Irasshaimase” you’d get at dinner time.
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An elevated take on a lunch counter cliché (Image: Matthew Fox)
It takes a special gift to transform a humble salad into a delicious pile of artery-clogging cream, crunchables and greens. Jon Polubiec has that gift, and he puts it to full use in the Granny Smith chicken caesar salad ($9) at his new pop-up restaurant, Come and Get It.
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(Image: Renée Suen)
Cool Hand Luc opened last June as King West’s first ice cream parlour. But come fall, owner Luc Essiambre branched outside the ice cream market, adding some nostalgic savoury numbers as well.
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