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The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
The Hot ’n Dog’s effervescent owner, George Karpouzis (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
As hungry customers file into The Hot ’n Dog around noon, owner George Karpouzis greets regulars by name, inquiring after their day and reminding them, gently, to keep up with their homework. With four schools within walking distance, this tiny new Parkdale eatery is the new go-to place for kids to looking grab a quick lunch. We decided to see what the fuss was about.
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(Image: Remie Geoffroi)
Midday in Mumbai, the streets are choked with bicycle-riding couriers carrying lunch in tiffins—stackable, reusable stainless steel containers. Mumbai is nothing like lunchtime in Toronto, when cubicle drones descend into food courts and stand in line for lumpy servings of salty carbs and icky meats drizzled with vaguely ethnic sauces. Luckily for the Bay Street hordes, Seema Pabari, a former paint buyer for Lowe’s, launched a lunch delivery service called Tiffinday. Entrées are about $11 each, and everything is vegan. The menu includes curried chana and puffy bhatura bread, a lentil-stuffed dosa served with coconut chutney, and vegetable-studded basmati rice with a side of pickled lemons. Users order online by 3 p.m. the day before, and meals are prepped by 11 a.m. the next morning. Pabari sends out 150 meals a week and is aiming for 100 a day, at which point she’ll open a satellite kitchen at Yonge and Eg. “I’m going head-to-head with the food courts,” Pabari says, determined to bestow executives of both genders the culinary benefits of having an old-fashioned Indian wife.
Three-item combo at Taste of Orient (Image: Renée Suen)
A food court gem located in the newly renovated Richmond Adelaide Centre, Taste of Orient serves heaping plates of simple but flavourful Cantonese food at the right price and the right pace for local lunch-goers with a schedule to keep. Less than $8 delivers three items from the heated countertop display with rice or noodles. On our visit, the curry-stained Singapore-style noodles, stir-fried with cabbage, carrot and onion are surprisingly light, while the green beans and chicken is, unlike most fast food counters, neither greasy nor sitting in a pool of congealed sauce. The coconut shrimp is encased in a thin, crisp batter and coated with a sweet mayonnaise dressing. Finally, four large sole fillets come slicked with a faint oyster-based sauce and delicately steamed with ginger and green onion. Altogether, a great value for surprisingly well-executed food.
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The creole salad and the quesadilla de pollo at the Boulevard Café (Image: Renée Suen)
The Boulevard Café has been serving Peruvian staples from its cozy, two-storey Annex home for the last 31 years, and to mark the occasion, the owners are offering a $15 prix fixe two-course lunch from Sundays to Thursdays.
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We swear at each other from cars, bark at each other on the TTC and yell into our cellphones. How a supposedly livable city suddenly turned boorish
(Illustration by Kagan McLeod)
I got into a cat fight the other day at the Bolshoi ballet, one of those live satellite transmissions at my local Cineplex, where people arrive an hour early to get a good seat. The orchestra in Moscow hadn’t yet begun warming up when one balletomane barked at me for sitting in her territory, a 10-seat swath ambiguously marked with scattered scarves and hats. “You can’t sit there,” she said, with surprising nastiness. When I chose a seat farther down the row, she snapped, “That’s taken, too.” Steaming, I moved to a third spot and plunked my bag down on the seat beside me, not to save it for anyone, but to ensure zero human contact after being bullied by Lady Ten-Seat.
Rudeness is contagious. When another woman arrived a minute later and needed two seats, I set my jaw. “You’re not going to move your bag?” she asked, incredulous. “Nope,” I replied. We exchanged sharp words. “I’m tired of being pushed around by your friend,” I finally hissed, nodding at Lady Ten-Seat. It turned out not only did they not know one another, but my newfound adversary had just received the same rude treatment. “Now I’m totally edgy, too,” she confessed, suddenly extending her hand. “I’m Jane. Let’s be friends.” Mortified, I shook her hand, apologized and moved my coat. Then we all settled in to watch Giselle.
I wish such hostile encounters were rare, but it’s hard to navigate the city these days without experiencing friction. At least that’s my observation. Perhaps I’m just a magnet for trouble. Perhaps you, on the other hand, float through winter with people politely stepping into snowbanks to let you pass; perhaps you’ve never been held captive to a cellphone user’s inane conversation on a streetcar. But I say civility is on the decline, and the evidence is everywhere.
Yonge Street’s poshest stretch, from Ramsden Park up to the Summerhill LCBO, has two strong suits: food and decor. Locals from the tree-lined side streets keep the shops going during the week, while the weekend brings floods of shoppers from further afield. Here, our list of 23 essential restaurants, food shops, furniture stores, clothing boutiques and beauty parlours along tony Toronto’s main drag.
The tender barbecued chicken at Tabülè
This Middle Eastern restaurant is a midtown favourite—the room is already packed when we arrive for lunch. Our order of tawük ($8.95), recommended by an attentive server, features grilled nuggets of naturally raised Mennonite chicken parked next to a mountain of fluffy rice studded with vermicelli and fried onions. Like an ode to the perfect summer barbecue, the breast meat is moist under its light, charred crust and acts as the perfect foil to a large side of fattoush ($1.50 extra)—a refreshing salad of rough-chopped cucumber and tomatoes, sliced red onion and torn, toasted pita chips doused with a tart sumac dressing. We wash everything down with a tall tumbler of orange blossom-spiked lemonade ($3.95) and think of the warm weather to come.
The cost: $19, not including tax and tip
The time: 37 minutes
Tabülè, 2009 Yonge St. (at Glebe Rd. E.), 416-483-3747, tabule.ca.
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Great Cooks on Eight is an open-concept cooking studio and dining room on the eighth floor of the Simpson building. Since opening in December 2004, it has been feeding lunchers some top-notch fare from Andrea Nicholson-Jack (and providing them with a stunning face-to-face view of Old City Hall). Great Cooks on Eight only does lunch and has it down pat. Case in point: the slow-roasted leg of lamb sandwich ($18).
(Image: Trevor King)
The King West seafood mainstay opened this financial district offshoot on quiet Temperance Street last spring. The owners are as environmentally conscious with their food as they are with their decor, using mostly reclaimed pieces for a stylish maritime vibe. Between five and 10 kinds of oysters are available each day, drawn from both coasts and sometimes from as far away as Japan. This day’s selection includes clean-tasting Rappahannock River oysters from Virginia, briny Merigomish from Nova Scotia, and the salty-sweet Kusshi from B.C., helpfully arranged from the most subtle to most potent ($3 to $5 each). Mix and match with the house-brand condiments, including the appropriately named Danger Bay hot sauce. A bowl of Rodney’s crispy, salty frites rounds out the lunch, like an ultra-refreshing version of moules frites. A house-made ginger beer ($2.50) is the perfect seafood complement.
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Grilled octopus with olives and a tomato, red onion and caper salsa (Image: Renée Suen)
A trip to Elm Street’s Adega is the perfect way to remain in denial that spring is still months away. The Portuguese restaurant’s signature Mediterranean octopus is impeccably grilled, its slightly charred crust shielding a tender, meaty core. Potatoes, crisp French beans and a gently cooked carrot play second fiddle to the hearty octopus, which is garnished with plump black olives and a bright tomato, red onion and caper salsa.
The cost: $32.50 with tax and tip.
The time: 1 hour.
Adega, 33 Elm St., 416-977-4338, adegarestaurante.ca.
A chicken in every pot at Etsu (Image: Renée Suen)
Taking responsibility for holiday excesses might be a painful task, but Etsu’s sam gye tang ($23) goes a long way in helping tighten belts, both the literally and figuratively. The soup must be ordered a day in advance, but planning ahead pays off: the dish is hearty enough for two, consisting of a whole chicken, stuffed with sticky rice and slow simmered in a savoury broth with Korean ginseng and oriental herbs. The dish is sweetened by dried jujubes, tender garlic cloves, and draped with omelette slivers, pine nuts, scallions and a boiled chestnut. Coarse salt and ground pepper are provided for DIY seasoning. The one-pot meal is more than comfort; Korean tradition purports to cure physical ailments and prevent sickness.
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A steak dinner at Noce (Image: Renée Suen)
Big-spending downtown Torontonians have taken in the past few years to whining about Winterlicious, but the two-week dining festival, running from January 28 through February 10, remains popular for a reason: it offers great value, particularly if you choose your reservations well. Here are a dozen of Toronto Life’s best bets. They’re older, more established places, generally, with kitchens that clearly care. And though we haven’t yet tasted the restaurants’ 2011 Winterlicious menus, they’re full of interesting, delicious-sounding picks.
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The belly-warming orecchiette at Osteria (Image: Renée Suen)
One of downtown’s most popular lunch destinations, this Victoria Street restaurant buzzes with energy as friendly wait staff usher soul-satisfying Italian plates to lunching lawyers and city hallers. Complimentary olives and hunks of dense ciabatta bread dipped in fruity extra-virgin olive oil quell hunger pangs until our order arrives. Belly-warming orecchiette (pasta shaped like little ears) are tiny toothsome pockets zinged with bits of chili, garlic and anchovies. The subtle briny fish flavour is balanced by pan-blistered rapini. We finish the pungent affair with a cappuccino and a much needed-breath mint.
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The good and the grape: Drake Café's chicken curry burrito (Image: Catherine Hayday)
The café at the Drake Hotel is showing a bit of mercy to busy office workers who don’t have time for a sit-down lunch. Its new (and aptly titled) Grab and Go menu features one-hand-required “type and eat” sandwiches that break from shrink-wrapped, cardboard-laced cubicle fare. The chicken curry version is fresh and filling. It comes with moist meat and just the right amount of spice, but its most impressive features are fruit and nuts: grapes, apples and walnuts. Available when the café opens at 8 a.m., the sandwich can be procured mid-commute. The grapes and walnuts ensure that it’s is still juicy and crunchy at midday.
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Top toque Michael Steh, bronze medallist at Toronto’s annual Gold Medal Plates competition, is the culinary mastermind behind this haute mac-and-cheese. The bowl of al dente ditalini is enriched with moist shreds of crab and scallions, spiked with just enough grainy mustard to give it a nutty crunch. It’s all baked under a blistered layer of fontina. The final product is like a crab cake, only made better thanks to the naughty combination of the nostalgia of kiddie comfort food and a three-ounce pour of muscat blanc ($7).
Time: 56 minutes.
Cost: $27, before tax and tip.
Reds, 77 Adelaide St. W., 416-862-7337, redsbistro.com.
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