The Dish Power Rankings: Best New Restaurants edition

Toronto Life’s roundup of the restaurants with the biggest buzz, the longest lineups and the toughest tables to snag.

Our annual Where to Eat Now issue lands on newsstands today, crowning a new restaurant as the city’s buzziest. Elsewhere, the already-packed OddSeoul gets a boost from Drake.

1. Shōtō (↑7)
   Only the city’s Best New Restaurant could manage to knock the reigning hipster barbecue joint out of the top spot.
2. Electric Mud BBQ (↓1)
   An estimated wait of four hours last Saturday earns this Grand Electric spinoff the number two spot. It’s almost like it’s 2011 all over again.
3. OddSeoul (↑3)
   We’re told that the band members from Metric are regulars here, and that Drake has been to OddSeoul three times already (in his latest dour paean to himself, “5AM in Toronto,” he also shouts out OddSeoul sister restaurant Swish by Han).
4. Edulis (↓2)
   A spot in the Edulis reservation book continues to be elusive—there’s nothing available for the rest of the week.
5. Playa Cabana Cantina (↓1)
   You have to call about 10 days ahead to score a good weekend table at Cantina now (also: who knew the bartender behind Cantina’s booze program was barely of legal age?).
6. Farmhouse Tavern (↓2)
   Guests are starting to book as early as three weeks in advance for a spot at this Junction Triangle restaurant (which happens to grace the cover of our April issue).
7. Rose and Sons (↓2)
   Not everyone is enamoured with Rose and Sons: The Star’s Amy Pataki grumpily described the diner as “the culinary equivalent of sweatpants: comfortable but lazy.” This hasn’t stopped patrons from flocking to Dupont Street in droves.
8. Patria (↑1)
   Minor celebrities continue to spend big bucks at Charles Khabouth’s buzzy Spanish restaurant (and rave about it on Twitter).
9. Porzia (↓2)
   Having ceded the title of Parkdale’s buzziest restaurant to Electric Mud, tables at Porzia are, mercifully, much more accessible now.
10. The Samuel J. Moore (new this week)
    The new restaurant from the owners of The Lakeview and Wrongbar, with its plum location and six different menus, is perfectly positioned to soak up Queen West’s after-work and after-bar traffic.

Honourable mentions: Zakkushi gets the menu-on-a-page treatment from The Grid and Joanne Kates discovers Banh Mi Boys.

Dropped off the list this week: Guu Izakaya.