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Liza Agrba

Liza Agrba has worked as a freelance journalist in Toronto for over a decade and has earned multiple awards. She covers food, business and culture and writes memoir-style pieces. Her work frequently appears in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Toronto Life and many other publications

Latest from Liza Agrba

Sort-of Secret: Friday Night Delights, chef Matthew Ravenscroft’s new plant-based supper series

Sort-of Secret: Friday Night Delights, chef Matthew Ravenscroft’s new plant-based supper series

He's keeping busy while on furlough from vegan Mexican restaurant Rosalinda

What to Eat Now: Toronto's best pandemic-born pop-ups and pivots

What to Eat Now: Toronto’s best pandemic-born pop-ups and pivots

Delicious highlights from a year of unprecedented challenge, mind-boggling reinvention and sweat-soaked resilience

What's on the takeout menu at Milou, chef Mikey Kim's new French bistro and market

What’s on the takeout menu at Milou, chef Mikey Kim’s new French bistro and market

Coq au vin sandwich? Oui, s'il vous plaît

Sort-of Secret: Good Behaviour, a small-batch creamery churning out super-seasonal pints of ice cream

Sort-of Secret: Good Behaviour, a small-batch creamery churning out super-seasonal pints of ice cream

Current flavours include Hong Kong milk tea and honey-nut cereal

Stock the ultimate pantry with these kitchen staples from Toronto restaurants

Stock the ultimate pantry with these kitchen staples from Toronto restaurants

Including kimchi, pasta sauce, salad dressing and oven-ready biscuits

Hot Plate: Eight orders of chicken wings you need to eat right now

Hot Plate: Eight orders of chicken wings you need to eat right now

Whether you're on Team Drums or Team Flats, these poultry purveyors have wings down pat

Sort-of Secret: The Abibiman Project, a new online shop specializing in African spice blends, condiments and chocolates

Sort-of Secret: The Abibiman Project, a new online shop specializing in African spice blends, condiments and chocolates

Founder and chef Rachel Adjei donates 100 per cent of her profits to Afri-Can FoodBasket

Sort-of Secret: Godfrey’s Supper Club, a pop-up serving weekly menus of Eastern European comfort food

Sort-of Secret: Godfrey’s Supper Club, a pop-up serving weekly menus of Eastern European comfort food

Chef Shauna Godfrey previously worked in the kitchens of Momofuku Kōjin and NYC’s Atera

Toronto bars and restaurants making Super Bowl Sunday snack platters for takeout and delivery

Toronto bars and restaurants making Super Bowl Sunday snack platters for takeout and delivery

Bring the sports bar experience home

Sort-of Secret: Flora's Deli, an Italian-style sandwich pop-up operating out of a west-end bar

Sort-of Secret: Flora’s Deli, an Italian-style sandwich pop-up operating out of a west-end bar

It's run by a former Chantecler chef

Sort-of Secret: Sunnys Chinese, a pop-up kitchen serving up meticulous Chinese menus with a regional focus

Sort-of Secret: Sunnys Chinese, a pop-up kitchen serving up meticulous Chinese menus with a regional focus

The most recent menu was 100 per cent Sichuan

Sort-of Secret: Porzia's Lasagne, a weekly takeout pasta operation working out of a west-end restaurant

Sort-of Secret: Porzia’s Lasagne, a weekly takeout pasta operation working out of a west-end restaurant

Just look at all those layers

Hot Plate: Five birria tacos you need to eat right now

Hot Plate: Five birria tacos you need to eat right now

It's the trendiest taco in Toronto

Toronto restaurants doing New Year's Day brunch for takeout or delivery

Toronto restaurants doing New Year’s Day brunch for takeout or delivery

Perfect for the morning after a night of at-home partying

Toronto restaurants doing special New Year’s Eve dinners for takeout and delivery

Toronto restaurants doing special New Year’s Eve dinners for takeout and delivery

The best part: no dress code

Sort-of Secret: Crosley’s, a pop-up dinner service run by a couple of Brothers Restaurant alumni

Sort-of Secret: Crosley’s, a pop-up dinner service run by a couple of Brothers Restaurant alumni

It's being run out of Bar Piquette until they open their own space next year

A Toronto brew pub has teamed up with Montreal's Joe Beef to create the best TV dinner tray of all time

A Toronto brew pub has teamed up with Montreal’s Joe Beef to create the best TV dinner tray of all time

Haute heat-and-eat cuisine from Woodhouse Brew Pub

Sort-of Secret: Breadhead, a one-woman bakery selling sourdough bread, croissants, cinnamon buns and doughnuts

Sort-of Secret: Breadhead, a one-woman bakery selling sourdough bread, croissants, cinnamon buns and doughnuts

When the kitchen pastry chef Lucy Kirby was hired to work in closed, she started her own

Sort-of Secret: Noble House, a small-scale kitchen for family style takeout from the 416 Snack Bar chef

Sort-of Secret: Noble House, a small-scale kitchen for family style takeout from the 416 Snack Bar chef

These meals are meant to cater to a whole family's tastes

Hot Plate: Five katsu sandos you need to eat right now

Hot Plate: Five katsu sandos you need to eat right now

They're the best things since sliced bread

Sort-of Secret: Mama Akua's, delicious Ghanaian dishes from a mother-daughter duo

Sort-of Secret: Mama Akua’s, delicious Ghanaian dishes from a mother-daughter duo

If you've never tried jollof rice or red red before, now's your chance

Hot Plate: Seven smash burgers you need to eat right now

Hot Plate: Seven smash burgers you need to eat right now

They're decidedly unfancy, wholly comforting and always reliable

Hot Plate: Five submarine sandwiches you need to eat right now

Hot Plate: Five submarine sandwiches you need to eat right now

Five foot-long reasons to eat your feelings

Toronto's best online cooking, baking and drink-making classes

Toronto’s best online cooking, baking and drink-making classes

Learn to bake bread, shake a cocktail and roll sushi from some of Toronto's finest purveyors, all from the comfort of your laptop

Summer Camp Guide

Summer Camp Directory 2026

Summer Camp Directory 2026

Discover our top-rated summer camps for kids of all ages

Wines of the World

Wines of the World: Rediscover your favourites from Toronto Life’s Best Restaurants

Wines of the World: Rediscover your favourites from Toronto Life’s Best Restaurants

From cabernet and merlot to icewine and chardonnay, these wines are primed to pair and delight

Big Stories

Charm Offensive: The cottage country mortgage broker who lost $101 million of his clients’ money

Charm Offensive: The cottage country mortgage broker who lost $101 million of his clients’ money

Sandy Sussman spent decades wooing the upper echelons of Toronto society, becoming their go-to investment guy. He took their money and made a huge bet on cottage country. When the market tanked, he lost it all. Then he did everything in his power to cover it up

The Monster Cottages vs. the Resistance: Inside the ruthless battle for the future of Muskoka

The Monster Cottages vs. the Resistance: Inside the ruthless battle for the future of Muskoka

From Gravenhurst to Port Cockburn, the uber rich and powerful are buying up shoreline for private island compounds and sprawling mega-resorts, radically changing the face of Muskoka and infuriating environmentalists, locals and long-time cottagers

Dead Reckoning: The executor of their estate was supposed to divide it among their friends and family. Instead, he bankrupted it

Dead Reckoning: The executor of their estate was supposed to divide it among their friends and family. Instead, he bankrupted it

When Sami and June Suomalainen died, it fell to the executor of their wills, a lawyer they hardly knew, to sell their million-dollar midtown home and split the proceeds among their inheritors. Seven years and six lawsuits later, the beneficiaries haven’t seen a cent

These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2026

These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2026

This year’s list includes a 150-square-foot omakase counter, a Parisian brasserie in the Annex, Korean comfort food, Filipino karaoke and a Summerhill seafood spot that’s reinventing the raw bar

Hoop Dreams: Inside the making of the Toronto Tempo, the city’s newly assembled WNBA team

Hoop Dreams: Inside the making of the Toronto Tempo, the city’s newly assembled WNBA team

After years of false starts, months of nail-biting negotiations between the league and the players’ union, and an 11th-hour scramble to build a roster, Toronto finally has its own major-league women’s basketball team. Now it just has to live up to the hype

Live From New York: Inside the slay-or-be-slayed world of Studio 8H with SNL rookie Veronika Slowikowska

Live From New York: Inside the slay-or-be-slayed world of Studio 8H with SNL rookie Veronika Slowikowska

Slowikowska is the first Canadian to join the cast of Saturday Night Live in more than 25 years. She’s also this season’s breakout star. Now all she has to do is keep crushing it

Better Call Deepak: Meet drug lord Ryan Wedding’s self-styled cocaine lawyer

Better Call Deepak: Meet drug lord Ryan Wedding’s self-styled cocaine lawyer

The man who represented the infamous drug lord is unapologetically flashy—he has a Lamborghini and two Maseratis and wears $1,200 Louboutins. But did he become an accomplice to his client’s crimes? Deepak Paradkar says he was just doing his job. The FBI says he crossed a line

The Redemption Tour: The Blue Jays are back. Can they finish what they started?

The Redemption Tour: The Blue Jays are back. Can they finish what they started?

We’re not over it, but they are. Six months after that devastating defeat, the Jays take the field once more, bent more than ever on winning the World Series. Dispatches from the dugout

My Life as a True Crime Spectacle: My father’s crimes fractured our family. Then came the press

My Life as a True Crime Spectacle: My father’s crimes fractured our family. Then came the press

My dad was the infamous Rolex Killer. The news of his crimes nearly broke me. And ever since, my family has been hounded by reporters, podcasters and true crime fanatics—a whole new circle of hell

Robby on the Line: Out and about with Robby Hoffman, comedy’s equal opportunity assassin

Robby on the Line: Out and about with Robby Hoffman, comedy’s equal opportunity assassin

Larry David is the indisputable king of brutal honesty. But if anyone comes close, it’s Robby Hoffman, the suddenly everywhere comic from whom no group is safe

Notes on an Academic Scandal: Why did TMU demote a leading advocate of DEI?

Notes on an Academic Scandal: Why did TMU demote a leading advocate of DEI?

Pamela Sugiman, a former arts dean at Toronto Metropolitan University, was a key player in the school’s push for diversity, equity and inclusion. When the backlash against DEI arrived, she was demoted. The school says it was a coincidence. She disagrees

City of Renters: The dream of home ownership isn’t dead. Maybe it should be?

City of Renters: The dream of home ownership isn’t dead. Maybe it should be?

Scenes from the rent-for-life revolution

This generation was pummelled by Covid high school. Now the job market wants to replace them with AI

This generation was pummelled by Covid high school. Now the job market wants to replace them with AI

It’s hard out here for a 20-something

The High Price of Hope: Inside Toronto’s white-hot fertility market

The High Price of Hope: Inside Toronto’s white-hot fertility market

Desperate wannabe parents are betting their life savings on unproven treatments and false promises

Man vs. Machine: ChatGPT caused him to spiral into delusion. Now he’s suing OpenAI

Man vs. Machine: ChatGPT caused him to spiral into delusion. Now he’s suing OpenAI

Last spring, a chatbot convinced Allan Brooks that he had discovered a revolutionary mathematical theory. He says it nearly destroyed him

Smart City: 20 mind-blowing Toronto inventions that are changing the world

Smart City: 20 mind-blowing Toronto inventions that are changing the world

Homegrown innovations that will transform lives for the better

293 Days Without My Son: I gave up everything to rescue my kidnapped child from my abusive husband

293 Days Without My Son: I gave up everything to rescue my kidnapped child from my abusive husband

When Valentino was abducted, I knew three things: he’d been taken by his father, he was somewhere in India and I would not rest until I found him

Just Listed

For Sale: 99 Lake Promenade

For Sale: 99 Lake Promenade

This classic Hamptons-style home by Chatsworth Fine Homes offers an exciting opportunity to customize a new dream home and build instant value - without the long wait of new construction

For Sale: 92 Arjay Crescent

For Sale: 92 Arjay Crescent

As luxury buyers become increasingly focused on wellness, privacy, and long-term livability, a new generation of custom homes is emerging – one defined less by excess and more by thoughtful design

For Sale: 171 Durant Ave

For Sale: 171 Durant Ave

This rare property features 2 houses on 1 lot

For Sale: 50 First Avenue

For Sale: 50 First Avenue

A testament to time presiding over one of Uxbridge's most storied streetscapes, this magnificently preserved circa 1880 residence commands its prominent corner lot with the quiet confidence of a true architectural landmark

For Sale: 7 Bentley Drive

For Sale: 7 Bentley Drive

A commanding architectural statement in prestigious Stonegate–Queensway, this newly completed custom residence by Bali Homes Group presents a refined interpretation of contemporary luxury living