The Dish Toronto Restaurant Power Rankings: game on
| January 10, 2013
Toronto is in the middle of a great restaurant boom. Over 150 restaurants opened in the last year alone, most of them hyped on Twitter, deconstructed on blogs (like ours) and ranked in countless year-end roundups. Tracking the ups and downs—the praise and the pans—has never been more entertaining. That’s why we’ve decided to launch our first-ever Power Rankings, a list of the restaurants with the biggest buzz, the longest lineups and toughest tables to snag. Below, the 20 restaurants that are dominating the foodie conversation in Toronto right now.
- Shōtō Despite a recent pan from Joanne Kates, David Chang’s unabashedly ambitious Toronto flagship is all that foodies are talking about.
- Edulis Michael Caballo and Tobey Nemeth’s locavore bistro is still riding high off the best new restaurant in Canada title bestowed by EnRoute.
- JaBistro The newest restaurant from the owners of Guu not only makes unusual and meticulously executed sushi—it also takes reservations. And this week, it started serving lunch.
- Kingyo Of all the izakayas to make the trip over from Vancouver, Kingyo is easily the most sophisticated.
- Daishō The “large-format” Momofuku restaurant is the most exciting place to take part in the feasting trend that’s slowly taking over.
- Rose and Sons Anthony Rose, who built The Drake into a hipster kitsch powerhouse, must be doing something right: his tiny diner, with its calorie-dense throwbacks, is always packed.
- The Grove This Dundas West British restaurant is on nearly everyone’s year-end list. It reopens tomorrow with a new menu after a winter break.
- The Black Hoof Anthony Bourdain gave The Hoof a sloppy smooch on The Layover. Cue droves of foodie tourists.
- Strada 241 Rustic Italian is the most overplayed trend, but the Rubino brothers are doing it right.
- Patria Charles Khabouth is better known for bringing in clubby crowds than for his culinary A-game. At Patria, he’s managed to do both.
- Skin and Bones Matthew Sullivan, the chef who bounced from kitchen to pop-up to kitchen, finally alighted at this Queen East bistro. Props for designing his menu around the wine list, instead of the other way around.
- Richmond Station Carl Heinrich’s post-Top Chef Canada restaurant has drawn raves from the Globe, NOW and most recently, the inimitable Ryan Storm. We humbly disagree.
- Splendido After years of nobly staying above the fray, spendy Splendido is participating in Winterlicious. Their phones have to be ringing off the hook.
- Canoe Canoe, by contrast, is the fancy restaurant that’s never been too cool to lower its prices twice a year and let the ’licious hordes in.
- Café Boulud With a slew of middling to downright hostile reviews, the shine is off this much-hyped New York import.
- Sabai Sabai Now that Jeff and Nuit Regular have parted company with Khao San Road, this new Church Street spot is the place to go for chef Nuit’s brand of northern Thai food.
- Hawthorne Hawthorne’s fun #FourSquare Meal has kept the tiny downtown restaurant packed with suits at lunch. Last night, despite some mechanical issues, they launched their dinner menu.
- Chantecler For the New Year, Chantecler jettisoned its à-la-carte menu, shrewdly extending its popular lettuce wrap Sundays to the full week, with tasting menus coming next month.
- Reds The Bay Street power lunch spot’s make-under has been a success.
- Delux Corinna Mozo celebrates five great years on Ossington this month with a special menu of the French-Cuban restaurant’s classics at reduced prices.
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