This Japanese Italian diner is Leslieville’s latest brunch obsession

Name: Tatsuro’s Contact: 1378 Queen St. E., tatsuros.com, @tatsurostoronto
Neighbourhood: Leslieville
Owner: Oscar Lau Chefs: Oscar Lau and Maggie Wong Accessibility: Fully accessible

At first, Oscar Lau and Maggie Wong didn’t realize they’d opened an all-day breakfast spot in a neighbourhood where brunch is a veritable blood sport. But, after the Toronto Flea Market opened for the season at Ashbridge’s Bay, they found out fast.

“People were just flooding in,” says Lau. “We were not prepared—we didn’t even know this was a brunch-heavy area. But sometimes the universe just opens up.” Tatsuro’s, their Japanese-meets-Italian daytime diner in Leslieville, now has a wait list every weekend as the vintage shopping and stroller crowd jostle for tables piled high with pasta, shokupan toast and Japanese-inspired beverages.

The pair, along with partner and sushi chef Charlie Fung, took over a bougie butcher’s and opened in February, joining a bustling block that already includes Lambo’s Deli, Maru Japanese Bistro and Tulia Osteria. They wanted to do a modern take on a Japanese listening bar that combined their shared love of Italian and Japanese food—and judging by how busy they are, people are into it.

Lau and Wong met working the line at a small Japanese restaurant in Markham (which is also where they were introduced to Fung) in the mid-2010s. Lau had studied culinary management at George Brown, but Wong found herself in a kitchen only after she was laid off from a corporate photography gig. “It was the closest job to my house. I applied as a dishwasher, but they just threw me on the line,” she laughs. “I’ve been faking it ever since.”

Right before the pandemic, Lau helped develop an Italian Japanese menu for his aunt’s Markham restaurant, Café N’ One, and the success of that venture (she’s since opened a North York location) inspired him to step out on his own. But, first, he was determined to perfect his shokupan and mochi waffle recipes, which he spent the next few years working and re-working. “I’d get texts at 2 a.m. saying, I think I did it!” recalls Wong.

By 2023, Lau was working at Elephant Grind Coffee in Richmond Hill, where he and Wong ran a couple of successful pop-ups testing their concept. Then they started to search for their own spot. When they found the space in Leslieville, it came with a Toronto white whale: an unusually large kitchen, big enough to accommodate Lau’s bread-baking obsession.

The Food

Tatsuro’s tagline is “Coffee+Pasta+Toast”—and that’s pretty much what’s on offer. “No tweezers!” says Wong to underscore the food’s unfussiness. The menu is an eclectic mix of breakfast classics with Japanese twists (nori scrambled eggs and mochi waffles), bistro lunch vibes (roasted potato or seared chicken salad) and oodles of noodles. There’s also a whole section dedicated to toast made with Lau’s springy, painstakingly perfected shokupan. “When people say, ‘Nice bread!’ I tell them, ‘Yeah, you’re eating my pain and suffering,’” he says.

The Drinks

While they’re in the process of applying for a liquor licence (and hoping to open for dinner by the winter), for now, beverages include coffee, Pluck tea, juice and Ramune (a Japanese soda).

The Space

The pair says their design aesthetic is simply “living room.” “We want people to feel like they’re in our house,” says Lau. The simple, bright space is painted green and white, filled with tables, and decorated with Value Village bric-a-brac. Music is a big part of the vibe: the place is named after Tatsuro Yamashita, a musician known for pioneering city pop, a bubbly brand of Japanese pop from the ’70s and ’80s—which they play on repeat here.