The Dish Power Rankings: Shumai and Shawarma Edition

In this week’s roundup: Middle Eastern cuisine dominates, and Sandy Cohen eats dumplings.

1. Luckee It’s always a good sign when a restaurant’s opening-night guest list reads like a high-society roll call. (Among the attendees: famed eyebrow owner Peter Gallagher and all three judges from Masterchef Canada.)

2. Khao San Road Among the less normal (but totally effective) ways to hype up your new spin-off restaurant: impersonating three nonexistent people for six months while giving hardworking restaurant reporters the runaround.

3. Fat Pasha Prime-time tables are already all booked up for this weekend and next weekend. Anyone desperate for couscous and hummus can still snag a seat at 5:45ish (or eat literally anywhere else in town).

4. Byblos Like Byblos, for instance. Except it’s packed after 6 p.m. all weekend, too. Sorry!

5. Fonda Lola We’re pretty sure it’s not the (potentially dubious) claim to traditional Aztec authenticity that’s keeping people coming back to Fonda. Order the whole menu and they give you a piñata to smack. A piñata!

6. Bellwoods Brewery The heated patio helps sustain the illusion that Toronto has a normal, non-terrible climate. (If you can get a seat on it, that is, which you probably can’t.)

7. Geraldine Famed Canadian fiddler (and Great Lakes Swimmers member) Miranda Mulholland shot a video at Geraldine, which is apparently turning into a makeshift tiki bar—complete with Swizzles and a pig roast—next Tuesday.

8. Patachou Rosedale and St. Clair West residents: you have exactly one week left to gorge on Patachou’s inimitable almond croissants and other comforting creations. Both shops close May 3.

9. The Bristol Yard Christie Pitsers have but a handful of British-brunch opportunities left at the Yard, which closes next week, too. (It’s coming back, though.)

10. Small Town Food Co. We were duly impressed with this cozy Parkdale pub’s affordable, eclectic menu. (We’re not the only ones.)

Honourable Mentions: Relative Ossington old-timer Oddseoul earned the number-two spot on Eater Toronto’s list of the city’s 38 “essential” restaurants (number one was, snore, Bar Isabel), and The Globe’s Chris Nuttall-Smith praised the Cantonese pastries at Kwan, a new dim-sum shop at Yonge and St. Clair.