Toronto Life’s most popular food stories of 2024
Our top Q&As, memoirs, packages and restaurant openings
Our readers were hungry for a variety of stories this year, including a memoir about opening a cocktail bar in Mexico, a food tour of St. Catharines and a Taylor Swift–inspired investigative report. Here, a dozen of our most-read food stories of 2024.
No. 10 “My restaurants are for anyone, they just might not be for everyone”
Ten openings, one bestselling memoir and a million social-media spats later, Toronto restaurateur Jen Agg continues to innovate. We caught up with Agg after the opening of General Public, her new hotspot on Geary Avenue, and got her thoughts on perceived value, handling rude customers and burgers that aren’t smashed | Courtney Shea | October 15
No. 9 Where chef Braden Chong eats Chinese food in Markham and Richmond Hill
Braden Chong spends most of his time bouncing between Mimi Chinese and its sister restaurant, Sunnys Chinese, but when he has a free afternoon, the chef and self-proclaimed homebody will travel from his place downtown to Richmond Hill and Markham in search of Chinese food. He took us for a tour of his go-to spots for mapo tofu, Shaoxing-marinated cold chicken and pan-fried pork buns. | Tiffany Leigh | March 1
No. 8 What’s on the menu at Estiatorio Milos, a gargantuan new Greek restaurant in the Financial District
Estiatorio Milos—a 12-location Greek restaurant empire that began in Montreal, then spread to New York and as far away as Singapore and Dubai—opened in Toronto this fall to much fanfare. It was this year’s second-most-popular edition of our What’s on the Menu series. | Erin Hershberg | September 25
No. 7 “I couldn’t put my energy into Toronto anymore”
In 2023, Richard Pope closed Northwood, his 10-year-old Christie Pits cocktail bar, then opened another one—in Tulum, Mexico. He told us how (and why) it all went down. | Richard Pope, as told to Kate Dingwall | January 2
No. 6 The Mensch
What’s a nice Jewish boy like David Schwartz doing running a Chinese food mini-empire, and why risk everything to open a deli-inspired steakhouse? It’s all about honouring his mom, of course. | David Sax | October 2
No. 5 What’s on the menu at Shake Shack’s first Canadian outpost
After years of will-they-or-won’t-they rumours and gossip, the American burger chain finally opened its first Toronto location. The menu features some locally inspired one-offs like a maple-inflected milkshake, butter tart custard and a house beer made in collaboration with Bellwoods Brewery. | Kate Dingwall | June 13
No. 4 A foodie road trip to St. Catharines
Lush Niagara farmland and a tight-knit culinary community have turned St. Catharines into a dining destination. We whipped up a guide to the best restaurants, bakeries, cafés and dairy bars. | Mark Pupo | August 29
No. 3 Wait: Did Taylor Swift really visit a Toronto dive bar?
After the Star published a news article about Taylor Swift visiting a Roncesvalles watering hole after her last Toronto concert, we attempted to interview the bar’s owner—only to find that the staff member we got on the phone had no idea what everyone was talking about. So we dug deeper. This late-breaking post was so popular, it snuck in at No. 3 despite being only a few weeks old. | Courtney Shea | December 4
No. 2 Everything to eat at Waterworks Food Hall, the new 55,000-square-foot European-style destination for gourmet bites
Toronto has been on an upscale food-hall tear this summer, and Waterworks Food Hall—a sleek retrofit of a 1930s machine shop—is the showiest one yet, packed with stalls from local indie food-and-beverage stars. | Tiffany Leigh | July 19
No. 1 Where to Eat Now 2024
Our 42nd annual ranking of the city’s best new restaurants—featuring swish steakhouses, an old-school Italian spot, an over-the-top wine bar, more than one tasting menu and a teeny-tiny Korean snack bar—took this year’s No. 1 spot. | Liza Agrba, Caroline Aksich and Erin Hershberg | May 13
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