When Uncle Pete’s announced its closure back in April, it felt like the end of an era for a business that had barely had time to build one. The focaccia-based Italian sandwich shop opened in Kensington Market in August 2025 and became an instant sensation, only to hit a wall on leases and renewals less […]

Not every great restaurant story starts in a kitchen. Hayden’s Cheesesteaks started at a funeral. Max Solomons, a full-time corporate lawyer with zero professional cooking experience, grew up travelling to Philadelphia with his father, Hayden, a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan. Every trip ended the same way: with a cheesesteak, usually from Angelo’s Pizzeria, the South […]

The bookstore-meets-bar concept has already taken off in several major North American cities, and Toronto’s version has officially arrived: Book Bar, the latest addition to the city’s newly developing Mirvish Village, is open. Located at 600 Markham St. — just a few doors down from the recently opened Badiali pizzeria location — Book Bar describes […]

Toronto’s appetite for burgers has never really had a ceiling — the city supports everything from scrappy local smash-patty shops to full-scale international chains without much sign of saturation. Still, even by Toronto standards, having two heavyweight burger giants set up shop within metres of each other is a fairly rare event. McDonald’s has operated […]

Summer in Toronto arrives with a particular urgency — the months are precious, the evenings are warm for a finite window, and the city’s collective desire to be outside and social reaches a pitch that doesn’t exist in any other season. The rooftop bar scene exists to meet that desire, and in 2026, it’s doing […]

The FIFA World Cup is officially here, and while six matches will take place at Toronto Stadium, the real action may happen far away from the pitch. Over one month, Toronto will transform into one giant international party. Hundreds of thousands of visitors will flood the city from every corner of the world, creating one […]

Not every restaurant needs a grand entrance to make an impression. Mom’s Recipes, a quietly charming Ukrainian bakery and café tucked at 136 Avenue Rd. at the intersection of Yorkville, the Annex and Rosedale, opened just weeks ago and is already earning the kind of attention that most new restaurants take months to generate — […]

Canada’s most prestigious restaurant list has spoken, and Toronto is very much in the conversation. The 2026 Canada’s Best New Restaurants rankings were unveiled on May 4, and two Toronto establishments earned coveted spots among the country’s finest new dining destinations. N.L. Ginzburg, the latest venture from the celebrated team behind Bernhardt’s — Carmelina Imola […]

In a city constantly hungry for the next new thing, it can be easy to overlook the institutions that have quietly defined Toronto’s culinary identity for years. Yukashi, the Mount Pleasant sushi restaurant that earned the city’s first Michelin star alongside a handful of its most celebrated contemporaries, has announced it will be permanently closing […]

If it feels like venues rise and fall quickly in Toronto, that’s because they do. But it’s not random. There’s a system behind it. Over the past month, multiple venues have seen rapid shifts in popularity. Packed one weekend. Quiet the next. This volatility is driven by a combination of factors. Social media amplification. Word-of-mouth […]