• Actinolite: Chef Justin Cournoyer is not just a perfectionist. He’s also a zealot, and an obsessive. His commitment to representing Ontario’s terroir on the plate knows no comparison in Toronto. At his jewel-box 30-seat restaurant, located on a residential street a good 10-minute walk from anything trendy, Cournoyer produces an incredible tasting menu created from ingredients foraged, grown, and raised in Ontario. Courses are thoughtful, building on each other, with flavors echoed between plates and garnishes snatched from the garden out back. 
  • Alo: After Restaurant magazine named Alo one of the top 100 restaurants in the world in 2018, a reservation here became a lusted-after commodity. In fact, there are whole online forums dedicated to strategizing how to snag a table at Alo, a French restaurant that singlehandedly rehabilitated the tasting menu’s reputation in Toronto. Chef Patrick Kriss turns dinner into high art, where each four-bite plate is pretty enough hang in a gallery. The service is impeccably choreographed down to the napkins, which are chosen to match a guest’s outfit. 
  • DaiLo: Second-generation Canadian Nick Liu loved his parents’ Chinese home cooking, but as a young chef, he was convinced multi-starred Michelin fare was the pinnacle of culinary excellence. Lucky for us, he’s now married haute French technique with Chinese, Thai, and Korean traditions. Best of all, he’s executing his menu with seasonal Canadian ingredients. It sounds complicated, but it works. Truffle fried rice (with XO sauce) is spicy and decadent, while Ontario pea dumplings (made with bone marrow and bacon dashi) are addictive. 
  • Canoe: On the 54th floor of a busy Financial District skyscraper, executives with enviable expense accounts woo new clients over multi-course tasting menus at this long-standing fine-dining destination. Long before the farm-to-table movement took over the city, Canoe was elevating local ingredients and showing Toronto that Canadian food wasn’t dull, but inspirational. Provincial terroirs are evoked with game meats and native plants like balsam fir, reindeer moss, cattails, daylilies, and sumac. In the evenings, with the town twinkling below, Canoe’s vibe shifts from corporate to romantic. 
  • Mira: No signs point the way to this Peruvian restaurant tucked in an alley off King Street. A trail of flickering lanterns leads diners down a redbrick pathway and up to the unassuming front door. Inside, an open kitchen greets diners. Trays of ceviche (five varieties on offer) are being sent down to the sunken dining room. There, modern mad men sip refreshing pisco cocktails. Don’t skip the finale: The chocolate bomb might be the best dessert in town.
  • Auberge du Pommier: Tucked among the North York office buildings, these two charming woodcutters' cottages are relics from the 1860s, when this area was still a forest, not even yet farmland. The O&B hospitality group has turned the stone buildings into a fabulous French restaurant. Few places are equally alluring in summer as they are in winter. During the snowy months, Auberge du Pommier is animated by the crackle of a half-dozen woodburning fireplaces scattered among the dining rooms. Come spring, the terrace becomes a slice of St. Tropez in Toronto. Chef Malcolm Campbell’s Michelin pedigree shows on the plate: His contemporary Franco fare is some of the best in town.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.