When you think of the great food nations, Canada generally comes in somewhere between Paraguay and Kazakhstan. However, I recently spent a long weekend exploring our Friendly Neighbor to the North’s largest city and I have to admit the food scene there is pretty legit. Below are my recommendations for a casual meal in Toronto:
The Burger’s Priest (463 Queen Street West) The Burger’s Priest is a high end burger joint that drew me in with it’s impressive 28 Food score from Zagat. That number may be a little generous, but it’s clearly one of the better fast food style burgers out there. I ordered the High Priest 
, which I dubbed Big Mac 4.0 due to it resemblance of the Mickey D’s classic, but with significant upgrades in the key categories meat, sauce, bread and pickles. There’s also a “Secret Menu” you can access through their website with additions like blue cheese and chili. 
Rol San (323 Spadina Avenue) Toronto Chinatown may not rival New York’s in terms of size, but one place they seem to have us beat is in the all-day dim sum category. Rol San is a popular option, probably in part due to it’s proximity to Kensington Market. Like many dim sum places, you’ll feel lost if you don’t know how to order. So let me lay it out for you: you get a card with a list of all the dishes and then write the quantity you want to order of each. While this is in no way made clear, the orders are all reasonably sized portions with about four dumplings or equivalent per order so about 2-3 per person should leave you satisfied. I won’t pretend I know a lot about dim sum or was even always sure what I was ordering, but everything we got was tasty and cheap (nothing is over $4). 
Recommended: Chicken & Chive Soup Dumplings , Pork Dumplings (Shui Mai) 
, Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow)
Banh Mi Boys (392 Queen Street West) A quick service sandwich shop that’s a nice option to have if you’re shopping on Queen Street West or just craving a Vietnamese sandwich (or tacos for that matter). There’s a wide selection of meats to choose from including the rarely seen braised beef cheek and squid. Personally, I recommend the Grilled Pork 
Smokes Poutinerie (Several Locations) Every city needs its late night eatery. A place to fill the belly with something solid to make the next morning a little easier. In New York, we have pizza. In Toronto, they have poutine. Poutine is traditionally a plate of french fries covered in the heart stopping duo of gravy and cheese curds. And at 2AM on a Saturday night, the lines stretch out the door to get a box of the stuff. Smoke’s doesn’t stop at the traditional though and will happily cover your fries in goodies like caramelized onions, Montreal smoked meat and chipotle pulled pork. It’s a ridiculously good treat for a visit, but my arteries are pleased we settled on the ‘za. 
Recommended: Double Pork (Pulled & Bacon), Traditional
