Toronto Waterworks Building Redevelopment | 47.55m | 13s | MOD Developments | Diamond Schmitt

nogoro said:
I will definitely check this out at some point. It was exciting to see the food hall at The Well being so popular, and I imagine there will be crowds here too. Vit Beo on Bloor is super busy at nights and hopefully this extra outpost keeps the magic. Musoshin is on the Michelin Guide, no stars or Bib, still an achievement over the other chains in town. Would be great if the Bloor/Bathurst Mirvish development can repeat the success of these venues when it opens.

The Food Hall concept is not new in town though. There was much fanfare when Chef's Hall opened just south of Sheraton. But with a few of the bigger names gone, it seems to have lost its lustre. Maybe I was just not going there at the busiest times of the day?
Click to expand...
This is the year of the food halls though, with 3 recent openings (Queen's Cross, Wellington Market and Waterworks). I wonder if we're going to get a Time Out Market at some point (Montreal already has one and Vancouver soon).
 
I don't know if they have it at the food hall location, but the shaking beef at Vit Beo Bloor is exceptional.

I had a shrimp and chips from Queens Cross yesterday and it was really good, though the remoulade they served it with was way too salty and would be better replaced with cocktail sauce.
 
Rascacielo said:
This is the year of the food halls though, with 3 recent openings (Queen's Cross, Wellington Market and Waterworks). I wonder if we're going to get a Time Out Market at some point (Montreal already has one and Vancouver soon).
Click to expand...
Seems like Queens Cross is a number of brands curated by O&B through a headlease with the Landlord, rather than independent brands operating within one space other than Craigs Cookies (pop-up) and Libretto (which has O&B as a major capital investor).
 
evandyk said:
It does look more interesting, but the prices listed in the Star article are excessive even compared to the places at the Well!

www.thestar.com

A giant food hall is coming to a historic downtown Toronto building. Here’s a sneak peek

Opening July 3, the Waterworks Food Hall is a mix of cafes, bars, bakeries and offshoots of existing restaurants under one roof.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
Click to expand...
There is a big variety (many very approachable) that would be comparable to standard food courts in this day and age - albeit food is excessively expensive everywhere in Toronto!
 
Sorry, what I meant to post was the content from today's "Food Crawl" email newsletter from Karon Liu. I guess that one hasn't made it online yet. I know all about the price of ready-made food downtown, and am not particularly price-sensitive, but the prices listed there were on average higher than I saw when I walked around the Well a few times.
 
evandyk said:
Sorry, what I meant to post was the content from today's "Food Crawl" email newsletter from Karon Liu. I guess that one hasn't made it online yet. I know all about the price of ready-made food downtown, and am not particularly price-sensitive, but the prices listed there were on average higher than I saw when I walked around the Well a few times.
Click to expand...
totally fair, good intel.
 
PXL_20240705_162624007.jpg
PXL_20240705_163646230.jpg
PXL_20240705_163708146.MP.jpg


I went for lunch today, not super crowded but some areas had longer lineups; they were not yet running on all cylinders which added to prep time. Vit Beo will start serving on Monday. The aburi sushi is identical in quality to its sister restaurants Miku/Minami. We also had the special ramen at Musoshin which is possibly not available at the original store. Very pricey at $27 but it has pork, beef and fried chicken, pretty much overflowing with toppings. The Street Style Pad Thai at SOI and Brisket sandwich at Dave's all decent selections. After eating we strolled over to the Food Hall at the Well which was less crowded but still had lineups past 1pm. Perhaps downtown can indeed accommodate multiple food outlets.
 
nogoro said:
View attachment 578000View attachment 578001View attachment 578002

I went for lunch today, not super crowded but some areas had longer lineups; they were not yet running on all cylinders which added to prep time. Vit Beo will start serving on Monday. The aburi sushi is identical in quality to its sister restaurants Miku/Minami. We also had the special ramen at Musoshin which is possibly not available at the original store. Very pricey at $27 but it has pork, beef and fried chicken, pretty much overflowing with toppings. The Street Style Pad Thai at SOI and Brisket sandwich at Dave's all decent selections. After eating we strolled over to the Food Hall at the Well which was less crowded but still had lineups past 1pm. Perhaps downtown can indeed accommodate multiple food outlets.
Click to expand...

I also went and tried the Aburi sushi stall. Had salmon torched sushi, $20 for 6 pieces, which was quite decent. Also had a tuna and spicy salmon temaki (a sort of sushi hand roll?) for $6.50 each. These reminded me off the onigiri snacks you could get anywhere in Japan where the packaging separated the seaweed from the rice and required precise deconstruction in order to properly ‘build’ the final roll—unfortunately I was too dense to correctly follow the instructions and had to manually reconstruct this hand roll.

Knowing they’re owned by Miku explains the cost, definitely not an every day lunch place, but a nice infrequent treat.

Also neat to have an open kitchen to watch then worked, but I was surprise to see a machine automating the sushi rolling. Not sure if that’s standard practice these days.
 
As far as whether this area can support two foodhalls there have been 2,597 residential units beginning occupancy so far in 2024. There is a greater number opening to the east of Spadina as well as well as the %of patrons from across the region. If anything this area is underserved.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top