Which type of cuisine(s) does Toronto shine in?

[Tranquillity]

The polish restaurants in Roncesvalles are really authentic. It may not be like a polish restaurant in poland but it's certainly like a polish family dinner in poland. The greek food is even better here than in greece. For years we used to have our gyros there but completely stopped going to greece after moving to toronto BBQ is on the rise, Smoked Bourbon has a great brisket.

Regarding the question 'what's Torontonian food' I'd say it's gastropub. The breweries and craft beer pubs such as barhop, amsterdam, bellwood, lansdowne, mascot and wvrst have extremely good food and beer. This is very rare outside of Ontario: usually pubs serve food to please a hungry and drunk crowd with few demands, not to attract dedicated foodies.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Reviving this thread - having a love for Jamaican patties - just came across something amusing from the 80s

http://torontoist.com/2011/02/historicist_the_toronto_patty_wars/

The ironic thing is that we are probably at a point where patty by default meant Jamaican patties - you'd have to prefix it with burger otherwise.

AoD

 

[william donati]

Outside of Italy, Canada has the 6th largest Italian population and so naturally one cannot forget the influence of Italy's famous culinary export , Pizza in Toronto cuisines. Recently I came to know Hawaiian Pizza was invented by a Canadian, Sam Panopolous, who claims it was accidental though. Today there are Lazio-style varieties like romano, viennese, capricciosa, quattro formaggi to mention a few or the Neopolitan pizza which hails from Naples, Italy. There are umpteen pizza restaurants spread across Canada and mouth-watering varieties of feast pizzas . With wide range of pizzas it is simply difficult to decide on one fav pizza. Interestingly, the previous month, the Boston Pizza was christened a new name'Toronto Pizza'.

 

[Johnny Au]

Interestingly enough, the five largest pizza parlours in the United States have locations in Toronto (and I did not even mention that Toronto has many major Canadian pizza parlours as well). Toronto, despite not having its signature pizza style, can compete with New York and Chicago for pizza, though almost nobody would associate pizza with Toronto, not even Torontonians.

 

[wild goose chase]

Interestingly enough, the five largest pizza parlours in the United States have locations in Toronto (and I did not even mention that Toronto has many major Canadian pizza parlours as well). Toronto, despite not having its signature pizza style, can compete with New York and Chicago for pizza, though almost nobody would associate pizza with Toronto, not even Torontonians.

This video from 1957 seems to show that pizza was still seen as a new thing here sixty years ago. It is also the time when the city's first pizzeria is supposed to have opened.

However, it's notable that pizza and other Italian foods (or their North Americanized equivalents) are not seen as something associated with Toronto while it is associated strongly with other cities, such as Chicago or Philadelphia even though Toronto had just as much if not more (especially postwar) immigration from Italy.

 

[wild goose chase]

I wonder if one of the reasons Toronto didn't develop unique styles of ethnic food was because there were already Americanized equivalents that were popular to draw from -- Toronto's first pizzeria was New York-style and influenced by learning from New York city's much larger pre-existing history of that cuisine, after all. Also, I'd imagine it to be true for some other cuisines -- for instance, for Chinese Canadian food, the founders of the Mandarin chain, according to Wikipedia, had previous experience with the restaurant industry in Montreal and NYC. Later waves of immigrants also bring cuisine, often more directly from the homeland which are more authentic. It seems like Toronto gets either the Americanized version of many ethnic cuisines, or the "authentic" version from the homeland, but very little "homegrown" stuff.

Other Canadian cities, despite being smaller than Toronto, however, have created some local dishes from ethnic communities adapting to Canadian tastes -- for example, Halifax's King of Donairs inventing the maritimes-style donair, or Calgary's ginger beef. Both of these were from the 1970s.

 

[ponyboy]

For a long time I complained that Toronto lacked good Mexican and BBQ options, but that has improved a lot in the past few years. I think we are strongest in Chinese, and the best of that is in the suburbs, but seafood options for any cuisine in general is not as good here (you will never find the fresh catch grilled fish that you get on the Greek Islands). Toronto's ethnic food scene is great not so much because any particular cuisine is as good as the origin country, but it is the range of solid options available. Here you can find restaurants specializing in any cuisine under the sun, and often at affordable prices. That is what makes this city so great in the food department. And all of this is possible because so many immigrants from all over the world have made Toronto home, some starting restaurants and many others providing a critical mass of customers within those communities.

 

[JenniferGiromonte]

I'd have to go with Caribbean, based on the authentic Caribbean roots in Toronto.. and culture, we've got some great places.

They're kind of hard to find though, I've been using this site to find unique/exclusive meals, around the city and it's been working https://www.fastvenues.com/restaurants/cadillac-jenkins. For some authentic Caribbean I just tried Cadillac Jenkins "The Experience" and it was an experience to say the least. The chef came and chatted with us, really hospitable, the food itself is a blend of Caribbean and traditional fine dining which is a tasty mix.

 

[Bradley Libralesso]

I actually started this account to post a similar question. I wanted to know where are restaurants that actually taste like the food from the country it is from. I have been around the world eating at various places from street food to Michelin star, and I come back to Toronto and I find the food very bland and changed to a Canadian palate. I wanted suggestions about where I can go that they haven't changed the food to a Canadian palate. Does anyone have experience eating in other countries and has had similar food back here in Toronto?