“Why do I feel like we’ve dramatically overordered”: How r/FoodToronto made my trip better

A month ago, I posted my [tentative food itinerary](https://www.reddit.com/r/FoodToronto/comments/1684v5i/solo_food_itinerary/) to this sub. Fortunately, as you’ll see below it bears little resemblance to how my five days in your city last week actually played out. (TL;DR I had a ton of great food from like 20 different restaurants)

**Monday:** Dinner was beef pho at UFO (very good), then stopped for a jerk chicken sandwich at Allwyn’s during an evening stroll on Queen West (could’ve been spicier but liked the coco bun a lot).

**Tuesday:** Planned to hit both NNN Poutine and Suzume for lunch but the latter wasn’t open when I came by as she had a catering order that morning. Smoked beef poutine with double cheese was tasty and more than enough food though. Dinner at Foxley – Hokkaido scallop ceviche was the highlight.

**Wednesday:** A major highlight of the trip was getting to join /u/quickfixx- and two chefs on a food tour. Suresh fought morning traffic to pick me up in the city and we spent several hours eating our way through a stretch of Yonge in North York:

* Yang’s Dumpling (SJB)
* Khorak Supermarket (meze of barbari bread and a wide array of dips)
* BB Cafe (saffron pistachio ice cream)
* Shops on Yonge food court for mapo tofu (Tao Tao), jerk chicken (6 Boss Caribbean), dumplings (Goobok, I think) and a couple of soups (not sure)
* Cho Sun OK (naengmyeon, Korean sausage, galbi, pork organ soup, and chicken katsu)
* Saemauel for Korean BBQ (galbi, pork belly) and seafood pancake

I would never have found these places (which were universally great) or been able to sample so much food if I had been on my own. Not only that, it was a ton of fun to just talk about food with these guys. Simply an all-around great experience and I’m grateful to have had it. One of the chefs gave me a lift back to the city as well as some recommendations. They included Frank Ranalli’s right down the street from where he dropped me off, so I somehow found the room for an excellent pepperoni slice. Around dinner time, I wasn’t exactly hungry enough for a meal and opted to make my way to Ruru Baked for a waffle cone of everything bagel ice cream (dug it). Late that evening I stopped at Project Gigglewater for a drink and wound up ordering their [tasty burger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecc0nbg9m-8) as well.

**Thursday:** Stuck with the original idea of lunch at Aloette, which I liked a lot. Pivoted away from Richmond Station in favor of Sunnys Chinese for dinner and ordered the tasting menu, which was a ridiculous amount of food, all of it great. I especially enjoyed the HK French toast to end the meal.

**Friday:** Started my lunch at Pizzeria Badiali. I arrived ~10 minutes before open to find no line, but there were 15+ people behind me by the time the doors opened. Only intended to get one slice but couldn’t decide between the pepperoni and cacio e pepe so got both. They were terrific, even if I would’ve liked a little fresh basil on the pep slice as Ranalli’s had done. I’d been running a sleep deficit all week so stopped at Milky’s for coffee at Suresh’s suggestion. As I walked down the street trying to figure out my next move, I saw that Suzume was open! Got a pork miso rice ball and – inspired by my experience at Sunnys the night before – the black sesame dango, which is a weekend-only option. Both were delicious. On the strong recommendation of my tour companions, complete with suggestions on what to order, I chose Som Tum Jinda for my last dinner. I’m a big fan of Thai iced tea and theirs might be the best I’ve ever had. The grilled sausage was also quite good. The pad see ew was well-cooked but had zero heat to it. I realized too late that they hadn’t asked me to specify a spice level when I’d ordered. If I had to do it over again I’d make sure to do that, or maybe just get one of the papaya salads instead. I wound up going to Pizzeria da Mario (another suggestion from the tour) late that night, not realizing they stopped serving slices at 9, so I ordered a small pie. It was good, but definitely the bronze medalist of the three pizzas I had in Toronto.

**Saturday:** Stayed with Mildred’s. Rolled up at 10 expecting a wait, but was immediately sat and at a table to boot, rather than the bar. Pancakes were great.

Thanks to everyone who offered their feedback! I absolutely loved my time in Toronto and hope to be back soon.

by Ruckusseur