Everything there is to eat and drink at Smorgasburg Toronto [Toronto Life]
Everything there is to eat and drink at Smorgasburg Toronto [Toronto Life]
by moo422
3 Comments
giraffebeforesunrise
I didn’t get a chance to go to the opening weekend – share your experiences, people! I wanna know what I missed!!
moo422
Showed up week 1 at 11am, so the crowds were sparse, but 80% of the vendors were all set up. The event space consists of two large vendor areas, with washrooms and handwash stations in between.
## North Market (closer to entrance):
* Kiss My Pans’ singaporean fare, where we ordered a Kopi ($5.5). Singaporean style coffee w condensed milk, can’t really go wrong, pretty great on a hot day.
* Good Gang Ice Cream – feat ice cream & ice cream sandwiches, Good Gang doesn’t have a storefront or online ordering (yet?), but this is truly an example of why events like Smorgasburg (and the old Toronto Underground Market) is so important. It gives burgeoning vendors an opportunity and audience to showcase their offerings. We had their Ca Phe Misu (vietnamese coffee tiramisu) and Mango ice creams ($5 1 scoop, $8.50 2 scoops). The Ca Phe Misu knocked it out of the park – great coffee & cheese flavours, with chunks of lady finger. So much fun to eat, great execution. Standout item for us, 5/5. We also tried their coffee cookie and matcha cookie — the matcha one was the way to go. Good amt of bitterness to it. The coffee cookie wasn’t coffee-forward enough.
* Baker Rae – I knew of Baker Rae through Chachalate, who was also helping out at the stall. Filipino-inspired baked goods, we tried their three donuts – Ube Flan, Champorado, Calamansi Meringue. By far, the Ube Flan was the most fun – the center was this fun halfway between a flan and ube paste; a whole flan in the center of the donut, the proportion was perfect. The Calamnsi Meringue was decent, good tanginess but didn’t really distinguish itself enough from a lemon meringue — but def something I would get if it were offered at Tim Horton’s, and I felt like getting a donut. The Champorado was a miss for us – there was just too much dough compared to the topping and filling. I would also like to see the dough be lighter/fluffier than its current incarnation, across all three donuts.
* Mamey Tamales – had the Black Bean & Sweet Potato tamal and Spinach & Cotija Cheese tamal. Very solid though not too surprising. Always great to find vegetarian tamal options. The spinach tamal had a much better seasoned masa than the black bean tamal, which was a bit underseasoned.
* KatsuPan – they had the longest line, BY FAR. 8-10 ppl deep at any given time. Did not have any vegetarian options, unfortunately.
## South Market (closer to lake):
* Nozemi – Wasabi Soba $(9) was a LOT of fun. Just enough wasabi flavour and horseradish for a mild tingle and lots of flavour (good use of acid & sugar vinaigrette); the soba was a little mushy to me, but I’ve given them the feedback and they’ll try to improve. probably me 3rd fave item.
* Tam’s – We were originally looking forward the Baguette salad, but it was non-vegetarian. Ended up having their papaya salad w/ mushroom jerky. The last item we had at the event, and it was a bit disappointing. Lack of zing, kinda bland, probably least fave item we ate. Surprisingly, it was a lot better when I had it the next day, after all the flavours had a chance to marinate and absorb.
* Saint Island – the vegetarian Spicy Laing ($22 whole, $6 slice) – the fermented chili & garlic sauce on this was GREAT. Flavour punch. As a pizza, it’s a little bit too carby/dense, but the flavours were so spot on. Probably 2nd fave item that we had. Also grabbed a Calamansi-Ade ($5), which was somewhere between a lime-pomelo juice.
* Alma + Gil – had their Rajas + Queso Tamal (8), and their Tacos de Canasta (9), along w a Pineapple Chamoyada (11). Their toppings of cheese crumble and onions added plenty of contrast, salt-tang-crunch, lots of bursts of flavour. The additional of those make it a bit better than Mamey’s, but also diff price point. The Chamoyada is a spicy pineapple juice, with a spiced-tamarind straw. Very fun drink. I ended up using the remaining tamarind in a fizzy soda at home afterwards.
## Tips:
There’s an entire boardwalk area with benches and tree shade, just southeast of the grounds/bar, along the lakeshore. We didn’t even notice this area until later in our visit. It’s quiet, near-empty – a good spot in the future just to sit down and eat in a less bustling setting. We used this area to get away from the noise, and regroup and refocus on which spots to tackle next.
We brought a big bag w/ plastic take-out containers, and used them to pack away leftovers. We pretty much planned to maybe eat half of each item and pack the remaining, particularly for filling items like Saint Island Pies, Falafels, and Tamales. Also brought our own scissors and utensils (scissors are great for food festivals to split items easily).
One of the interesting comments I heard from friends who also went, was that the food might be TOO multicultural. First generation immigrant parents might have trouble navigating such a diverse menu, particularly without descriptions of each item on the posted menus. One friend just wanted a plain poutine (there was a Jerk Chicken poutine at one of the stalls, but that’s also non-vegertian). It explains why Katsupan had SUCH a big line-up — chicken sandwiches are absolutely universally understood. I wouldn’t make any changes to the event with respect to the curation & offerings, but I can understand their perspective, esp if ppl are planning to bring friends/family, it might be best to provide that “multicultural” context.
In terms of improvement, I think some vendors were better set up than others, both in terms of workflow and in signage/setup.
* There were a few stalls where the vendor’s name was hanging below the table – pretty much impossible to see that signage when things get busy (Tam’s comes to mind); Falafel Plus didn’t even have their name displayed. * Food menus should be taped to the poles at the corners of the stall, high and visible. Several stalls had their menus on a small placard on the table (Good Gang had their flavours prominently displayed, but their prices/menu taped to the table), or even on a laminated menu on a side table (Falafel Plus). * Not all vendors had a good workflow. Some spots didn’t make it clear where to line up, and whether to pay first at one end of the stall or or order first at the other end (this happened at Good Gang). * /u/quickfixx- would it be worthwhile to give vendors a list of Best Practices for their stall set-ups? I wonder if any of the US Smorgasburg events have a list of Best Practices
In terms of the venue and logistics, I heard from others (later in the day) that the garbage/recycling bins were a bit overflowing, but I thought it was still okay when I left at 1pm. The “corridor” between the South and North areas got pretty busy – I heard that some people didn’t even know that there was a North area because of all the congestion at the South area. Some ppl asked that maybe additional shade be provided, esp during hot summer days.
3 Comments
I didn’t get a chance to go to the opening weekend – share your experiences, people! I wanna know what I missed!!
Showed up week 1 at 11am, so the crowds were sparse, but 80% of the vendors were all set up. The event space consists of two large vendor areas, with washrooms and handwash stations in between.
## North Market (closer to entrance):
* Kiss My Pans’ singaporean fare, where we ordered a Kopi ($5.5). Singaporean style coffee w condensed milk, can’t really go wrong, pretty great on a hot day.
* Good Gang Ice Cream – feat ice cream & ice cream sandwiches, Good Gang doesn’t have a storefront or online ordering (yet?), but this is truly an example of why events like Smorgasburg (and the old Toronto Underground Market) is so important. It gives burgeoning vendors an opportunity and audience to showcase their offerings. We had their Ca Phe Misu (vietnamese coffee tiramisu) and Mango ice creams ($5 1 scoop, $8.50 2 scoops). The Ca Phe Misu knocked it out of the park – great coffee & cheese flavours, with chunks of lady finger. So much fun to eat, great execution. Standout item for us, 5/5. We also tried their coffee cookie and matcha cookie — the matcha one was the way to go. Good amt of bitterness to it. The coffee cookie wasn’t coffee-forward enough.
* Baker Rae – I knew of Baker Rae through Chachalate, who was also helping out at the stall. Filipino-inspired baked goods, we tried their three donuts – Ube Flan, Champorado, Calamansi Meringue. By far, the Ube Flan was the most fun – the center was this fun halfway between a flan and ube paste; a whole flan in the center of the donut, the proportion was perfect. The Calamnsi Meringue was decent, good tanginess but didn’t really distinguish itself enough from a lemon meringue — but def something I would get if it were offered at Tim Horton’s, and I felt like getting a donut. The Champorado was a miss for us – there was just too much dough compared to the topping and filling. I would also like to see the dough be lighter/fluffier than its current incarnation, across all three donuts.
* Mamey Tamales – had the Black Bean & Sweet Potato tamal and Spinach & Cotija Cheese tamal. Very solid though not too surprising. Always great to find vegetarian tamal options. The spinach tamal had a much better seasoned masa than the black bean tamal, which was a bit underseasoned.
* KatsuPan – they had the longest line, BY FAR. 8-10 ppl deep at any given time. Did not have any vegetarian options, unfortunately.
## South Market (closer to lake):
* Nozemi – Wasabi Soba $(9) was a LOT of fun. Just enough wasabi flavour and horseradish for a mild tingle and lots of flavour (good use of acid & sugar vinaigrette); the soba was a little mushy to me, but I’ve given them the feedback and they’ll try to improve. probably me 3rd fave item.
* Tam’s – We were originally looking forward the Baguette salad, but it was non-vegetarian. Ended up having their papaya salad w/ mushroom jerky. The last item we had at the event, and it was a bit disappointing. Lack of zing, kinda bland, probably least fave item we ate. Surprisingly, it was a lot better when I had it the next day, after all the flavours had a chance to marinate and absorb.
* Saint Island – the vegetarian Spicy Laing ($22 whole, $6 slice) – the fermented chili & garlic sauce on this was GREAT. Flavour punch. As a pizza, it’s a little bit too carby/dense, but the flavours were so spot on. Probably 2nd fave item that we had. Also grabbed a Calamansi-Ade ($5), which was somewhere between a lime-pomelo juice.
* Alma + Gil – had their Rajas + Queso Tamal (8), and their Tacos de Canasta (9), along w a Pineapple Chamoyada (11). Their toppings of cheese crumble and onions added plenty of contrast, salt-tang-crunch, lots of bursts of flavour. The additional of those make it a bit better than Mamey’s, but also diff price point. The Chamoyada is a spicy pineapple juice, with a spiced-tamarind straw. Very fun drink. I ended up using the remaining tamarind in a fizzy soda at home afterwards.
## Tips:
There’s an entire boardwalk area with benches and tree shade, just southeast of the grounds/bar, along the lakeshore. We didn’t even notice this area until later in our visit. It’s quiet, near-empty – a good spot in the future just to sit down and eat in a less bustling setting. We used this area to get away from the noise, and regroup and refocus on which spots to tackle next.
We brought a big bag w/ plastic take-out containers, and used them to pack away leftovers. We pretty much planned to maybe eat half of each item and pack the remaining, particularly for filling items like Saint Island Pies, Falafels, and Tamales. Also brought our own scissors and utensils (scissors are great for food festivals to split items easily).
Not for everyone, but my partner and I went through [Suresh’s menu](https://www.reddit.com/r/FoodToronto/comments/w4hla1/comment/ih35meq/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) the night before the event, and rated all the items we were interested in: 5’s for must-tries, 4’s for interesting-to-check-out, etc. This made it easy for us to just go down the list and not miss any vendors. Laser focus!
## Feedback:
One of the interesting comments I heard from friends who also went, was that the food might be TOO multicultural. First generation immigrant parents might have trouble navigating such a diverse menu, particularly without descriptions of each item on the posted menus. One friend just wanted a plain poutine (there was a Jerk Chicken poutine at one of the stalls, but that’s also non-vegertian). It explains why Katsupan had SUCH a big line-up — chicken sandwiches are absolutely universally understood. I wouldn’t make any changes to the event with respect to the curation & offerings, but I can understand their perspective, esp if ppl are planning to bring friends/family, it might be best to provide that “multicultural” context.
In terms of improvement, I think some vendors were better set up than others, both in terms of workflow and in signage/setup.
* There were a few stalls where the vendor’s name was hanging below the table – pretty much impossible to see that signage when things get busy (Tam’s comes to mind); Falafel Plus didn’t even have their name displayed.
* Food menus should be taped to the poles at the corners of the stall, high and visible. Several stalls had their menus on a small placard on the table (Good Gang had their flavours prominently displayed, but their prices/menu taped to the table), or even on a laminated menu on a side table (Falafel Plus).
* Not all vendors had a good workflow. Some spots didn’t make it clear where to line up, and whether to pay first at one end of the stall or or order first at the other end (this happened at Good Gang).
* /u/quickfixx- would it be worthwhile to give vendors a list of Best Practices for their stall set-ups? I wonder if any of the US Smorgasburg events have a list of Best Practices
In terms of the venue and logistics, I heard from others (later in the day) that the garbage/recycling bins were a bit overflowing, but I thought it was still okay when I left at 1pm. The “corridor” between the South and North areas got pretty busy – I heard that some people didn’t even know that there was a North area because of all the congestion at the South area. Some ppl asked that maybe additional shade be provided, esp during hot summer days.
I’ll add photos in an update post later.
I enjoyed the ceviche from pico de gallo