Restaurant 3030 Dundas West is a hotbed of culture in the ever-more-happening Junction. The cavernous space is a bit of everything: a bar, restaurant, art gallery and concert hall rolled into one. Paintings from local artists —  like cool cat Nick Sweetman — oversee patrons downing local brews and tucking into eats before heading to

Amsterdam BrewHouse, the restaurant outpost for Amsterdam Brewery, is about to be your new favourite. Where to begin: it has four patio spaces, landscape views of Toronto Island and the skyline, space for 1,000 guests in the dining room and an on-site brewery. Oh, and the food is pretty darn delicious. With plenty of vegetarian,

The group behind Mahjong Bar brings Dundas West another immersive bar concept with Bar Mordecai.  Those familiar with Mahjong Bar’s moody, retro vibes will recognize some familiar elements in the Bar Mordecai space, including low, glowy lighting and a design-forward theme.  But with Bar Mordecai, co-owners Emily Blake, Joshua LeBlanc, Andrew Perry and Kyle Wong

With its old-world ambience and too-good-to-be-true prices, Bar Poet feels magical in more ways than one. Sparkling fairy lights and sky-high greenery add to the already enchanting architecture of the one-time church space. The bar’s self-dubbed “Toronto-style” pizza is made using stone-ground 00 flour and priced at less than $10 per whole pie. For an

Jen Agg’s retro-styled Dundas West restaurant specializes in pasta and wine. Rather than recreating classic pasta dishes, chef and co-owner James Santon focuses on Italy’s culinary tradition of using local ingredients. The result is a menu of Italian-inspired dishes with Toronto flair, along with charcuterie platters that pay homage to the space’s previous life as

Bellwoods Brewery is a Toronto favourite for many reasons. First and foremost are the brewery’s beers: Each one is brewed locally, given its own name and an accompanying poster with original artwork, which really shows how committed owners Mike Clark and Luke Pestl are to creating an unmatched bar and beer experience. For example, their

The King West Bier Markt has got the patio of every bar’s dreams: seated and absolutely huge. It gets further check marks for a strong, Europe-leaning beer list (including a few cellared bottles) and food — think wursts, schnitzel, mussels and flammekueches — that deftly match the suds. The food is made from scratch and

Grabbing its name from the classic martial arts flick, BIG TROUBLE is a Chinatown bar that promises the 20-something set a good time. Sibling owners Andrew and Christine Pham wanted to properly celebrate the hood they grew up in; multicoloured lanterns dot the room, red drapes decorate the windows while a dragon oversees the bathrooms and

Step into BLUA on a frosty eve, and you’ll be greeted like family. It’s fitting that the new Junction bar is a family affair. Brother and sister Ade and Lea Gashi are game to showcase their Albanian roots in this Balkan-inspired bar they’ve dressed in blonde woods, macramé-wrapped potted plants and a mural centred on a

Ironically, Cabin Fever is a place you may never get sick of or want to leave. Just a stone’s throw away from High Park, this cosy bar is all about a good time. With a pinball and arcade game list nearly the size of the beer one, there is a lot of fun to be

Casa La Palma is a 1,400 square foot lounge perched on top of its sister restaurant, Dundas West favourite La Palma. It’s a physical extension of the downstairs, but there’s a notable difference: its inspiration is not free-wheeling Venice Beach, but stylish Palm Springs. It’s co-owned by the same team as La Palma — culinary director Craig Harding, designer Alexandra

Civil Liberties wants you to exercise your right to create your own freedom, but here it’s in the form of a cocktail. Located on Bloor Street West, this cocktail bar believes that the customers have the right to create exactly what they want every night, so instead of having a menu, you get to choose

Indulge your love of everything retro at Convenience, a Queen West spot. The front portion does its best to mimic the great corner stores of your youth, perfect to stock up on some Popeye candy cigarettes or play some Pac-Man and pretend you’re 12 years old again. The back portion is a relaxed resto-bar. Items

One of our favourite hidden gem watering holes that’s south of King is the Corks bar in the Longo’s at Maple Leaf Square. Corks makes a good start with a well-trained staff and a solid draft and bottle list that’s exclusively Ontario craft, but the added attraction is that guests are welcome to bring food

Inspired by the industrial era, D.W. Alexander emerges as a plush cocktail bar housed in a former warehouse right in the heart of Old Toronto. Although the decor and ambience might nod to the past — see business casual dress code, 21 and older age limit, the dark wood finishings — D.W. Alexander still very

Get your twang on at the Dakota Tavern, home to the wildly popular Bluegrass Brunch. For $14, diners chow down on as much OJ, coffee, scrambled eggs (yes, only), sausages, fruit salad, potatoes and pancakes as you can eat from family-style platters all while stomping your boots to killer live bluegrass bands. Boasting some of

Toronto’s hippest downtown hotel group welcomes the Drake Mini Bar to its resto family. Across the hall from the Drake One-Fifty, executive chef Jonathan Pong and chef de cuisine Amancio dos Santos have created a perfectly crafted menu that mingles food and drink like never before. Seasonally designed, the menu features snacks and shareables along

Drom Taberna is the place to go for everything eastern European. The owners reimagined the space of the legendary Tortilla Flats into an all-day homage to the old country. The large interior is collaged with posters brought home from Poland by the owner’s wife, along with an old piano and a stage for nightly live

Get ready carb-lovers: this is not a drill! Canada’s first Eataly outpost is opening its doors on Nov. 13 in the Manulife Centre at Bay and Bloor. Food fiends who have visited one of Eataly’s 40 other locations worldwide have been counting down the days until the beloved brand arrives in Canada. Eataly Toronto does

“It’s not exactly like a dive bar, but it's got that kind of dive bar aesthetic,” says Sean Young, one of the owners of the upcoming El Furniture Warehouse restaurant opening on July 1 in the Annex at Bloor and Bathurst. “It’s just a really fun environment, the music is great, all rock and punk and hip hop, and all the items on the menu are $4.95 — pastas, burgers, quesadillas, desserts, everything is $4.95.”