About two hours east of Toronto, in the heart of Ontario wine country, 7 Numbers Picton is serving traditional southern Italian fare, family style. Since 2001, Mama Rosa has been dishing out some authentic Italian fare to the people of Toronto. After 19 years in the business, 7 Numbers decided to open up a new

Etobicoke’s own special little spot, 850 Degrees Pizzeria serves up homemade pizzas, featuring local ingredients, cooked in an authentic wood oven. There is nothing not to love about its pizzas. The dough is homemade using a 120-year-old recipe from southern Italy. The meats come from the Belaga family siblings’ family farm in Ontario, who all

This hotspot should be named Experience Aperitivo because it’s more than just a bar. David Rocco’s Bar Aperitivo will transport you from Yorkdale to Italy with the decorative photos of Napoli that surround the entrance of the storefront. Bar Aperitivo is the type of place you stop for a Spritz on your way home from

The newest sibling in the growing Oliver & Bonacini family opened yesterday. Beaumont Kitchen matches restaurant with retail at its location inside the brand new Saks Fifth Avenue in Sherway Gardens.

Bloom Cafe is the latest iteration of the Tsujiri matcha cafe. Although this is a separate entity from the Japanese matcha empire, the baked goods here are brought to us by chef Tomoyuki Rikuta, who oversees all the Tsujiri pastries. As chef Tomo’s first step out from the Tsujiri umbrella, Bloom Cafe is serving a

Dundas West is dotted with oodles of eateries, many of which heavy-handedly populate the blogosphere. Others, like the creatively named Brazil Bakery and Pastry, are overlooked, perhaps for lacking the neighbourhood’s hipster trappings. Sitting on the corner of Dundas and Sheridan, this bakery is an unpretentious place to grab a quick bite. Housed in a

Cantina Mercatto is the newest addition to the Mercatto family of restaurants (Taverna, Locale, Trattoria and College) that started some 20 years ago on Toronto Street. Close to both the St. Lawrence Market and the Financial District, the new space is meant to be a one-stop shop for lunch meetings, special occasions as well as

An elegant Italian dining experience in the heart of the downtown core, Carisma is one of the city’s best Italian restaurants. After eight years in their quaint and cosy King Street East location, owners Michael and Margi Pagliaro moved into a larger space on Toronto Street that fits the whole extended family. Known for their

Chef Robert Rubino is taking his skills from Italy to Etobicoke at Cellar Door Restaurant. Classically trained at Il San Domenico restaurant in Italy, Rubino learned to make handmade pasta and pizza dough like a true pizzaiolo. Cellar Door is a Canadian-Italian restaurant that is making some of the best and freshest Italian fare in

Taste a mother’s love in every bite of a treat from Charmaine Sweets. Owner Teresa Ho and her daughter are baking cookies, cakes and other sweet pastries from their Leaside locale. Trained in the classic French techniques of pastry baking, Ho not only shares her love and expertise of all baked goods through her menu

This cheery, Instagram-friendly bakeshop specializes in Japanese-style cheesecakes, cheese tarts and tiramisu. Although Cheese Garden is a local chain rather than a Japanese import, the bakery aims to stay true to the light textures and not-too-sweet flavours that define traditional Japanese desserts. Their signature dish is the ‘double fromage cheesecake,’ which features layers of frozen

This Scarborough Chinese bakery is making some of the most beautiful cakes in all of the GTA. DaanGo Cake Lab is the brainchild of Master Chef Canada contestant Christopher Siu. His sweet shop is a confectionary dream with a heaven-like white interior and wafts of freshly baked desserts coming from the kitchen. With a tiny

The powerhouse team behind Ardo on King East have officially added Dova Restaurant to their culinary triad — which includes their company VIVI Imports, that brings carefully chosen goods into Toronto for sale in their restaurant pantry. While the emphasis is on Sicilian food at Dova Restaurant in Cabbagetown, the menu is uniquely dedicated to

Little Portugal stalwart Enoteca Sociale has been a west-end go-to for housemade pastas, quality wines, and cosy vibes for a decade. Rather than resting on its laurels, however, the much-loved Italian restaurant underwent a revamp to celebrate its 10th year in business. Fortunately for existing fans of the long-running restaurant, it’s not a massive overhaul.

Riverside’s ēst offers beautifully plated tasting menus and artful cocktails in a refined space. Helmed by chef Sean MacDonald – the only Canadian chef to be recognized at the Top 300 Chef Awards in Milan, Italy, in 2018 – ēst has traditional and vegan versions of its tasting menus, which emphasize contemporary, locally sourced Canadian

A name like F’Amelia has that romantic, roll-off-your-tongue swagger that makes it sound like it means something in Italian, but it doesn’t. It’s a perfect name nonetheless for a new Cabbagetown restaurant.

The line starts forming at 11:15 for a noon opening at this culinary dark horse of Geary Avenue. Behind Famiglia Baldassarre’s counter, pasta-makers stand at a large work top, forming perfectly uniform squares of ravioli, totally unfazed as the front of the room fills with hungry diners who are just getting a taste of whatever

Gia, a reimagining of much-loved Dundas West restaurant Ufficio, brings to life the version of Ufficio that owner Jenny Coburn had originally envisioned. “When I first started Ufficio with my partner we were going to do it vegetarian,” says Coburn, “but this was five years ago.” At the time, Coburn says they weren’t sure Toronto

Toronto’s obsession with Italiana never seems to abate, and Giulietta is one of the reasons why. Chef Rob Rossi was at first pooh-poohed (the nerve to close Bestellen!) before being embraced twice over. Rossi partnered with David Minicucci (L’Unità), and they ran with their idea of serving Italian food that’s clean, simple and addictive. Pasta

Sure, the newly-opened Gusto 101 is yet another Italian restaurant, but there are a few things that set it apart: the location was originally an auto body shop (it still retains its original exposed brick walls and steel beams), it features a unisex lavatory and, most importantly, it has an in-house winery, where the wine is served on tap for one dollar an ounce.