GilbertLi

The jerk pork is my favourite. Huge hunks of tender meat. Deep jerk spicing.

The prices have been creeping up, so it’s become a special treat place now. The butter chicken is legendary for a reason.

Try the halibut, if you haven’t already. It’s lightly battered and then deep fried. Until we get real fish tacos here, this will have to do.

For newbies, the menu can be a bit confusing as nothing is self explanatory nor what it seems. At first stick with any of the “jumbo grilled burritos”. The other types just have slightly different sauces/spicing and fillings.

This is the place I take downtowners to introduce them to suburban Chinese food. The places downtown are convenient and okay, but really pale to what’s available when you venture a bit north. Very casual HK-Cantonese place for noodles, congee, bbq, etc. Try this place once and you’ll forget about Goldstone and King’s Noodle.

Ditto what AM says. Like Peter Street Deli, I love the Ave’s daily specials. They mix it up a bit more so in addition to carved in stone ones, like the legendary braised beef short ribs on Thursdays, they also have some once in a while ones, like the pastitchio (kind of like moussaka but with macaroni). Also don’t miss their 2 daily soups are always good. Any of the bean-based ones use the offcuts from the deli meats as part of the stock = beefy goodness. Oh yeah. The deli meats are from Lesters, so it’s also a pretty good bet.

There are lots of places to get banh mi along Spadina, but I prefer this one that is on Dundas, just west of Spadina. The rolls they use are more slender, like a mini French baguette. All the veggies they use are always very fresh. In addition to the sandwiches, they also have some prepackaged stuff like cold rolls and rice dishes. I’m very addicted to these sticky gelatinous balls filled with yellow bean and pork. They are sooooo sticky. I’ve tried using fork and knife, chopsticks, even a spoon. Forget using your hands. But that’s part of the charm for me.

Don’t let the name or appearance of this round shack by the lake fool you. RB’s specialty is slow smoked ribs and chicken. Sides include fresh cut fries and baked beans. If you’re driving east along Lakeshore and nearing Windemere it’s definitely worth a stop.

Like Dairy Queen, but with real dairy in their soft serve treats. They have all the usual suspects: dipped cones, sundaes, banana splits, etc. But what I love are their shakes. Lots of flavours, plus they’ll do them malted and/or extra thick. They also have burgers, hot dogs, souvlaki, etc if you want a square meal. For any designers who use CJ Graphics, this place is just west of Parklawn.