Dear reader,

After months and months of delicious research and (literal) loosening of belts, we’ve released our 42nd annual ranking of the best new places to eat in Toronto. The sheer number of amazing restaurants in our city makes this a very difficult task, and one that gets more challenging every time. Toronto’s food scene somehow manages to get better, year after year.

The winners for 2024 include a Japanese listening lounge, a high-flying steakhouse, a Thai restaurant with a molecular tasting menu, a fancy Japanese-Korean barbecue spot, and—the winner—a sweet little sake and snack bar in Bloorcourt, which you’ll learn more about below.

We celebrated them all this past Monday at the Evergreen Brick Works, when we packed 20-plus chefs under one roof for our Best Restaurants event, an epic all-you-can-eat-and-drink affair. As this wasn’t my first rodeo, I had the foresight to book a day off on Tuesday. (If you were one of the 1,000 attendees who had to get up the next morning and go to work after gorging on sushi, wagyu skewers, duck confit Jamaican patties, lobster pasta, frozen custard and way too much rosé—follow my lead next year.)

Also in this week’s newsletter: how working with pastry helped a Toronto chef love himself, a Mexican-Indian spot worth the trip to Oshawa and a Lao take on Sunday brunch in Carleton Village.

For all of our food-and-drink coverage, visit torontolife.com or subscribe to our print edition.

A lot of fancy restaurants made this year’s list—places with things like on-site dry-aging rooms, molecular tasting menus and caviar-topped baked potatoes. But, in the end, it all came down to what chef Young Hoon Ji managed to do with humble soy beans at Mhel, the adorable Korean snack and sake bar he runs with his wife, Seung-min Yi, in Bloorcourt. To read more about our best new restaurant (and those magic beans), click here.

After losing his job during the pandemic, chef Jayden Park baked his way to self-acceptance with Gateau Ghost, his new soon-to-open bakery in Dufferin Grove. His passion for pastry gave him the confidence to embrace his queerness—and come out to his mom. Read his full story here.

For when Indian and Mexican food cravings collide, The Bollywood Tacos has you covered. As the name suggests, the family-run fast-casual spot in Oshawa combines the two cuisines to create some pretty unique fusion dishes, like butter chicken tacos and curry lamb nachos.

Motivated by the lack of Lao food in Toronto, Daovy Chanthalansy—an IT technician by day—started a culinary side hustle to champion the herbaceous, umami-packed cuisine of his home country. His pandemic-times pop-up, Lao Food Co., is now a bricks-and-mortar spot, where he holds monthly supper clubs and serves Sunday brunch. 

In the latest issue: our annual ranking of where to eat now. Plus, the small-town doctor who tore a community apart; confessions of a reformed shoplifter; an eye-popping history of Budweiser Stage; and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? Subscribe today.