My wife and kids are heading to Ontario for a week. They will spend 2-3 days in the Niagara-on-the-Lake and the rest based in Oakville. I am looking for some suggestions of eateries that works well for this group (I am not going with them). At NOTL, they will be joined by their teenage cousins. While in Oakville, they will probably just explore Toronto themselves or hang out around Oakville/ Mississauga. In general, they are looking for casual, fast, good value. So multicourse meals donât work for them. They will have a car to Mississauga, but they will probably take the train to Toronto.
Richmond Hill / Markham is out of scope. When they are travelling themselves they always go for the convenient and nearby. So I highly doubt they will take the time to drive to Markham or Richmond Hill for any of the restaurants e.g. Charles wrote about.
Some thoughts about what works well in general:
Pizza: This group really knows their wood fired magheritas. Piano Piano in Oakville?
Congee: Congee Queen in Mississauga? Any other better in Mississauga?
Wonton noodle: Any suggestions in Mississauga?
Other casual Cantonese for things like âbeef chow horâ, âscallop egg white fried riceâ?
Banquet/ dinner Cantonese: it doesnât need to be fancy, but just need to be good for the two families to get together possibly for one meal.
Chocolate: SOMA. Wife will go for sure to SOMA. Any others she should visit?
NOTL: Any casual kids- friendly choices? Ruffinoâs? Rizzos? Pie Plate? RPM Bakehouse?
Bakeries: Toronto/ Oakville/ Missisauga, any suggestions?
Greek: I heard there are a lot of Greeks in the GTA. any good casual Greek spot? Even wraps are totally fine here.
Any recommended Middle Eastern spots in Toronto? (if the cuisine is strong)
What other cuisines should they not miss? We can probably skip Mexican/ Indian since we got plenty of them in our backyard here. Spicy is out for the kids.
Not food related, but what kind of activities might an older elementary school girl and a middle school girl enjoy doing in Toronto except going to the CN Tower (they have been, years ago) and Eaton Centre (I am sure they will end up there one way or the other)?
RPM Bakehouse is great for casual and not too expensive daytime eating. I mentioned some of the things we liked in this thread.
Unfortunately I am not particularly familiar with Oakville, aside from Cucci for fancier Italian.
If they are taking the train in to Toronto, there are a number of good options within walking distance of Union Station. Most are more upscale and expensive though, with a few exceptions.
Pizzeria Libretto on University Ave. is a good bet for wood-fired pizzas.
Estiatorio Volos is good for upscale Greek. My favourite casual Greek places are on the Danforth, but thatâs a bit of hike from downtown.
I would encourage them to walk over to the St. Lawrence Market. Itâs a fun place to browse and there are lots of good things to eat. There is a thread here with some suggestions. I particularly recommend the Portuguese chicken sandwich at Churrasco St. Lawrence.
In terms of things to do, sure the CN Tower is a classic option. Most enjoy Ripleyâs Aquarium, but it is very crowded. I would encourage you to consider Little Canada, which is great for detail-oriented kids.
Emerald is a Chinese restaurant with a banquet atmosphere thatâs been around a long time. I am pretty sure thatâs where most Cantonese families in Mississauga used to go.
There are some solid Greek restaurants in Burlington, that is close enough to Mississauga, and there would be some in Mississauga and Oakville as well, rather than seeking it out in Toronto if you just want a souvlaki or gyro in a pita.
I take all my tween and teenaged relatives to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum. The Bata Shoe Museum might be of interest if they like fashion.
When I had two teenagers stay with me a few years ago, I also took them to the Zoo , but thatâs in Scarborough so itâs on the other side of Toronto.
There is a small zoo in High Park on the west side. I have never been.
I donât think Piano Piano pizza is worth your time.
Would you be interested in trying old school Toronto/ Mississauga type pizza? Mississauga does have an Italian population and some good old fashioned Italian bakeries. I am sure they also have some old school pizzerias. I confess, I rarely dine in Mississauga, so I donât know which pizzerias are their best.
Toronto and the Greater TO Area are having a Turkish restaurant and gourmet shop boom. Anatolia is the oldest, and itâs quite a good restaurants near the border between Etobicoke and Mississauga. I had takeout about 2 years ago.
In terms of shopping, Sherway Gardens, which is close to Mississauga, is a much nicer mall than the Eaton Centre. It has a new Eataly, and more upscale shops than the Eaton Centre. Free parking, too.
In terms of some regional Chinese food that might be of interest, there are some Uyghur restaurants in Mississauga. One of those has caught my attention.
St. Lawrence is a great call. My wife and I were there, more than a decade ago. I will just send them there to browse and eat. And maybe get some food souvenirs for me lol.
Thanks for the tip on Greek. I found one in Oakville - Maroâs, that should be good enough if they want a quick bite close by. Much more likely they will go somewhere local.
That reminds me that we went to Bata. Hereâs a pair that can double as food ingredient:
If theyâre up for Vietnamese, thereâs a very authentic one in Mississauga called I Love Pho. The original location is closer to Oakville (Burnhamthorpe Rd). Always order the fried squid cakes and try the other non-pho dishes. Ignore the âChinese and Thaiâ sign (I donât know why they have it there) because itâs their Vietnamese thatâs one of the most authentic around. They also have beef 7 ways but you said no multi-course (but itâs not multi-course in the traditional sense).
Closer to Toronto, but also in Mississauga (and also close to the airport), is Pho Ngoc Yen (Kamato Rd) which has a lot of buzz and worthy of it. Their more unique dishes are only offered after 5 p.m.
I started a map to keep track of the recommendations as well as Oakville places I found, since they decided they are not going to rent a car so I figure they will probably eat local most of the time. They shortened NOTL to one day so I am good there.
Has anyone been to Zoelicious, Bâs Banh Mi, Applestone Pizzeria, Pizza Pienza, Meet Noodles? All close to Oakville. They will be in Toronto a couple of times. The rest they will probably stay local to Oakville visiting families.
Mississauga is where a lot of Indians live, the indian food is going to be better and different than what you get at home
Guru Lakshmi for idli /dosa / South Indian veg
Iâm trying to recall the place my extended family likes for Indian chinese, but there are a ton of them.
Another unusual and delicious option is Gujarati snacks (farsan) and sweets â the shops will serve chat and a while range of savory gujarati snacks youâll never see outside india or toronto (not even in Edison, that stuff is Americanized, the toronto stuff I remember is the real deal). Surati is in Vaughan, but there are many options in Mississauga itself.
And finally, toronto north Indian is India level â the concentration of Punjabis there is well known (a lot of frozen indian food in the us comes from toronto because of this)
We live very close to the Sunnyvale-Cupertino-Milpitas area in Northern California where there is a very high concentration of Indian engineers working for the surrounding tech companies. Thatâs why we are blessed with all these wonderful Indian restaurants.
Alas, the younger daughter finds everything to be spicy (even if its only very mildly so). The older daughter used to be the same, but in the last year developed an affinity to dishes like biryanis, dosas and can handle mild (to adults) spices perfectly fine. So I think the day is soon where everyone can go to Indian restaurants and find dishes they can enjoy.
I didnât know there is more than a million South Asians in the Toronto area. Definitely a lot more than here. I am sure the food is at a whole different level there. There is a lot of passable to decent hole-in-the-wall places here, but nothing really eye opening until the last few years we got a few more creative and higher end places.
If I should point them to the best casual Indian places in the whole GTA, knowing the question is as broad as it is somewhat meaningless, where should they go? I was reading the GTA Pakistani / Indian discussion. Khau Gully? Lageez?
