Go on an East Asian Food Tour Along Downtown Toronto’s Yonge Street

Treat your taste buds to Pan-Asian food, coffee and bubble tea as you stroll and shop Canada’s longest street.

Stroll North from Yonge-Dundas Square for lunch

This public square is surrounded by giant LED signs and pulses with energy during free concerts and other events. Across the street, the Eaton Centre, downtown’s premiere shopping mall, boasts 230+ shops and services. 

If you have a big appetite, pregame lunch with a Korean hot dog from Kordog, where you’ll find savoury wieners on a stick, sheathed in chewy, deep-fried sticky rice batter and melted cheese. 

Kordog is part of World Food Market, a cluster of food stalls across the street from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Student Learning Centre at Yonge and Gould streets. (If fried chicken is more your thing, check out the popular Philippine fast food chain, Jollibee.)

Sit down to Thai food at the original student hangout, Salad King, where you’ll find curries, Pad Thai and basil-chicken lettuce boats to share with friends.

Or, for dim sum, noodles, and stir fry, grab a booth at Congee Queen. You may have to line up because the Yonge Street location of this Toronto chain is a popular upgrade from the fast-casual restaurants this section of the strip is known for.

After your meal, make a souvenir stop. Cozy Grotto is the place to go for kawaii accessories and collectibles. You’ll find everything from plushies that look like napa cabbage dogs to model ramen shops and Sumikko Gurashi blind boxes. #IYKYK

Bubble tea alert!

Yonge Street may rival Chinatown’s Spadina Avenue for the most bubble tea shops per block. You’ll find satisfying Taiwanese-style brown sugar boba milk tea at Tiger Sugar, Coco, ChaHalo or The Alley, among others.

Explore street views and shopping between College and Bloor Streets

After that starter course, get moving to make room for more food! Walking north, look up at the buildings above the storefronts. 

Yonge Street is a hodgepodge of architectural styles, including Georgian, Italianate, Romanesque, Art Moderne, international—and beyond. 

One of the unique things about Yonge is its quirky mix of retailers, which include indie clothing shops, games and electronics, books and more, including a few erotica boutiques that nod to Yonge’s decades-past risqué years. 

More recently, Yonge has been revitalized by an array of East Asian eateries and shops catering to locals and expats, including students from overseas. The strip of Yonge between College and Bloor is particularly rich in intriguing shops.

You’ll find cool Korean candies, chips and convenience foods at Galleria Supermarket.

Lamour Beauty & Life is a treasure trove of Korean, Japanese and Chinese beauty brands. This is the place to snag cult-fave K-, J- and C-beauty items like Peripera velvet lippies, Dejavu Fiberwig mascara and Flortte eyebrow powder.

Kiokii And… is another must-stop for Asian-beauty junkies, who will find more than enough rice serums, melting balms, glassy tints and cushion foundations to fill their makeup bag—and then some.

And if there’s a pampered fur kid in your life, don’t miss Gogo Pets, where you’ll find imported Korean and Japanese treats, including flavoured milks and Wagyu beef chips. Gogo is also a go-to for beyond-stylish pet clothing and Instagram-worthy dog and cat grooming.

Make a caffeine pit-stop

Fend off mid-shopping sleepiness with an espresso tonic or coff-tea from Plearn, black tea latte from Machi Machi, or Vina Latte from Cong Caphe. 
 

More Yonge Street shopping and fun

Explore more of Yonge Street before you head to dinner. 

For pure silliness, you can’t beat OHYO Spree, a gaming arcade jam-packed with aisles of claw machines touting a variety of cool Asian prizes.

If trading cards are your life, geek out at Anime Alley. This second floor hideout hosts Pokemon tournaments every Thursday night as well as Lorcana League, Magic The Gathering and other meet-ups. 

Immerse yourself in full-body virtual reality at Sandbox VR (just off Yonge) where you can fight it out with (or against) your friends in Squid Game, Unbound Fighting League, zombie apocalypse and other action-packed scenarios.

Take it easy afterwards with a stroll through soothing Dr. Lillian McGregor Park, where you can debrief with your pals as you watch a parade of cute urban dogs walk by.

Grab sweets for now or later

Enjoy ’em now or take them back to the hotel for later: you’ll be glad you invested in light-as-air cream puffs from Bloom Cafe, custard-packed cube croissants from Kream Toronto, or layered milk-chiffon mini cakes from Vava Designer Cakes.  

Cap your tour with Asian cocktails and eats

Toast your day with drinks and dinner. Yonge Street between College and Bloor Streets offers a range of delicious options. 

Boku restaurant and lounge has a celebration-worthy cocktail list, where you’ll find something for every taste (including zero alcohol), from a Japanese Negroni to sake flights and a range of shochu highballs. Their carb-heavy menu includes highlights like smoked duck ramen and Holy Cow Bibimbap.

Miss Fu in Chengdu offers a variety of lighter nibbles, from meat, vegetable or seafood skewers you can cook at your own table to shareable tapas plates. Wash it all down with an ice-cold Tsingtao or Kirin beer.

For Korean flavours, you can’t beat The Bar Jokbal Night Market, where you’ll find late-night vibes and heaping plates or bowls of pork jokbal (pig trotters), bossam (pork shoulder), pork bone soup hotpot and more, including vegetarian-friendly options.

For a fancy Cantonese-style dinner, consider Pearl Yorkville, or, for casual Japanese savoury pancakes, Okonomi House, both just steps off Yonge at Charles Street. The latter is the OG Yonge Street Asian restaurant, a staple since 1978.

Getting to Downtown Yonge

Take the Line 1 Yonge-University subway to Dundas station, then walk north along Yonge Street.