Let your taste buds guide you on a journey through Toronto’s multi-ethnic neighbourhoods, one MICHELIN Bib Gourmand restaurant at a time.
Eating at a MICHELIN-recognized restaurant doesn’t have to mean white tablecloths or sky-high prices. Across Toronto’s diverse neighbourhoods, these Bib Gourmand restaurants reflect the city’s cultural patchwork through bold flavours, comforting dishes, and authentic cooking—all celebrated by MICHELIN for their “good quality, good value” approach.
Each year, MICHELIN awards the Bib Gourmand distinction to restaurants that deliver exceptional flavour and consistency at a moderate price point.
For locals and visitors alike, these spots are the perfect entry point into Toronto’s MICHELIN dining scene—approachable, flavour-packed, and uniquely reflective of the city’s culinary spirit.
This year, there are 26 Bib Gourmand restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area, including six newly crowned for 2025. But if I had to compile an essential list of top picks that truly represent Toronto’s global table, it would be these eight.
Conejo Negro
📍 Little Italy
Flavourful, fusion-ey & funky, hop over to this joint in Little Italy whose exterior is marked simply with a black rabbit in honour of its name.
This is where Caribbean, Creole, and Latin tastes collide, with scrumptious offerings that exemplify comfort food cooking. Not even a year after opening, Conejo Negro made the MICHELIN Guide for its shareable menu, generous portions, and food that packs a punch.
What to order: house-made cheddar & jalapeño cornbread served with cultured honey butter, firecracker shrimp, fried chicken, Caribbean-style braised beef, macaroni pie, and you can’t miss the sticky banana rum cake for dessert.
Sunnys Chinese
📍Kensington Market
Tucked away towards the back of a strip mall in Kensington Market, part of the fun in dining at Sunnys Chinese is finding the place.
Dimly lit and intimate, this diner-style eatery with mint green and pink accents allows you to taste the best of regional Chinese cooking—from wok to plate across Sichuan to Hong Kong.
What to order: mouth-watering half chicken, Miami beef short rib, fried whole fish, orange chicken, dan dan noodle, and what they’re perhaps known best for—the blackbird HK French toast. This comes with black sesame jam, drizzled with oolong condensed milk, and topped with butter.
SumiLicious
📍Scarborough
SumiLicious is, hands down, the best place in Toronto to get your smoked meat. Owner Sumith Fernando has over 2 decades of experience (including 17 years at the iconic Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal), perfecting his technique and preparing the juiciest smoked meat. Diners travel from all across the city to this humble spot in Scarborough to get their fix.
What to order: start with a classic smoked meat sandwich, made up of a tower of smoked meat nestled between plain bread and topped simply with mustard. Next, dive into a smoked meat poutine, made with freshly cut potatoes seasoned with spices, topped with cheese curds, gravy, and chopped smoked meat. Keep it classic with a black cherry soda to wash it down.
Favorites Thai
📍Ossington Strip
Another restaurant that requires searching, you have to go through Sam James Coffee Bar on Ossington Avenue to find this hidden gem, which is literally tucked away.
Walk past chefs slinging orders and firing dishes in the kitchen to get to the main dining room in Favorites Thai, where plates like yellowtail tuna, Thai beef tartare, and confit duck leg in a dry red curry will impress.
For me, the mix of Thai flavours—sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and savoury—in contemporary dishes is what keeps me coming back, and it’s what has earned them a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand since 2022.
What to order: order several small and large plates to share or opt for the Chef’s Choice tasting menu for $100. My faves are the ceviche, confit duck leg curry, house-made Thai sausage, and cha siu short rib.
BB’s
📍Parkdale
BB’s serves up cutting-edge Filipino food with a side of great vibes. Dubbed a diner with a “come-as-you-are vibe” by MICHELIN, it’s all hits and no misses on the menu.
Bring friends, so you can share dishes like lechon, pancit, and sisig. Or visit for brunch on the weekend and enjoy the ultimate Filipino breakfast plate: silog, with garlic rice, fried eggs, and housemade longanisa.
What to order: try the pancit with canton noodles for a twist on a classic Filipino dish. BB’s fried chicken and the Calamansi pie with torched meringue are not to be missed.
Mhel
📍Bloorcourt
Mhel received a Bib Gourmand for the first time this year. The husband-and-wife owners say their food is “simple,” but the flavours are anything but.
Here, both Japanese and Korean influences are woven through the entire menu—reflecting the owners’ cultural background and expertise, having worked at an izakaya and working in a Two MICHELIN Star restaurant in Korea.
What to order: the menu is written daily and highlights local producers, so it will be different every time. With a focus on ‘variety over volume’, order a good selection of the small plates to get a good sampling of all the flavours. My faves were the potesala (creamy potato salad with ramps and sugar snap peas), striped jack sashimi in citrus and ponzu, Australian wagyu striploin, and seared kanpachi with charred gai lan.
Puerto Bravo
📍Gerrard India Bazaar
With taco spots being a dime a dozen in Toronto, it’s not often you come across an authentic Mexican restaurant that focuses on coastal flavours. The menu at Puerto Bravo is inspired by the regional cuisine of Tampico on the Gulf of Mexico, where the owner is originally from.
While you can find meats like carne asada on the menu, you’re definitely gonna want to go all in on the seafood, like the camarones, octopus, and ceviche.
What to order: the seafood birria tacos, immersed in the most delicious leche de tigre, are a must. Try a couple of different tostadas and the camarones tacos. Pair with Agua de Jamaica (hibiscus drink) or a horchata, and you have a winning combo.
Cherry St. Barbecue
📍The Port Lands
In an area as rapidly developing as The Port Lands, Cherry Street Bar-B-Que has had staying power. This much-loved restaurant, located inside a heritage Dominion Bank building, has been in operation for nearly a decade and has held a Bib Gourmand award since 2022.
The head pitmaster spent years competing in the largest barbecue circuit in the world. He now serves up some of the tastiest barbecue, smoked using white oak.
What to order: the central Texas-style brisket is one of their most popular offerings. But you’ll want to try all of the meats, including the pulled pork, pork ribs, turkey breast, and sausages. They have a great variety of sides to accompany their proteins, including mac and cheese, corn elote salad, beans, cornbread, potato salad, coleslaw, and more.
For a full list of MICHELIN’s starred, Bib Gourmand, and recommended restaurants in Toronto, check out the MICHELIN Guide Toronto & Region.
