Here are seven Toronto restaurants where you can indulge your appetite for culinary exploration.
Pop culture influences the way we eat. Chef-driven documentary shows like Chef’s Table have guided how we photograph our meals, while dramas like The Bear have intrigued viewers with a sneak-peak at the world behind a restaurant’s kitchen door.
Another trend that’s gotten a big nudge from pop culture is the multi-course tasting menu, as guests look to small bites as an avenue to sample the skill, creativity and unique range of flavours a restaurant offers.
After all, a five-, seven-, or ten-course meal offers way more novelty than your typical app, main and dessert. Are you ready for your next culinary adventure?
Here are seven deliciously creative tasting menu restaurants in Toronto, where you can feast on course after course after course.
Ten Restaurant
With only two seatings of ten seats per night, Ten Restaurant creates an intimate atmosphere where every seat gives you a front-row view of the kitchen in action.
Led by Chef Julian Bentivegna, the vegetable-forward, multi-course menu at this west-end restaurant takes a fresh look at fine dining, bringing out the subtle and complex flavours in fruits and vegetables through elevated culinary techniques.
While the dishes will vary based on seasonality, the highlighted products are sourced from Ontario farms with strawberries in the summer, fruit ceviche from Tigchelaar Berry Farm in Niagara, or mushrooms from Shogun Maitake in London, Ontario.
This west-end establishment’s seasonal menu is refreshed every three months, with a dish or two remaining longer in the shoulder season. At the end of the meal, guests are given a menu with the night’s dishes and the farms where they were sourced from, demonstrating the restaurant’s commitment to local and seasonal in every course.
The open-concept design of the restaurant was born out of Chef Bentivegna’s desire to cut through some of the barriers of culinary experiences, offering conversation and access to the kitchen team as you watch them prepare each dish.
Ficoa
Drawing from Chef Gerry Quintero’s Mexican roots and co-founder Patricia Toro’s Ecuadorian heritage, Ficoa brings an international approach to seasonal dining in Toronto.
Focusing on multi-course fine dining, the experience begins with a snack plate in the lounge area. Guests then travel to the main dining area to enjoy the rest of their meal.
This Little Italy restaurant offers a seven-course menu comprising 16 plates made with fresh seasonal ingredients rotating weekly with locally sourced and grown ingredients.
Standout dishes from past menus include tamale served with mole almendrado, duck with Morita BBQ sauce sourced from a farm in Arthor, ON, or P.E.I striploin served with almond and garlic cream and caviar as the main.
But no meal is complete without finishing with the second dessert of “grandma’s shortbread” in a nostalgic tin.
SARA
SARA offers a refined take on classic flavours. Set in a modern, pastel space in the Fashion District, it offers a menu that is approachable in flavour and price, with prix-fixe options ranging from $65 to $89 per person—practically unheard of when it comes to multi-course dining.
But what truly sets SARA apart from traditional fine dining is its take on elevating approachable dishes and flavours into upscale bites. Picture dishes like Brussels sprouts, chopped salad and 10 oz striploin steak, only elevated in unique ways.
The sprouts are charred and topped with feta, the salad has tamarind and crispy wasabi peas, and the steak is served with whisky jus and miso bearnaise. (The latter is so good you’ll want to dip your fries into them.)
And if that weren’t enough, they also serve a bite-sized version of wagyu Reuben made with Gruyère, truffle mustard and sauerkraut that you’ll want to come back for. Don’t worry: it comes in a full-size portion, too.
Actinolite Restaurant
Located on the upper end of Ossington Avenue, Actinolite Restaurant’s nightly tasting menu highlights head chef and owner Justin Cournoyer’s connection between food and the land. The hyper-seasonal tasting menu is based on what farmers, growers and suppliers have in peak season.
Inspired by Cournoyer’s upbringing in the rural Ontario community of Actinolite, the menu is continuously dynamic, serving nightly dishes with only the freshest ingredients.
Each meal starts with nightly house-baked bread with infused butter and small appetizer plates. In the warmer months, the vegetables and meats are grilled outdoors, serving seared lamb with a mix of vegetables over an eggplant puree or pairing mussels from Salt Spring Island with fresh heirloom tomatoes. In winter, the food showcases hearty, rich meats and root vegetables.
While no menu is provided, each course is served with a detailed description of the dish and the provenance of the ingredients, be it from nearby farms or sustainably sourced seafood from the Canadian coasts.
The available tables fill up fast, so it’s best to call ahead for a reservation.
Richmond Station
Richmond Station offers an upscale yet approachable take on fine dining where guests enjoy high-quality ingredients in a relaxed downtown atmosphere. With an extensive à la carte menu that draws a crowd night after night, the real draw for foodies is the multi-course chef-curated tasting menu refreshed every two weeks.
The restaurant prides itself on the local ingredients sourced from farmers and growers throughout Southern Ontario, and the tasting menu is the perfect vehicle to showcase what they can create from ingredients at the peak of their season.
The menu is a way for Executive Chef Aldous Cheung to test out new dishes before they make their way to the main menu. It starts with a selection of canapes and then moves into savoury main dishes, putting their own spin on black sea bass or glazed duck with seasonal sauces and touches.
Plant-based diners can choose the vegetarian tasting menu, and a non-alcoholic beverage pairing option is on offer as an alternative to the standard multi-course wine pairing.
Aburi Hana
Located in the upscale Yorkville neighbourhood, Aburi Hana’s multi-course tasting menu blends refined Japanese cooking techniques with seasonal flavours to offer guests a modern approach to Kyō-Kaiseki.
This waitlist-worthy, one MICHELIN Star restaurant is known for exceptional cooking served on handmade Arita pottery. It offers guests a seasonal menu that rotates every two months.
Under the direction of Executive Chef Ryusuke Nakagawa, ingredients and flavours are sourced from Japan and Canada to offer a unique, multicultural influence in a fine dining experience.
The menu blends ingredients from both countries, such as P.E.I. oysters dressed in a beet vinaigrette with Hokkaido uni served over seasoned sushi rice, or Miyazaki Wagyu served with black garlic miso, roasted Fuji apple and local maitake mushroom appearing on past menus.
Choose between a private dining room or a spot at the Chef’s Counter for your eight- or 12-course meal. Beverage pairings include sake, wine, spirits and teas.
Twenty Victoria
While the one MICHELIN Star Restaurant 20 Victoria might be one of the hardest restaurants in Toronto to snag a reservation for, the tiny restaurant with a big reputation is well worth the wait.
Led by Chef Julie Hyde, this 24-seat dining room downtown is packed full every evening. Guests can order a la carte or indulge in a full seven-course tasting menu or a smaller weeknight four-course version.
Known for its exquisite pairing of seafood with vegetable-forward dishes, the kitchen sources its seafood from the Canadian coasts and the local Great Lakes region.
The kitchen builds on the nuanced flavours of the seafood and locally sourced produce, creating upscale dishes that pair scallops and habanada, sturgeon with artichokes, striped bass and chicken jus, and maitake mushrooms that standout on their own, serving it up in a romantic environment of banquette seating or seats overlooking the open kitchen.
