Summer food festival with over 200 restaurants returns to Toronto

Toronto’s biggest summer culinary event that spans the whole city is returning.

Summerlicious — where local restaurants showcase their absolute best — is set to kick off in a few days and will include over 240 dining locations spanning the GTA.

For those who haven’t had the chance to explore this event, restaurateurs use it to showcase their very best through prix fixe menus for lunch and dinner, all priced within strict limits to keep the experience fresh and accessible.

While hundreds of locations are participating across the city and beyond, there are a few notable locations that are worth mixing up your dining plans over the next few weeks.

Right in the middle of the downtown core, the iconic Canoe returns, bringing its best culinary delights with city views from its dining room atop the iconic TD Bank Tower.

 

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Lunch will include a vinaigrette-paired beef tartare, steak fritte or albacore tuna, to name a few options, while dinner will have selections like pork terrine, tuna tartare, Atlantic salmon, and roast strip loin.

Moving away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, for those who want a bit more of an intimate dining setting in an iconic food neighbourhood, Chiado in Little Italy is also taking part in the summer staple.

Known for its iconic Portuguese cuisine, lunch features items like roasted quail, cod quenelles, duck leg confit, and yellowfin tuna steak — however, the dinner service will truly make for the perfect summer date night.

 

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Menu items include monkfish in white wine broth, grilled tiger shrimp, and roasted capon breast, piri piri style.

For those who want to indulge in the city’s most lively nighttime strip, Small Talk, one of Ossington Ave’s newest additions, is joining Summerlicious for the first time.

 

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This modern locale — which plays double-duty as a martini and jazz bar — will be rocking a dinner-only service, which includes a strawberry bread and butter set, a vast charcuterie, a velvet arrabbiata rigatoni, and a caramelized onion speakeasy burger.

Shifting gears to Toronto’s iconic central Chinatown, R&D, a modern dim sum experience, is bringing some bold flavours for the event.

 

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Dinner service here will include ibérico por bao, chilli crab fried rice, black truffle miso udon, and mango sticky rice, for those looking for something a little sweet, mango sticky rice.

To close things out on our list of highlights, for those who want what has been lauded as some of the city’s best pub food, look no further than the Berczy Tavern.

 

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Located in Old Town, this location has been generating a lot of buzz due to its mastery of elevated tavern cuisine.

Lunch service here for Summerlicious includes pugliese burrata with grilled sourdough, currant and caper purée, as well as a mushroom risotto, while dinner includes a seabass crudo, caper purée trout, and a stacked take on a chicken supreme.

Toronto’s Summerlicious is scheduled to run from July 3 to July 19, and all participating locations, menus and corresponding prices can be found on the City of Toronto’s official website.