Rating: NNNNN
Café
Atelier Thuet
171 East Liberty, unit 153, at Hanna, 416-603-2777. Now doubled in size, this offshoot of Marc Thuet’s King West bistro may be hard to find, (hint: it’s across from Dominion), but once found will unlikely be forgotten. Come summer, chef barbecues preservative-free Mennonite beef on his “celebrated Thunder Grill” while you sip fresh strawberry champagne cocktails. Best: at lunch, sandwiches built on house-baked focaccia like steak haché with fabulously skinny frites showered with shaved Parmesan at dinner, begin with onion soup gratiné Les Halles, and follow with beer-braised Berkshire pork with warm Alsatian potato salad at brunch, Eggs Basquaise with house-made merguez lamb sausage. Complete dinners for $65 per person (lunches/brunches $35), including all taxes, tip and a glass of wine. Average main $28/$18. Open for lunch Tuesday to Friday 11 am to 2:30 pm, for dinner Tuesday to Suinday 5:30 pm to midnight. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 10:30 am to 3:30 pm. Closed Monday, holidays. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNNN
B Café
2210 Dundas W, at Roncesvalles, 416-533-2987. Like Leslie Jones and Grapefruit Moon, Robert Bechard’s low-key luncheonette epitomizes neighbourhood noshing. Seating two dozen at tables topped with Marvel comics under glass, this unpretentious space can be a zoo at weekend brunch. Best: grilled sandwiches like the BELTCH (bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato and cheddar on multigrain) from the all-day tax-inclusive card, grilled chicken burgers with blue cheese and Portuguese piri piri sauce sided, like most mains, with home fries, purple cole slaw and mesclun in pumpkin-seed vinaigrette roast duck, apple, sausage and Brie omelette corned beef hash with potato, zucchini and bell pepper, topped with two poached runny eggs. Complete breakfasts, lunches or brunches for $15 per person, including all taxes, tip and an organic coffee. Average main $9. Open Tuesday to Sunday 9 am to 3 pm. Closed Monday, holidays. Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free, but crowded room. Rating: NNN
Gilead Cafe
4 Gilead Pl, at King E, 647-288-0680. Located down an east-side alleyway, celebu-chef Jamie Kennedy’s latest culinary undertaking goes decidedly downmarket with a remarkable self-serve lunch spot and take-away. Warning: since Gilead doesn’t take reservations, prepare to stand in line and wait. Best: from a constantly mutating seasonal and mostly organic card, exceptional sandwiches like slow-roasted pulled pork shoulder in barbecue sauce on house-baked ciabatta spread with wild leek mayo frothy spring asparagus soup dolloped with crème fraîche organic greens topped with sliced asparagus and heirloom radishes in creamy, tart sorrel vinaigrette comfort-food-style oxtail stew to finish, outstanding lemon tarts in buttery pastry. Complete meals for $22 per person, including all taxes, tip and a glass of house-bottled water. Average main $9. Open Monday to Friday 8 am to 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday 8 am to 4 pm, lunch daily 11 am to 3 pm. Unlicensed. Access: three steps at door, washrooms on same floor. Rating: NNNNN
Holt Renfrew Cafe
50 Bloor W, at Balmuto, 416-922-2333. Not surprisingly, this très chic café cresting the top of the pricey women’s clothing store creates up-, wa-a-a-ay upmarket offerings for ladies who lunch and their fab fellows. But the real indulgence is the bread from Poilâne bakery of Paris that Holts flies in three times a week. Call it the 3,700-mile diet. Best: open-faced sandwiches built on dense, flavoursome slices of sourdough, like the brunch tartine topped with three exquisitely poached eggs, sautéed mushrooms and smoked salmon fried potato chips tossed with truffles and sea salt fresh jicama and fennel and the bright citrus vinagrette to finish (what else?), bread pudding. Complete meals for $50 per person, including all taxes, tip and a glass of wine. Average main $18. Open Monday to Wednesday 10 am to 6 pm, Thursday and Friday 10 am to 8 pm, Saturday 10 am to 7 pm, Sunday noon to 6 pm. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNN
Mocha Mocha
489 Danforth, at Logan, 416-778-7896. After operating Lima, Peru’s, only Dutch pancake house, Marijan and Mercedes Tripkovic opened this nutritious noshery in 1991. Count on a multi-culti menu that incorporates Latin American, Italian and African influences. Best: vegetarian club sandwiches, a triple-decker stacked with grilled eggplant, avocado and mozzarella on organic whole-wheat toast made-to-order egg salad on Fred’s multigrain spicy East African chicken stew with brown rice and house salad – shredded carrot, red cabbage, cuke, tomato and leaf lettuce in lemony honey Dijon Tex Mex burritos stuffed with refried beans, topped with diced avocado, pickled jalapeño and sour cream for dessert, Wanda’s retro apple pie. Complete meals for $20 per person ($15 at lunch or brunch), including all taxes, tip and a domestic beer. Average main $9. Open Monday to Saturday 9 am to 9 pm, Sunday 11 am to 9 pm. Licensed. Delivery. Access: barrier-free, but very crowded room. Rating: NNN
Poor John’s Café
1610 Queen W, at Callender, 647-435-2688. Nouvelle Parkdale lunch ’n’ brunch spot decked out in 30s velvet settees, 40s formica dinette sets and 50s Danish modern coffee tables. Warning: limited seating. Best: terrific sandwiches like avocado, Brie and mango on marbled rye spread with basil pesto cayenne egg salad with apple Goan curry chicken on grilled Calabrese all sided with house greens dressed in balsamic-mango vinaigrette, soup of the day – beef barley, say – or roasted home fries the house omelette with portobello mushrooms, red onions and St Jorge cheese at brunch, French toast with chai-poached pear to finish, carrot cake topped with whipped cream cheese frosting. Complete meals for $15 per person, including all taxes, tip and a fair trade coffee. Average main $8/$9. Open Tuesday to Friday 8 am to 6 pm, Saturday 9 am to 6 pm brunch Sunday 10 am to 3 pm. Closed Monday, some holidays. Licensed. Access: barrier-free, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNN
Salvador Darling
1237 Queen W, at Gwynne, 416-534-0488. Its decor is as surreal as its name – a velvet Victorian settee sits next to a Philippe Starcke chair under an art deco mural lit by a 60s mod chandelier – and this Parkdale café looks more like a lounge than a lunch spot. Despite limited facilities, the house’s straightforward salad-and-sandwich combos display as much skill as style. Best: inexpensively priced panini like Ace baguette with horseradish mayo, deli-style roast beef and balsamic-caramelized onion smoked turkey with avocado and Swiss, all sided with house greens the Darling salad of organic greens, prosciutto and cantaloupe tossed with cashews, chèvre and pomegranate seeds in creamy lemon dressing. Complete lunches for $15 (including all taxes, tip, and a coffee. Average main $9. Open Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm, Saturday 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Sunday. Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNN
Contemporary
Crush
455 King W, at Spadina, 416-977-1234. Still a wine bar, this casually cool supper club has gone gastro-pub. Goodbye, steak frites hello, pork scratchings, bacon sarnies and pork chops sided with bubble and squeak. An all-day noticeably cheaper bar menu and stylish Ralph Giannone remake of the room, too. Best: London Particular soup, a minty bisque thick with fresh spring peas finished with chives, crème fraîche and smoky pork hock chef’s charcuterie board pot pie du jour of cubed steak, morels and wild mushrooms 6-ounce house burger layered with double smoked bacon and creamy Lincolnshire Poacher cheese 10-ounce Kawartha Farms strip loin with frites, er, chips to finish, butterscoth-infused Sticky Toffee Pudding with house-made vanilla bean ice cream. Complete dinners for $80 per person (lunches $65), including all taxes, tip and a glass of wine. Average main $28/$17. Open Monday to Friday 11:30 am to 10:30 pm, Saturday 5 to 10:30 pm. Closed Sunday, holidays. Licensed. Access: seven steps at door, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNNN
French
Le Petit Dejeuner
191 King E, at George, 416-703-1560. This sophisticated east-side storefront with the sparkly naugahyde booths has evolved from a first-rate all-day breakfast spot into a low-key cantina with a skilfully executed Continental card created by Belgian-born owner/chef Johan Maes. Warning: it’s so busy at weekend brunch, Belgian waffles are limited to two per table! Best: super Croque Monsieur, buttery grilled challah with layered ham and melted Gruyère, sauced with subtle Dijon-nipped béchamel and broiled till bubbly Toast Champignon, a halved and toasted bagel tiered with grilled ’shrooms, bacon, onion and a runny poached egg, sided with rosti timbale and slightly pickled veggies over apple. Complete meals for $18, including all taxes, tip and a glass of wine. Average main $8. Open Monday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm, Saturday 9 am to 3 pm, Sunday 10 am to 3 pm. Closed holidays. Licensed. Access: barrier-free, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNN
Soup
Le Bar A Soupe
164 Ossington, at Foxley, 416-533-9825. First-time restaurateur Natalie Barin’s tiny west-side take-away offers a rotating monthly lineup of extraordinary seasonal soups made with ultra-fresh ingredients, 18 a week, three a day (one with meat, one veggie purée with dairy, one vegan) and all deeply delicious. Best: sided with porous crusty bread, French country soups like vegan chilled cherries with Beaujolais Mexican chicken pozole with hominy asparagus velouté with prosciutto almond milk with Andalusian apricot black bean with chocolate vegetarian onion with house-baked croutons peach with fresh basil petite grilled cheese sandwiches the house BLT on whole wheat, one slice spread with mayo, the other with nippy Dijon, layered with meaty bacon, ripe tomato and curly leaf lettuce salade niçoise. Complete meals for $10, including all taxes, tip and a bottled juice. Average main $4. Open Monday to Saturday 11:30 am to 8 pm. Closed Sunday, holidays. Unlicensed. Cash only. Access: three steps at door, no washrooms. Rating: NNNNN
RaviSoups
322 Adelaide W, at Peter, 647-435-8365. Former Mildred Pierce soup-meister Ravi Kanagarajah’s deluxe soup kitchen may not get much walk-by traffic, but that doesn’t stop lunchtime lineups most weekdays. The reason? Quality ingredients, attention to detail and fabulously rich flavours. Best: supernal soups like curried apricot and red lentils, a velvety veggie purée intensified with fresh coriander and citrusy crème fraîche corn chowder with fresh blue crab, Thai basil and crispy shallots south Indian lamb rasam with carrot, barley, edamame and baby spinach, all the above served with house-baked cheddar biscuits spread with spicy currant jelly grilled burrito-style wraps like roasted free-range chicken with baby spinach, roasted yam, caramelized onion and chipotle mayo. Complete meals for $14 per person, including all taxes, tip and a soft drink. Average main $9. Open Monday to Friday 8 am to 8 pm (lunches from 11 am), Saturday noon to 6 pm. Closed Sunday, holidays. Unlicensed. Access: five steps at door, washrooms downstairs. Rating: NNNN
