Ernest and Linda Liu’s Salad King might not be the best Thai restaurant in town, but it’s certainly the busiest. And the loudest. Why, here it is barely noon and every one of the unofficial cafeteria of Ryerson’s 160-some communal seats is taken, a patient queue of cash-strapped students snaking down its stairs.
For 20 years they’ve come – first to Gould in a tiny hole-in-the wall that collapsed and burned to the ground, and now around the corner in far grander and noisier retro pop art digs – for inexpensive noodle dishes like the correctly ketchup-free veggie phud thai ($8, $9 with chicken, $9.50 with shrimp) and spicy tofu with snap peas ‘n’ toasted cashews over rice ($9). They also know to order everything according to the King’s legendary “spice scale,” one chili described as “nice” while 20 “may cause stomach upset.”
Back when the Bloor strip at the top of U of T was the Queen West of its day, the Coffee Mill (99 Yorkville, 416-920-2108, coffeemillrestaurant.com) was its Drake: part Hungarian café, part hotbed of sophomore intelligentsia. You can still see photos of the class of 66 – long-time regulars like Margaret “Book Learner” Atwood, Norman Jewison and Adrienne Clarkson – hanging on its walls. Order owner Martha Von Heczey’s signature goulash ($7.50, “a meal in itself”) or old-school cabbage rolls mit mashed potatoes und sauerkraut ($12.50) and be transported back to a simpler time.
Down at the southwest corner of the campus, Kom Jug Yuen (371 Spadina, 416-977-4079) is similarly stuck in a 60s time warp, from its hallucinogenic wallpaper to its period Cantonese grub. Where else will five bucks and change get you a plate of barbecued pork fried rice with egg roll? Just up the block, Mother’s Dumplings (421 Spadina, 416-217-2008, mothersdumplings.com) is always overrun with undergrads, especially ones with a hankering for hand-thrown Da-lu noodles ($7.75) and lamb shiu mai ($7.10).
Eclectic Kensington Market has always been a mecca for the budget-minded, thanks to places like Akram’s Shoppe (191 Baldwin, 647-351-3116, akramsshoppe.com), where the best falafel this side of Beirut and Middle Eastern pizza slices go for $2.99. Think all ramen comes from a dollar-store packet? Insanely popular Kenzo (372 Bloor West, 416-921-6787 138 Dundas West, 416-205-1155, kenzoramen.ca) knows otherwise, making the slippery spaghetti-like noodles in-house and dishing them up in flavourful broths like creamy pork tonkotsu ($8.95), the Japanese equivalent of stroganoff.
