The MICHELIN Guide has announced that 74 restaurants made the inaugural Toronto selection, including 1 Two-Star restaurant, 12 One-Star restaurants, 17 Bib Gourmand restaurants, and 44 recommended restaurants.
Toronto was announced as the first Canadian MICHELIN Guide destination in May and the sixth in North America. The country’s inaugural selection brings global attention to Toronto’s diverse culinary scene. The selection includes 27 cuisine types. Japanese food dominates the top picks, but the MICHELIN tasters also singled out fried chicken, smoked meat, and Jamaican food.
The only two-star selection for Toronto was Sushi Masaki Saito. Receiving one star were Aburi Hana, Alo, Alobar Don Alfonso 1890 (remarkable restaurant), Enigma Yorkville, Edulis, Frilu, Kaiseki Yu-zen, Osteria Giulia, Quetzal, Shoushin and Yukashi.
Recommended or Bib Gourmand restaurants include Chica’s Chicken, SumiLicious (smoked meat) and Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen.
The selection comes at a key time in recovery for the Toronto visitor economy. The pandemic resulted in an economic loss of $12.5 billion through unrealized visitor spending in Toronto in 2020 and 2021. The food service industry is the largest employer among tourism businesses in Canada, accounting for over half of tourism jobs, and Canada’s agriculture regions provide the foundation that feeds Toronto’s culinary community.
The MICHELIN Guide selection follows Michelin’s historical methodology, based on five universal criteria, to ensure each destination’s selection equity: 1) quality products; 2) the harmony of flavours; 3) the mastery of cooking techniques; 4) the personality of the chef in the cuisine; 5) consistency between each visit (each restaurant is inspected several times a year).
A beautiful dish at Don Alfonso 1890 in Toronto.
Recognized globally for excellence and quality, the MICHELIN Guide offers a selection of world-class restaurants.
* The famous One, Two and Three Stars identify establishments serving exceptional cuisine rich in flavour and infused with the personality of a talented chef.
* The Bib Gourmand is a designation given to select restaurants that offer good quality food for good value – often known as personal favourites among the MICHELIN Guide’s anonymous inspectors when dining on their own time.
* The MICHELIN Green Star honours restaurants at the forefront of practices committed to a more sustainable gastronomy.
* Recommended restaurants and special awards are also highlighted by MICHELIN Guide inspectors.
Destination Toronto partnered with Destination Ontario and Destination Canada to support the marketing and promotional activities that made bringing the guide to Toronto possible.
The Toronto restaurant selections will join the MICHELIN Guide selection of hotels, which features the most unique and exciting places to stay in Toronto and throughout the world. Every hotel in the Guide is chosen for its extraordinary style, service, and personality — with options for all budgets — and each hotel can be booked directly through the MICHELIN Guide website and app. The selection for Toronto currently features the city’s most spectacular hotels, including sustainability pioneers like 1 Hotel Toronto, standouts from the “Plus” collection like the Soho Hotel, and design-forward boutiques like The Drake.
“As a city, we are proud to offer a very diverse and unique culinary scene,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory. “That has been made possible from all of the people who come from all over the world to call this city home.
“Now, with this new Michelin Guide in Toronto – the first in Canada – we are able to showcase our city’s remarkable food scene. With 74 restaurants selected for MICHELIN Guide Toronto, we hope more of the world will discover the city’s culinary excellence and will consider a visit to our great city.”
Westminster Abbey, London. Cameron Mourot/Unsplash Photo
QUEEN ELIZABETH FUNERAL DRIVING UP LONDON PRICES
Reuters reports that hotel prices in London and airfares to the British capital “are soaring as hundreds of thousands of people flock there ahead of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on Monday, potentially providing some respite to the city’s tourism business amid economic woes.”
Lonely Planet says London is expecting “unprecedented travel demand” starting today, as more than one million people are expected to make their way to the capital for the official ceremonies.
“If you haven’t yet secured accommodation, expect to pay steep prices for a room. According to the Guardian, prices are at their highest since the 2012 Olympics with some hotels increasing them by more than 300%,” Lonely Planet said.
WEST JET PERFORMANCE IMPROVES
WestJet says it continues to improve its performance.
“As per flight statistics provided by Cirium, from September 5 to September 11, WestJet maintained its week-over-week completion factor with the airline completing 98.9 per cent of all scheduled flights throughout the week,” officials said. “Additionally, over the last two weeks the airline took further strides and significantly improved its on-time performance by 13 percentage points, with 76.8 per cent of WestJet’s departures arriving within 15 minutes of scheduled time.”
SUNWING BOOSTS FLORIDA FLIGHTS FOR WINTER
Sunwing has announced winter service to Melbourne, Florida, a new destination along the south of Florida’s Space Coast offering more sun, beach and out-of-this-world exploration.
The tour operator will also be returning to two beloved destinations in the United States this winter with multiple direct flights from Toronto and Montréal, including Orlando, one of Florida’s greatest attractions, and Miami, a popular vacation destination for city exploration and cruise departures.
Universal Orlando.
“This winter, we’re thrilled to be returning to Florida with Melbourne as our newest destination offering for Sunwing customers,” said Andrew Dawson, President of Tour Operations for Sunwing. “In addition to the desirable destinations of Orlando and Miami, there’s much to explore along Florida’s Space Coast with beautiful beaches, a historic downtown core and nearby attractions, plus easy access to Port Canaveral for winter cruise sailings.
“Given the incredible customer demand for sun vacations this winter, we look forward to bringing more customers to Melbourne to experience its family-friendly charm.”
Melbourne is roughly one hour and 10 minutes southeast of Orlando.
