The top 5 Indigenous restaurants in Toronto

Indigenous restaurants in Toronto serve up dishes inspired by Aboriginal flavours and ingredients. Giving us a true taste of what this land has to offer, these restaurants are few and far between, but still impress by paying tribute to traditional meals with a twist. 

Here are my picks for the top Indigenous restaurants in Toronto.

Ku-Kum

A real gem in Toronto, this Mount Pleasant restaurant aims to reinterpret Indigenous dishes by combining chef Joseph Shawana’s French culinary background with the food from his childhood –  hence the restaurant’s name, which means “grandmother” in Cree.

NishDish

What began as a catering company is now a restaurant in Koreatown serving a rotating Anishnawbe menu. Expect mains using traditional native ingredients only, like roasted elk and venison stew.

Pow Wow Cafe

Ojibwe tacos: if that’s not enough to intrigue you, I don’t know what will. This Kensington Market restaurant serves frybread dough topped with ingredients like beef or veggie chilli, plus delicious brunch items like potato short stack and homemade cedar soda.

Tea n Bannock

With a straightforward menu, this no-frills spot on the fringes of Little India returns to Aboriginal basics by serving things like bannock, a.k.a frybread with bison, Navajo Indian Tacos and blanket digs, which are beef wieners wrapped in frybread.

Boralia

With an aim to revitalize cuisine from the early days, this Ossington restaurant does contemporary takes on dishes inspired by Native cuisine and the early settler diet, like venison liver and pigeon pie.