The 10 hottest restaurants in Toronto right now

The hottest restaurants in Toronto right now include some popular international transplants, a beautiful brewery, and some of the best udon spots the city has ever seen. Also, there's a couple new projects from some of the city's most buzzy restaurateurs.

Here are my picks for the hottest restaurants in Toronto right now. 

Bar Poet

What was previously the controversial bar Church Aperitivo has finally re-opened as this bustling restaurants serving $10 pizzas and wine on tap, with an amazing indoor patio to boot.

Chotto Matte

Peruvian and Japanese inspiration come together with nightly DJs at this vibrant hotspot in the Financial District, with locations in London and Miami. 

Piquette

New to West Queen West is this intimate wine bar from Grant van Gamaren. A tiny 30-seater, it might be difficult to score a spot here for its revolving menu of Spanish-inspired eats. 

Favorites

This collab effort between the people behind Khao San Road, Paris Paris and Superpoint is easily the most exciting restaurant on Ossington at the moment, grilling up Thai eats over binchotan charcoal.

Dreyfus

This classic French restaurant takes over J's Apron in Harbord Village with a tiny bistro serving green bean almondine and a list of all natural wines from all over the world. 

Shook

The wood-fired oven is heating up at this Israeli restaurant that opened this summer at the corner of King and Portland. Dine on fig salad and piping hot pita in a big, airy space. 

Avling Brewery

Probably one of the prettiest breweries to hit Toronto to date, this highly-anticipated space in Leslieville offers up a bottle shop, a menu of locally-sourced ingredients and a roof that's flush with veggies and herbs.

Zen Sanuki Udon

The owner of the hit Markham sushi restaurant Zen has launched a new project on Midland focusing on traditional udon noodles. Expect deliciously chewy noods and unreal dashi broth. 

Raku Toronto 

It's not hard to spot Toronto's version of the highly popular New York-based udon restaurant. Look for the painted white interior and billowing curtains by Queen and Spadina, and enter for unreal wheat noodles.

BAO

Replacing what was supposed to be the long-awaited Goubuli at the bottom of Chinatown's Dragon Condo (it never really even opened) is its sister store serving all sorts of Chinese steamed buns.