The best bites in Toronto of 2025 according to blogTO staff

Year after year, Toronto's food scene continues to grow and flourish, and 2025 has been no exception.

For how otherwise troubling the year may have been (I'm not here to talk tariffs today or, hopefully, ever again), restaurants, both new and old, around the city kept Toronto's residents well-fed enough to forget about the bad stuff, if even just for the length of a dinner.

Though I'm lucky enough to eat around at the city's restaurants and call it a full-time job, there's only so much eating one girl can do in a calendar year. Even luckier, our office is populated with some of the city's most enthusiastic foodies, so I took to the cubicles to find out the best things they ate in 2025.

Their responses, not unlike the city's food scene, did not disappoint. But let's start with me.

Chicken, fries and yellow gravy, Chick-N-Joy

This one may be a hear-me-out for the ages, but I don't care, I'll die on this hill. The fried chicken at Leslieville's Chick-N-Joy is some of the best in the city, and it's made using the same recipe that the restaurant started with in the 1970s.

The chicken, fries, and even unnaturally-coloured gravy are exactly what you'd hope they'd be, and all at a price that's hard to beat these days, but if you want a more high-brow answer from me, see below.

Celeriac Wellington, PUNCH

It's hard to find a good beef Wellington, period: Gordon Ramsay has made that much clear, and even more so in Toronto.

Still, this dish at Le Germain Hotel Mercer's new restaurant does it right, deftly weaving Indian flavours into the quintessentially British dish, all wrapped around a perfectly rare piece of beef tenderloin. Safe to say, it'll be a favourite of mine for a long time.

Now for what my colleagues had to say...

Merluzzo Nero, Florin

"The fish is sous vide, so it practically melts in your mouth, and it’s served in a creamy vermouth sauce I’d happily eat by the spoonful," blogTO food contributor Meagan Fava tells me.

"It’s topped with fried capers, which I love as someone who constantly craves salt."

Basically everything, Seahorse

Meaghan's favourite new restaurant in the city, she adds, is Rosedale's Seahorse.

"Some of my top bites of the year came from here," she says. "The Tuna Tartare is incredible, made with bluefin tuna, crème fraîche, and finger limes that burst with every bite. The Pear Cake was another standout. It’s baked with cream for a super tender crumb and served warm over a heavenly caramel sauce."

Caribbean Style Braised Beef, Conejo Negro

Zoomer Digital Network (ZDN) Video Host Briana Brieiro tells me that her top bite of the year came from Little Italy's Conejo Negro.

"First off, this dish looked absolutely beautiful: colourful and vibrant. Secondly, it tasted even better. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to indulge in," she says. "It quickly became my top dish of 2025!"

Iga Bakar Grilled Beef Ribs, Sambal

"The meat was so tender it just fell off the bone," says blogTO staff photographer Fareen Karim.

"The mix of sambal and soy sauce makes the flavour so addicting that there will literally be nothing left on the bone. The perfect sweet and savoury dish."

Donatello and Truffle Affair, Alfie's

"Leoncini prosciutto cotto, lemon basil pesto, imported whole burrata from Italy, roasted zucchini. I've never eaten a sandwich with a whole burrata bulb inside of it, and I'm not sure I could go back," says ZDN Video Producer Anton Wong.

"First time I tried this was between shoots for work, and the sourdough bread was light enough that despite eating the whole thing, I didn't feel lethargic. Worth the $22, but see if you can order ahead because the lines get long!"

Luiz Strina, a ZDN Video Editor, agrees that Alfie's is one of the — if not the — best new restaurants of 2025, though he's partial to the Truffle Affair.

"Everything complements each other, it's everything in a sandwich, and it's... it's from heaven," he says.

Ramyeon Birria, Gochu Libre

"It was a really fun and unexpected mix of flavours," Mary Maliszewski, a food contributor at blogTO, says.

"I also really liked the presentation — there's something really fun and playful about serving a fancy fusion dish in a disposable noodle cup."

Molecular hot pot, aKin

"I think this dish speaks for itself, but creating such an iconic dish in such a unique way had me floored," says ZDN video host and producer Madison Schuliakewich.

"There's a reason Executive Chef Eric Chong received Michelin's young chef award!"

& more!

Food and drink contributor Christine Peddie had a hard time narrowing down all of the exceptional eats she tried this year, but among her standouts, she lists Crudo's porchetta sandwich, half roasted chicken from The Fredrick, Pappardelle all Barolo at Occhiolino, Ramen Tabetai's signature ramen and the Beef Carpaccio at The Lunch Lady.

Here's to even more to-die-for eats in 2026!