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Toronto is not a neighbourhood, but a catch-all category with the best of the city without a location-specific address – like celebrities and services like radio and TV stations.
This neighbourhood is notable for its shopping. Large malls/big box stores like Bayview Village Shopping Centre and Fairview Mall are located here, as well as Ikea and a very large Canadian Tire. There is a small cluster of restaurants in these malls, but are far and few between elsewhere. Despite two subway stations servicing the area, it is better travelled by car or Ikea shuttle bus. There are, however, trails of East Don Parkland that run across the neighbourhood and through Moatfield Farm Park. Also in the area is Bridal Path, an upscale residential area where Prince once lived.
A central street on Toronto’s west side, Bloor West encompasses several neighbourhoods, from Koreatown around Christie Pits Park to Bloor West Village begining around Old Mill. The Bloor subway line crosses the entire strip. Bloor West is also home to High Park, a scenic park with its own zoo.
Sandwiched between Church Street and the DVP, this area is small but dense with homes, history and English-style pubs. Every September, the community puts on the Cabbagetown Fall Festival. Its festivities include entertainment, parades, mini marathons and walking historic tours. Many of the leafy residential streets in this area are lined with old, Victorian homes.
College Street is most recognized by its southern European flare. West of Bathurst Ave. is the city's Little Italy neighbourhood. Further west, Little Italy gives way to Little Portugal. Small watering holes, cafes, live music clubs, pubs and restaurants can be found throughout.
In the ever-expanding Toronto, Davisville was once considered uptown. Now it's known for quaint restaurants and shops clustered around Yonge and Mt. Pleasant, with well-to-do homes in between. A large part of this area is taken up by Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
The DVP and the Don River run right through this growing neighbourhood, located between York Mills Road, Leslie Street and Eglinton East. There's plenty of lush parkland like the Moccasin Trail Park, Ernest Thompson Seton Park and Brookbanks Park, but Don Mills is more known for large offices, shopping plazas and parking lots.
The tourist hub of Toronto, downtown includes a number of attractions, theatres and shops, and plenty of restaurants to cater to them. The epicenter is Dundas Square, a mini Times Square with its overhead billboard and flashing advertisements. From there, the Eaton Centre, old and new city hall, Rogers Centre, Union Station and the Hockey Hall of Fame are all walking distance.
Though the Dundas West area has become a hot spot of late, there are still tons of family owned bars, restaurants and stores. Wander far enough west, through Little Portugal and Brockton Village, and Dundas curves north toward Bloor West.
East York was once Canada's only borough. Until the 1970s, it did not allow alcohol in restaurants, pushing many establishments south to the Danforth. That's history, but the area is still mostly residential.
Eglinton West is a long east-west artery densely packed with hundreds of businesses. The avenue is one of the more diverse in the city – officially called the International Market but mostly home to a large Caribbean community. Splitting Eglinton West in two is the entrance ramp of the Allen Expressway.
After amalgamation, Etobicoke went from Toronto suburb to the city's west end. Right next door to Toronto Pearson Airport, Etobicoke is a large area that includes the Kingsway, the end of Bloor West Village and St. George Golf and Country Club – a top-ranked private golf club.
Home to some of the country’s most prestigious private schools, Forest Hill is a small, upscale neighbourhood found below St. Clair West between Bathurst and Yonge.
Toronto's Chinatown is one of the largest in North America. Scores of Chinese restaurants, kitchen supplies stores, markets, malls and bars fill the always busy street. Chinatown melts into Kensington Market to the west, where a few blocks of vintage shops, restaurants, bars, bakeries and cafes have the same busy, marketplace vibe.
King West is prime condo location, from Spadina all the way to Dufferin and beyond. It is home to upscale bars and restaurants, as well as the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a theatre at the corner of John and King. Liberty Village found, on the end closer to Dufferin, is up and coming as condos continue to go up and its boutiques become more popular.
Northwest of the downtown, Lawrence West doesn't hold the same commercial cache as southern strips Eglinton and St. Clair West. Sure, there's Avenue Road, busy from Lawrence up to the 401, but outside that Lawrence West is largely residential.
Leaside is a family-oriented area with several neighbouring high schools and hockey arenas. Businesses line Bayview Avenue, though, with pubs, gelato, restaurants and specialty shopping.
The area north of the 401 is terra incognita for many Torontonians, but it’s home to a diverse array of neighbourhoods and several iconic Toronto sites. From the busy Sheppard Centre to the marginalized Jane and Finch, from York University to Downsview Park, the region is a mixed bag. It also gave us Mayor Mel Lastman, so we’ve got that to thank it for.
Beloved and beleaguered, Parkdale is a neighbourhood with personality. Just the wrong side of the tracks from trendy Queen West, the area boasts dive bars and run down storefronts interspersed with an increasing number of hip coffee shops and clothing stores. It’s also the proud host of a new methadone clinic.
A few short years ago it seemed like Queen West was the only place in town worth going to if you were young, trendy, and looking to party. But the once red-hot district is hemorrhaging cred to the Ossington and Dundas strips, and one wonders how much longer nightlife institutions like the Drake Hotel can hold sway over the West End bar scene.
The Opera House is probably the most recognizable fixture in this district just across the Don, but bars like the Comrade and bakeries like St. John’s make this a great neighbourhood for those with an eye for style and a taste for artisnal food. If there’s an area to tip the scales of the East vs. West debate in the East’s favour, this is it.
Home to a large Polish community, this district on the edge of downtown often feels like a quaint village unto itself. For years it’s been in tatters thanks to extensive road repairs that shuttered shops and left the whole area covered in dust, but thankfully the work is done and Roncy is back in business and more beautiful than ever. Slightly upscale compared to Parkdale, its neighbour to the east, Roncy is home to some of the city’s best wine bars and the Revue Cinema, a century-old not-for-profit movie house.
There’s no polite way to put this. Rosedale is rich. Topping Toronto’s neighbourhoods in nearly every economic indicator, its most popular joints are upscale groceries, restaurants and one amazing LCBO at Summerhill, but that’s not all the area’s got going for it. Even the 1% like a little diversity every once and a while.
Don’t judge this sprawling suburb by who it elects to city hall. It’s home to some fantastic Chinese restaurants, the Bluffs and of course the Scarborough Town Centre, if you’re into that kind of thing.
For years, construction of the St. Clair streetcar right-of-way essentially turned this area into a giant eyesore. Following delays, soaring costs, and a $100 million lawsuit, that construction is finally over, and that’s excellent news for the region’s businesses and communities, which include the activist hotbed of Wychwood, the Italian strip of the Corso Italia, and a large contingent of Portuguese- and Latino-Canadians.
Regarded by many as Toronto’s most liveable neighbourhood, the Annex is a district of historic residential streets branching out from the Bloor West strip. There’s no shortage of bars, restaurants, and shops in the area. The Annex can’t be beat for a low-key night out on the town and, if you have a few million dollars to throw around, the neighbourhoods much sought-after houses are pretty swell too.
At the easternmost end of the streetcar line you’ll find the Beaches, a district of big houses, small strips of sand, and minimal nightlife. Although the neighbourhood can often come off like some sort of cold weather Hamptons wannabe, there's tons of charm, and carnivores across the city flock to famous grill spot Burgers Priest, while barley buffs relish a trip to Castro’s Lounge to sample its extensive beer list.
Throw a rock on the Danforth and you'll inevitably hit a Greek restaurant. There are so much exquisite Mediterranean cuisine on this strip, there's a festival for it every summer. Also note a number of bars, shops and health food stores along the way.
For students of Toronto history, the most famous fact about this post-industrial area north of High Park is that it kept enforcing the prohibition against alcohol long after the rest of the country decided to turn the taps back on and let the good times roll. The Junction’s first liquor license of the modern era wasn’t given out until the late 1990s, and not surprisingly, since then the neighbourhood has undergone a renaissance. New bars and restaurants are setting up shop, and an area already home to a resilient Maltese community is earning a deserved reputation as a haven for young artists and activists.
The are worse ways to spend your salad days than as a student at U of T’s downtown campus. Sure, you’re liable to learn a thing or two at the school in the heart of the city, but it’s the time spent boozing and noshing at university institutions like Einstein’s and Papa Ceo’s that you’ll really look back on with fondness when you’re trying to find someone who thinks your art history degree amounts to job credentials. Ah, to be young again.
This neighbourhood straddles the imaginary line between downtown and the suburbs, and is replete with golf courses, mini-mansions, and even a cricket club. It has a reputation for being upscale without being too snooty about it, and otherwise being a pretty quiet part of the city. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its fair share of places that make life worth living however, and it’s home to some fantastic Jewish bakeries and seafood restaurants.
Having narrowly escaped becoming the future site of a ferris wheel and monorail, Toronto’s Waterfront still has some distance to go before it lives up to its full potential. The shore side of the harbour is still largely sterile and dominated by condos, but the area is redeemed by keystone cultural institutions at Harbourfront and urban eco-gems like Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit.
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