Toronto Restaurant Tips by Bwana_Brown

Restaurant Name: Barbarians

Barbarians seems to have had a long and distinguished history and clientele as well, judging from the many mementos scattered about inside! The restaurant is made up of two old houses, built in 1860, now joined together to provide a hodge-podge of rooms and stairways. It makes for interesting decor. In our case, we had a separate room just for the 12 of us from the meeting who decided to go out as a group. I found that this is not as pleasing to me as being in a room full of other people enjoying themselves - I guess that I just like to see what else is happening!

Favorite Dish: I decided to go with one of the smallest steaks that I could see on the menu - an 8 oz. filet mignon served with a baked potato, costing about US$25. This was preceded by a tomato and onion salad with vinegrette dressing for US$4. The meal was quite enjoyable, and a couple of bottles of Italian (Masi) and Australian (Penfolds) wine for the table certainly helped matters along!

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Theme: Steakhouse
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$31-40  » Currency Converter
Address: Right behind the Delta Chelsea Inn
Directions: Only a short 15 minute walk from The Grand Hotel

Restaurant Name: Hy's Steakhouse

We had to squeeze in a quick meal after our meeting had ended and before the start of the baseball game at 7:30. Our hosts recommended Hy's because of its good reputation and the fact that it was about half-way between the Delta Chelsea hotel and the Skydome, so made for a nice stroll in the 30 C evening. The interior of Hy's was really amazing - big dark wooded rooms with very high ceilings adding to the pleasantly cool temperature after the hot walk! One entire wall was covered by a wine rack that was at least 15 feet high!

Favorite Dish: I tried to keep things down to a dull roar by ordering only their Beefsteak Tomato with Blue Cheese and Red Onion appetiser (US$5.50) followed by the smallest steak on their menu, a 7-oz Alberta beef filet mignon with rice (US$23). This came with some side dishes of fried mushrooms, asparagus tips and spinach for the whole table (plus garlic bread slices). The meal was great - I really enjoyed it and the red wine that we ordered was a collaboration of two Australian wineries - excellent as well!

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Theme: Steakhouse
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$31-40  » Currency Converter
Phone: 416-364-3326
Address: 120 Adelaide St. West
Directions: Downtown, about mid-way between City Hall and the CN Tower/Skydome area

Restaurant Name: The Market Garden

The Market Garden is located off the lobby of the Delta Chelsea hotel on the ground floor. It is quite a large restaurant serving buffet style meals where you pick up a tray and wander around to the various counters loading up with whatever you want. They have cooks behind some of the counters preparing fresh pizzas or cooking a breakfast omelette, etc. There was plenty of seating capacity and it even had outdoor seating.

Favorite Dish: I arrived on an evening flight and did not feel like eating out by myself in an expensive restaurant, so I decided a quick meal here would be my best bet. Their vegetarian pizza looked really good - tons of veggies of all sorts on it so, a large slice of that filled the gap quite nicely! The next morning, I returned for breakfast and had them cook me an egg as I waited. However, with some hash brown potatoes, toast, orange juice, bacon and coffee the bill came to C$13 (US$9), which is not too bad for a downtown restaurant I guess.

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Theme: Buffet
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Address: Delta Chelsea Hotel