Often called the world’s most multicultural city, Toronto has a large Chinese community and many restaurants specialising in the flavours of Hong Kong. The options across greater Toronto are vast and varied. Here are a few standouts for Hong Kong-style cafe experiences.
New City Restaurant
Innovation and whimsy can be exciting, but sometimes only the tried and true will do. New City Restaurant is as old school and unfussy as it gets. Since the 1990s, this no-nonsense stalwart in New Kennedy Square in Markham, northeast of Toronto, has been a go-to for nostalgic diners for combos and classics that remain faithful to the Hong Kong palate.
Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, expect a slightly cramped dining room that buzzes with activity, especially at peak hours. Here, the reasonably priced menu is packed with everything from baked rice and spaghetti dishes brimming with meat sauce, to Portuguese chicken, baked pork chop or ox tongue, to noodle soups laden with satay beef, and fluffy and silky egg sandwiches. Combos include a main with a Russian borscht or cream soup, and coffee, tea, soya drink or soft drink.
New City is also known for its speedy, affable service, so don’t be surprised if dishes magically appear at the table as soon as the order is placed. This means the tables turn relatively quickly even on, say, Saturday at noon. It’s even faster if you choose to daap toi (share a table) with other customers.
New City Restaurant, 8392 Kennedy Road, Unionville, Markham, ON L3R 0W4
Pine House Cafe
Pine House Café is an unfussy and satisfying option in Toronto’s North York district that’s full of old diner vibes. There are also outlets in Markham, Scarborough and New Market. Those in the know arrive before noon when the family-friendly restaurant is filled to the rafters with hungry diners. The promptly served ample, fair-priced sets more than make up for the effort it takes to initially capture your server’s attention.
Since opening in 2016, Pine House has established a following for its Hainanese chicken. Fragrant and tender, the mix of breast and leg meat is accompanied by a vibrant yellow dome of chicken-oil-stained rice. There’s also stir-fried rice noodles with sliced beef that features chewy flat wok hei-licked noodles brightened up with crisp and tender sweet onions and bean sprouts. Like many of the lunch sets, both iconic dishes come with a drink and a daily soup served in a mug. The latter is home-style and pleasing, and unusually includes both a clear Asian broth and a borscht studded with cooked-down carrots, cabbage, celery and onions, with shreds of beef for good measure.
Come in the afternoon for the tea sets that feature everything from luncheon meat and egg sandwiches, French toast with peanut butter, and deep fried chicken leg or fish fillet cutlet in a bun, with tea or coffee. Don’t be surprised if neighbouring tables pull out lunchboxes in which to pack their leftovers, as the restaurant charges for takeout containers.
Pine House Cafe, 149B Ravel Road, North York, Toronto, ON M2H 1T1
Good Luck Hong Kong Cafe
Only three years old, the lively Good Luck Hong Kong Cafe in North York is where crowds flock for whimsical Canto-Western dishes that aren’t just “Gram-worthy” but also delicious. Here, walls are awash with Hong Kong nostalgia in bold graphics and neon light accents, while North American 90s pop tunes play overhead.
This is where city dwellers assemble for mile-high brick toast. Hollowed like a bread bowl and overflowing with saucy fillings like sweet ground pork and tomato-sauce-slicked spaghetti or Alfredo shrimp or chicken, these satisfying mains are topped with a blistered crown of cheese and served with a drink of choice.
Besides instant noodle bowls brimming with a buffet of meats, there’s lotus-leaf-wrapped steamed rice topped with flavour-packed seasoned or preserved meats and vegetables, plus hot plates with a choice of protein, carbs (spaghetti is the popular pick) and sauces ranging from black pepper to creamy garlic curry. Beyond fast food, you’ll find nourishing slow-simmer health soups prepared with stewed black chicken and ginseng or sea coconut, pear and pork shank.
Still hungry? You can’t go wrong with their decked-out pineapple buns filled with every meat possible or a simple slab of cold butter. Among the French toast favourites is one filled with molten salted egg yolk and christened with pork floss, and a condensed-milk-slathered stack that cascades with milk when you cut through its Ovaltine-dusted top. But don’t pass on their cute teddy bear tea with milk or lemon (pictured above). Both Hong Kong classic drinks arrive at the table frozen into a bear-shaped ice cube that’s drowned, table side, in more tea. It’s refreshing, flavourful and captures Hong Kong’s love for quirkiness.
Good Luck Hong Kong Cafe, 5533 Yonge Street, North York, ON M2N 7L3
Hong Kong Wing Tai
Ask industry insiders where they go for their cha chaan teng fix, and you’ll be told it’s this eatery in Richmond Hill just north of Toronto, which recently relocated from Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan district. What the casual, nondescript room lacks in decor—save for a collage depicting iconic images from Hong Kong fused with a nod to Toronto’s Yonge Street—it makes up for with its comfort-driven fare. Those familiar with the original Hong Kong-based restaurant will be thrilled to find all their favourites at incredibly competitive prices.
Signature dishes include the crisp and juicy pan-fried pork chop with a side of mixed greens, plus a mayo-slicked club sandwich with satisfying layers of pan-fried chicken steak, spam, ham, fried egg and American cheese between three crustless pieces of white toast. Whether it’s the Hong Kong-style breakfast that pairs a soupy noodle dish with eggs and herb buttered toast or a baked (fried!) rice or spaghetti dish, it’s classic, nostalgic and only available before 6pm.
Hong Kong Wing Tai, 10447 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Sammi
Closer to the city, there’s Sammi, a contemporary Hong Kong-style cafe with ties to Hong Kong’s Sammi Cafe. Opened by first-time restaurateurs Andy and Bobo Yin whose parents are behind the original Tsuen Wan restaurant, the cozy walk-in-only Danforth space is all the rage for the new generation of visitors to Hong Kong-style cafes. Despite the popularity of its carb-based comfort eats, the value-driven cafe is only open for breakfast and lunch, allowing the couple to spend more time with their young family.
The menu introduces a cuisine that’s relatively new to the area. At breakfast, options teeter between Hong Kong staples such as noodle sets with eggs and buttered toast and Western-inspired plates like pancakes, hash browns and cheese-and-egg stuffed croissants. At midday, the sets take an international spin with dishes like miso garlic butter shrimp pasta or the cheese-capped signature baked pork chop rice with a rotating soup and appetizer. A local favourite, the kaya (coconut jam) or peanut butter slicked French toast is available all day, until the 5.30pm closing time.
Sammi, 862 Danforth Ave, Toronto, Ontario M4J 1L7
