A digital marketer by day, food writer and photographer by night, Gizelle Lau probably goes to more new restaurants in a week than the average person does in months. She's a regular contributor to many of your favourite Toronto city guides: Toronto Life, Where, and Post City, to name a few. When she is not working on freelance travel and food writing projects, she's working on social media and digital strategy for Just-Eat Canada to help bring good food into people's homes. The only problem with asking her for restaurant recommendations is that you can never go to all of them in the time you have.
Follow her on Twitter: @Torontoeats
Breakfast
Schmaltz Appetizing: It’s fast and close to home. The bagels here are from Kiva's and you get your choice of different types of cream cheese and really, really good smoked salmon or gravlax. Or, you can get really fancy with caviar, sturgeon and all the toppings. With a coffee from Ezra’s Pound, it’s the best kind of morning.
Lunch
Sushi on Bloor: Lunch specials are $7. For under $20, you can get an order of chicken katsu udon noodles, and a dynamite roll, plus miso soup and salad.
Dinner
Buca Yorkville: Great raw bar and crudos that are light and fresh and great for sharing, like the massive raw seafood platter. For something heavier, you can order pasta or meat, but my staples are the warm bread knots and the burrata pizza.
Drinks
It really depends on the mood. For laid-back, but top notch cocktails, I go to Toronto Temperance Society. For a super casual get-together with good beer, I go to Wvrst. For a fun summer night, it's cocktails by the pitcher at Valdez or, if you can snag a spot, Bar Raval. Or [for something non-alcoholic], roasted milk bubble tea from Chatime.
