8 restaurants pushing the envelope in Toronto

Tachi, owned by the same team behind MICHELIN-starred Toronto spots Sushi Masaki Saito and Shoushin, is the city’s sole standing-only omakase joint. Inspired by a seatless Japanese dining tradition, the restaurant, set in Chef’s Hall (a sprawling food venue featuring 17 other restaurants), offers just eight standing counter “seats”. Here, diners are served an omakase menu at a breakneck speed, featuring 11 pieces of sushi and one hand roll—in less than 30 minutes. The result is an entertaining, one-of-a-kind meal, fueled by high-quality fish and precisely prepared nigiri.

This Indian restaurant makes a big impact with its palace-inspired interiors and bold, signature dishes, such as the raan-e-shaahi (slow-cooked lamb leg with house spices) and asparagus kofta. But it’s also shaking up conventions in the back-of-house with its progressive kitchen team structure. Rather than employing a single head chef to run the kitchen, Adrak’s cooks are divided into smaller teams that focus on specific sections. It’s a strategy that encourages each chef to master a particular station or cooking style. The experiment is paying off, with Adrak recently receiving recognition in Toronto’s first MICHELIN guide. It doesn’t hurt that most of the restaurant’s kitchen team also trained with MICHELIN-starred chef Vineet Bhatia.