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Toronto has somewhere north of 200,000 people of Filipino descent, and almost none of the restaurants feeding them are downtown. They’re on Wilson Avenue between Bathurst and Dufferin, and they’re in Scarborough along Ellesmere and Markham Road. Most Toronto food writing stops at Bloor, so most Toronto food writing has never mentioned any of this.
Five of the eleven places below sit within a ten-minute walk of Bathurst and Wilson, on the strip people call Little Manila. Three more are in Scarborough. That geography is the whole point of the list, so it’s ordered by where things are rather than by how good they are, and the four restaurants that turn up in every other Filipino roundup are here too — kept short, and near the bottom, because you’ve read about them already.
If you’ve only ever had Filipino food as a plate of lumpia at somebody’s office party, start at the top.
Little Manila: Wilson and Bathurst
1. Sampaguita Village — North York
A family restaurant on the Wilson strip that has quietly collected more than 1,800 reviews at a 4.8 average. Most downtown restaurants with publicists never get near that.
It’s a room built for large tables and long lunches, and the pace matches. Nobody is turning your table. If you’re coming with four people and an hour, that’s the right use of it. If you’re coming alone at 12:40 with somewhere to be at 1:15, pick somewhere else on this list.
Address: 322 Wilson Ave • Neighbourhood: North York • Price: $$ • Google Maps
2. Wilson’s Haus of Lechon — North York
Lechon is a whole roast pig, and doing it properly is a logistical commitment that most restaurants won’t make. This one is named after it.
The house special comes as baboy (pork) or manok (chicken), served with lumpia and rice, and you can order a whole suckling pig if you’re feeding a christening. The skin is the entire argument for lechon and it doesn’t survive a long drive, so eat this close to where you bought it. There’s a second location at 8 Glen Watford Drive in Scarborough.
Address: 365 Wilson Ave • Neighbourhood: North York • Price: $$ • Google Maps
3. Bale Kapampangan — North York
Kapampangan cooking comes from Pampanga, the province Filipinos themselves point to when the subject of who cooks best comes up. It is not a marketing claim; it’s a long-running national consensus.
So this is regional cooking in a city where most Filipino restaurants cook broadly, and the menu rewards asking the staff what to order instead of defaulting to sisig and adobo. Open to 10pm every night, which on this stretch of Bathurst is later than most.
Address: 3780 Bathurst St • Neighbourhood: North York • Price: $$ • Google Maps
4. Lovely Pao — North York
A counter, not a restaurant. Manage your expectations about seating and you’ll be fine.
What they do is siopao — steamed buns, sold by the box, in pork, chicken asado and meatball. Buying six of something is the normal transaction here. It’s the most useful stop on Wilson if you’re driving back downtown and want the food to survive the trip. The opposite of the lechon problem two entries up.
Address: 756 Wilson Ave • Neighbourhood: North York • Price: $ • Google Maps
5. Tinuno — North York
Kamayan means eating with your hands, off banana leaves, with no cutlery on the table. Tinuno builds its whole dining room around it, and the staff will walk you through the ritual if it’s your first time. For most people reading this, it will be.
Go with a group. A kamayan spread laid out for two people is a sad-looking thing, and the format only makes sense when there are enough hands around the table. There’s a downtown location at 31 Howard Street if North York is a stretch, though the Bathurst room is the better one.
Address: 3520 Bathurst St • Neighbourhood: North York (Little Manila) • Price: $$ • Google Maps
Scarborough
6. Lakay Kusina — Scarborough
Ilocano cooking, from the northern end of Luzon, which skews saltier and more bitter than the Filipino food most Torontonians have met. That is a feature. Bitter melon is not a punishment.
Ellesmere is not a walkable restaurant strip and this is a drive or a long bus, so it helps to know that going in. For more of what’s out this way, our guide to eating along Ellesmere and Markham Road covers the surrounding blocks.
Address: 80 Ellesmere Rd • Neighbourhood: Scarborough • Price: $$ • Google Maps
The Ones Downtown
7. Tagpuan — Kensington Market
Halal Filipino food. That barely exists anywhere, and it matters if you’ve ever tried to bring a mixed group to a cuisine built substantially on pork.
It’s a small College Street operation at the edge of Kensington rather than a sit-down destination, and there’s a second location on Kennedy Road in Scarborough. Cheap enough to compete with everything else in the market, and that’s a crowded field.
Address: 376 College St • Neighbourhood: Kensington Market • Price: $ • Google Maps
8. Kanto by Tita Flips — Alexandra Park
The famous one, and it earns it. Kanto operates out of a shipping container at Scadding Court. Sounds like a gimmick until you eat the lechon kawali.
Two things to know. Closed Mondays, open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 7pm, so it doesn’t work as a dinner plan. And the Junction location at 2986 Dundas West has closed — that address is still floating around on listings and will send you to a shut door.
Address: 707 Dundas St W • Neighbourhood: Alexandra Park • Price: $ • Website
9. Casa Manila — The Danforth
Fifteen years old this year, and it marked the anniversary by closing its Don Mills room and consolidating everything onto the Danforth. Worth knowing before you drive to Don Mills.
The sisig is the order, and the shareable pulutan menu is built for drinking rather than dining. Most Filipino restaurants in this city don’t bother drawing that line.
Address: 508 Danforth Ave • Neighbourhood: The Danforth • Price: $$ • Website
10. BB’s Diner — Parkdale
The Michelin Bib Gourmand one, on Brock just off Queen, doing Filipino-inspired rather than Filipino — kinilaw, Filipino spaghetti, and a calamansi pie with orange blossom meringue that has become the thing people photograph.
That distinction matters for expectation-setting: this is a restaurant working *from* Filipino cooking, and it’s the most expensive entry here by a distance. It is also the one that will most impress somebody you’re trying to impress, and it sits comfortably on our date night list. Both of those are true at once.
Address: 5 Brock Ave • Neighbourhood: Parkdale • Price: $$$ • Google Maps
The honest summary is that Toronto has a Filipino food scene the size of a mid-sized city’s entire restaurant industry, and it is almost entirely north of Eglinton. One trip to Wilson Avenue will do more for your understanding of it than a year of reading lists like this one. Pick a Saturday, park once, and eat at three of the first five. For more food that’s worth crossing the city for, see our biryani guide.
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