Toronto in 72 hours

lorisolan
Jan 12, 2018
9 min read

I have been tinkering with the idea of living in Canada for quite some time. Pro's - it is much closer to home for me than Australia where I lived for 6 years, I have heard nothing but great things about many parts of the country from friends who have emigrated or visited, you get proper seasons, Christmas is cold in comparison to Australia and best of all I have family living there. Con's - not so sure there are any yet. I applied for the working permit visa last year and it was due to expire this month on the 26th. That being said as I was home in Ireland for Christmas this year so I decided before we went back to our current home in Kuala Lumpur, we would take the short flight to Toronto with Denver to activate our visas and to get a small grasp of what Canadian life might be like.

We landed in Toronto at 7pm, walked up to level 3 of arrivals and got our tickets for the UP Express train which is a great service connecting the airport to the downtown area. There were 3 stops in total and ours was the last at Union Station where we met up with brother, Jack.

We got a cab (so Canadian) to Luma restaurant on King Street where Jack works as a server. Luma is found on the 2nd floor of #350 located above TIFF which is an organisation that is dedicated to presenting the best of international and Canadian cinema to film lovers. It is a great place to come to combine dinner and an alternative movie. Jack had the night off work so we had drinks in the lounge and dinner in the restaurant together. The food was delicious and the staff were all extremely friendly.

Luma Restaurant (350 King St. W., 2nd Floor) $$$

Day 1

We woke early to blue skies and a temperature of -11 degrees that apparently was to feel like -23 with wind chill. It certainly felt like a cold I have not experienced in a long time or forever for that matter. We rugged up and went for breakfast at Eggspectation (love the portmanteau used here!). It was a busy diner like restaurant and we were lucky to get a table. i just had to get the pancakes with Canadian maple syrup.

Classic Canadian Pancake Breakfast at Eggspectation (483 Bay St, ON M5G 2C9) $$

Nathan Phillips Square (100 Queen St W, ON M5H 2N2)

We took the short walk across to Nathan Phillips Square to see the recognisable Toronto sign. As it was so cold there was no one around allowing us to get a great photo. The skate rink is open 10am-10pm from late November to mid March (weather permitting). The skate hire fee is $10 for an adult and $5 for children with a fee of $5 if you require a helmet.

Toronto Eaton Centre (220 Yonge St, ON M5B 2H1)

We took a stroll through the Toronto Eaton centre which was bustling. There is a great selection of retailers Sephora, Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie and Fitch and many, many more. We took the escalator down to the lower level and connected to the PATH walkway which is a 30km long network of underground pedestrian tunnels, elevated walkways, and at-grade walkways connecting the office towers of Downtown Toronto. We walked through PATH as far as the CN Tower and exited there.

PATH map

Union Station (Front Street West)

During our walk along the PATH, we ducked up to see Union Station. This is one of the busiest train stations in the Toronto area seeing more than 250,000 people pass through here daily and is a major hub connecting downtown and the Pearson International airport. The building is architecturally beautiful with it's high dome shaped roof and large bay window. The city is planning a huge renovation which will aim to improve the quality and capacity of pedestrian movement, to restore heritage elements and to transform the Station into a major destination for shopping, dining and visiting.

CN Tower (301 Front St W, ON M5V 2T6)

The CN tower is one of the most iconic landmarks of Toronto and soars 553.3 m-high high above all other buildings. It is a concrete communications and observation tower and can be seen from all over the Downtown area. The locals use this as a good guide for directions as they tend to talk everything North, South etc and this is their South marking. One of the things I found quite refreshing about this city is that it is not so enclosed by extreme high rise office and apartment buildings.

Steam Whistle Brewery (Historic Train Roundhouse)

On the walk down to the Harbourfront area that is adjacent to the impressive Lake Ontario, you pass by the Steam Whistle Brewery which has been built inside an historic train roundhouse. The old trains outside are a lovely sight as you walk by the brewery. It was a bit early in the morning for us to do a tour of the brewery however it is one of the recommended activities to do in Toronto at a cost of $12pp. Monday to Saturday the tours start at 11:30am and run every 30 minutes with the last tour at 5pm and 4pm on Sundays.

Lake Ontario (Harbourfront View)

The walk along the harbourfront taking in the sights of the frozen Lake Ontario was probably one of my highlights. To see such a sheer mass of water frozen over was something I am not used to. What else was breathtaking about here were the planes landing at the nearby Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. They flew so low over the lake it almost looked like they were going in. I was so distracted by it, I didn't even get the chance to get a photo. There were numerous sized boats in the harbour which looked like they were stranded as the water surrounding them was fully frozen. With the backdrop of the gorgeous clear skies this is definitely a place worth seeing in the winter.

Amsterdam Brewhouse (245 Queens Quay W, ON M5J 2K9)

We had spent enough time out in the cold so we visited the Amsterdam Brewhouse which is also down in the harbourfront area. The blast of heat as you walked in was extremely welcoming. We asked the server to seat us near the window as there were great views of the lake. We ordered a beer paddle each or as they called it here a beer flight for $9. There were 4 different choices of 4 depending on your preferred type of beer, pale ale, lager etc. I chose the Front Bathurst which was a combination of lighter, fruitier beers. You can't have beer without pizza (or is it the other way round!) so we ordered one of their wood fired Southwest chicken pizzas which was the perfect combination. If you are in to your sports this is also a great place to come and watch a game as they have one large screen and multiple small ones dotted around the bar.

Day 2

We had breakfast at Good Son which is found on Queen Street. I was very excited to see the wood fire oven that was blazing in the far left corner and even more excited to see that they had a Breakfast pizza which I had never seen anywhere before. I was then highly disappointed to hear that I would have to wait 45 minutes for the breakfast pizza to be made as the oven needed to reach optimum temperature for cooking. Shouldn't it be at optimum temperature when the doors open for service?! If you decide to go here and do want the B.P then get there at 12pm rather than 11am to give them time to heat the oven properly!

I had to settle on the Southern Fried Chicken that was accompanied by a maple waffle, spicy creme fraiche and blueberry compote. It was delicious to start however became sufficiently sickening half way through as was quite sweet. Overall if I was asked I would rate a 6.5, the latte I got helping to bring up my rating.

Good Son Restaurant (1096 Queen St W, ON M6J) $$

Distillery District

The distillery district is a cobble stoned pedestrian walking district which is home to various boutiques, cafes, restaurants and beer houses that are housed inside heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. It is located to the East of Downtown and is a perfect place to visit for an afternoon. We had a beer paddle at the famous Mill Street brewery which is local to Toronto. Mill St. was established in 2002 and is home to over 60 beers and was the first brewery in Ontario to brew organic beer which I would highly recommend trying. Organic beer seems to be a big thing around the Toronto area and is similarly priced with normal brewed beers.

Monster Jam at the Rogers Centre (1 Blue Jays Way, ON M5V 1J1)

I had researched things to do in Toronto for the weekend and the Monster Jam at Rogers centre kept cropping up so we thought why not, when in Rome and all of that! The tickets were just $15pp and the show started at 7pm with a pre build up from 5pm. The atmosphere was electric and the noise of the trucks even more so. It was a true Canadian event and we were glad we got to experience it.

Duke's Refresher and Bar (382 Yonge St #8, Toronto, ON M5B 1S8)

We stopped at Duke's Refresher and Bar for some more tasters of Canadian beer. There were 40 different beers on tap, the Canadians love to make the choice difficult with so many options. It was another great bar to come to watch sports. Their nachos are really tasty and if there is a next time I will make sure I get the large as the small lives up to it's name. My favourite beer here was the Goose Island Goose IPA.

Dinner at my Aunt & Uncle's suburban home

The last time I visited Toronto was with my family when I was 6 years of age. We stayed with my Auntie and Uncle out in the suburbs and I had the opportunity of going back to see them again after 24 years. There were many laughs and a lot of old photos that we sifted through from our childhood. It was so great to experience a little bit of what suburban life would be like here.

Day 3

Brickyard Bistro (1289 Gerrard St E, ON M4L 1Y6)

We heard about the Greenwood area that is North of the city. We took the 506 street car all the way down College Street. We ended up in Brickyard Bistro restaurant for brunch. The menu was quite 'fancy' in comparison to the usual brunch places. It had options such as Oeufs En Meurette (red wine poached eggs on pain au lait crouton, finished with red wine demi glace, mushrooms & pearl onions) and Crepe Marseillaise (scrambled eggs, scallops, shrimp, chives, niçoise olives, dried cherry tomato, sauce Choron).

Kensington

We were staying in the Kensington area which was a mix of Chinatown and hipster. There were lots of cool shops, cafes and restaurants with really vibrant and interesting shop fronts. Top tip - there is a parking garage opposite a coffee shop called Little Pebbles on Baldwin Street and if you take the stairs to the top, there is a really spectacular view of the Toronto city skyline.

Dumpling House Restaurant (328 Spadina Ave, ON M5T 2E7) $

As we were staying in Kensington the Chinatown area of Toronto, we couldn't leave without trying some dumplings. We found a really great spot called Dumpling House Restaurant which did the tastiest dumplings and the most delicious chicken fried rice. There is quite a selection of dumplings however if you can't decide they allow you to mix three different choices for $10. You can decide between either 15 steamed or 12 fried.

To cap off our trip and our last meal we had to have the famous Canadian staple meal of Poutine which originated in Quebec. The base ingredients of this dish are chips topped with cheese curd and smothered in brown gravy, after that there are many different toppings you can select from. We read that Poutini's House of Poutine on Queen Street was meant to be one of the best in Toronto so we took the street car down to it. As we don't eat red meat, we settled on the mushroom and onion poutine with vegetable gravy. This paired with a can of coke was something special!

Following on from this, we ventured down a couple of doors to a really cool bar with the catchy name of Death and Taxes, made even more appealing by their reasonably priced glasses of wine and stout. We had one drink there then collected our bags and headed back to the airport. It really was a fly in fly out kind of weekend however we made the most of it and saw a lot that Toronto had to offer. This could very well be our next place of residence but for now it is back to the heat in KL!

Poutini's House of Poutine (1112 Queen St) $ Death and Taxes Bar (1154 Queen St)

I thoroughly enjoyed Toronto as a weekend visit, it was a great city with lots of trendy bars and restaurants however I did get a small shock at how expensive alot of activities and meals out were. On top of the expensive food and drink prices there was an expected tip of between 15-20% which really changed the total amount of the bill.

I would definitely tell people to take a visit here but make sure that you have a lot of pocket money to spare.