Scarborough Toronto Food Guide: The World's Best Diverse Dining

Scarborough is the most culinarily diverse destination in Canada — a fact that Toronto food cognoscenti have known for years while the rest of the world focused on downtown restaurants. This east Toronto borough is home to some of the largest South Asian, East Asian, Caribbean, and African diaspora communities in North America, and their restaurants, grocery stores, and food courts serve some of the most authentic cuisine available outside the source countries.

Scarborough's dining geography rewards systematic exploration by neighbourhood. Agincourt's Pacific Mall food court is one of the largest indoor Asian markets in North America — Cantonese roast meats, hand-pulled noodles, Taiwanese shaved ice, and dim sum all operate from tiny stalls where prices are set for the community, not for visitors. Kennedy Road's south Asian corridor has Tamil Nadu restaurants serving proper dosas and biryani, Sri Lankan curry houses, and Hakka Chinese restaurants (a South Asian-Chinese fusion unique to the subcontinent's diaspora).

Lawrence Avenue East is Scarborough's Afro-Caribbean corridor — Jamaican patties, Trinidadian roti, Guyanese cook-up rice, and West African suya from a dozen countries all within walking distance. Several Toronto food tour operators specifically run Scarborough food tours as alternatives to the downtown-centric options — these connect visitors with community members and businesses directly, with the economic benefit going to Scarborough rather than the tourist economy.