Community Notes
In recent issues, my column in Lifestyle has prioritized helping readers anticipate each unique dining experience by contextualizing local restaurants. I like to spotlight the diversity of immigrant and mom-and-pop establishments and revisit well-known institutions and new arrivals on the dining scene. I endeavour to showcase restaurants across the city that differ in location, price and ethos. Lately, my interest in lesser-known (to me) cuisines has expanded. Drawing on expert perspectives, I aim to deepen readers’ understanding of what to expect. In the past, I have worked with Tourism London, Ontario’s Southwest and other marketing boards, and local BIAs like Downtown London to promote restaurants, highlighting local cuisine and our general culinary culture as a key attraction, and creating food trails and culinary experiences to boost the local economy and visitor experiences.
There is no denying the pressures of independent restaurant ownership, and it is getting worse for small businesses. But their importance goes far beyond day-to-day economics. Independent restaurateurs are among the first to show up when their communities need them. They provide meals for frontline workers and the marginalized in need, donate time and fundraise for charitable and educational organizations and the community at large — all while shouldering immense burdens and sacrifices themselves. From navigating rising food, labour and overhead costs to supply chain volatility, skilled workforce shortages, and shifting consumer expectations, these independent restaurateurs and mom-and-pop operators continue to face uncertainty.
This past year has tested the industry’s resilience, and many local restaurants have succumbed to the pressures by closing. And, while the restaurant industry continues to rebound, independent restaurants and bars are still mitigating risk, still struggling with survival, still pivoting and persevering to make fiscal sense in the new post-pandemic reality as food inflation continues to outpace the rate of general inflation.
Food Influencers and Armchair Restaurant Reviewers
It’s my opinion that most self-styled restaurant reviewers and influencers do not provide informed or balanced reviews. They create controversy to attract viewers, readers and listeners to various social media platforms. We live in a culture that overrates hyperbole and disparagement. It underrates intelligent skepticism and constructive criticism. People seem unwilling or unable to distinguish news from entertainment. Restaurant criticism is now less about food knowledge and more about spectacle. If you don’t have good, strong food media — whether you love them or despise them — you don’t have the same degree of interest, enthusiasm and accountability.
Jesse Walker of Dine in 519
Too many self-proclaimed restaurant critics and influencers have little at stake. If they are incorrect or misinformed in their assessments, there are virtually no consequences, but the restaurateur, chef and employees have their livelihoods on the line. Reviewing restaurants isn’t just a matter of a critic’s personal taste or uninformed opinion. Restaurateurs have the right to expect that the critics, influencers, marketing boards and media outlets that employ them uphold standards that ensure journalistic integrity, objectivity and accountability. The media plays a vital role in promoting tourism by informing potential visitors about destinations and attractions. A misguided reviewer’s need to create arbitrary best-of listicles for sensationalist content can result in plenty of unintended collateral damage.
Jesse Walker does an excellent job promoting our culinary culture. I have been paying close attention to this intrepid food influencer, digital creator and former restaurateur, and his platform Dine in 519 (which I encourage you readers to do as well), for his idiosyncratic take on our hidden culinary gems and local food culture. Walker recently announced a new podcast and partnership with Blackburn Media, with Sifton Properties as the title sponsor. The podcast will dive a little bit deeper into the culinary stories he has been telling for the last five years. It will allow him to look at culinary matters more comprehensively and go behind the scenes, sometimes with restaurateurs and chefs. Stay tuned, but in the meantime, follow his posts on Instagram (instagram.com/dinein519).
Eataly
What is more exciting for food enthusiasts than planning a winter culinary getaway? Toronto’s Eataly offers the kind of authentic gastronomic experience sought out not just by locals but by food and drink enthusiasts. Canada’s first Eataly opened in Toronto’s Yorkville at the Manulife Centre in 2019. Its success led to new locations in Etobicoke at Sherway Gardens and in Don Mills. In November, Eataly opened its newest location at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. There have also been seasonal Eataly pop-ups at Toronto’s Distillery District. I generally visit Eataly once a month. I shop for unique Italian specialty products or try their regionally-inspired dining offerings.
Eataly’s menu reflects Italy’s distinctive culinary biodiversity, focusing on the finest regional products and traditional ingredients. Also on offer is a selection of small-scale specialty products from dairy farmers, cheesemakers, and butchers, all part of Eataly’s philosophy of sourcing locally.
Owner Ian Kennard (centre) and the Willie’s Café team
In January 2007, the Italian visionary and entrepreneur Oscar Farinetti converted an abandoned vermouth factory in Torino into the first Eataly location. He travelled across Italy’s 20 regions to locate and select high-quality regional products that meet Slow Food partners’ criteria for good, clean and fair food. Slow Food is the grassroots global organization founded in 1989 to combat the erosion of local food culture and tradition. The initiative also addresses encroaching fast-food culture. It has evolved into a worldwide movement that engages millions of people in over 160 countries.
Buzz
The London Wine & Food Show is transforming into Taste Ex: The London Food and Drink Experience — featuring the largest range of beverages at any show in Canada — on January 9 and 10. TasteWFD.com
Londonlicious, The Winter Edition, returns January 16 to February 8. londonlicious.ca
Turning to developments in the restaurant landscape, for 50 years, the Marienbad brought European dining culture to downtown in a casual setting. The kitchen evoked eastern and central Europe with its skill in creating time-honoured specialties, where sweet and sour flavours came together perfectly. There was always an exceptional steak tartare and a variety of signature schnitzels. The restaurant is now closed. The iconic heritage building is up for sale. As an alternative, try Unique Food Attitudes. Barbara Czyz (pronounced Cush) has run her catering business for 25 years. The storefront bistro in the Old East Village opened 10 years ago and has been a long-standing success due to its modern European sensibility, changing chalkboard menu offerings, fabulous, well-prepared cuisine, and warm and attentive vibe. unique-food-attitudes.com
Meraki, a new Greek restaurant, has opened in the former One on York, which was previously the iconic Michael’s on the Thames. A new Indian restaurant, Malabari Bistro, serving Malabari-style cuisine from the southern coast of India, has opened in the space previously occupied by the much-lamented Grace Restaurant in downtown London.
Royal Malabar, another fine dining Indian restaurant, has opened in the space previously occupied by Massey’s before it relocated to a more upscale location with plenty of parking in Riverbend.
Ian Kennard’s Willie’s Café has been a revered London caterer and lunch spot for decades. The Old East Village location has closed, and Willie’s will reopen in new premises at One London Place. The menu includes over a dozen sandwiches and wraps, as well as soups, salads, and house specialties. Everything is made in-house and from scratch.
Willie’s has built a reputation as a caterer, delivering fresh, healthy fare to offices at affordable prices for decades. williescafeandcatering.com
Abruzzi Ristorante in downtown London
Pramod and Susan Kukadia’s Currys Restaurant, a long-standing, hospitable staple for East Indian foods, has welcomed diners to the Wellington Street location since 1985. The restaurant has now closed after the city controversially expropriated the property for its expanding bus rapid transit system.
Bryan’s Tasting Notes
Abruzzi is stylish but casual, with an elegant white marble bar at the front. In the center of the dining room, there is an elevated communal table for eight. The comfortable chairs and banquettes, simple décor with bare brick, mirrors and innovative lighting, and the friendly ambience are central to the Abruzzi experience. After 15 years, the menu still captures the essence of authentic Italian cuisine. Chef Dave Lamers and his brigade prepare intuitive, often iconic dishes using local, high-quality ingredients. They execute each dish with skill and attention to detail. The kitchen is committed to sourcing local, sustainable ingredients. Abruzzi sets the standard in London for discerning, regionally-inspired Italian gastronomy, with both its comprehensive wine list and accomplished menus. abruzzi.ca
Roll Roll in London’s Wortley Village
Jinju (Jully) Lee fell in love with Wortley Village after she moved to London and now owns two excellent Japanese restaurants there: Roll Roll, a trendy sushi takeout, and MORI (which means “forest” in Japanese). The tiny space exemplifies the izakaya experience — a casual licensed bar serving small shareable dishes — and offers a wide selection of small-plate appetizers and main dishes, such as salmon truffle and Kushi Katsu. In Japanese, kushi refers to the skewers used, while katsu means a deep-fried meat cutlet. The drinks menu features Japanese cocktails, beer and sake. morilondon.ca
Billy’s Deli Restaurant on Dundas Street has been a downtown landmark for decades. It is the best place in the city for a high-quality breakfast. It serves sensational crispy skillet-sized potato latkes with all the proper accoutrements and high-quality, perfectly-cooked bacon and sausages. For lunch, there are classic deli offerings like an excellent Club House sandwich, a quarter-pound Reuben, and piled-high Montreal smoked meat sandwiches. Daily blackboard specials add seasonal interest to the traditional deli menu. We love the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benny Latke breakfast when it is featured. Billy’s has a reputation for rustic homespun pies and friendly, charming servers. billysdelirestaurant.ca
Cindy Kinsella
Ben Thanh Express is a longstanding second-generation Viet Thai restaurant. It offers a vast selection of meal-in-a-bowl specialties and vegetarian options at relatively accessible prices. Cooks prepare your meal fresh à la minute with quality ingredients and fragrant herbs and aromatics. The large dining room is airy, relaxing and casual. btexpress.ca.
In Woodstock, I savour chef Eric Boyar’s exceptional terroir-driven farm-to-table cuisine at sixthirtynine. Boyar’s focused culinary repertoire, rooted in classical French technique, developed at several Toronto hotspots, including Splendido, Mistura, Goldfish, and the Metropolitan Hotel. Chef and his wife, Jennifer, returned to Woodstock twenty years ago and opened sixthirtynine, which has become the gold standard benchmark in southwestern Ontario. The restaurant recently added custom-built, elegant chairs for added comfort in the stylish white-linen dining room. sixthirtynine.com
Martin Withenshaw
Grassroots in St. Thomas builds on the community’s affection for chef Rob Lampman and Terri Collard’s Two Forks, a Port Stanley landmark. The culinary team, including chef Stephen Raaff, brings an elevated farm-to-table dining experience. They continue the same commitment to quality and hospitality. grassroots-stthomas.ca
In Memoriam
Shifting focus, we recently lost two wonderful people who made significant contributions to the culinary industry in our region.
Hospitality professional Cindy Kinsella passed away peacefully in early November 2025. Her husband, restaurateur and chef David Chapman, and son Russell Waring were by her side. Cindy spent her entire career in the restaurant business at several notable local institutions. These included The Iroquois, Highland Golf Club, Anthony’s Bistro, David’s Bistro, and Katana Kafe. She was a consummate hospitality professional and the embodiment of attentive, old-school service. Her obituary stated: “You did not ‘grab someone a drink’, you didn’t call a table of women ‘guys’, she always knew what a regular client liked to drink and where they liked to sit. Cindy’s other great passion was gardening, in both Thedford and Shedden. She was never happier than when planting and pruning in her garden. After tending to people all her working life, tending her garden brought her peace and tranquillity.”
I knew Martin Withenshaw for 40 years. Martin also passed in November 2025 and has left an indelible mark in many respected and notable ways: as a human and gay rights activist; through his tenure in the restaurant industry, notably at Hilary Alderson’s iconic former Say Cheese; and through his ownership of the beloved Withenshaw’s Cheese Shop in Wortley Village.
BRYAN LAVERY has decades of experience as a food writer, chef, restaurateur, gourmet food retailer, caterer, consultant, award-winning tourism experience facilitator and local food champion. He consistently advocates for local culinary heroes and operates Blackfriars Bistro, Blackfriars Emporio and Catering, and Forest City Culinary Experiences.v
