Toronto’s Distillery District is one part of the city that’s definitely worth visiting – especially so when you’re absolutely ravenous.
Suffice to say leaving Casa Loma with tummies growling, it didn’t take much convincing for us to hop in the taxi and head for the Distillery District, esta pronto!
The distillery district spans across several streets and surprisingly (especially considering how huge it is), once upon a time used to be just a single distillery in Toronto!
It thrived back in the day and after several decades of success, operations were wound down, the distillery closed down and the area left derelict and abandoned – with the exception of its occasional use as a film set.
Things changed a couple of decades ago when the whole area was redeveloped and as a result, attracted lots of cool bars, restaurants, shops and so much more.
When you visit, I reckon setting aside a little bit of time to just wander around its streets and perhaps even find yourself a quirky souvenir or two.
Ideally, we were looking to visit in the evening/at night when the lights were on, the cocktails were on happy hour and city revellers came out to have fun but considering how hungry we were, we just figured we might as well check it out in the afternoon and perhaps return again later in the evening (if not on the same night then later on during our time here).
For lunch we headed over to Mill Street brewery, mostly for the mac and cheese, but which, as it turns out, is actually an award-winning brewery.
I grabbed myself a steak and a brew (strictly for research, of course😉😄) while Lloyd went for the mac and cheese; which I was only too happy to share with him.
Lunch was fantastic and hit the spot perfectly! Surprisingly quite stuffed, we decided to walk off our lunch, and head over to the CN Tower in time for sunset.
The CN Tower is arguably the tallest structure in Toronto and the views from up here absolutely incredible! You can see all across the city and right up to the US from here.
As the sun sets it’s amazing to watch the landscape of Toronto transform as the lights come on and the sky slowly changes its subtle yet beautiful hues.
Being up here is also a great way to get a sense of how huge Toronto is! Like, it felt huge from down below but from up here, it’s absolutely incredible.
^Same view, minutes apart…
Eventually, we left and headed over to the Eaton Centre partly to sort out some practical stuff (i.e. I needed to get myself a sim card for our time in Canada as my phone doesn’t roam for free here) but also to check out the general area.
The Eaton Centre is very much a shopping district (which if I’m totally honest, isn’t something I really prioritise on my travels) but when you arrive, this area feels a lot like Piccadilly Circus in London. There are so many shiny lights, bright screens and people rushing about their daily business – definitely worth popping by at night to check out.
For dinner, we decided to head over to China town. We had no real plans when we got here – I just really wanted to check out the China town area and hopefully find somewhere good for dinner.
On a whim (and a tiny bit of Internet research), we found ourselves The Dumpling House Restaurant, a tiny little unassuming place from the outside but one which packs quite the punch once you sit down to have food!
We went from noodles, dumplings in soup and fried dumplings (kinda like gyozas) – which we ended up ordering way too many – 12 each, but finished every single bite (…and I wonder why my jeans don’t fit quite so well anymore – proof is really in all these photos looking back 😄).
The Dumpling House is just another brilliant reminder that the most delicious food isn’t always in the fanciest of places. Food is about so much more than aesthetics and when it comes down to it, no matter how much it costs or how fancy (or not so fancy) the restaurant is, the real game here is for the food to be delicious – simple as! 😄
This is why, till this day, I’m as happy to dine in a Michelin star restaurant as I am in a hole on the wall, as long as the food is delicious – that’s all good food really has to be!
With that, we decided to call it a night (to be fair, it was around 11pm, by this point) and head back to the Shangri-La for a couple of beers to make the most of that bath…
The next day, I had grand plans for one of the most amazing sights in Canada and definitely planned on making the most of that!
Catch ya in the next post. 😀
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