The end of the school year is upon us, and graduation (for my 3L friends) is only months away, so for those of you looking to splurge a little to celebrate graduation or any other special occasion, I have compiled a short list of three fantastic restaurants for your consideration.
1. Actinolite Restaurant
971 Ossington Ave | Canadian | $$$$
Named after the chef’s hometown of Actinolite, Ont., Actinolite Restaurant is a small but beautiful restaurant that offers two set menus. Their Full Menu is a six-course tasting menu that comes in at $135 per person, while the pared-down Neighbourhood Menu is three courses for $60 per person. And, while it’s pricey, I loved and wholeheartedly recommend the Full Menu.
Our six courses consisted of (1) a bone broth with magnolia served alongside oyster with seaweed and crème fraiche; (2) B.C. shrimp with a pickled lobster rose butter; (3) sunflower and pumpkin seed rye, duck liver mousse with jam and roasted hazelnuts, sheep’s milk cheese, and candied beets with thyme oil on the side; (4) duck confit tortellini with potato, served with a beurre blanc and brown butter cabbage; (5) lamb loin with kohlrabi, lamb broth, and plums; and (6) fermented rye brown butter crepe, blackcurrant jam with red wine and seaweed, toasted hazelnuts, hazelnut milk, poached pear, and blackcurrant leaf.
To my surprise, my personal favourite was the bread course (sunflower and pumpkin seed rye served with candied beets and spreads). I love a nice dense bread, and this one was perfect with the richness of the mousse and the jam’s sweetness. This is not a knock, of course, on the other courses—their baker knocked it out of the park. Otherwise, the bone broth starter (rich and warm and a great start to the meal when coming inside from the cold of winter) and lamb loin (perfectly seasoned and cooked) also stood out.
The difficulty with recommending any tasting menu is that they are prone to frequent change, and thus it is unlikely that these courses will be the same at the time of publication. Actinolite Restaurant, like many other fine dining restaurants in 2025, is dedicated to the notion of sourcing local, farm-fresh ingredients as seasonal availability permits. Of course, that means that there will always be something new to experience, and their kitchen does a wonderful job at showcasing both the quality and freshness of their ingredients and their culinary creativity—creativity, both in terms of their combinations of flavours and in their beautiful plating. The food, in short, is spectacular and definitely worth a try (and they are well deserving of their Michelin Guide recommendation). I’ll also note that the service here is friendly and down-to-earth, with the staff being easygoing and attentive, which is a welcome departure from the stuffy and formal vibe that often accompanies fine dining.
If visiting in the summer, give their backyard patio a try as well!
2. FK
770 St Clair Ave W | Contemporary/French | $$$ (à la carte) or $$$$ (tasting menu)
I’ve been following FK on social media for some time now, hoping to make it out at some point. Their team is pretty active on Instagram, so when they made a post about getting some weekend cancellations and having last-minute availability, I took advantage to snag a Saturday night reservation. FK, which is conveniently located on St. Clair Ave West, is a warm and charming restaurant serving French-inspired dishes. They offer a concise two-page à la carte menu as well as a tasting menu (at $150 per person, with an option for wine pairings for additional cost), and on this occasion we opted to order à la carte.
We each tried the Nova Scotia scallop, freshly shucked and served raw with an oxheart plum mignonette, before sharing the appetizer of chestnut agnolotti with a porcini mushroom jus. For mains, we ordered the sablefish, served with sauteed spinach, braised fennel, and a miso butter (now replaced on the March menu by grilled B.C. salmon, with honey mussels, sauteed spinach, and a saffron nage/broth) and the foie gras wrapped elk loin, with morel mushrooms, sunchoke, and a jus made from sour cherries. At the end of our meal, we shared the sticky toffee pudding (also no longer on the March menu), and were given a small slate of chocolate truffles as a last bite.
My personal favourite was the foie gras-wrapped elk loin. As far as wrapped dishes go, this blows chicken and mushrooms completely out of the water (3L gala attendees, if you know you know). The sour cherry jus was a particular highlight in this dish, taking on the richness of the elk loin but also with just enough acidity to cut through the heaviness of such a dish. I’m also a sucker for scallops, so make sure to try that one as well. I would avoid the chestnut agnolotti, which, even in the appetizer size, was far too small of a portion and was not particularly special in terms of taste. Instead, I suggest adding on some of their sides to go along with the main course—beer battered onion rings, grilled artichokes, and cacio e pepe cauliflower seem to be staples of their à la carte menu.
It would be a disservice to review FK and not mention their extensive wine list. If you’re into wines, they have curated a long and award-winning list, though their selection of wines by the glass is considerably more limited. We split a cocktail (Let The Sun In: Reposado tequila, with pear, basil, lime juice, and agave) and a glass of white wine (2022 Possente Grillo, unfiltered, with a good flavour). They have a great local selection of wines from Ontario as well as international wines, largely from France and Italy (FK made the choice to remove all American wines from their list in protest of U.S. tariffs).
Service at FK is comforting and friendly (I could never subject you, reader, to pretentious wait staff). Everyone has a caring attitude and are easy to chat with, making the vibe of FK more akin to attending a dinner party at a friend’s home than a Michelin-recommended restaurant. One thing that they may have overlooked during our visit, however, was the bread course, which we never received. Make sure to ask for it if you visit—the first bread service should be complimentary, with additional service for $1.5 per person.
3. Jing Chinese Restaurant
1634 Bayview Ave | Chinese | $$
There’s a lot to recommend in Chinese cuisine, but if you’re celebrating a special occasion, there is perhaps nothing better than a proper Peking roast duck. Jing does this to perfection, with a half duck on offer for $48 (which will serve 2-3 people) and a whole duck for $78 (4-6 people). If you’ve never had Peking duck before, you’re in for a delightful treat; the best way to experience it is to go all out, bring a couple of friends with you, and get the whole duck.
Peking duck (named as such for the old Romanization of Beijing, where it originated) is best known for its crispy, fatty skin. The duck is sliced thinly, so that each slice has a sliver of the skin along with a small portion of meat. At Jing, this is all done tableside, so you get to see everything done right before you. The top layer is sliced and plated as a first course, served with thin Chinese crepes, dipping sauce, and an assortment of veggies, while the rest of the bird is taken back to the kitchen in preparation for the second course. If you’ve never had this before, it’s hard to describe how good these crepes are. It’s really a perfect combination of richness (from the duck), with a little bit of sweetness from the dipping sauce and crunchy texture from the sliced cucumber and green onion. Once you’re done with the first course of crepes, they’ll bring out the second course of lettuce wraps with stir-fried duck meat. Again, it’s an amazing combination of flavours, complemented by the airy and crunchy texture of deep-fried vermicelli.
In case you’re still hungry, or if you’re with a bigger group, Jing also offers other classic Chinese dishes as à la carte options. During our visit, we tried, the sizzling cubed beef tenderloin (black pepper beef option) and the garlic gai lan, though the Sichuan crispy beef, four season string beans, and ma po tofu should also be excellent. Add on a few of these with steamed rice, or, if you don’t want to choose yourself, try their chef-curated set menus, which include the Peking duck as a combo with other popular dishes.