We went downstairs for our included breakfast at the
Marriott Toronto Downtown Entertainment District an hour before ending. The breakfast restaurant was still very busy and we were originally given a table for two with a chair pulled up on the side before being moved to a proper table for three people. The breakfast was ok but the breakfast sausages had a a bit of "cheap" texture to them. I felt it was more inline with something that would be served at Holiday Inn Express vs at a Marriott affiliate.
After breakfast, we headed back up to our room to get ready for a day out and about town. Based on the calculations based on Google Maps data, by the end of the day, we would have walked 7.5 miles today. First thing we did was walk along Wellington St heading towards Old Toronto. Our first destination this morning was the
St. Lawrence Market which was about a mile away on foot. When we arrived at the market, I was surprised at how clean and immaculate it was inside. A complete opposite from
Lima's Mercado Central that we visited last year. After walking along the aisles on the main floor of the
St. Lawrence Market we headed downstairs which while does not look as glamorous as the main market hall, we found ourselves a little gem of a pasty shop which was beckoning us over from the aroma of buttery pastries baking in their ovens.
We could not pass by
Stonemill Slow Crafted Bakehouse without buying anything here! The aroma from the baking going on was very very intoxicating. My mom purchased a bunch of pastries and when she went up to pay, she was informed that we get a free one for buying so many pastries and breads.
Stonemill Slow Crafted Bakehouse is one of those cash only businesses that I mentioned in my last post so I was called up by my mom to pay. I paid for the airfare, hotel, rental car for this trip and my parents were supposed pay for the food and incidentals during this trip. I came back to the table where my dad was sitting and while laughing told him that he lucked out from paying with the whole Cash ONLY thing. Before leaving for this trip, my dad didn't transfer any money into his No Forex/No ATM fee checking account thinking he was going to use his CC, which gives him a rebate for all of his purchases. I did move money into my No Forex/No ATM fee checking account so I was the only one who got cash out during this trip and paid for all Cash transactions starting with the purchase from
Stonemill Slow Crafted Bakehouse.
After hanging out and enjoying couple of the pastries that we just purchased, we decided to head back towards our hotel taking Front St. We walked in front of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Royal York Hotel but did not go inside. When we arrived back at our hotel, we dropped off the pastries that we purchased earlier and headed back out since it was lunch time. After doing a bunch of research online the night before, we decided to head back to Chinatown and have lunch at
King’s Noodle Restaurant. On top of the reviews online, the place was packed with customers when we passed by the restaurant during our walk yesterday afternoon. By the time we arrived at
King’s Noodle Restaurant, we've already walked 3 miles since venturing out this morning so we were ready to eat. Without a single word, we were given a table and then shortly later, again without a word our order was taken. Communication by the wait staff was pretty much through a small nod as acknowledgement that they heard you. Our food, when ready were slammed on the table in no apparent order. While this kind of service may offend the uninitiated, for the initiated like my parents and I, we know some of the best food in any Chinatown come from restaurants like this.
I ordered 4 items from the waitress. One house special rice dish, a soup noodle dish, a BBQ rice plate with greens added, and one order of shrimp dim sum. When the items arrived, we shared and sampled each one of the dishes. The soup, house special and the BBQ rice were all delicious, but i've had better shrimp hargow dim sum back in California. Again, this was a cash only establishment so I went up the the register to pay for lunch.
With our bellies full, our next stop was Little Italy. We headed up on Spadina and cut into Kensington Market before finally arriving on College St. From
King’s Noodle Restaurant it was about another 1 mile walk to Little Italy and when we arrived, we saw what was according to their window "Toronto's Oldest Gelateria" so we decided to go in and have some dessert and coffee. It wasn't busy when we arrived around 2:30ish but business must be good for them to have been around for 58 years. Once we were seated, I ordered a pistachio cannoli, Sicilian Ice Cream Dessert, iced coffee for myself and hot coffee for my dad. My mom stuck with water. Everything was good and the coffee nice and strong.
Since we had early reservations at the 360 CN Tower Restaurant for dinner, I checked to see if there would be enough time to do more walking or if we would have to turn back. After coming to the conclusion that we probably will make it and if not just grab an Uber, we paid our bill for the coffee and dessert and headed up on Crawford St towards Bloor. Google map was showing the Koreatown was the next closest ethnic neighborhood nearest from where we were. Once we arrived on Bloor, we walked towards Spadina which would take us into the heart of Koreatown and then also put us back on Spadina. Just from my non scientific observations, Little Italy and Koreatown here in Toronto seemed quite small vs the ones you find back in California and New York.
Once we reached Spadina, we walked back towards Lake Ontario. We walked past the University of Toronto along one of its perimeter and parts of town that seemed a little sketchy. We kept walking at a higher pace without making eye contact until we were back in Chinatown. We headed back to our hotel where we plopped down on the sofa and bed and rested for a bit before dinner at the CN Tower.
More pictures from
Toronto Trip Report