Best Restaurants in Scarborough, Toronto: Eat by Corridor

Scarborough does not have one food scene. A wide range of cuisines lives in its plazas and along its long roads.

That is why the best way in is not a flat list. Pick a corridor, park once, and follow the smell of whatever is on the grill. This guide maps the roads, then names four places we confirmed in October.

How do you eat your way through Scarborough?

CBC says Scarborough has welcomed people from all over the globe, which has produced a wide range of cuisines. Its Locals Welcome food series, which has a Scarborough episode, points to Scarborough’s plazas rich in Sri Lankan and Filipino delicacies.

A good second tool is Destination Scarborough, a project with a YouTube series and its own website that, as CBC reported in September 2025, aims to boost Scarborough’s food and arts scene. CBC notes that its map lets visitors curate their own Scarborough adventure. We like a map, and we like it even more with a plan.

Markham Road: Little Lanka

CBC’s food guide calls a stretch of Markham Road “Little Lanka.” The stretch runs from McNicoll to Steeles and beyond.

The street has a story. CBC’s food guide says Markham Road grew into a hub for small businesses, with affordable plaza space drawing South Asian fashion and jewellery shops first. Then came accounting and real estate offices, and then a few take-out counters that grew organically into the food scene we know today. That is how a road becomes a destination: one plaza at a time.

If hoppers, kothu and short eats are on your wish list, our dish-by-dish guide to Tamil food in Scarborough is the place to start.

Lawrence Avenue East: shawarma row and a meat-market kitchen

CBC’s food guide refers to a stretch of Lawrence Avenue East as “Shawarma row.” It is a good road for an appetite.

1

Ghadir Meat & Restaurant

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Ghadir, at 1848 Lawrence Ave E, combines a full-service meat market with a restaurant serving classic Lebanese and Middle Eastern favourites. CBC’s Locals Welcome Scarborough episode featured the restaurant and its kabsa, a spiced rice with meat. Come hungry, and take a look at the meat counter on your way out.

Old Kingston Road: smoke and a Michelin listing

2

Northern Smokes

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Northern Smokes is listed in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Canada. Its own order page gives the Scarborough pickup address as 371 Old Kingston Rd. The kitchen smokes its meat over real wood in custom reverse-flow woodstick burners, and it calls its barbecue halal. The team says the smoking process can take up to 14 hours, depending on the cut, marbling and thickness of the meat. Good barbecue rewards patience, and that is a lot of patience. There is a Whitby location too, so make sure you are heading for the Scarborough one.

Kingston Road: Egypt and Isaan

Two of our picks sit on the same long road.

3

Aragoz

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CBC describes Aragoz as an Egyptian restaurant near Kingston Road. It is at 3456 Kingston Road, and its own site says it has a real passion for real Egyptian food and a mission to introduce Toronto to the way Egyptian food is meant to be. That is a big promise, and a good reason to order for pickup and find out.

4

Sisaket Thai Kitchen

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CBC places Sisaket Thai Kitchen near Kingston Road and Warden Avenue and says it has been part of Eat More Scarborough food tours for some time. Its site promises authentic Thai food from all over Thailand, including Isaan regional specialties. Its site says to drop by for dine-in, call ahead for pickup or order delivery through your favourite app. The site says it is now on O’Connor Drive in East York too, if you are on that side of the city.

What about Hakka food in Scarborough?

It belongs on every Scarborough food map. CBC’s Locals Welcome Scarborough episode includes Kolkata-style Hakka cuisine among its dishes.

CBC’s food guide explains the style this way: most Hakka restaurants in the GTA marry quick cooking with spices familiar from Indian cooking. A large Hakka population migrated to Kolkata over the past 200 years, and in recent decades families from Kolkata have moved to Toronto. CBC’s food guide names texture as one of the central pillars of Hakka cuisine.

The dish many people think of first is chili chicken: fried chunks of boneless chicken tossed in a flaming hot wok with aromatics and a few sauces. It is a dish that rewards ordering for the table.

We have left restaurant names out of this section for now. Every place on our maps has to show us current activity first, and we will add Hakka kitchens as they do.

How do you plan a corridor crawl?

Start with one road and one meal. Check the restaurant’s own site or ordering page before you leave, so you know it is taking orders. Bring a friend, split everything, and keep a second stop in mind a few minutes down the same road. If you are stretching the day, finish with a walk by the lake.

Where to go next

Bookmark our Scarborough hub for the full east-end collection, and pair a meal with a lakeside walk from our Scarborough Bluffs guide. Riding in on Line 5? Our Golden Mile guide shows what is new along Eglinton East.

Pick the road first, the restaurant second.

Send this to the friend you would bring on a Scarborough food crawl.