The Michelin Guide Toronto returns for its fourth year, once again making chefs’ dreams come true — and breaking hearts — in the process. Its prestige has elevated the city's dining scene and awarded more than 100 restaurants, but several notable spots remain snubbed.
DaiLo, once ranked #1 on foodism’s Best Restaurants list, has been absent from the Michelin Guide since it first landed in Toronto in 2022. And as Michelin’s reach expanded across Ontario, several other top-rated restaurants have also fallen short of the coveted star.
With the 2025 announcement coming on September 18, we’re highlighting the legendary spots we believe deserve recognition — and predicting which new Toronto restaurants could make their debut on the list.
9 restaurants that should be on the 2025 Michelin Guide Toronto
1. DaiLo
503 College St. W.
Despite earning numerous accolades (including a top spot on foodism’s inaugural best restaurants list), DaiLo has been conspicuously absent from the Michelin Guide since it arrived in 2022.
Opened by Chef Nick Liu in 2014, the College Street restaurant has been a cornerstone of Toronto’s dining scene, celebrated for its inventive New Asian cuisine. Liu’s Hakka and broader Chinese heritage is channelled into a menu of bold, flavourful fusion dishes, from whole fried trout to Hainanese chicken with black truffle. Signature menu items, like the Hakka Brown Wontons, marry classic flavours with fine-dining worthy plating, delighting devoted diners with or without Michelin recognition.
We can't get enough of DaiLo's new Asian cuisine
Drawing on his Cantonese-Hakka roots, DaiLo's chef-owner Nick Liu has created a knock-out menu stuffed with one unique, show-stopping dish after another.
Read more2. Langdon Hall
1 Langdon Dr., Cambridge.
When the Michelin Guide expanded to include Toronto & Region in 2024, we were convinced that Langdon Hall was a shoo-in for a prestigious star. Executive chef Jason Bangerter’s seasonal, refined menu — featuring ingredients grown right on the Cambridge estate and cooked with meticulous precision — felt exactly like the kind of dining experience that would catch the inspectors’ attention. While Langdon Hall did receive some flowers in the form of a Michelin Guide recommendation in 2024, we’re hopeful that 2025 will finally be the year this Forbes 4-Star Restaurant Award recipient receives its full bouquet of accolades.
3. Yan Dining Room
195 Dundas St. W.
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Eva Chin’s micro-restaurant inside the Hong Shing Kitchen opened in October 2024 and has already garnered widespread acclaim from Toronto’s culinary community. Yan Dining Room is a dining series serving neo-Chinese cuisine in a tasting menu format, showcasing Cantonese and Sichuan flavours with a modern touch.
Yan, meaning banquet, lives up to its name — a feast crafted with local ingredients that reflect Chin’s heritage in fresh and exciting ways. While the Momofuku alum leads the kitchen, Hong Shing’s Colin Li curates a beverage program highlighting baijiu and biodynamic wines.
Michelin’s stance on dining series remains uncertain, but given its embrace of unconventional formats — including street food vendors — Yan Dining Room feels like a worthy contender.
4. Sushi Yugen
150 York St.
While Michelin has doled out stars to other omakase and kaiseki restaurants like Shousin, Kaiseki Yu-zen Hashimoto and the two-Michelin star Sushi Masaki Saito, we were shocked to see that Sushi Yugen didn't make the cut. Head chef Kyohei Igarashi's 18-course tasting menu is a pure work of art, while the restaurant itself is as close to an authentic Japanese dining experience as you can get in Toronto. Every detail has been thought of, from the minimalist interior design down to the imported art pieces.
5. General Public
201 Geary Ave.
Jen Agg’s latest venture just celebrated its first year, and while the prolific restaurateur admitted on Instagram that “it takes at least six months, maybe even a year if it’s a larger project, for it to start to feel a little bit stable,” we fell for General Public at first bite.
The Geary Avenue spot — part English pub, part American brasserie, part steakhouse — carries echoes of The Black Hoof’s brilliance in chef James Santon’s focused menu, sparkles with the pastry chef’s dazzling dessert display, and boasts what might be the city’s best cocktails courtesy of David Greig. Still, the wooden trim, the glowing lamplit bar, and the “peachy 80s dream” mezzanine are pure Agg — and we can’t get enough. After topping Toronto Life’s Best New Restaurants, we’d be surprised if General Public doesn’t land in the Michelin Guide in 2025.
6. Bar Prima
1136 Queen St. W.
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When Bar Prima touched down on Queen Street West, we were bowled over on so many fronts. Blink and you might miss the entrance, but from the moment we step inside, we're transported into an opulent dining experience we haven’t had in recent memory. Eyes flit from a gorgeous bar (helmed by bartenders in white jackets, bow ties and gloves) to gilded ceilings, tiled floors, and a hundred other exquisite décor touches.
If it feels like the people behind Bar Prima know a thing or two about hospitality, it’s because they do — Craig Harding and Julian D’Ippolito of La Palma bring back an old-school Italian menu that somehow feels totally fresh. If this seafood-forward, cocktail-heavy, design gem of a spot doesn’t crack the Michelin list in 2025, we may need to pen a strongly worded letter…
7. Richmond Station
1 Richmond St. W.
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Richmond Station remains a glaring omission from the Michelin Guide. Despite being a mainstay of Toronto’s dining scene since opening in 2012, Carl Heinrich’s farm-to-table menu and regenerative approach to cuisine seem to have passed under the inspectors’ noses — for now. Michelin has shown a strong appreciation for local and sustainably focused restaurants: Last year, Restaurant Pearl Morissette not only earned a star but also a Green Star for its seasonal excellence. To us, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher that Richmond Station hasn’t received recognition, and we hope the Guide makes amends in 2025.
8. Alobar Yorkville
162 Cumberland St.
The Michelin Guide giveth and the Michelin Guide taketh away. Tucked down one of Yorkville’s charming alleyways, Alobar serves seafood, chops and the city’s most iconic salad, with precision, elegance and top-notch hospitality. The à la carte restaurant earned a Michelin star in 2022 and 2023, alongside its sister spot Alo, but while the tasting menu restaurant retained its star in 2024, Alobar Yorkville’s was stripped away, and it was downgraded to a Michelin recommendation. While no one can say exactly why it lost its star, what we can say is that we had one of the best meals of our life at Alobar Yorkville that very same year, and we would love to see it earn its place back on the Michelin Guide.
9. Ricky + Olivia
996 Queen St. E.
This farm-to-fork eatery in Leslieville is more than just a love letter to local produce — it’s also a toast to Ontario’s wine region. The attached bottle shop features an ever-rotating selection of Ontario-only wines, from established favourites to up-and-coming makers, many of whom you can meet at their Meet the Makers series. And yes, it’s a love letter to each other, too: the eponymous owners shared their first kiss on the dancefloor of the former Wayla Bar, which once occupied the Ricky + Olivia space. Add in fresh, creative, locally driven food, and you’ve got a spot that’s deserving of Michelin recognition.
