10 of the Best Restaurants in Mount Pleasant & Davisville, Toronto
By Richard Silver | Silver Burtnick Milan & Associates, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
Some Toronto neighbourhoods announce themselves loudly.
Mount Pleasant and Davisville don’t really need to.
That’s part of their appeal.
This is one of those parts of Toronto where people genuinely live their neighbourhood. They walk for coffee, shop at independent businesses, take the dog through the local park, meet friends for dinner and develop relationships with the merchants they pass every day.
Mount Pleasant Village itself stretches along Mount Pleasant Road from Davisville Avenue to just north of Eglinton Avenue, creating one of Midtown Toronto’s most walkable neighbourhood shopping and dining districts.
And the restaurants are a big part of the attraction.
Italian, French, Japanese, Thai, African, seafood, contemporary Canadian and a proper neighbourhood pub can all be found within a remarkably compact area.
So, continuing our Torontoism series exploring Toronto through its restaurants, here are 10 restaurants worth discovering in Mount Pleasant and Davisville.
They’re not ranked scientifically. They’re simply places that help make this such an enjoyable Toronto neighbourhood to live in.
1. Domaine MaMo
581 Mount Pleasant Road
Domaine MaMo is exactly the kind of restaurant that makes a neighbourhood dining scene interesting.
The intimate restaurant combines French and Italian regional influences in a cozy setting that feels sophisticated without becoming overly formal.
It’s the kind of place you might initially discover for a special dinner and then decide you want to make part of your regular rotation.
Go for: French-Italian cooking, wine and an intimate date night.
2. Piano Piano
623 Mount Pleasant Road
Piano Piano brings a livelier Italian experience to Mount Pleasant.
Handmade pasta, naturally leavened pizza and shareable Italian dishes are served in a colourful, design-forward dining room.
It’s fun rather than formal, making it equally suitable for a family dinner, date night or evening with friends.
Go for: Handmade pasta, pizza and a lively Italian dinner.
3. Positano Restaurant
633 Mount Pleasant Road
There is something reassuring about a restaurant that has been part of its neighbourhood for decades.
Positano has been serving Southern Italian food here since the early 1990s.
The menu centres on pasta, pizza and familiar Italian favourites, served in an intimate neighbourhood setting.
Longevity matters. Restaurants don’t survive for decades because people visit once. They survive because local residents keep coming back.
Go for: Pasta, Southern Italian cooking and a comfortable neighbourhood dinner.
4. Zee Grill
641 Mount Pleasant Road
Seafood lovers have their own longtime neighbourhood institution.
Zee Grill has roots going back to 1981 and is particularly known for seafood and oysters.
It’s another example of something Mount Pleasant does particularly well: restaurants that are polished enough for an occasion but comfortable enough to become a regular neighbourhood choice.
Go for: Oysters, fresh seafood and dinner with someone who loves fish.
5. Wild Chicory
525 Mount Pleasant Road
Wild Chicory represents the more contemporary side of the neighbourhood.
The restaurant focuses on seasonal, Canadian-inspired cooking with an elevated but relaxed approach.
It’s relatively intimate and the sort of place that’s easy to walk past until somebody who lives nearby tells you that you really should try it.
We love restaurants like that.
Go for: Seasonal cooking, creative dishes and a quieter dinner.
6. The Belsize Public House
535 Mount Pleasant Road
Every great neighbourhood needs a good pub.
The Belsize Public House combines familiar pub comfort food with a slightly more polished gastropub approach, along with beer, cocktails and a neighbourhood atmosphere.
But pubs are about more than what’s on the menu.
They’re meeting places.
They’re where you watch the game, meet a neighbour for a drink or sit on the patio on a warm Toronto evening.
Go for: Pub classics, a pint and an easy evening close to home.
7. Instant du Palais
557 Mount Pleasant Road
One of the things we particularly like about Toronto is that a short walk can take you around the world.
Instant du Palais brings West African—and particularly Ivorian—influences to Mount Pleasant Village.
Boldly seasoned grilled meats and fish and traditional accompaniments make this one of the neighbourhood’s more distinctive dining choices.
It’s exactly the kind of independent restaurant that makes exploring Toronto neighbourhoods so rewarding.
Go for: West African flavours, grilled meats and fish, and trying something different.
8. Florentia
579 Mount Pleasant Road
Florentia is another example of what Mount Pleasant does so well: the intimate neighbourhood Italian restaurant.
The menu draws on Italian and Tuscan traditions, with pasta, pizza, seafood and meat dishes in a cozy dining room.
This isn’t necessarily somewhere you need to save for a birthday.
It’s somewhere you can decide to visit on a Wednesday night simply because you don’t feel like cooking.
And that’s a very good quality in a neighbourhood restaurant.
Go for: Italian classics, pasta and a relaxed dinner.
9. Shibui Sushi Japanese Eatery
600 Mount Pleasant Road
For Japanese food, Shibui offers sushi and other Japanese favourites in a small, casual setting.
It’s another important category of neighbourhood restaurant: somewhere you can dine in when you feel like going out but that also works when you simply want to pick something up and head home.
Go for: Sushi, sashimi and casual Japanese dining.
10. Bolan Thai Cuisine
709 Mount Pleasant Road
Bolan brings Thai flavours to the northern end of Mount Pleasant Village.
Curries, noodle dishes, soups and stir-fries make it a particularly useful neighbourhood restaurant because it works just as well for dinner out as it does for takeout.
And let’s face it: having really good takeout within walking distance is one of those neighbourhood amenities nobody puts on a real estate feature sheet—but everybody appreciates once they move in.
Go for: Thai curries, noodles and flavourful takeout.
Ten Is Never Enough
One of the challenges with creating these Torontoism lists is deciding what not to include.
Mount Pleasant Village has many other restaurants, cafés, bakeries and food businesses worth exploring.
There’s Bread & Butter at 507 Mount Pleasant Road for homestyle Central and Eastern European comfort food. There’s Daphne’s Antioch at 620 Mount Pleasant Road for Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean flavours. And the neighbourhood has coffee shops, bakeries and casual places that are just as important to daily life as its dinner restaurants.
That’s precisely the point.
This isn’t really a restaurant strip.
It’s a neighbourhood.
Why Mount Pleasant & Davisville Work So Well
Mount Pleasant and Davisville can sometimes be overshadowed by nearby Rosedale, Leaside, Yonge-Eglinton and Lawrence Park.
But that misses what makes this area so appealing.
It has a wonderfully livable quality.
There are established residential streets, family homes and condominiums. There are parks, schools, cafés and independent shops. Mount Pleasant Road still feels like a neighbourhood main street rather than a shopping mall.
And then there’s location.
You’re in Midtown Toronto with relatively easy access to Downtown, Yonge Street and surrounding neighbourhoods, yet many of the residential streets feel surprisingly removed from the pace of the city.
For buyers, that’s a compelling combination.
Restaurants Are Part of Real Estate Too
It might seem unusual for a real estate team to spend so much time talking about restaurants.
We don’t think it is.
When we’re helping someone choose a home, we’re not simply helping them decide between three bedrooms and four.
We’re helping them answer a much bigger question:
How do I want to live?
Can I walk for coffee in the morning?
Can I take the dog through the neighbourhood?
Where will we go for dinner on Friday night?
Is there a good local pub?
Can I pick up sushi or Thai food on the way home?
And is there somewhere special nearby when we’re celebrating an anniversary?
Those aren’t secondary considerations.
They’re part of what eventually makes someone say:
“This feels like home.”
The Luxury of Walking Home
One of Mount Pleasant and Davisville’s greatest advantages may be something remarkably simple.
You can walk to dinner.
Leave home, stroll along one of Midtown Toronto’s residential streets, have dinner on Mount Pleasant Road and then walk home.
No parking.
No long drive.
No complicated planning.
Perhaps you stop for a coffee the following morning and see somebody you saw at dinner the night before.
That’s how neighbourhoods become communities.
And it’s a different definition of luxury—one based less on what exists inside your home and more on the quality of life waiting immediately outside it.
Now We Want Your Vote
This is our list.
Now we’d like to hear from the people who actually live in Mount Pleasant and Davisville.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
What did we miss?
Is there a little neighbourhood café, bakery or takeout place that deserves more attention?
And what’s the one dish we absolutely need to order?
Send Silver Burtnick Milan & Associates your nomination.
We’ll collect the responses and publish the Torontoism Readers’ 10 Best Restaurants in Mount Pleasant & Davisville.
Because sometimes the best way to discover a Toronto neighbourhood is simply to ask the people who live there:
Where should we eat?
Richard Silver and the Silver Burtnick Milan & Associates team — Jim Burtnick, Francesca Milan, Celia Alves, Jose Sanchez, Bill Johnston and Simran Matta — Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.
