Chinatown on Spadina: where to eat dim sum, noodles and Vietnamese pho

Toronto's downtown Chinatown around Spadina and Dundas, what to order at a dim sum house versus a noodle shop, and the phone number for every kitchen.

Toronto's downtown Chinatown sits where Spadina Avenue meets Dundas Street West, and it has been the city's busiest Chinese food district for decades. It is not one cuisine. Cantonese barbecue hangs in one window, a Szechuan kitchen fills the next, and half a block down the signs turn Vietnamese, because this stretch is as much pho and banh mi as it is dumplings.

That mix is the point, and it makes the area easy to eat well in if you know what each kind of place is for.

Know the kind of place you are walking into

• Dim sum houses run at lunch and on weekend mornings. Carts or a checklist, small plates, shared. Order har gow, siu mai, cheung fun and a green, and do not fill up on the first thing that arrives.
• Barbecue and rice shops are the ones with roast duck and char siu hanging in the window. Point at the meat, get it on rice, eat fast. This is the cheapest good lunch in the district.
• Noodle and dumpling houses are for hand-pulled noodles, wonton soup and dumplings by the dozen. Cash still moves quicker than card in some.
• Szechuan and hot pot kitchens bring the heat. If you cannot do numbing spice, say mild, because the default is not built for you.
• Vietnamese rooms do pho, vermicelli bowls and banh mi. A good pho broth tastes like it has been going since morning, because it has.

The kitchens

These are the Chinese restaurants in the directory, most of them on or around Spadina and Dundas.

And the Vietnamese kitchens on the same stretch, for when you want pho or a banh mi instead.

Before you go

Ring first for dim sum, especially at the weekend, when the good houses fill by late morning and the carts stop early. Hours in Chinatown are long but not endless, and the barbecue sells down through the afternoon. The number on each page is the restaurant's own.

Written by See The Six · kept current from the directory, last checked 2026-08-24