Winterlicious 2027: Toronto's Prix-Fixe Restaurant Festival, Dates, Prices and Booking

Where the $75 dinner pays off

Canoe sits on the 54th floor of the TD Bank Tower on Wellington Street West, with glass walls over the Financial District and Lake Ontario. Last winter's menu went from artichoke soup to Alberta beef, with pudding chômeur to finish, at $55 for lunch and $75 for dinner before tax and gratuity. That is the only time this kitchen comes in under $100. Bookings open up to three months ahead, so you can hold a table before the festival list lands. One catch for weekend visitors, and it's a big one: the dining room is closed to the public on Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the week it serves lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Parties of nine to 12 have to take the Chef's Choice menu. It's directly above St. Andrew and Union stations.

ēst is a small storefront room with marble tables at 729 Queen Street East in Riverside. Last winter it cooked steak tartare, braised short rib and roasted banana gelato for the same $55 and $75. Normally it's dinner only, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., closed Mondays. During the festival it adds Saturday and Sunday lunch, which it doesn't otherwise serve, so this is the one top-tier room a weekend visitor can reach. Tables are released 60 days ahead. The 501 streetcar gets you there in about 15 minutes from downtown.

Kiin cooks Royal Thai food on Adelaide Street West in the Entertainment District, in a low-lit room where the dishes arrive carved and garnished with flowers. Last year's $75 dinner included boombai short rib and a coconut curry with seared scallops. It's in the MICHELIN Guide, it's small, and it opens five days a week, which together make it the hardest table here to get. Service starts at 5 p.m. and runs to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with Monday and Tuesday closed.

Big rooms by Union Station

REIGN is the restored 1929 railway-hotel hall inside the Fairmont Royal York on Front Street West, all marble columns and chandeliers, straight across from Union Station. Last winter's $55 weekday lunch ran noon to 2 p.m., with parsnip and apple soup, a Caesar made with Ontario boar bacon, and arctic char. The $75 dinner was served from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Tables go first from Friday to Sunday, so book early if you want the weekend. The kitchen also sets a three-course dinner on 24 and 25 December at $185 per person plus tax and gratuity.

Black + Blue on King Street West runs a grill and its own sushi counter in the same room, with the dry-ageing fridge behind glass. Last winter's $48 lunch came with a 6 oz Canadian prime striploin, sushi and sticky toffee pudding. It opens 11:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and from 11 a.m. at weekends, so it keeps serving through the afternoon when the smaller rooms have shut. It's beside St. Andrew station, and it suits a table with mixed tastes.

Portuguese and Caribbean plates

Adega is a basement-level dining room on Elm Street, two minutes from Dundas station, where the daily special is a whole sea bass filleted at your table. Last winter the festival price was $48 at lunch and $65 at dinner, with caldo verde (Portuguese kale and potato soup), lobster ravioli and pastel de nata. Lunch runs 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, with weekend service from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Patois on Dundas Street West is loud, dim and hung with neon, and it cooks Asian-Caribbean food. Last winter's $55 dinner had jerk chicken with rice and peas, fried chicken with mac and cheese and smoked brisket patties. Don't plan lunch here, as it opens at 5 p.m. and closes at 10 p.m., 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Take the 505 streetcar about 10 minutes west of the centre.

Chubby's Jamaican Kitchen on Portland Street in King West does jerk chicken and ackee and saltfish under palm-print walls, with a rum bar at the front. Its $45 dinner last winter opened with ackee and saltfish bites or oxtail soup, then jerk chicken, pork or tempeh, and drinks and gratuity were on top. Festival lunch wasn't served on Saturday or Sunday. It opens at noon midweek, 11 a.m. at weekends and 4 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, closing at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. from Friday.

Cheaper lunches and sharing plates

Lulu Bar on Wellington Street West is a pink-and-palm room with a long marble bar, and the platters of mochiko fried chicken are built for sharing. It ran the cheapest menus on the list last winter, $34 for lunch and $45 for dinner. Braised beef noodles and vegan mapo tofu were among the mains. It opens at 11:30 a.m. (11 a.m. at weekends, 3 p.m. on Monday) and runs to 10 p.m., midnight from Thursday to Saturday. It's a short walk from St. Andrew station.

Sassafraz fills the yellow corner building on Cumberland Street in Yorkville, and its dining room is a glassed-in atrium full of trees. Last winter it served a $41 lunch and $55 dinner of root vegetable salad, Canadian beef ribeye and flourless chocolate cake. Lunch is on every day, from 11:30 a.m. (11 a.m. at weekends) until 10 p.m., 11 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. Bay station is two minutes away and the Royal Ontario Museum about five.

Little Sister on Portland Street is a narrow Dutch-Indonesian food bar, with bowls of krupuk (prawn crackers) and small plates crowded onto the counter. You don't have to wait for the festival here: a two-course set menu is $38 per person from Sunday to Tuesday. Last winter's $45 festival menu had Indonesian steak frites and a roasted Balinese half chicken. The plates stay small, so skip it if you want a big main course.

Closed days and booking

Canoe shuts to the public at weekends, Kiin closes Monday and Tuesday, and ēst closes Monday, so pick the restaurant before you pick the night. Reservations at the top rooms open two to three months out, well before the 2027 menus appear, and that is when the good slots go. See the Toronto guide and the Toronto hotel search.