Chinatown
3.5
About
Established in 1878, this is one of Toronto’s oldest neighborhoods and the largest Chinatown in North America. Here, you can find colorful storefronts, bustling streets, and a variety of restaurants and specialty shops. Visit the quaint teahouses and intriguing herbal stores, as well as browse the clothing stores. When hungry, pop by the steaming noodle houses for some wonton soup, hunt for the famous Peking duck, or go on a dumpling crawl. At night, Chinatown lights up in bright neon red, with lanterns lining the alleys and Chinese music blaring from the karaoke bars. Combine your visit here with a trip to Little Italy and Kensington Market—both within walking distance. – Tripadvisor
Duration: 1-2 hours
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The area
Neighbourhood: Chinatown
Toronto's main Chinatown has the honor of being the largest in North America. Gaping down across Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue, the area is a wonderful medley of shops and restaurants, busy signs and bright red gates, a destination for foodie fun. Chinatown's streets are always bustling, packed with people and outdoor stalls hawking fresh produce and products. The restaurants and authentic marketplaces that shoulder in against each other display shining roast ducks and menus studded with dumplings and noodle bowls. The air is pervaded with music. different languages, and the smell of fried food and mouth-watering desserts. Chinatown's restaurants represent a broad range of fare, from traditional Szechuan and Shanghai foods, to other Asian delicacies, including some of the top Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean spots in the city. Whether you're in the mood for a sit-down tea house or a bubble tea to go, Chinatown is the spot to enjoy an exciting walk and the promise of leaving satisfied.
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3.5
1,048 reviews
Excellent
250
Very good
379
Average
305
Poor
75
Terrible
39
IAN D
Wigan, UK26,110 contributions
Apr 2024 • Solo
Chinatown in Toronto covers a very large area. I walked down the main drag which included a Chinese shopping mall. If I am being honest a lot of the area looks rundown. Area as a very large amounts of restaurants and adjoins the trendy Kensington market area
Written 5 May 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Khoi N
Hot Springs, AR2 contributions
Sept 2023 • Family
Toronto Chinatown on Spadina and Dundas was used to be my favorite place to visit. Every time I visited Toronto, I always came to Chinatown. The food was great and lots of selection. However, this time around August 2023, I came to Chinatown in Toronto and to my surprise and sadness, the Chinatown looked rundown and the atmosphere there seemed to be Not lively and busy anymore. I talked to my relative living in Toronto and she said more shops and restaurants moved out of Toronto chinatown.
Written 27 August 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dee
Miami, FL73 contributions
Nov 2021
Walking around and seeing all the restaurants and all the shops was exhilarating. It was cold but it did not matter. There were few shops closed, like the herbal shops. I am not sure if that has anything to do with covid. The Dragon City Mall was pretty much empty and that was on a Saturday. I could tell Chinatown Toronto was a lively place before covid. Hopefully it gets back to normal as we plan to visit again in the future. Make sure to visit Chinatown if you are ever in Toronto.
Written 18 November 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
tdsuperstar
Toronto, Canada19,289 contributions
Feb 2024 • Family
So much life in Chinatown, Toronto version! Lots to check out, lots to eat, lots to experience and yeah, lots to smell at times (especially in the Summer!). On any given day, there’s so many people coming up and down Spadina. Whether you’re there to enjoy House of Gourmet, a Toronto tradition, maybe shop at Meeplemart, catch a smoothie at What a Bagel!, or shop at many of the merchants, Chinatown Toronto will keep you entertained and engaged! A must do experience while in Toronto!
Written 25 February 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Czar Emmanuel
Manila, Philippines10,222 contributions
Aug 2023 • Solo
It may be the biggest Chinatown in Canada, but it's not as vibrant and colorful as the other Chinatowns I know. Restaurants and shops are sometimes far from one another. At any rate, it's still the best place to buy your souvenirs and try Chinese food. It's quite accessible. You can take buses, street cars or the subway. I took the subway up to Spadina station and from there transferred to a street car that runs along Spadina where Chinatown is located.
Written 11 August 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
notaworldtraveller
dallas, tx121 contributions
Jul 2022 • Family
We walked through Chinatown on the way from Grafitti Alley to the Art Gallery of Toronto. It was 9:30am on a Sunday morning. There were some food markets with fresh fruit stands on the sidewalk that were fun to look at. Lots of reflexology and massage shops that we walked by. A fair number of restaurants open even at that hour. It wasn’t that colorful or lively of a neighborhood, not very interesting to walk through.
Written 27 July 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
candyqueen18
owen sound1 contribution
Jan 2012
i really need help can someone please tell me what store its in i heard that its in china town Toronto and im leaving this week someone please tell me , thanks!
Written 8 January 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
lindacote
Montreal Quebec24 contributions
Enjoyed the friendly people, best Chinese food in the East, super shopping, great deals, terrible car drivers - everyone for himself. Love to visit again as there is so much to do and see, especially all the different ethnic restaurants and clothing shops. Great city!!!
Written 16 September 2003
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
indianavisitor
manchester, ct20 contributions
Our car was vandalized (driver window smashed) as was another car with US plates(driver window also smashed) while parked in a public garage in the Chinatown area during 7/05. Both the garage's security and staff informed us that cars with US plates were frequently targeted by young vandals looking for goods to fence. There was no warning at the garage about this other than the typical generic garage statement about not being responsible for stolen goods. Oh yes, we had to pay $4.00 to exit the garage! Chinatown itself was ok, but our memories of Toronto are not pleasant: agressive panhandlers and street people sleeping in the middle of side walks.
Written 10 August 2005
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Grumo
New York City, NY1,077 contributions
In contrast to other reviewers we actually found this Chinatown cleaner and less aromatic than that in Manhattan. We are used to very strong fish smells as we walk through NY's Chinatown - not that we mind it, just it is less so in Toronto. It seems cleaner also - less rubbish on the sidewalks and in the streets. Toronto's Chinatown seems more dynamic than the Chinatowns of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., which seem to have restaurants and stores, but not as much intensity of street life.
It's mainly an issue of when people arrived - Toronto's immigrants seem more recent.
Other special aspects were all the fresh fruit and vegetables. We bought some fairly good cherries and blueberries at street stands on Spadina. We also saw vegetables and fruit that were new to us.
At a Second Cup (chain coffee place) in off Spadina we found the people friendly and the food OK. What most struck us is that people seem to be more recent immigrants, sort of like the people in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn Chinatown.
The bakeries also looked pretty good. The sunnyness and airyness of Spadina Avenue also gave it a positive and inviting feel. As always for us, the herb and tea shops are the most interesting.
This brings up an overall response to the ethnicity of the city, even though this is a review of "Chinatown", there seems to be many Asian residents in Toronto, so that the culture is more spread throughout the city, rather than mainly in one neighborhood The sense we got, as is true for most immigration patterns, the more recent immigrants are in Chinatown and next move is into other parts of the city - an obvious move, but one that was very pronounced in Toronto.
There appear to be people coming from Vietnam and other south and east Asian countries that are in Chinatown. Some menus and signs were definitely in Chinese, English and Vietnamese, revealing the next wave of immigrants.
More than anything else, we were delighted with the ethnic neighborhoods and backgrounds of people in Toronto.
It's mainly an issue of when people arrived - Toronto's immigrants seem more recent.
Other special aspects were all the fresh fruit and vegetables. We bought some fairly good cherries and blueberries at street stands on Spadina. We also saw vegetables and fruit that were new to us.
At a Second Cup (chain coffee place) in off Spadina we found the people friendly and the food OK. What most struck us is that people seem to be more recent immigrants, sort of like the people in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn Chinatown.
The bakeries also looked pretty good. The sunnyness and airyness of Spadina Avenue also gave it a positive and inviting feel. As always for us, the herb and tea shops are the most interesting.
This brings up an overall response to the ethnicity of the city, even though this is a review of "Chinatown", there seems to be many Asian residents in Toronto, so that the culture is more spread throughout the city, rather than mainly in one neighborhood The sense we got, as is true for most immigration patterns, the more recent immigrants are in Chinatown and next move is into other parts of the city - an obvious move, but one that was very pronounced in Toronto.
There appear to be people coming from Vietnam and other south and east Asian countries that are in Chinatown. Some menus and signs were definitely in Chinese, English and Vietnamese, revealing the next wave of immigrants.
More than anything else, we were delighted with the ethnic neighborhoods and backgrounds of people in Toronto.
Written 6 September 2006
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hola!
Recuerdas más o menos las calles o la zona que mencionas para los souveniers?
Written 25 August 2018
we are looking for jewelry stores in china town and yelp is no help, any one on here can help. I heard there's great deal sto be had
Written 4 March 2018
Alba
Montreal, Canada
2 contributions
I did not ever heard about jewelry stores in China Town. Several weeks ago I found that behind the St.Lawrence market with food there is another St.Lawrence market with handcrafted jewelry and other handmade things. Maybe this also will be interesting for you.
Written 5 March 2018
je vais louer une voiture à mon arrivée à l'aéroport de Toronto le 8 aout 2018 et devrais trouver un parking près de chinatown pour 2 jours. quel est le prix de parking dans un garage pour deux jours . Merci de vos reponses
Written 18 January 2018
Bonjour,
Je suis désolé, je ne saurai vous répondre, je me déplaçais en transport en commun.
Cordialement,
Written 18 January 2018
HMADR72
London, United Kingdom
Do this hotel offer airport transfers from Airport to Hotel and vice versa
Written 6 February 2015
Take the 192 Rocket to the subway and take the subway into Downtown. $3 compared to $22. No brianer. Use google maps to work out the stops - thats what we did and saved $80 for our round trip.
Written 7 February 2015
Where is there a good health food store in China Town Toronto?
thanks
Vivienne
Written 29 December 2014
Yep I agree with the other comments, there was a great health food store just between Kensington and the Main Street in China Town.
Written 7 February 2015
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