Restau­rant din­ing is the sort of thing that you do on spe­cial occa­sions, but also any time you want some­thing to eat and you don’t mind spend­ing a lit­tle bit of time and per­haps a bit of mon­ey to do it. You might want to make a reser­va­tion in advance, and per­haps make sure that your clothes are clean before you go, but then again, the ser­vice at these places is so great they’ll prob­a­bly make you feel right at home even if you’re in rags.

Ambeli

The AmbeliIf we had to use one word to describe the Ambe­li, it would prob­a­bly be “sub­lime”. Every­thing there is exquis­ite, from the fan­tas­tic wait staff, to the incred­i­bly detailed food to the expen­sive hand soap and mois­turis­er in the ladies’ room. But back to the Ambe­li. Their bread plate con­tains bread­sticks with squid ink knead­ed in so they take on the appear­ance of gnarled tree branch­es – so pret­ty! Food is Mediter­ranean-inspired, and we rec­om­mend the duck in cher­ry sauce. The cheeses are French and ludi­crous­ly stinky. You’ll spend a lot of mon­ey, but you’ll be treat­ed like kings and queens.

The Ambe­li: 18 Majorib­anks St

Duke Carvell’s

Hair of the duke that bit youThe Bresolins’ kitchen is spread as wide as the Ottoman Empire in this delight­ful Cuba Quar­ter restau­rant. Dish­es are small so you can order a jum­ble of them, tapas style, and range from fluffy gnoc­chi to flam­ing cheese, through tangines and back to sausage. The wine list is stud­ded with exot­i­ca, the cock­tails are per­haps a lit­tle too deli­cious, and this place buzzes.

Duke Carvel­l’s: 6 Swan Lane (Off Cuba)

Floriditas

floriditasEle­gant Vic­to­ri­an-esque decor mixed with a casu­al vibe makes Florid­i­tas a favourite place on Cuba Street. Their menu changes reg­u­lar­ly to take advan­tage of fresh pro­duce, their bak­ing is so leg­endary that they’ve pro­duced a cook­book, and they nev­er charge sur­charges on pub­lic hol­i­days. Florid­i­tas does sim­ple food, and does it very well.

Florid­i­tas: 161 Cuba St

Shinobi Sushi Lounge

Shi­no­bi Sushi Lounge — pho­to by James Ogle Pho­tog­ra­phy

Shi­no­bi deserves its fine rep­u­ta­tion for supe­ri­or sushi and a sneaky sake. Mas­ter Jere­my-San was obvi­ous­ly well schooled in the mys­ter­ies of Japan­ese cui­sine in the time he spent in Japan.  The atmos­phere and food are friend­ly, approach­able and fresh with a nat­ur­al authen­tic­i­ty that does­n’t need to over­do it with Japan­ese decor.

Jere­my has a range and grasp of Japan­ese food that makes him and his team con­fi­dent enough to take on the chal­lenge of 18 course kaise­ki each sea­son, exper­i­ment­ing with local ingre­di­ents and adapt­ing Japan­ese dish­es.

This young restau­rant has man­aged to edge out Kazu in pop­u­lar­i­ty, which is a small mir­a­cle of sorts.

Itadaki­ma­su!

Shi­no­bi Sushi Lounge: 43 Vivian St

Ortega Fish Shack

Don’t let the “shack” bit fool you: this place does seri­ous­ly good food, and is not restrict­ed to fish. Orte­ga com­bines rich Euro­pean-inspired flavours raff­ish sea­side decor and a wide-rang­ing wine list, but is just as good for a post-work tip­ple of pastis or man­zanil­la.

Orte­ga Fish Shack: 16 Majorib­anks St