The Most Romantic Restaurants in Toronto for a First Date
The windows at Canoe, on the 54th floor of the TD Bank Tower, face south over the Toronto Islands and Lake Ontario. Seated there at dusk, 2 people have something to look at besides each other, which takes some pressure off the first few minutes of a first date. Toronto has rooms like that at several heights and price points, from a revolving dining room near the top of the CN Tower to a 19th-century cottage on Yonge Street and a basement in Yorkville.
Canoe
Peter Oliver and Michael Bonacini opened Canoe on 21 September 1995, and the restaurant marked its 30th anniversary in 2025. The Michelin Guide lists it as contemporary and regional cooking and says its views from the 54th floor are unmatched in the city. Dishes named by the guide include wild Pacific halibut with Savoy cabbage and champagne cream, lamb saddle and tarte au sucre.
Canoe is in the financial district at 66 Wellington Street West, with entry from Wellington Street, and the Michelin Guide places it in its highest price band. Ask for a window table when booking.
Alo
Alo serves a blind tasting menu on the third floor of 163 Spadina Avenue, and guests do not see what each course is until it arrives. Patrick Kriss opened it in July 2015. Alo received a Michelin star in Toronto’s first guide in 2022 and kept it in the 2026 edition.
For a first date, the format removes the decision of what to order in front of someone new. The tasting menu also sets the length of the evening in advance. Couples who want a shorter first meeting can book the separate bar, which the Michelin inspectors described as lively.
Sotto Sotto
Sotto Sotto means “underneath” in Italian, a reference to the basement in Yorkville where Marisa Rocca first ran the restaurant. After a Christmas Day fire destroyed the original building, it reopened a couple of doors north at 120 Avenue Road. It still serves Roman-style cooking below street level, with chef Massimo Renzi’s fresh pasta served in a room of exposed brick.
The light is low and the tables are close, which gives a first date some privacy. Some first dates call for more of it than others, from a meeting arranged by mutual friends to dinner with a colleague who finally asked or an evening out with a sugar daddy. Narcity has reported that Drake names Sotto Sotto as his favourite restaurant in Toronto.
360 Restaurant at the CN Tower
The dining room at the CN Tower is 351 metres above the ground and completes a full rotation every 72 minutes, so a 2-hour dinner passes every side of the city at least once. The kitchen serves regional Canadian cooking from both a prix fixe and an à la carte menu, and the restaurant keeps its own wine cellar.
The restaurant also sells celebration and proposal packages. For a first date, the à la carte menu keeps the commitment smaller, and reservations go through OpenTable.
Quetzal
Quetzal is at 419 College Street, at the corner of College and Bathurst, and its cooking draws on Oaxacan traditions under chef Steven Molnar. Much of the menu is cooked over a wood-burning grill. It became the first Mexican restaurant in the city to earn a Michelin star and still held one in the 2026 guide.
The room has counter seating in front of the grill as well as tables. The bar is built around agave spirits, which gives a second stop without leaving the building.
Edulis
Edulis is in a small house at 169 Niagara Street, near Wellington Street West. Michael Caballo and Tobey Nemeth, the husband-and-wife duo who own it, run it as an old-fashioned room serving a European-inspired seasonal tasting menu with Mediterranean flavours. It has held a Michelin star since 2022 and won the guide’s Service Award in its first Toronto edition.
All bookings are prepaid. The kitchen sets the menu, and dietary needs go in the reservation. CTV News described the setting as a quaint home, and with a small room and the owners on the floor, a first date here is close to dinner at a friend’s house.
Osteria Giulia
Rob Rossi opened Osteria Giulia at 134 Avenue Road with David Minicucci as his second Italian restaurant, after Giulietta on College Street. The menu follows the seafood traditions of the Ligurian coast, and the focaccia di Recco, a thin flatbread filled with cheese, is one of its signature dishes. The restaurant has held a Michelin star since 2022 and appeared on La Liste’s world rankings in 2025 and 2026.
The 50 Discovery guide describes the room as serene and minimal, with clean lines and pale tones.
Bar Isabel
Bar Isabel’s menu at 797 College Street is based on a trip to Barcelona by Grant van Gameren, who opened the restaurant after leaving The Black Hoof. Since March 2013 it has served Spanish gastronomy as small shared plates, including grilled octopus and bone marrow. The Michelin Guide describes the tapas as rustic and straightforward, built around good ingredients.
The room seats about 75 under red lighting, and Toronto Life’s critic called it loud and deliberately rough at the edges. The bar takes walk-ins from 5pm on weekdays, so a first meeting can start without a booking.
Auberge du Pommier
Auberge du Pommier has served French cooking at 4150 Yonge Street since 1987, and it was the first restaurant in the Oliver & Bonacini group. The building was constructed around the remains of 2 woodcutters’ cottages from the 1860s, and the dining rooms keep a rustic character as a result.
York Mills subway station is one block south, which makes it easy to reach without a car and convenient for anyone living in the northern part of the city.
Michelin Stars and First Date Bookings
Toronto and the surrounding region had 14 restaurants holding a single Michelin star in the 2026 guide, along with Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Lincoln, which holds 2. No restaurant gained a star this year, and none in the region has reached 3 stars since the guide arrived in 2022.
For a Friday or Saturday at a starred restaurant, reserve as soon as the booking system opens and confirm the table the day before. Of those 14 starred restaurants, 4 are on this list.
You Might Also Like…
