Toronto's Best Food Tours

Three Toronto Neighborhoods, Four Donut Stops, About Two Hours

King West is polished. Queen West is artsy. Kensington Market is gloriously scrappy. Our Toronto donut tour walks through all three in one go, and the change from block to block is half the fun.

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King West to Kensington

It starts at COPS Doughnuts in the King West area. The donuts come by the box here, and you should always ask about the glaze of the week. Then we cross up to Queen Street West, one of the city's most creative strips, for Bloomer's. It's a fully vegan bakery, and the pistachio cream and fruit-forward donuts catch a lot of first-timers off guard. In a good way.

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Right behind Queen West is Graffiti Alley. Nearly every surface is painted, from garage doors to giant murals, and it has turned up as a backdrop in plenty of film shoots. Bring your phone. Everyone does.

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From there the walking tour heads north into Kensington Market: narrow streets, vintage shops, fruit stands, Victorian houses painted colors no paint chip would admit to. Our guides love this part. Kensington has taken in wave after wave of newcomers over the last century, Jewish and Portuguese families first, then Caribbean and Latin American communities, and each one left something on the menu. The stop here changes with the day. Some mornings it's warm churros. Some days, colorful mochi donuts.

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We finish at Dipped Donuts, where a flavor like brown butter sea salt is a rich way to end.

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Snow on the murals

The Toronto Kensington Market Donut Tour runs all year, and each season changes the walk. Winter puts snow on the alley murals. Spring brings maple and butter tart flavors, both about as Canadian as a food tour can get. When the leaves turn, it's pumpkin pie and carrot cheesecake.

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Lots of visitors book us around something else on the calendar, like a concert, a Blue Jays game or the film festival in September. Two hours, some donuts, then off to the main event.