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NOWSERVING·TORONTO RESTAURANT INDUSTRY DATA·VOL.1 NO.19·JULY 1, 2026Browse the directory ›

Toronto dropped 7 new restaurants on the registry last month, plus 2,402 more since 2023. Uyghur kebabs in Scarborough, Tamil dosa on Bloor, Salvadoran pupusas in Etobicoke. The whole new wave, by cuisine and 'hood, updated daily. Browse the full directory ›

By Josh Opolko · NowServingTO · Updated daily from the City of Toronto open data

Industry pulse · top of the count

By the numbers · since 2023

MAIN EVENT · TORONTO CUISINE CHAMPIONSHIP
CHAMPION
Italian
13%share
VS
CONTENDER
Japanese
10%share
TALE OF THE TAPE · 3-POINT LEAD · SINCE 2023

Italian still leads at 13% of independent licences (chains excluded), but only 7% of those land in Little Italy itself. Fusaro's shuttered after 28 years on Spadina; Vivoli's 20-year run on College ended last year (Osteria Alba took the room). Mature operators still convert demand into storefronts — just rarely in the neighbourhood named for them.

Operator shifts · last quarter

Last 3 months · Apr–Jun 2026

All cuisines · sized by 90-day licence count
Indian: 14%Indian14%Japanese: 11%Japanese11%Vietnamese: 9.4%Vietnamese9.4%Mexican: 6.2%Mexican6.2%Korean: 6.2%Korean6.2%Italian: 6.2%Italian6.2%Pakistani: 6.2%Pakistani6.2%French: 4.7%French4.7%Greek: 4.7%Greek4.7%Chinese: 4.7%Chinese4.7%Sri Lankan: 3.1%Sri Lankan3.1%Thai: 3.1%Thai3.1%Tamil: 1.6%Tamil1.6%Venezuelan: 1.6%Venezuelan1.6%Ghanaian: 1.6%Ghanaian1.6%Colombian: 1.6%Colombian1.6%Latin American: 1.6%Latin Ameri…1.6%Turkish: 1.6%Turkish1.6%Afghan: 1.6%Afghan1.6%Eritrean: 1.6%Eritrean1.6%Ethiopian: 1.6%Ethiopian1.6%Lebanese: 1.6%Lebanese1.6%Persian: 1.6%Persian1.6%Middle Eastern: 1.6%Middle East…1.6%Nigerian: 1.6%Nigerian1.6%

Indian took the quarter at 16% — heavily Scarborough-led, with new entries on Markham Rd, Pharmacy Ave, Kennedy Rd, and Sheppard E, plus downtown spots like Dakshin Flavours on Baldwin and Zafraan on Queen W. Vietnamese is outperforming — 10% vs a 4% 3-year baseline. Six of nine new Vietnamese licences in the quarter are dedicated banh mi shops — including And Banh Mi on Elm (selling out daily since its May open) and Coco Banh Mi on Spadina. blogTO has called it Toronto's "summer of Saigon."

Full landscape · 36-month cumulative

Last 3 years · since 2023

All cuisines · sized by 3-year licence count
Italian: 13%Italian13%Japanese: 10%Japanese10%Chinese: 9.7%Chinese9.7%Indian: 8.0%Indian8.0%Mexican: 7.0%Mexican7.0%Middle Eastern: 5.4%Middle Eastern5.4%Vietnamese: 4.4%Vietnamese4.4%French: 3.7%French3.7%Korean: 3.4%Korean3.4%Thai: 2.7%Thai2.7%South Asian: 2.2%South Asian2.2%Greek: 2.2%Greek2.2%Pakistani: 2.1%Pakistani2.1%Caribbean: 2.0%Caribbean2.0%Persian: 1.9%Persian1.9%Tamil: 1.6%Tamil1.6%Turkish: 1.6%Turkish1.6%Ethiopian: 1.5%Ethiopian1.5%Jewish deli: 1.5%Jewish de…1.5%Jamaican: 1.4%Jamaican1.4%Lebanese: 1.4%Lebanese1.4%Filipino: 1.3%Filipino1.3%Taiwanese: 1.2%Taiwanese1.2%Irish/UK: 1.0%Irish/UK1.0%West African: 0.9%West Afri…0.9%Latin American: 0.9%Latin Ame…0.9%Portuguese: 0.8%Nepalese: 0.7%Tibetan: 0.7%Nigerian: 0.6%Peruvian: 0.5%Afghan: 0.5%Brazilian: 0.4%Bangladeshi: 0.4%German: 0.3%Spanish: 0.3%Sri Lankan: 0.2%Colombian: 0.2%Indonesian: 0.2%Eritrean: 0.2%East African: 0.2%Ghanaian: 0.2%Israeli: 0.2%Georgian: 0.2%Guyanese: 0.2%Trinidadian: 0.1%Asian: 0.1%Eastern European: 0.1%Argentinian: 0.1%Salvadoran: 0.1%Polish: 0.1%Somali: 0.1%Hungarian: 0.0%Cuban: 0.0%Iraqi: 0.0%Malaysian: 0.0%Dominican: 0.0%Russian: 0.0%Uyghur: 0.0%Egyptian: 0.0%Cambodian: 0.0%Armenian: 0.0%Moroccan: 0.0%Singaporean: 0.0%Syrian: 0.0%Uzbek: 0.0%Philippine: 0.0%

Six cuisines = 53% of 2,409 licences since 2023; the remaining 47% spreads across ~60 smaller buckets — Eritrean, Salvadoran, Tibetan, Uyghur kitchens opening one or two storefronts a year. Ottawa's 2026 plan cuts new study permits roughly in half and caps PR at 380,000/yr through 2028, throttling the diaspora pipeline that feeds that tail. Dalhousie's Agri-Food Analytics Lab is forecasting 4,000 net Canadian restaurant closures in 2026 — the licence stream is one of the few places the new is still winning against what's being killed.

July 2026

  • UPSET Vietnamese cracked the short-term top 6 with 6 new registrations, despite missing the 3-year top 6.
  • UPSET Korean cracked the short-term top 6 with 4 new registrations, despite missing the 3-year top 6.
Sources

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