Friday night we stayed at the Doubletree Hotel where we were greeted with warm gooey cookies. What a welcome! We also took advantage of the indoor pool and shoved small children aside to ride the water slide which did not measure up to the expectations (e:drew) had fed me. But that's not why we visited Toronto.
First stop of the day, Chinatown:

More specifically, Bright Pearl Restaurant for Dim Sum. It was my first dim sum experience and in my haste I settled for steamed dumplings when I should have held out for more fried dough concoctions such as the fried dough stuffed with red bean paste pictured on the bottom. Drew had the fried squid on the right and we both had the sticky rice with pork wrapped in a leaf on the left.

We wandered around looking for lucky cats to add to the lucky cat collection, but no luck...

but we did enjoy the sights....

And I also found my favorite fruit from south asia...rambutan....

We visited the largest mall in the area. I'm not a shopper but it was an incredible view of consumerist culture....

We stopped by India Land to celebrate Diwali. India land was only two blocks long, not much to see, and the celebrations weren't hopping when we got there, so off to other things...
We wandered around some more. Drew had an improv workshop and by the end I was exhausted and ready to go home.

(e:Leetee) asked for impressions from a first time visitor. The public transportation system was incredible. The city was clean. People were really polite and really helpful. There was a whole range of accents outside of what I think of as the Canadian accent so I was a little intrigued. I didn't see a lot of historical sights, buildings, homes, streets, everything looked really modern, but maybe I didn't see those areas. Restaurants were everywhere. I swear I saw a sushi restaurant on every corner. I thought that was kind of funny. It seemed more expensive than Chicago, but less expensive than New York. So even though I really liked it, we probably won't be living in Toronto any time soon. But all in all, can't wait to visit again.
thanks for sharing what you thought of Toronto. I love hearing the perspective of someone who is new to the city. It's my favorite city above all i have been to, or lived in including London and Leeds in England, Halifax, Vancouver, NYC... so many others. As a travel show in Australia once said, "it's like New York City run by the Swiss."
I certainly don't think of historical achitecture when i think of Toronto... the city centre isn't historical the way it is here in Buffalo. Major growth in the city was modern. Quite a few neighbourhoods are historical, outside the core, which is mostly where you were and they tend to be residential.
Montreal tends to be more historical.. as does Quebec City, but don't go unless you like to be mistreated! OK, i am so biased, i hate hate hate Montreal... so totally don't take my word for it, i guess.
It is an expensive city to live in... and a lot of people commute... or have totally fab jobs and rent a closet to sleep in.
Your post makes me want to go... been too long since we have visited. I wonder what is happening at the ROM... and if the construction is done yet!?!
Sounds like a good time. Depending on what part of Toronto you are in it seems to me that there are also a lot of Coffee Places.
Oh! btw A Chau market on naigara street sells fresh Rambutans!!!
Their Chinatown is a lot of fun. The kensington market district reminds me of what Elmwood wants to be. Never had an issue getting around there.
I have never been to Chinatown there, it looks neat. I would have to say I wasn't as impressed with the Toronto public transport as much as I am with Montreal's.