Restaurant in Toronto, Canada
Book weeks ahead. The tasting menu delivers.
Alo is Canada's most-decorated restaurant and, approaching its 10th anniversary, still the hardest table in Toronto to get. A 10-course tasting menu merging French and Japanese technique, a sommelier-led wine program, and a World's 50 Best placement make the $$$$ price point defensible. Book the chef's counter and take the wine pairing. Reserve weeks in advance.
A 4.6 Google rating across more than 2,000 reviews is the first number worth noting at Alo. The second is its La Liste score: 95 points in 2026, down fractionally from 95.5 in 2025, which still places it among the top tier of restaurants globally and the most decorated in Canada. Voted Canada's Leading Restaurant in 2018, a fixture on Canada's 100 Best list, and now on the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best, Alo has spent nearly a decade accumulating credentials that would justify the $$$$ price point on name alone. The question for a value-seeker is whether the room delivers on what the résumé promises. It does.
Alo occupies the third floor of 163 Spadina Ave., a deliberately understated address for a restaurant of this standing. The format is a tightly orchestrated tasting menu of around 10 courses, served Tuesday through Saturday from 5 PM. There is no à la carte option. What you get for the price is a kitchen that merges European and Japanese technique with studied confidence: Koshihikari rice cooked in a donabe pot with shio koji butter and Périgord truffles, A5 wagyu with seaweed and shiitake finished with dashi and kombu-oil broth, Hokkaido scallop with smoked beurre blanc. These are not fusion experiments. They are precise executions drawing on two culinary traditions that happen to share an obsession with product quality and technique.
Chef-owner Patrick Kriss and chef de cuisine Tim Yun source seasonal luxury ingredients from outside Canada when the season demands it: Alba truffle in autumn, white asparagus from Provence in early spring. The menu evolves constantly, so what you eat in May will differ materially from what you eat in October. If you are timing a visit around a specific season, spring asparagus and autumn truffle represent the two windows when the menu is at its most ingredient-driven. As Alo approaches its 10th anniversary this July, the kitchen shows no sign of coasting on its accolades.
The editorial angle here matters: the bar at Alo is not an afterthought. Walk-ins are handled at the bar, where the atmosphere runs warmer and the service less formal than the dining room. If you cannot secure a tasting menu reservation, a seat at the bar gives you access to the same kitchen and the same hospitality, with a notably less rigid experience. The wine program, led by sommelier Christopher Sealy, is the drinks story worth following. Opting into the wine pairing with the tasting menu is the recommended move — Sealy's selections are considered one of the stronger pairings programs in the country, and at a restaurant operating at this price tier, not taking the pairing means leaving a significant part of the experience on the table.
For the tasting menu itself, the chef's counter is the seat to request. The marble-topped counter faces the open kitchen directly and gives a different read on the meal: you see the sequencing, the plating, the coordination. The dining room tables are cozy and dimly lit, but the counter is where the format makes the most sense as a complete experience. Book it specifically when you make your reservation.
Alo is the benchmark against which other Canadian fine dining rooms are currently measured. Tanière³ in Quebec City takes a more locally foraged, terroir-driven approach if Canadian sourcing matters to you. AnnaLena in Vancouver operates at a lower price point with a more casual format. Jérôme Ferrer's Europea in Montreal sits in the same prestige tier but with a more conventional French identity. Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Lincoln offers a wine-first fine dining format if the Niagara wine country context appeals. Internationally, the flavour profile at Alo shares DNA with Jungsik in Seoul in its confidence merging French technique with East Asian ingredients, though the execution contexts differ considerably.
Within Toronto, the closest comparisons are covered in the section below. For a broader look at where Alo sits in the city's dining scene, see our full Toronto restaurants guide. If you are planning around Alo and want options across categories, our Toronto bars guide and our Toronto hotels guide cover the surrounding decisions.
Other Toronto restaurants worth considering before or after an Alo visit: Aloette (Kriss's more casual sibling operation), Grey Gardens, Antler, FK, and Restaurant 20 Victoria each occupy different positions in the city's $$$$ and $$$ tiers. For experiences beyond dining, our Toronto experiences guide and Toronto wineries guide round out the planning picture.
Alo is dinner-only, running Tuesday through Saturday from 5 PM. There is no lunch service. If you are looking for a midday fine dining option in Toronto, consider Edulis or a reservation at one of the comparison venues that runs lunch. For Alo specifically, the only decision is which evening works , and given booking difficulty, the question is less about preference and more about availability.
Yes, with one condition: you need to be committed to the tasting menu format. At $$$$ per head, Alo delivers La Liste-ranked cooking (95 points in 2026), a sommelier-driven wine program, and a level of technical precision that has kept it on the World's 50 Best list. For the price tier, it is one of the stronger value cases in Canadian fine dining because the credentials are verifiable and the kitchen does not coast. If you want to spend at this level but prefer à la carte flexibility, Sushi Masaki Saito offers an alternative format. But for a complete tasting experience, Alo justifies the outlay.
Better than most restaurants at this tier. The chef's counter specifically suits solo diners , it seats you facing the kitchen with a natural focal point, and the service style is engaged without being formal or couple-centric. The bar is also a genuine option for solo visits, particularly if you cannot get a tasting menu reservation. Solo dining at Alo is less awkward than at many comparable rooms.
The database does not include confirmed dietary accommodation policies. Given the tasting menu format and the kitchen's reliance on luxury ingredients including foie gras, caviar, wagyu, and shellfish, dietary restrictions are worth communicating clearly at booking. Contact the restaurant directly before reserving rather than noting restrictions on arrival , a 10-course kitchen built around specific luxury products needs advance notice to adjust meaningfully.
Several weeks minimum. Alo is classified as near impossible to book, and its World's 50 Best placement has extended the lead time considerably. Book as far out as the reservation system allows. If you have a specific date in mind, check availability first and build your trip around what opens rather than the other way around. Walk-in bar seats exist but cannot be relied on for a planned visit.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alo | Voted as Canada’s Top Restaurant 2018, a fixture on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurant list, and a recent entry on the San Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Alo is a contemporary French restaurant a...; La Liste Top Restaurants (2026): 95pts; Chef: Patrick Kriss document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { var el = document.getElementById("Achievements_chefs"); if (el && el.parentNode) { el.parentNode.removeChild(el); } });; La Liste Top Restaurants (2025): 95.5pts; At opening, Alo sought to elevate Canadian fine dining with fresh international flair and a new standard of finesse. And while that mission was long ago accomplished, the project continues with its original fervour undimmed even as Alo anticipates its 10th anniversary this July. Tightly orchestrated tasting menus — 10 courses or so — are the name of the game in this intimate, elegant third-floor dining room with an open kitchen. Chef-owner Patrick Kriss and chef de cuisine Tim Yun prefer international luxury to local forage, with their flavour pairings more often logical than daring, but there is beauty in the details. Culinary styles veer with studied fluidity from Japanese to French. A trio of amuse-bouches starring Petrossian caviar, foie gras and something raw from the Sea of Japan sets the tone for the delicacies to come. Such as Koshihikari rice, cooked in a donabe (clay) pot with shio koji butter and Périgord truffles, accompanied by A5 wagyu, seaweed and shiitake, finished with dashi– and kombu-oil broth. The supply of seasonal delicacies from afar is constant: Alba truffle in the fall, thick spears of white asparagus from Provence in early spring, and so on. The menu evolves constantly. Sommelier Christopher Sealy’s wine pairings for the tasting menu are the best way to go. Service is ultra-professional. ELEGANT and ELEVATED, Alo never disappoints. Bliss Karmody Don’t miss For hors d’oeuvres, small, composed plates of sashimi. Most recently, a study in tuna: akami, chūtoro and toro.; Everyone has a good time at Chef Patrick Kriss’s beloved Alo. You can sense this much at the lively bar, where walk-ins are treated like VIPs by personable servers. The dimly lit tables in the dining room are cozy, but for the best experience, book seats at the marble-topped chefs counter with a ringside seat of the lively kitchen. The kitchen team seamlessly merges European and Asian sensibilities onto a single surprise tasting menu with dishes like creamy Koshihikari risotto boosted with dashi, lobster and shiitake mushrooms or Hudson Valley duck with foie gras, plum, turnip and red curry. They can cook the classics too, like Hokkaido scallop with a refined smoked beurre blanc. Showcasing flexibility and talent, Alo is the rare high achiever that never takes itself too seriously.; Michelin 1 Star (2024) | $$$$ | — |
| Sushi Masaki Saito | Michelin 2 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Aburi Hana | Michelin 1 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Don Alfonso 1890 | Michelin 1 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Edulis | Michelin 1 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Enigma Yorkville | Michelin 1 Star | $$$$ | — |
Comparing your options in Toronto for this tier.
Dinner only — Alo does not serve lunch. The kitchen runs Tuesday through Saturday from 5 PM, with Sunday and Monday closed. If your schedule only allows a weekday, Tuesday is typically the easiest night to secure a reservation.
At $$$$, Alo is among the most expensive tables in Canada, but the credentials back it up: La Liste 95 points in 2026, a fixture on Canada's 100 Best list, and a recent entry on the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best. The 10-course tasting format with sommelier Christopher Sealy's wine pairings is the way to go — skipping the pairing reduces the value considerably. If you want a high-stakes tasting menu in Toronto, there is no closer comparable. For a shorter commitment at lower cost, Edulis runs a smaller tasting format with more flexibility.
Yes — the chef's counter at the marble-topped bar is the best seat in the house for a solo diner, with a direct view of the kitchen and attentive service that doesn't make single covers feel like an afterthought. Walk-ins at the bar are handled well, though booking the counter in advance is the safer move given how quickly the 10-course format fills.
The venue database does not include specific dietary accommodation policies. Given the fixed tasting menu format and the kitchen's reliance on luxury ingredients like foie gras, Petrossian caviar, and A5 wagyu, diners with significant restrictions should check the venue's official channels before booking to confirm what substitutions are possible.
Book at least three to four weeks out, and further ahead for Friday or Saturday. Alo is consistently one of the hardest reservations in Canada, having held a top position on Canada's 100 Best list for years and appearing on the World's 50 Best. Walk-ins are possible at the bar but not a reliable strategy for the full tasting menu experience.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
