The Best Sandwiches in Toronto: Where to find them
Toronto’s sandwich scene is, quietly and without much fuss, one of the best in North America!! Walk the right streets at the right hour and you’ll find focaccia stuffed with mortadella and stracciatella straight from a wood-fired Italian bakery, Korean-inflected fried chicken tucked into pillowy milk bread, smoked meat piled high between slices of rye, or a breakfast sandwich so perfectly constructed it renders every other version obsolete. In a city this diverse, the sandwich has become one of the truest expressions of Toronto’s culinary identity: humble in format, extraordinary in execution.
What makes Toronto’s sandwich culture so compelling is its range. The city doesn’t do one thing well; it does everything well, drawing from the dozens of culinary traditions that have shaped its neighbourhoods over generations. In Kensington Market, old-school Jewish deli energy lives alongside Latin American lunch counters. On Ossington and Dundas West, chef-driven spots reinvent the classics with local ingredients and serious technique. Downtown, Italian bakeries and delis that have been feeding the city for decades continue to set the standard for what a proper sandwich should feel like — heavy in hand, generous in spirit.
The best sandwiches in Toronto are not always found in dedicated sandwich shops. Some hide inside pasta factories open only at lunch, others at wine bars that happen to make the best focaccia in the city, and still others at neighbourhood diners where the bread is baked fresh every morning on a farm in Ontario. Across neighbourhoods like Little Italy, Liberty Village, Bloordale, Riverside and the Annex, the city’s sandwich makers are united by one shared conviction: that the details matter enormously, from the quality of the bread to the last smear of house-made aioli.
Whether you’re after something warm and melty, cold and stacked, handheld and messy, or neatly pressed and perfect for a work lunch, Toronto delivers. This guide brings together the best sandwich addresses in the city: tested, curated and spread across every corner of Toronto, so you never have to settle for a mediocre lunch again. One neighbourhood at a time, one bite at a time, Toronto’s sandwich scene is worth exploring in full.
When The Pig Came Home Delicatessen
When the Pig Came Home started life as a farmer’s market stand specialising in peameal sandwiches, and has since grown into a full-fledged deli that became so popular the owners closed their original Junction store to move to a bigger space down the street. It is by far one of our favourites in the city!! The menu draws from owners Kimberly Hannam and Ryan Gatner’s culinary heritages: Polish/Ukrainian and Caribbean respectively. The original peameal sandwich, brined for days and served on a steamed pain au lait bun, remains a Toronto classic. Takeout primiraly with a couple of seats inside, Tuesday through Friday.
Toronto
Bà Nội
Bà Nội means grandmother in Vietnamese and it is a micro-bakery that started out as a one-man operation in the neighbourhood of Bloorcourt, near Christie Pits Park. Chef An Tran built the place on whole-grain sourdough and Vietnamese-inflected pastries: BBQ pork milk buns, galettes with scallion oil, curry beef buns and butter tarts made with real care. The sandwich selection is small but deliberate, built on breads that make other sandwiches feel embarrassed. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 9am to 4pm, on Bloor Street West. Pre-orders recommended as quantities are always limited and they always sell out because it is delicious.
Toronto
Schmaltz Appetizing
Schmaltz is an appetizing store, a source for Jewish delicacies traditionally consumed with bagels, the lesser-known cousin to the deli. Chef Anthony Rose puts his stamp on Jewish food with few creative licences and a deep reverence for traditional dishes, building sandwiches with smoked Acadian sturgeon, gravlax, Nova lox, caviar and a rotating cast of house-made cream cheeses on fresh Kiva’s bagels. The Maven, a classic bagel loaded with lox, cream cheese, onions and capers, is regularly called the best bagel sandwich in Toronto, by New Yorkers included. Open mornings, Monday through Sunday.
Toronto
Vilda's
Vilda’s is a bodega-style sandwich shop in the city, also serving fresh salads, convenience snacks and preserved grocery items headed by the same people behind Taverne Bernhardt’s, Dreyfus dans NL Ginsburg. Striking a happy medium between homey and creative fare, Vilda’s tight, rotating menu features sandwiches stacked with layers of flavourful accoutrements, and bread custom-made by Harbord Bakery. The Caesaroni: pepperoni, tomato sauce, mozzarella and Caesar-dressed romaine in a bun is one of those sandwich ideas so obvious in retrospect you can’t believe it didn’t exist before. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm, on Dovercourt Road in Beaconsfield Village.
Toronto
Emmer
Emmer and Ash is located in Toronto’s Harbord Village and specialises in baked goods and small lunch plates, served by takeout counter or on the patio. The bread here is the whole story: sourdough loaves often take over 24 hours to craft, with options like porridge loaves, sesame loaves and ham and cheese baguettes on weekends, all rotating in availability. The lunch menu builds on that foundation with a tuna melt, a patty melt on house marble rye, a BLT with Ontario bacon, and a croque on house-baked sourdough. Empty display cases by end of day are frequent: arrive early!! Open Wednesday through Sunday.
Toronto
MADE RITE COFFEE
Made-Rite’s small space drips with owner Leemo Han’s signature 1970s aesthetic: vintage knick-knacks, wood panelling, a retro menu board. The sandwiches are resolutely old-school American: the signature Made-Rite is a chopped cheese built with marinated, slow-cooked ground beef crisped on the flat top, joined by American cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard in a steamed bun. There are no tweaks here, everything is simple and delicious. One of the most fun lunch spots in Kensington Market. Closed on Sundays.
Toronto
The Fish Store & YuNes' Sandwiches
Located in Little Italy, The Fish Store & YuNes’ is a charming nautical-themed spot offering a variety of seafood options at affordable prices, with up to 18 types of fresh fish featured daily. The concept is beautifully simple: you choose your fish from the iced display case: arctic char, black cod, wild salmon, halibut, and it gets cooked and tucked into a sandwich, wrap, taco or rice bowl. Opened for over 20 years (!) , it’s a hidden gem serving outstanding fresh fish made to order. Seating is minimal and mostly outdoors, making it a perfect grab-and-go lunch on College Street. A local’s favourite.
Toronto
