Burlington Food Tours – Come Get A Preview Of The Taste Of Burlington

One of the best ways to see a city, and get to know some of the people who call that city home, is to take a walking tour. If you want to make that tour a whole lot better you take a walking food tour and that’s exactly what we did last week. We stayed local and headed over to Burlington, Ontario, where we met Sue and Lori from Burlington Food Tours. Sue and Lori both live in the city and are involved in the food industry.

Lori and Sue from Burlington Food tours

The tour itself lasts about two to three hours and usually visits five or six restaurants all within a few minutes walk of each other. Apart from the food, the other highlight for me was the opportunity to meet some of the owners who had some amazing stories to tell, not just about their journey, but also about their locations since a few of the restaurants were located in some historical buildings.

Burlington is about forty five minutes west of Toronto and the food scene is very vibrant. What I really like is that many of the restaurants here are independently owned. It’s hard to go anywhere without running into a fast food  chain these days, but there are surprisingly few in downtown Burlington. The downtown core itself isn’t very big so a fifteen minute walk in almost any direction from City Hall will bring you to restaurants serving up a variety of dishes.

A few years ago members of the local business community came together and launched a Prix Fixe Dining program called Taste Of Burlington. The goal of the program was to encourage residents and visitors to visit some of the local restaurants and experience their cuisines. The program Is now run by Tourism Burlington and takes place twice a year; the winter program runs in February/March and the summer program runs in August/September. This years’ summer program runs from August 13th to September 3rd, and there’ll be twenty four restaurants participating.

As I mentioned earlier, Burlington Food Tours usually visits five or six restaurants. On our tour last week we visited the following five which included some that are regular stops on the Taste Of Burlington program.

Emma’s Back Porch

Emma’s Back Porch can be found just off of Lakeshore Road and shares the building with The Water St Cooker. This is one of the places in Burlington that has a very rich, and spooky, history. In an earlier life the building was called the Estaminet Standard Hotel. In 1919, Emma and George Byrens bought the hotel and opened a restaurant with only four tables. In 1952 Emma retired and the building changed hands frequently until 1992 which was when current owner, Craig Kowalchuk bought the property.  There are stories that the building is haunted with reports of sudden temperature changes, sightings of children playing in the basement, strange voices, and objects moving all by themselves.

Emma’s Back Porch has one of the most picturesque patios along the shores of Lake Ontario. Because of it’s location the patio is the perfect place to relax on a Sunday evening as the sun sets, or take in a fireworks show on some holiday nights.

During the tour we were treated to a lovely plate that screamed summer. There was a deep fried tacoshell that was filled with tuna, a caprese salad, and finally a quinoa salad topped with an edible flower.

Caprese salad, quinoa salad and finally a tuna taco

The stairs leading up to the Water Street Cookery

Bar at Water Street Cooker

Dining room at Emma’s

Owner Craig from Emma’s Back Porch

The patio at Emma’s Back Porch is so inviting!

Boon Burger Cafe

Our next stop brought us to Boon Burger Cafe which is a chain that was sprouted in Winnipeg back in 2010.  What makes a burger joint so special? They have some of the best plant based burgers that I’ve ever tasted. Yes, this proud carnivore has eaten plant based burgers before. Owner Karen Moorse delivered our “burgers” and fries, then proceeded to tell us all about her menu. Everything is made in house, with the exception of the soft drinks, and this includes all their breads, patties and sauces. Their fries are baked, not fried, and instead of dairy, their house-made ice cream has a coconut milk base. Our sampling was one of their Spicy Chicken “burgers”, poutine, and a mocha ice cream that was just delicious!

Spicy chicken burger

Baked, not fried, fries

Boon Burger Cafe

Boon Cafe menu

Paradiso Restaurant

After about a minute’s walk away we get to our third stop, Paradiso Restaurant. Their menu isn’t just one type of cuisine but can be described as more European/Mediterranean. The kitchen is open so diners can watch their meals being prepared. Paradiso also offers cooking classes with experienced chefs teaching students how to make some of the dishes served in the restaurant or other cuisines. For our tasting we started off with a crabcake on a red pepper aioli, which was followed up by their 12 hour braised beef gnocchi. I’m a sucker for braised beef and for gnocchi, so when you put them together on a plate I’m very happy.

Paradiso Restaurant

Dining room at Raradiso Restaurant

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Downtown Bistro

We were getting a little full and it was starting to get warm so being able to sit outside on the patio at Downtown Bistro was a welcome relief. Sitting down and being served a chilled sangria just made it better. Downtown Bistro is also another long time participant in the Taste Of Burlington program. The menu here is a combination of North American classics combined with some classic French and Italian dishes.  Here we were treated to their Bistro Burger and a phyllo pastry cup with a spicy cream base and perfectly cooked shrimp.

Downtown Bistro

Burger and shrimp cup

Sangria

Slider

J And G Quality Meats

After a long 7 minute walk we came to our last stop in the parking lot of Centro Garden. In the far corner we spotted a a tent with a couple of benches and two bbq grills going. This was where we found Peter Baarda, owner of J & G Quality Meats. Peter is also a superstar butcher having won the title of Ontario’s Finest Butcher three years in a row. Peter told us a little about himself then about the products he carries in his shop. You can tell that he was very proud of the high quality of his products. We were treated to a couple of grilled steaks and a variety of sausages. He makes all his sausages in-house and ensures that they do not contain fillers of any kind.

Peter Baarda, owner of J & G Quality Meats

Ribeye steaks

Sausages just off the grill

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Sausages

Our tour came to an end after that meat packed meal and we said goodbye to Lori and Sue. This tour was just a very small sampling of what you can find during the Taste Of Burlington.  If you’ve never visited Burlington for a culinary experience then this summer is the perfect time. It’s just a short distance west of Toronto, parking is way cheaper than Toronto, and, you’ll be supporting some independent restaurateurs who are producing some very delicious food.

See all the details below:

Website: Taste Of Burlington
Dates: August 13th to September 3rd
Restaurant List: 24 Participating restaurants
Instagram: Taste Of Burlington
Twitter: Taste Of Burlington
Facebook:Taste Of Burlington

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Attractions Ontario and Heart of Ontario but all opinions expressed are my own.