Toronto > Neighborhoods > China Town

What defines this part of town is the Kensington Market—a hot spot so diverse you have to see it to believe it. Some people refer to its sprawling shops and numerous vendors as "organized confusion," but it’s a great place to get everything from empanadas (Spanish meat pies) to second-hand clothes (or first-hand accounts of weird fashion sense).

Overlapping Kensington Village is China Town. Those in the know say it’s just like being in Hong Kong. The streets are crowded with people, vendors, fruit, vegetables, fish and various other forms of seafood—some on ice and some still crawling.

If you want great Chinese food and a bona fide cultural experience, then you must go to King Noodle at the corner of Dundas and Spadina. Order the salted donuts with hot and sour soup. Warning: many of the staff and residents in this neighborhood often speak in foreign tongues (Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese), but menus are in English. If you’re around in the evening there are karaoke bars and other strange experiences to be had, but do be careful after dark.

The best way to get to China Town is to catch the Dundas streetcar (you can get it in front of the Eaton Centre) and take it down to Spadina.