TOCA Restaurant

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Room with a Cheese Cave

TOCA sits on the upper mezzanine of The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto, and announces its personality immediately: half-moon booths, abstract light fixtures, sporadic chalkboard walls, and at the centre of it all, a glass-enclosed cheese cave stocked with gourmet cheeses from around the world. The room manages to feel both young and hip and quietly sophisticated at the same time — a balance that earned it a Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star rating, placing it among the most recognized fine dining Italian restaurants in the country.

One detail that sets the room apart from any other hotel dining room in Toronto: the charger plates. Each one is hand-painted and one-of-a-kind, the work of the hotel's resident artist, Jacqueline Poirier. They arrive at the table before the food does, and they're worth a moment's attention.

The Kitchen

The culinary team is led by Chef de Cuisine Alessandro Panattoni, who brings experience from upscale restaurants in Italy, Japan, and Canada. Alongside him, specialty chef Paul Wejman trained at the two Michelin-starred Da Caino in Tuscany, where he refined his approach to fresh pasta, sauce work, and plating before returning to Toronto.

The menu is rooted in regional Italian tradition, built around handmade pastas, premium meats, and carefully sourced seasonal produce. At dinner, that translates to dishes like ravioli stuffed with caciotta cheese, marjoram, and tomato sauce; a 32-ounce bistecca alla fiorentina dry-aged and grilled to order; risotto with B.C. harvested mushrooms and scallops; and grilled whole lobster with fresh spaghetti. Lunch brings a Wagyu Bolognese on spaghetti alla chitarra, a seafood pasta loaded with squid, shrimp, mussels, clams, and scallops in lobster bisque, and a clean filetto di branzino with caper dressing and charred lemon.

Brunch, Private Dining, and the Broader Picture

The Signature Weekend Brunch is a draw in its own right — a refined buffet format that brings Italian-inspired flavours to Saturday and Sunday mornings, alongside a full à la carte menu that runs from a lobster omelette with mascarpone and caviar to buttermilk pancakes with blueberry compote and maple syrup.

For private gatherings, TOCA offers an intimate dining room accommodating up to 20 guests, with a customizable menu suited to executive dinners, celebrations, or client events. The location on Wellington Street West puts the restaurant steps from Toronto's theatre district, making it a natural choice before an evening out in the city.