Must-try foodie trails and tours in Ontario

Must-try foodie trails and tours in Ontario

Seven delicious ways to enjoy Ontario’s best eats

A road trip-friendly foodie escape through Ontario is calling your name this summer. Hop in the car and hit the open road to meet new people, experience new places and most importantly, fill your stomach with deliciousness! After all, great eats are one of the best parts of the sizzling summer season.

Read on for seven food-focused routes through Ontario to enjoy this summer. Whether you're seeking a self-guided excursion or a local guide to show you around, a family-friendly trip or something to do with your sweetheart, Ontario has it.

Southern Georgian Bay offers what some call a pilgrimage to arguably some of the best apples in the province. The Apple Pie Trail connects apple aficionados to numerous varieties of the fruit and local offerings, including dining experiences, breweries (regional cider anyone?), many baked goods, including the all-important apple pie, and even apple-inspired art. The trail stops in Beaver Valley, Meaford, Thornbury, Blue Mountain Village and Craigleith.

Around 25 per cent of Ontario’s apple crop comes from this region of the province. It’s home to familiar apple varieties like Fuji, Gala, and Honeycrisp, but also Ginger Gold, a crisp, white flesh variety, or Empire, which is a cross between a Red Delicious and McIntosh.

Yes, there are excellent pies on offer on the Apple Pie Trail, but the dining experiences, cideries and even apple-themed art are also worth checking out.

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The Apple Pie Trail is popular enough that there’s an app for guests, which features interactive maps and notifications so you can stay on top of all things apple before or during your tour. Of course, you don’t need to be an apple whiz to enjoy this trail. You just need to love apple-inspired treats … and fun!

A land of freshly-baked, flaky butter tarts await you this summer along the self-guided Butter Tart Tour. If you love this most Canadian of treats, Kawarthas Northumberland has you covered with this tasty trek that allows visitors to travel across this region – which encompasses Northumberland County, Peterborough County, the City of Peterborough, and Kawartha Lakes – sampling many varieties of the decadent dessert.

There's a tart for every taste on the Kawarthas Northumberland Butter Tart Tour. At Bobcaygeon Bakery, visitors can choose from an array of delicious flavours including plain, pecan, raisin, rhubarb, maple and chocolate.

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There’s a suggested route, but go with your heart (or gut) on this one. We promise you can’t go wrong; all of the participating vendors and bakers are locals to the area who produce their butter tarts on-site, and there are many, many options to try – from plain, pecan and raisin to more adventurous options, including chocolate peanut butter, cheesecake, maple bacon and even pumpkin. Don’t miss the sweet treats at Doo Doo’s Bakery in Peterborough, Ste. Anne’s Bakery in Grafton, The Little Pie Shack in Fenelon Falls and Dreamers Cafe in Port Hope, among dozens of others. The Butter Tart Tour can be paired with other outdoor activities like fishing or boating on the Kawartha Lakes, biking along Victoria Rail Trail, or just taking in the beautiful scenery.

The best things in life are cheese! If you brie-lieve there’s nothing feta than that, The Oxford County Cheese Trail might just be your solution to a grate summer escape. Whether you love hard, soft, funky or classic cheese varieties, this self-guided tour in the dairy capital of Canada is sure to be as delicious as it is informative.

The Cheese Trail covers around 30 stops, including restaurants with cheese-inspired menus, factory tours with the actual cheesemakers in the area and other family-friendly activities like museums and farm visits, as well as experiences including alpaca walks, soap making, charcuterie board making and a chef’s table experience at sixthirtynine in Woodstock, where guests can sit at a table in the kitchen itself to see how their meals are created.

Woodstock, Ont.'s sixthirtynine is a must-visit stop on the Oxford County Cheese Trail.

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Trying to hit everything on the trail would require lots of driving, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for tasting. So, consider picking a hub (Ingersoll, Woodstock or one of the trail’s rural stops) and visiting the trail stops in that area. Around Woodstock, for example, visitors can try Swiss-inspired cheeses at Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese and indulge in special cheese and beer combos – including house-made pretzels with beer cheese dip – at The Brickhouse Brewpub. Don’t forget to end the visit with a sweet treat at Habitual Chocolate!

C’est Bon’s argument is simple: Ottawa is more than politics. Founded in 2009 by Chef Andrée Riffou and now operated by Chef Georges Laurier and entrepreneur Stefanie Siska, the company’s raison d’etre is helping people discover the culinary delights and secrets of the nation’s capital.

Ottawa’s location brings together a rich blend of English, French and Indigenous cuisine and culture. An array of independent restaurants featuring a range of delicious global flavours entice newcomers to become loyal patrons.

Experience the best of Ottawa with a gourmet food tour hosted by C'est Bon, which could include stops at ByWard Market (above right) or Sula Wok in Old Ottawa East (above left).

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C’est Bon offers guided walking tours (and one bike tour) that allow participants to meet local restaurant owners and merchants and, more importantly, sample their wares. Try the super popular Taste of the ByWard Market tour for a delicious trek through the iconic market, including a stop at the original BeaverTail stand; or the Taste of Lowertown tour, which focuses on hidden gems on the north side of The ByWard Market district. You can also opt for a self-guided experience: A geo-located map will direct you to special points of interest, interesting facts and little-known must-sees, as well as pre-paid food stops. The company also offers excellent cooking classes; there’s one focused on Inuit Country Cuisine that is a must-try!

Scarborough is an exciting and diverse district of Toronto with a food scene that showcases the culinary mastery of its immigrants. That’s what makes it the perfect place to find excellent Tamil, Thai, Jamaican and Chinese food, just to name a few. Eat More Scarborough is an opportunity for those new and seasoned to the area to discover (or rediscover) the sheer variety Scarborough has to offer, with new spots and tour themes added every year.

The brainchild of founder Howard Tam (above left), Eat More Scarborough offers food tours focused on the neighbourhood's cultural diversity. Expect to walk – and eat – a lot!

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Since 2018, the tour, conceived by self-proclaimed local foodie-in-chief Howard Tam, has featured food stalls and restaurants throughout Scarborough, including Victoria Park Avenue and the Golden Mile along Eglinton Avenue between Victoria Park and Warden Avenue. Tam has taken lucky visitors on walking tours where they can enjoy Lawrence East-focused spots featuring Middle Eastern and Mediterranean eats like baklava and kebabs; the most delicious examples of rich, spicy jollof at Morningside’s best West African spots; and Filipino and Chinese cuisine in Agincourt, among many others. Sign us up!

Want to explore Kingston’s diverse neighbourhoods – and delicious eats? The best way is by taking one of Kingston Food Tours’ guided culinary jaunts through the city. Visitors can opt for the Classic Kingston tour, which includes stops at the best restaurants in the city, as well as interesting insights about Kingston’s history and architecture. Or, try the Kingston Tapas Tour, a fairly new offering from the company. An afternoon-long jaunt through the city, it includes stops for four curated tastings featuring small bites that are paired with select beverages.

If you're keen to explore Kingston through its food culture, Kingston Food Tours offers two options: one with stops at its overall best restaurants, the other specifically focused on tapas.

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The company’s year-round tour offerings give visitors a guided look into the past, present and future of the city’s food scene, which has been informed by its historic status as the one-time capital of the “United Province of Canada.”

Sometimes you just need to call in a food expert like Mississauga’s Aashim Aggarwal. His “for locals, by locals” approach to discovering the culinary delights has garnered him a loyal follower base (nearly 30,000 on Instagram and just over 93,000 on TikTok!) – so much so that he now runs private, well-reviewed food tours.

If you want a truly individual experience, consider signing up for a private food tour from local foodie Aashim Aggarwal.

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The 20-something digital marketer from Mississauga first embarked on this new culinary life with his Global Eats Challenge during the height of the pandemic – while stuck at home unable to travel, he and his partner embarked on a mission to order takeout from GTA restaurants featuring cuisine from a different country each week, posting their experiences on social media and gaining lots of attention for it. From there, Aggarwal’s project to “travel the world” without leaving his home region became a way to support some of the GTA’s best restaurants, ranging from ‘mom & pop’ to larger, established businesses, and covering many different types of cuisine.

Aggarwal books his popular private food tours in Mississauga, Brampton, Toronto and elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area. Guests have the option of three to eight highly-curated spots, for a tour that lasts between two and six hours.

With all the foodie tours and trails Ontario has to offer, there’s never a shortage of delicious adventures to be had. Happy exploring – and more importantly, eating!

Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Great Taste of Canada. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.