The smoked meat sandwich is Ashkenazi cured brisket steamed and sliced thick, piled on rye bread with mustard. Toronto's Jewish-deli canon at Centre Street Deli and United Bakers anchors the city standard.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Smoked meat reached Toronto from Montreal's Eastern European Jewish community in the early 1900s. Toronto's Jewish-deli scene developed through the 1910s on Spadina and shifted to Bathurst as the community moved north. United Bakers Dairy Restaurant on Lawrence (1912) is the city's longest-running deli; Centre Street Deli from Thornhill carries the Montreal-style canon since 1988. The Toronto-style sandwich runs thinner than Montreal's, on lighter rye with a stronger mustard hit.
Common allergens: Gluten
Tip from the editors. The rye must be light, not dark; Toronto-style favours the seeded lighter rye that Montreal calls plain. Steam, never microwave, the meat.
Centre Street Deli on Bay Street is the 2024 downtown outpost of the Thornhill original since 1988, Montreal-style smoked meat hand-sliced over light rye.
Try: Montreal smoked meat sandwich, latkes, matzo ball soup
Order: The classic smoked meat sandwich on rye with mustard and a pickle.
Tip: Order the lean-and-medium mix; pure lean dries out fast. The Thornhill original is at 1136 Centre Street.
United Bakers at Lawrence Plaza is the city's reference kosher-style dairy restaurant since 1912, no-meat menu with blintzes, smoked fish and split-pea soup.
Try: Kosher-style dairy: blintzes, split-pea soup, smoked fish
Order: The split pea soup with a potato latke and applesauce.
Tip: Kosher-style, not certified kosher. Closed Saturday and most Jewish holidays. The Ladovsky family has run it since 1912.
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