Swatow Toronto: Chinese Restaurant on Spadina

Swatow Toronto is a Chinese restaurant on Spadina Avenue. Located in the heart of Chinatown, Swatow restaurant is regularly ranked as one of the best Chinese restaurants in Toronto.

The family-owned restaurant features a bustling dining room, open kitchen and long take out line at dinner time.

Swatow Toronto’s menu reads like a classic Canadian Chinese restaurant, featuring hundreds of dishes for meat lovers, seafood fans and vegetarians or vegans.

Swatow Toronto is located on Spadina Avenue in Chinatown.

Swatow Restaurant in Chinatown

Swatow Toronto gets its name from a Chinese city called Shantou, located on the coast of Guangdong province. Don’t expect a fancy Chinese restaurant experience here, just fresh food, quick service and oversized portions.

Swatow Toronto has built a loyal customer base over the years so it’s often busy. Prepare to wait in line during the dinner hour, though efficient staff mean the wait time is never too excessive.

Renee Tran is a Vietnamese-Chinese Canadian who grew up with her family in downtown Toronto. Swatow is the families favourite Chinese restaurant in Toronto.

Tran explains her families love for Swatow, “My mother started going there when she was pregnant with me. We often ate at Swatow restaurant when we wanted good ‘ol Chinese cuisine that was not too cheap and would serve a large enough portion for a 6-person family. It never hit the bank for what you got and it was consistently good. It’s funny because the only person in my family that can speak Cantonese is my mother, so the cashiers and waiters were quite fond of her. They’d often give us extra food, new dishes to try, and my most favourite, a handful of fortune cookies!”

Tran continues, “We used to live in the neighbourhood, between College St. and Dundas St. along Manning Avenue. We’d visit Swatow Toronto after school for dinner or on the weekends. Anytime my mother or father felt tired it was either Swatow or King’s Noodle.”

Tran reflects on the restaurant’s most memorable staff member, “Throughout the years the kitchen staff changed, new people came and left but there was always the same cashier who was so nice and knew the restaurant’s regulars. You would often see him running around when he was younger, quickly bursting through the swinging doors in the back with multiple dishes in hand. He also made the noodles in the open kitchen out front. Sometimes you would see flying noodles in the air and people watching from outside, mesmerized by the Chinese culinary circus!”

The bustling dining room at Swatow Chinese restaurant in Toronto.

Swatow Toronto Menu

The Chinatown favourite serves authentic Cantonese dishes in a modest dining room. Families and couples gather around tight tables under dangling potted plants. The right wall of the dining room is essentially a massive mirror, allowing guests to peak at what their neighbours are eating.

Knowing Cantonese helps open up many doors, featuring secret dishes that are not listed on the regular menu. Be sure to skip through the dining room to read the menu boards on the left wall. Many of these signature dishes are often overlooked, so be sure to try one or two of the specials.

Swatow Toronto’s kitchen is best known for late hours, huge portions, cheap prices and cash only payment option. The specialties of the house are slippery noodles, beef dishes, shrimp dumpling soup, sizzling platters and General Tso’s Chicken.

Have a laugh searching for Swatow Toronto’s “fuk-kin rice.” While it’s certainly hilarious to say out loud it’s even more fun to eat. The signature rice dish features fried rice tossed together with shrimp, crab, scallops, chicken, and scrambled egg.

If you’ve got a penchant for Chinese feasting on holiday, Swatow Toronto will have you floating back to Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei.