St. Lawrence Market: Toronto Travel Guide (4.6★)

A brick hall on Front Street

Order the peameal bacon sandwich first. It is Toronto’s signature sandwich: thick slices of cornmeal-rolled back bacon on a soft bun. The South Market is the best-known place in the city to eat one, and you can carry it round the rest of the hall while you look.

The building is a long red-brick hall at the corner of Front and Jarvis. Its centre section dates to the 1840s, when it was Toronto’s city hall. The old council chamber upstairs now holds the Market Gallery, the City of Toronto’s small exhibition space on the city’s past.

Inside, the floor is laid out as rows of permanent stalls under a high roof. The editorial summary counts more than 100 vendors, mostly bakers, butchers, fishmongers, cheese counters and specialty grocers. It is one of the most-reviewed food markets in Canada and consistently well rated, so expect company.

Two floors, two moods

The main floor is the one most people photograph. It holds the meat and fish counters, the bakeries, the produce stands and the prepared-food stalls where the lunch queues form.

Take the stairs down to the lower level. It has a different job: dry goods, spices, rice, olive oils, condiments and more food counters, on a lower ceiling. Toronto residents shop here for the week, so you will see people with lists and wheeled carts.

Give yourself about an hour for a proper loop with something to eat. Allow two if you plan to buy lunch, look in the gallery and cross the street on a weekend.

The weekend across the road

On weekends the market spreads across the street. The North Market building, directly across Front Street, has its own weekly schedule:

• Saturday: the farmers’ market, with growers and producers selling produce, eggs, honey and preserves. The South Market opens at 7am on Saturdays, its earliest start of the week.
• Sunday: the antiques market, with dealers’ tables of china, silverware, prints and old Toronto ephemera. The South Market opens later, at 10am.

The weekday market is food only. If you want the produce or the antiques, plan around those two days.

Working the counters

Treat this as a working market rather than a food court and it goes smoothly. A few habits help:

• Pay by tap. Most vendors take debit and credit cards, including contactless. Carry a little cash for the smaller farmers’ tables on Saturday.
• No tipping at the counters. You order, pay and collect. It works like a shop, not a restaurant.
• Know your order before you reach the front. At the busy sandwich and seafood stalls the line keeps moving. Decide, then say “peameal on a bun” and any toppings.
• Ask at the cheese and charcuterie counters. Staff will usually cut you a taste before you commit to a wedge.
• Step out of the aisle to eat. There is very little seating inside. On a dry day people take their food to the benches outside or to Berczy Park a block west.
• Bring a bag. If you plan to buy produce, a tote saves juggling paper sacks.

Saturdays draw the biggest crowds because two markets run at once. Arriving at the 7am opening usually gets you the farmers’ tables before the main rush. Don’t come on a Monday: the market is currently closed all day.

Getting to Front and Jarvis

The market is easy to reach without a car:

• Subway: King Station on Line 1, then about ten minutes’ walk east along King Street and south on Jarvis.
• Streetcar: the 504 King runs along King Street. Get off at Jarvis and walk two blocks south.
• On foot from Union Station: walk east along Front Street, past the Hummingbird Centre and the end of the Financial District. It takes about fifteen minutes.

There are paid lots in the area, but on a Saturday transit is less stressful than parking.

Around the block

Several stops sit within a few minutes’ walk:

• St. Lawrence Hall, at King and Jarvis, is the 1850 domed hall that was once the city’s main public meeting place.
• St. James Cathedral, at King and Church, has one of the tallest church spires in Canada.
• The Gooderham Building is Toronto’s red-brick flatiron, where Front meets Wellington at Church.
• Berczy Park, just behind the Gooderham Building, has a fountain covered in cast-iron dogs, plus one cat.
• The Distillery District is a fifteen-minute walk east, with its Victorian industrial buildings and pedestrian lanes.

A good half-day runs like this: breakfast sandwich at the market, the gallery upstairs, then a slow walk east to the Distillery District.