Toronto is an expensive city to eat in, and giving up restaurants entirely is nobody’s idea of a solution. The better approach is to keep going out and pay less for it, which comes down to timing, a little planning, and paying attention to how you pay. Continue reading to learn how to save money on dining out in Toronto.
Shift the Hour, Not the Restaurant
The same kitchen charges different prices at different times. Lunch menus at higher-end restaurants frequently use the same ingredients as dinner at a noticeably lower price, and plenty of places run early-week or late-evening specials to fill quiet tables.
Mondays and Tuesdays are the softest nights across the city. If your schedule allows a Tuesday dinner instead of a Saturday one, you will eat the same food in a calmer room and pay less for the privilege.
Use the City’s Prix Fixe Weeks
Toronto’s seasonal prix fixe programs are still the best value in the dining calendar. Hundreds of restaurants offer set three-course menus at fixed prices during Winterlicious and Summerlicious, and the participating list regularly includes rooms that would otherwise sit well outside a normal budget.
Book early, because the most sought-after restaurants fill within days of the menus going live. Check whether a venue offers the prix fixe at lunch as well as dinner, since the lunch tier is usually cheaper for a very similar experience.
Let the Right Card Do Some of the Work
If you eat out regularly, the card in your wallet is quietly deciding how much a year of dining costs you.
Several Canadian cards pay elevated rewards specifically on restaurants and food delivery, and the gap between a flat-rate card and a dining-focused one adds up faster than most people expect across fifty-odd meals a year. Comparing the top credit cards for dining out in Canada takes about twenty minutes and then keeps paying every time you sit down.
Two cautions worth stating plainly. Rewards only count if the balance is cleared every month, and an annual fee only makes sense if your actual spending justifies it.
The Numbers Are Moving in Your Favour
There is some good news in the data regarding dining out in Toronto. Prices in Ontario rose 2.0% year over year in June, the smallest increase of any province, and slower price growth for food purchased from restaurants was the reason, according to Statistics Canada’s June Consumer Price Index.
That does not make dinner cheap. It does mean restaurant inflation is no longer the runaway line it was, so a bit of planning stretches further now than it did two years ago.
Small Habits, Real Savings
Keep in mind the following tips when dining out in Toronto: Eat on the quieter nights. Use the prix fixe weeks rather than saving them for visitors. Put dining spend on a card built for it and clear the balance. Have the first drink at home, since the markup on the second glass is where a reasonable bill becomes an unreasonable one.
None of that requires eating worse. It just requires deciding a few things before you sit down rather than after.
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