Restaurants in Vaughan

Chefs at Crepe Delicious swirl paper-thin layers of batter onto their piping-hot crepe griddles, perfuming the air with the enticing aroma. Shortly after, the cooks lift away delectable crepes ready to be stuffed with savoury ingredients. The crepes themselves weigh in at only about 130 calories each with just 3.5 grams of fat, but they sate appetites during any meal.

Island Mix's menu flings two distinctive food personalities together in a buddy comedy of comestibility. Initiate ingestion sequences with a fried plantain ($2), fish cake ($3.50), or bowl of shrimp wonton soup (from $4.50) and relax in Island Mix's comfortable lounge environment. Entrees including duck curry ($18.75), jerk chicken fried rice ($9.50), and stewed king fish ($9.45) tempt tempestuous torsos into edible elopement. Dine on Wednesday and enjoy free pool games all day, or challenge dining companions to guess which side of your mouth the cue ball is hidden in.

When Ronn Teitelbaum opened the first Johnny Rockets location in 1986, his goal was to create a restaurant where people could escape the postmodern blues of everyday life and experience a taste of time-honored Americana. The name itself is a nod to this ideal. It combines the star of a classic American fable, Johnny Appleseed, and a classic car, Oldsmobile’s beefy Rocket 88.

That explains why during dinners at the famous burger joints, you’ll see signs of simpler times, starting with the cooks and servers—dressed head to toe in white, including white paper hats, they look like they’ve fallen out of a wormhole from the 1950s ready to sling shakes and cook up some eats. Behind a stainless-steel bar lined with red leather stools they tend to their traditional diner fare, including burgers and melts with sides such as chili-cheese fries and onion rings. Riding sidecar to each meal is a collection of hand-dipped and hand-spun floats, shakes, and malts topped with whipped cream.

The menu at Mideastro Thornhill includes entrees such as black truffle risotto, veal scallopini, and seafood linguine with homemade pasta. But the fusion elements that went into the original Mideastro are still deliciously present: a seafood duet mixes calamari and jumbo shrimp with citrusy pearl couscous, and the lamb-and-beef kufta highlights Middle Eastern spice. Guests sit down to these suppers beneath modern chandeliers, which also illuminate a stonework bar stocked with spirits. (Groups who book the private party room access an even cozier space.) Other drinks come from a wine list curated by a master sommelier—a title that's only bestowed on you if you can tempt the cork from its bottle like a snake charmer.