I am a foodie and always in search of new and interesting places to eat, in Toronto and on my travels. I like to follow people who also enjoy food. One person I follow was having brunch at a place I had never heard of before in the city called White Lily Diner. The food looked good, I checked out the menu and website.

I was meeting a friend who I worked with at WE and here is what our conversation went:

Me: I saw that a friend went to a place on Queen Street called White Lily Diner, check it out and let me know what you think.

Friend: haha….I love that place. It’s at Queen and Broadview, works for me.

The first thing I noticed as I walked up to the restaurant was the chalkboard sign saying the doughnut of the day was butter tart doughnut. Um, hello…butter tart doughnut? We will come back to that.

The menu isn’t very large which I think is a good thing. I think it means they do a limited number of items very well. I was right about that.

We started off with their homemade pickles, bread and butter and dill. We both looked at the menu and agreed on the same item to share – Sourdough Toast – Strawberry-rhubarb preserve. Ricotta. Fresh strawberry. Toasted hemp seed. Basil is what the menu said, although it wasn’t basil, it was dill which didn’t quite fit, but everything else was divine. See for yourself below:

• 

• 

• 

We looked at the menu and there were a few items that looked interesting to share and it came down to two – the meatloaf dinner or a hot smoked turkey dinner. We opted for the hot turkey dinner which consisted of – Smoked turkey. “Stuffing” french toast. Cranberry chutney. Gravy. 

• 

• 

• 

Four years ago when Wahlburgers opened in Toronto I had heard about their Thanksgiving burger which is basically the whole turkey meal in one bite. I would say that this dinner was almost the same. It was the taste of the hot smoked turkey that added such a depth of flavour in every bite. Each bite was a bit of the stuffing french toast, the chutney and the smoked turkey. All I can say to this is winner winner turkey dinner.

I mentioned at the start of the piece that the sign coming into the diner said the doughnut of the day was Butter Tart. When the server told me it was a ‘filled’ doughnut, with a vanilla glaze topped with raisins it sounded great, a doughnut and a butter tart have a baby. This was not the case. It was filled, but with custard, which really didn’t give it any comparison to a butter tart with the exception of the raisins on top.

• 

• 

It was a It was a great experience overall, quiet for the time of the day and no line. I am sure that the weekend brunch crowd or even the weekday lunch crowd would have had us waiting in line. It is a fantastic local spot that I would return to anytime.

Always in search of the next place to try in our fabulous city!