Fulfill Your Cravings Any Night of the Week

Surrounded by Yonge Street’s traditional trattorias, Cravings (3393 Yonge Street), an Asian fusion resto, brings modern flare to North Toronto’s Lawrence Park neighbourhood. The menu offers up a delicious, affordable selection of Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese dishes, with a waft of Indian influence, in tapas style, or larger sharing portions.

I went on a Sunday night, which was surprisingly very busy, and I managed to squeeze us in for a 7 p.m. reservation. (Note: Reservations are definitely recommended, if you’re hoping to get a table.) Comfortable, clean and modern, the restaurant consists of a main room, linked by a corridor of five white upholstered booths, to a back room, featuring a sushi bar. Lit throughout with beautiful glass Murano chandeliers (they sure could use a dusting), patrons dine in an intimately pleasant atmosphere.

Because the dishes are so small, we ordered quite a few:

-Gyoza – pan-fried, veal dumplings with sweet soya dip ($7);

-Chicken Thai spring rolls – served with sweet chili dip ($5);

-Hot and sour soup – with tofu, bamboo shoots, egg and black fungus ($5);

-Thai mango salad – mango, red pepper, red onion, carrot, served in Thai fish sauce vinaigrette with a hint of mint ($8);

-Dynamite sushi rolls ($7);

-Spicy tuna sushi rolls ($7);

-Spicy salmon sushi pizza ($9);

-Butterfish sushi ($5);

-Shanghai fried noodles – wheat noodles, chicken, shrimp, stir-fried with Chinese soya sauce ($12);

-Ginger and scallions stir-fry – simple, yet flavourful Chinese traditional dish with the option of chicken, beef, seafood, or vegetables ($11);

-Coconut sticky rice ($3);

-and Steamed Jasmine rice ($2).

If you are looking for a restaurant that serves popular dishes from a variety of Asian countries, this is the place for you. Many of the menu options are familiar, with a few surprises. Everything is very fresh, which is certainly important when it comes to sushi, for example.

The Thai Mango Salad was deliciously sweet and perfectly crunchy. The ginger chicken and scallion dish, however, lacked flavour, and the chef went a little heavy on the cornstarch. The Hot and Sour Soup ranks among the best in the city, boasting great flavours and fresh ingredients, unlike Chinatown, where more often than not, you’re served a bowl of goop. My favourite was the Spicy Salmon Sushi Pizza, which was generously loaded with salmon, wasabi, and tobiko, on a yummy bed of crunchy, deep-fried rice.

Service throughout was friendly and accommodating, but a little too fast for our liking. Piping hot dishes arrived one after the other at a pace that made it difficult for us to keep up, without everything going cold.

The menu is reasonably priced, which makes Cravings a real find in this upscale part of town. Our total came to $92.50 (plus tax, tip, alcohol) for three people.

Overall, I would certainly return to this restaurant, as well as recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, fast and reliable Asian meal in the Yonge-Lawrence area.