Dine The Ave is back again this year!  It’s a dining event put on by the Alberta Avenue Business Association to highlight some of the restaurants on 118th avenue. This year, it’s happening from June 17-23rd, 2019 this year.

It’s similar to Downtown dining week, where participating restaurants put on special menus priced at $10-$20 to highlight some of their dishes. I got a sneak preview of some of the food at the restaurants last week, and I’ve posted a link here to check out the other participating restaurants and their menu.

The tour was quite packed at around 25 guests, and tickets were available for purchase the week leading up to the event. Last year, they held two events prior to Dine The Ave week to showcase some of the restaurants. Our first stop was at Battista’s Calzones. They were doing $10 Calzones for the week, where you could choose between Spicy Italian, Pesto Presto, and Giovanna. Check out their website here for descriptions on the Calzones. My favourite was the Giovanna which proscuitto and artichokes, with truffle oil.

Next we went to T&D Vietnamese Noodle House. Their special menu item is a rice/noodle dish with 2 spring rolls, and chicken, with a drink for $10! I thought it was a really good deal for $10, and we even got a slightly smaller sample on the tour than what would be offered.

Next we went to La Bodeguita De Cuba. This is a quaint little restaurant that has been open for less than 6 months! We got a bit of a sample of their dish, but for $20, you get a three-course meal. Their menu is listed as: Starter: chicken soup or Caesar salad | Main: ropa vieja, masas de puerco fritas, fricases de pollo | Dessert: Cuban flan or tres leches cake. We were also entertained by owner Yordanis during our meal.

Our tour continued down the street to Simba’s Den Pub & Bistro. They have two offerings for Dine the Ave, a Veggie Platter and a Meat Platter. We also got to sample some of the dishes here, and I would say that this was my favourite stop of the tour. We got to sample some authentic Eritrean-Ethiopian food, which was delicious! Their Injera is also house made!

Lastly we had a sweet bite at The Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse. This is a non-profit coffee shop that houses a lot of art from local artists. They do a lot for the avenue and host live music weekly. The bite we had was their carrot cake which was moist and delicious!

Overall, I had a great time on the Tour. It highlighted many businesses that I had not heard of before, and looking at the participating restaurants, it definitely prompts me to come back to the Avenue to try a few other bites! Read more about Dine the Ave here!

Disclosure: The food from this post was gifted to us, however our opinion remains unbiased and based on our own experience.