St. Lawrence Market food guide
Toronto: St Lawrence & Distillery Food Tour with 6 Tastings
What should I eat at St. Lawrence Market?
The peameal bacon sandwich from Carousel Bakery is the market's signature dish. Beyond that, graze the ground floor for cheese, charcuterie, and baked goods, or come Saturday for the Farmers' Market upstairs and the North Market across the street — the market is closed Mondays.
A market that’s been feeding Toronto since 1803
St. Lawrence Market traces back to 1803, when the city’s first market building went up on this exact block, and it has operated continuously since — through fires, rebuilds, and a 2023 expansion that added a new North Market building. National Geographic named it the world’s best food market in 2012, a claim that’s more marketing than fact but not an entirely unfair one: the density of genuinely good, genuinely affordable food inside one building is hard to match anywhere else in the city.
| Where | 93 Front St E, corner of Jarvis St, 10 min walk from Union Station |
| Cost | Around $10-18 CAD for a sandwich lunch, more for a full grazing meal |
| Best day | Saturday for the Farmers’ Market and North Market, closed Monday |
| Time needed | 1-2 hours for a focused visit, half a day on Saturday |
| Getting there | King/Queen streetcars, or a 10-min walk from Union Station |
The market splits into two main buildings. The South Market (the main building most visitors mean when they say “St. Lawrence Market”) runs Tuesday through Saturday with roughly 120 vendors selling meat, fish, cheese, produce, baked goods, and prepared food. The North Market, across Front Street, hosts the Saturday Farmers’ Market — Ontario growers selling direct — and a Sunday Antique Market. Knowing which building has which vendors on which day is the single most useful piece of planning here, since a Tuesday visit and a Saturday visit are genuinely different experiences.
What to actually order
The peameal bacon sandwich is the market’s calling card. Peameal bacon — a lean, cured pork loin originally rolled in ground yellow peas (now usually cornmeal) — is a distinctly Canadian, distinctly Toronto cut, and the sandwich version (thick-sliced, grilled, on a soft bun with mustard) is worth the hype. Carousel Bakery, just past the main Front Street entrance, is the best-known vendor and has the line to prove it, often 15-20 minutes on a Saturday. Uno Mustachio and a couple of other stalls sell a near-identical sandwich with a fraction of the wait — worth knowing if you’re short on time.
Beyond the sandwich, build a grazing lunch: Buster’s Sea Cove for a lobster roll or fish and chips, Scheffler’s Delicatessen & Cheese for a wedge of aged Canadian cheddar or a charcuterie selection to go, and St. Urbain Bagel for a Montreal-style bagel, wood-fired and boiled the traditional way rather than baked like a New York bagel. Churrasco churrasqueira stalls sell Portuguese grilled chicken, a nod to the market’s proximity to Toronto’s historic Portuguese community.
For something sweet, Future Bakery and a handful of pastry stalls sell butter tarts — a Canadian classic (a flaky pastry shell filled with a runny, brown-sugar filling) that’s worth trying here if you haven’t had one elsewhere in Ontario.
The Saturday Farmers’ Market and North Market
If your visit can land on a Saturday, it’s worth the extra planning. The North Market Farmers’ Market runs from roughly 5am to 3pm and brings in Ontario growers selling produce, honey, maple syrup, and flowers direct from the farm — a genuinely different vendor base from the South Market’s permanent stalls, and noticeably cheaper on produce. Early morning (before 9am) is when local chefs and serious home cooks shop; by mid-morning it’s busier with visitors but still worth the trip. The Sunday Antique Market in the same building is unrelated to food but worth a look if your visit spans both days.
Guided vs. self-directed
The market rewards wandering, but if you have limited time or want the vendor stories and history along with the food, the St. Lawrence Market and Distillery District food tour combines a guided tasting walk through the market’s best stalls with a walk over to the Distillery District afterward — a practical way to cover both East End food destinations in a single guided morning rather than researching vendors yourself.
If you’d rather self-direct, budget your visit around the sandwich-plus-two-stalls model: one savory main, one cheese or charcuterie item to take away, and one sweet finish. Trying to sample everything in one visit is the most common mistake — the market rewards a focused, three-or-four-stop grazing plan over an attempt to see all 120 vendors.
A one-hour route if you’re short on time
If you only have an hour, walk the market in one direction rather than doubling back. Enter from the Front Street main entrance, head straight to Carousel Bakery (or Uno Mustachio if the line is long) for the peameal bacon sandwich, then work your way toward the back of the building past Scheffler’s Delicatessen for a small cheese sample or purchase, and finish at St. Urbain Bagel near the Jarvis Street end for a bagel to take with you. This route covers the market’s three signature categories — sandwich, cheese, bread — without retracing your steps, and comfortably fits inside 60 minutes including the Carousel Bakery line.
Long-running vendors worth knowing
Several stalls have operated inside the market for decades and are worth seeking out specifically rather than picking randomly. Scheffler’s Delicatessen & Cheese has run its counter since the 1960s and stocks one of the deepest Canadian and European cheese selections in the city, with staff who will cut and vacuum-seal a piece for travel on request. Kozlik’s Canadian Mustard sells small-batch mustard varieties that make a better, more packable souvenir than most gift-shop options nearby. The Sausage King has supplied German and Eastern European sausages to the market for years and is a good stop if you’re building a charcuterie board rather than a sandwich lunch.
Ask any long-time vendor how long they’ve been at the market — most have a story, and several are second- or third-generation stall owners, a detail that reinforces why this market reads as a genuine working institution rather than a curated food hall built for visitors.
Seasonal specialties
The market shifts noticeably by season. Fall brings Ontario apple varieties and squash to the Farmers’ Market stalls, along with an uptick in Thanksgiving-adjacent baking (pumpkin and pecan pies) in early October — Canadian Thanksgiving falls in mid-October, a full six weeks before the American holiday, which surprises some visitors.
Winter sees the South Market’s prepared-food stalls lean into heartier fare — stews, meat pies, and mulled cider — while the Farmers’ Market thins out to root vegetables and preserved goods rather than fresh produce. Spring brings the first Ontario asparagus and rhubarb to the Saturday market, usually by late May. Summer is peak Farmers’ Market season, with Ontario peaches, corn, and berries arriving through July and August.
Taking food home
Several vendors are set up for travelers taking food beyond Toronto. Scheffler’s and other cheese counters will vacuum-seal purchases, which typically keeps well for a day or two without refrigeration and longer in a cooler bag. Kozlik’s mustard, maple syrup from the Farmers’ Market stalls, and packaged butter tarts travel well in checked luggage if you’re flying out and want an edible souvenir that isn’t a t-shirt. Fresh meat and seafood are a harder sell for travel — those are best treated as an eat-here purchase rather than a take-home one unless you have a hard cooler and a short trip ahead of you.
How St. Lawrence Market compares to the Distillery District
Both sit in Toronto’s east downtown core, about a 15-minute walk apart, and both get lumped together in “food day in Toronto” itineraries. The distinction matters for planning: St. Lawrence Market is a working grocery market built for browsing and cheap, high-quality bites, while the Distillery District (covered in our best restaurants in the Distillery District guide) is built around sit-down restaurant dining in a pedestrian-only historic setting. A logical full day combines a St. Lawrence Market breakfast or lunch with a Distillery District dinner, rather than treating them as competing options.
Getting there and timing your visit
St. Lawrence Market sits at the corner of Front Street East and Jarvis Street, a 10-minute walk from Union Station and well served by the King and Queen streetcars. Parking is limited and expensive directly around the market; if you’re driving, the lots near the Distillery District a short walk east tend to have more availability.
Weekday mornings (Tuesday-Friday, before 11am) are the quietest time to visit without a Saturday crowd. Saturdays are the busiest but also the only day you get the full market experience across both buildings — a genuine trade-off between crowds and completeness that’s worth weighing against your schedule. Avoid arriving on a Monday, when the entire market is closed and you’ll find shuttered stalls instead of the bustling scene the guidebooks describe.
Pairing the market with the rest of downtown
St. Lawrence Market sits close enough to several other downtown draws that it works well as the opening stop on a full day rather than a standalone trip. It’s a 10-minute walk from Union Station, making it a natural first stop straight off a GO Transit or VIA Rail arrival before checking into a hotel. From the market, it’s a short walk north to the Financial District and our downtown Toronto walking guide’s route, or east to the Distillery District for an afternoon that shifts from grocery-market grazing to restaurant dining. Travelers staying near the waterfront can also fold in Harbourfront, a 10-minute walk south, for a lakeside finish to the day.
If your trip includes a broader food focus rather than a single market stop, our Toronto food tours guide compares guided options across St. Lawrence Market, Kensington Market, and the Distillery District, useful for deciding which neighborhoods deserve a guide and which are fine to do solo. And if you’re building out a full itinerary around Toronto’s east downtown core, our guide to St. Lawrence Market covers the market’s non-food side — the building’s architecture and its role in the city’s history — in more depth than fits here.
A private, smaller-group alternative
If you’d rather skip a larger group tour, a private food discovery walk covers a similar mix of vendor stops and tastings with a more flexible pace and the option to tailor stops around dietary preferences or specific interests:
Toronto St. Lawrence Market private food discovery tourBudgeting a market visit
A focused visit runs cheaper than most people expect. The signature peameal bacon sandwich runs roughly $9-12 CAD; add a cheese sample or small charcuterie portion from Scheffler’s for another $8-15, and a pastry or bagel for $3-5, and a genuinely satisfying grazing lunch for two lands somewhere around $30-45 CAD total — noticeably less than a comparable sit-down meal at most downtown restaurants. Saturday Farmers’ Market produce runs cheaper still if you’re building a picnic rather than a hot-food lunch.
Practical notes
- Hours: South Market Tuesday-Thursday 8am-6pm, Friday 8am-7pm, Saturday 6am-6pm, closed Sunday and Monday. North Market Farmers’ Market Saturday only, roughly 5am-3pm.
- Payment: Most stalls take cards, though several of the smaller produce vendors are cash-preferred — carry CAD $30-40 in cash for the Saturday Farmers’ Market specifically.
- Bathrooms: Available inside the main South Market building, near the lower level.
- Bags: Bring a reusable bag or cooler bag if you’re buying cheese, meat, or produce to take back to a hotel room without a fridge — several vendors will pack items for short-term transport on request.
Frequently asked questions about St. Lawrence Market
What’s the best time of day to visit St. Lawrence Market?
Weekday mornings before 11am for the calmest experience with full vendor selection. Saturday before 9am if you want to catch the Farmers’ Market at its freshest and least crowded.
Can I get a full meal at St. Lawrence Market or is it just snacks?
Both. A peameal bacon sandwich or a fish and chips plate from Buster’s Sea Cove is a full meal on its own; combining two or three smaller stalls (cheese, a pastry, a coffee) works as a grazing lunch instead.
Is St. Lawrence Market good for a food tour if I’ve already done Kensington Market?
Yes, they’re different enough to justify both — Kensington is multicultural street food in a scrappy neighborhood setting, St. Lawrence Market is a formal, historic indoor market with a stronger focus on Canadian and European-Canadian ingredients like peameal bacon and aged cheese.
Are there vegetarian options at St. Lawrence Market?
Yes, though the market’s reputation leans toward meat and cheese. Several bakery stalls, the cheese counters, and produce-focused stands at the Saturday Farmers’ Market all work well for vegetarians; fully vegan options are more limited.
How does St. Lawrence Market compare to Kensington Market for food?
St. Lawrence Market is a single indoor building with permanent vendor stalls and more of a grocery-shopping feel; Kensington Market is an open-air neighborhood with independent restaurants and food counters spread across several blocks. Both are worth doing on a Toronto food-focused trip, ideally on different days.
Is St. Lawrence Market worth visiting if I’m only in Toronto for one day?
Yes, especially for breakfast or lunch — it’s central, fast to get in and out of, and delivers a genuinely local food experience in under two hours, which fits easily into a single downtown day alongside the Distillery District or a neighborhood walk.
How much does a St. Lawrence Market lunch typically cost?
A grazing lunch for two — a peameal bacon sandwich, a cheese sample, and a pastry or bagel — typically runs around $30-45 CAD total, noticeably cheaper than a comparable sit-down restaurant meal downtown.
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