Limon Midtown — Restaurant in Toronto

Almost every table gets a dip and while the typical babaganoush and hummus are available, the eggplant and pepper dip ($9) intrigued me. Starting with a base of roasted eggplant, slivers of quickly smoked pepper and raw celery & onion are mixed in, so the dip is creamy and crunchy. As a babaganoush lover, I thoroughly enjoyed this version! Without tahini the dip is lighter and brighter.

Still their bababanoush ($9) is good with large chunks of eggplant and tons of tahini turning it creamy. It's just a touch sweet for me.

For the carb conscious, the dips arrive without a pita ($1.50), so you won’t be tempted. I wanted one with the eggplant and pepper… it’s your regular run-of-the-mill thick pocketed pita.

It's remarkable how much they can stuff in a pita. You'll need to unhinge your jaw to bite into lamb kefta in a pita ($18), the ground meat kebab juicy and each bite bringing different flavours. The bites with their zesty and slightly spicy amba sauce are my favourite and despite the abundance of onion, they're well soaked so the acidity is removed and a crunchy sweetness remains.

Their sandwiches arrive solo but is enough to satisfy. The price for a side of French fries ($11) is a bit steep but it's a huge portion, enough to share amongst three.

The beef shish kabob ($30) was a tad chewy but at least cooked well and perfectly seasoned and not overly salty. I recommend upgrading to their Greek salad ($4 supplement), a village style version containing large chunks of juicy ripe tomato, crunchy cucumber, briny creamy feta, and onions. Limon augments the salad with roasted red paper and capers adding a savoury smoky element that’s delicious.

If you’re in the mood for beef, order the strip steak ($34) instead. It’s less grizzly and you get a sizeable portion of meat cooked to your liking.

With three pieces of fish arriving in the roasted rainbow trout ($30), this is a shareable main. It's well cooked with crispy skin and tender meat and simply topped with onions and pomegranate seeds.

Having visited on three occasions, the sole visit the restaurant wasn't full was during a weekday lunch. And when it gets busy the ordering and paying process slows down as Limon creates a bottleneck by flowing both operations into one person, who I assume is the manager. Despite a number of workers, they seem to focus on serving, refilling water, and cleaning up. If you ask one to take an order or pay, the request gets redirected to the manager. What an odd way to slow down table turnover at a restaurant.

Warning: the tightly packed tables create a loud ambient noise at the restaurant. It’s a bit much at first, but as the meal progresses, I tuned it out. When the weather’s nice and they open the front windows, it almost feels like you’re sitting al fresco somewhere a bit more exotic than Midtown Toronto. A beautiful...

In its five years of operation, Limon has acquired a reputation as one of the best Israeli restaurants in Toronto. Unfortunately for me, its original location at the Beach is far away from where I live, so I've never made the trek out there to try it out. Fortunately, I was elated to learn earlier this year that they were opening a second location at Yonge and Lawrence, which is far more convenient. Today, I went to check it out for lunch.

Limon has all the standard dishes you would expect at an Israeli restaurant: falafel, hummus, lentil soup, schnitzel, and so on. They have an interesting selection of salatim (salads), and lots of the dishes come with Israeli sauces such as amba (a tangy mango condiment originally from the Baghdadi Jewish community) and zhug (a spicy herbaceous sauce originally from the Yemenite Jewish community). In my view, the diversity of menu options here is as good or better than any other Israeli restaurant in the city.

For lunch, we ordered babaganoush, spiced carrots, hummus (tahini on the side), falafel with pita, and french fries. They gave us ample food and everything was delicious.

I don't usually like babaganoush but the version at Limon is light, airy, and very addictive (I probably ate half the plate). The hummus is as good as any of the the good new wave Israeli restaurants, and the falafel are fantastic. I really enjoyed the spicy carrots - I love that they add diced celery into the dish. I make a few versions of spiced carrots myself, and I'll be taking a note from Limon when I cook it next time. The fries were excellent too. Overall, I ate far more than I had originally intended to, both because the portions were generous and the food was delicious. The price was also reasonable for the sheer quantity and quality of the food.

Lastly, the service was excellent - the staff were very friendly and attentive, and the food came out quickly.

I'm already making plans with family and friends to return to Limon Midtown in the future. Bravo to the owners on running such a good restaurant and opening a successful...

I was so thrilled to see an east-end favourite of mine make its way uptown, to midtown, now more conveniently located to me! What's there to be said about Limon, which is now a well-established culinary force in the city, that already hasn't been... When you dine here, you can rest assured you're getting the highest-quality product prepared fresh to order each time, absolutely bursting with flavour and texture. The hummus is, no exaggeration, the very best I've had anywhere on this globe, the fried cauliflower, an absolute epiphany, their grilled skewers, satisfying in the most primal way, the steak and or schnitzel on a baguette, there to satiate the biggest appetite in the most delectable way, their lentil soup, nourishing balsam for my soul, their deserts, decadence defined... And that's just the stuff that immediately comes to mind- there is genuinely not a single even mediocre item on the entire menu. Oh, and lest we forget their occasional specials- whatever you went in for, forget about, it'll be there next time, just trust me and order the darn special, whatever it is; it's always dynamite. Staff/service is always so incredibly friendly and authentic + personable, atmosphere is wonderful, joyous, and super lively, with great music always pumping through their system. I couldn't be happier to see this favourite of mine now just a 10-15 minute drive from me- a really welcome addition to the area, where this kind of cuisine isn't represented to this...