Dundas Park Kitchen

It all started with a breakfast sandwich. Dundas Park’s Kitchen’s signature specialty is a homemade pork sausage patty with sage and onion served on ciabatta bread with white cheddar, corn relish and grainy mustard. Owner and chef Alex Tso calls it the “accidental favourite.”

Before Dundas Park Kitchen opened a bricks-and-mortar storefront along Dundas West, Alex and his wife Melanie Harris sold their fresh fare from a booth at The Stop Farmers' Market at Wychwood Barns (where the couple can still be found every Saturday morning). Using ingredients sourced at the market — including locally-raised pork and fresh buns — Alex set out to make his breakfast sandwich as synonymous with Wychwood as the peameal bacon sandwich is with the St. Lawrence Market. Now that he and Melanie have opened their weekday eatery on Dundas, the sausage sandwich is just one of their many mouthwatering lunchtime offerings.

Dundas Park Kitchen’s sandwiches are popular with the lunch crowd, and with good reason. Their roast chicken sandwich is gloriously enhanced by crispy prosciutto, fresh Portuguese cheese, homemade sundried tomato spread, lettuce and mayo. The meatloaf melt has an extra kick thanks to the pickled jalpeños added to the pepper, mushroom, and onion filling along with warm mozzarella. And there’s more than fresh sandwiches on the menu.

Individually sized quiches and potpies — chicken, steak and mushroom, sweet potato and chickpea — are displayed temptingly alongside salads, soups and daily specials all made from scratch. The tomato soup is a permanent fixture on the menu, full-bodied and smooth without a hint of the tinny tang so familiar to commercial preparations. Salads are equally inventive; the celery root and pickle salad features oil-packed tuna, beans, potatoes and sprouts from the market all tossed together in a homespun ranch dressing.