The 38 Essential Toronto Restaurants

"Long-standing restaurateurs Jason Jiang and Seng Luong used to run the now-shuttered Sabai Sabai, which primarily offered Thai dishes and dabbled in Laotian flavors. At Lao Lao, they reverse the scenario, offering full-fledged creations from their homeland. Sticky rice, a staple food of Laotian cuisine, is served with hallmarks like fried papaya salad (som tum tod), a sandy, crunchy heap intermingled with palm sugar, fish sauce, chile, lime, mint, and shallots. It also shows up with tapioca dumplings (sakoo yat sai) — squishy, gummy spheres stuffed with minced shiitake mushrooms and peanuts — and with juicy Lao barbecue chicken (ping gai), infused with an infectious energy of lemongrass, galangal, coriander seed, and chile." - Tiffany Leigh