Toronto, like many other major cities, is a place characterized by its diverse neighbourhoods. One personal favourite is Cabbagetown, just east of the Gay Village, bordered by Wellesley to Gerrard and Sherbourne to the Don River. The name comes from the immigrants who fled the Irish famine in the mid-1800s and grew cabbage and other veggies in the front yards of their new homes in Toronto in order to put food on the table. The area has transformed and these days is mostly known for its well-preserved Victorian-era homes, cute indie shops and vast green space. Here’s the best way to explore this cool Toronto neighbourhood.

WALK ALONG PARLIAMENT STREET

Start on Parliament Street—accessible via Castle Frank subway station—and pick up a morning cuppa at Jet Fuel, one of Toronto’s oldest independent coffee shops. There’s no menu, but they’ll make whatever you’d like. If Tasso, a pop-up bakery, is open—usually two Saturdays a month— stop in to see if they have any of their super-flaky croissants left. People place orders in advance, which you can do, but there are occasionally last-minute cancellations if you walk in.

MARVEL AT VICTORIAN HOMES

Take your croissant and coffee and walk east along any of the east-west streets like Wellesley, Amelia, Winchester or Carlton. Here, you can marvel at the hundreds of Victorian homes, considered to be the largest concentration of them in all of North America. (If you happen to be visiting in September 2025, the Cabbagetown Tour of Homes is a self-guided tour that allows you to peek inside some of these beauties. It’s put on by the Cabbagetown Preservation Association every other year. The other years, they run a similar program where you tour people’s gardens.)

DISCOVER RIVERDALE PARK AND TORONTO NECROPOLIS

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The street will eventually end at Riverdale Park and the Toronto Necropolis cemetery. The park is home to vast green space for picnicking, a 7.5-acre working farm with animals, a farmers’ market every Tuesday from May to October and free yoga classes. If you happen to be in the area the weekend after Labour Day, the annual Cabbagetown Festival and Art and Craft Show in Riverdale Park brings out the whole neighbourhood. The Necropolis is one of the city’s oldest cemeteries and Canadian royalty like Jack Layton and William Lyon Mackenzie are buried here. Heritage Toronto offers tours of the cemetery, but you can take your own stroll through it, too.

ALLAN GARDENS AND LUNCH DELIGHTS

Walk back west along Carlton to Sherbourne, where you’ll find Allan Gardens, a free indoor botanical garden featuring five greenhouses with unusual cacti, tropical plants and succulents. Now it’s time for lunch. Head back east and stop in at nearby Saigon Pai, where chefs prepare fresh dishes inspired by Vietnam and Thailand. Can’t decide what to order? They offer a mouth-watering mango salad and a selection of pho noodle soups and vermicelli bowls. If you’re craving something different, there's a heart-warming soupless chicken curry udon at Mikaku Udon Bar just around the corner.

RETAIL THERAPY AND STREET ART

Then head back north up Parliament for some retail therapy. Along the way, snap some photos of the vibrant street art that fills the neighbourhood. There’s everything from the big cabbage on the south side of the Parliament Street LCBO to the Arita ware-inspired artwork at Gushi Japanese Street Food to the many sidewalk illustrations of books, Victorian homes, produce and more.

As for shops, there’s Green’s Antiques for vintage furniture, Lennie’s for natural home and beauty products, Revolt for haircare, Zero for non-alcoholic spirits, Blooming Flower Bar for fresh florals and St. James Town Steak and Chops and Epicure for locally sourced groceries.

BRING ON THE EVENING

For an afternoon cocktail, head to House on Parliament, one of the city’s best British gastropubs, F’Amelia, a cozy Italian restaurant with an outdoor patio, or Super Bargain, a cocktail bar with wild tiki wallpaper. For dinner, there’s Butter Chicken Factory, a family-owned Indian restaurant, Salt and Tobacco, a laid-back pizza eatery, or Momo Ghar, a Tibetan momo spot.