Downtown West--This is where you will find Toronto's greatest concentration of great restaurants. Little Italy, which runs along College Street, and Chinatown, which radiates from Spadina Avenue, has more restaurants than any other parts of the city.

You'll see a lot of high-price, low-quality eateries in the area, too. There also tends to be more attitude from wait staffs, particularly along the gourmet ghetto of Queen Street West. I'm a firm believer that even the best food can't make up for shoddy service, so the restaurants I've selected generally get high marks in both categories. Because service is so important to me, you won't find reviews of restaurants where it's totally substandard. A case in point is Little Italy's Trattoria Giancarlo, which has gained renown for its very good cooking and its celeb sightings. Unfortunately, you pretty much have to be a star to get even a glass of water brought to your table. Personally, no matter how charming a meal is, I find that lousy service leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Midtown East/The East End--Just about everything will be Greek to you in the East End along Danforth Avenue. Known appropriately enough as Greektown, this is where to come for low-cost, delicious dining, or for a midnight meal -- the tavernas generally stay open until the wee hours, even on weeknights.

Uptown--This area is too large to be considered a neighborhood, stretching as it does from north of Davenport Road to Steeles Avenue. While it doesn't have the concentration of restaurants that the downtown area enjoys, a number of stellar options make the trip north worthwhile.

North of the City--Toronto is a sprawling city, and as it has expanded, new and inspiring restaurants have cropped up in formerly out-of-the-way regions. The area north of Steeles Avenue is experiencing a remarkable boom. These restaurants are beyond the reach of the Toronto subway system. If you've rented a car to go to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg or to the Canada's Wonderland theme park, you might want to stop on the way back downtown.