Step into Café Polonez on a Sunday afternoon and you’ll be swiftly transported to a homey Eastern Europe eatery. The space is packed with middle-aged patrons humming in Polish, many having just spilled out of the nearby church. Most tables are filled with brews from the motherland (think Żywiec, Warka and the like), along with loads of home-style fare such as hearty schnitzel and goulash. 

For lunch however, you can get by on a couple of smaller dishes, still representative of the menu at large. Start with a soup. We love their beet root soup — a ruby red beet broth filled with either mushroom or beef pierogi ($6.95). Another stellar option is the white borscht, a traditional Easter borscht (we know it's post-Easter) which comes with rounds of kielbasa sausage and a hardboiled egg, sliced in two ($6.95). Pair this with a quartet of pierogi — we fancy the cheddar cheese and potato as well as the mushroom — and smother in sour cream ($3.95). Though it may not sound filling compared to a serving of Wiener schnitzel, it’s surprisingly decent for a midday meal. 

Café​ Polonez, 195 Roncesvalles Ave., 416-532-8432