Cafe On the Square

Some of the best breakfast in the city can be found at the hidden café inside Toronto’s City Hall. Most people wouldn’t know to look for Cafe On the Square, but it’s been serving delicious and affordable food for decades. This secret gem offers breakfast, lunch, and a variety of snacks and coffees to the employees of City Hall and anyone else lucky enough to come across it.

Not only is this cozy café accessible, but it’s also large enough in space to fit a wide range of customer needs. Finding this place can be a bit tricky, but don’t worry, there are several options available for getting inside. You can enter from the parking garage beneath City Hall, which has an elevator by the TORONTO sign that will take you to the ground floor. From there, you can head up to City Hall, a building reminiscent of a large spaceship, and enter through the main doors, all of which are automated. Once inside, you’ll head to the right, past the sculpture made up of thousands of nails and towards the public library. On the right-hand side, you’ll find a set of wide silver automatic doors. This is the main entrance to the café, where you’ll be greeted by charming staff and offered affordable food options.

Alternatively, there’s another entrance directly into the café through a set of 2 wooden doors (3 ft. wide) at the front of the building, recognizable by the patio chairs and tables, which are available for seating during the summer. While this is the fastest way to enter the café, only 1 of the sets of 2 doors has an automatic button that works. If you’re coming from the Eaton Centre or Queen Street subway station, this will be the closest and easiest way of entering Cafe On the Square. Others coming from Osgoode Station or Queen Street will find the other entrance more straightforward.

It’s no wonder this place is considered such a secret—finding it is half the battle! However, once inside, you’ll find surprisingly good breakfast and lunch options made and prepared by dedicated staff. A large plate of toast, home fries, eggs, and bacon will cost you around $9 and their rotating lunch options, say, salmon, vegetables, and potatoes, will set you back about only $10. For a city with expensive—well, everything—City Hall’s café does a great job of providing satisfactory food and beverage options for the everyday customer.

While the lighting can be a bit dim in places, and the decor could definitely use an upgrade, it’s an incredibly accessible location with modern amenities and a large enough space to manoeuvre around if you need to. There are 2 sides to this café, split by the main register where you can grab a coffee, a muffin, or a pastry. The 2 sections are a little different, with the side closest to the hot food being larger with more bar-style seating, a few booths, and scattered tables. The other section has more booths, limited bar seating, and more accessible tables, all of which have a height of 30 inches.

There’s enough space to get around and chairs are easily moveable. You’ll also find that the cutlery is easy to reach, and ordering food or paying shouldn’t be a problem either, as the counter tops are also around 30 inches high. Unfortunately, there isn’t a bathroom in the café, but luckily one is located right outside the main entrance. It’s fully equipped with an automatic door, sink, and toilet. It offers a large enough space to manoeuvre, a door width of at least 4 feet, and has at least 3 bars for assistance, the main one being 32 inches high. The sink is accessible as well, about 34 inches above the floor. There are additional bathrooms downstairs, but there’s no elevator to get to them unless you go through security first and, unfortunately, only 1 large private bathroom is available on the main floor.

While it would be great if this café was easier to find, or if all the automatic door buttons worked, it has a certain charm and feeling that makes one think of a cozy diner, a place where they can go to be safe and get away from the chaos of daily life. Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t get busy here. The café mainly serves the lunch rush from 11-2 for City Hall employees, but if you get here early, you’ll enjoy some of the best breakfast in the city. If not, stick around for the buffet style lunch, served to you by one of the café’s hardworking staff. You can also grab salads, sandwiches, pasta, or even the soup of the day. Leave your plates on the table or, if you prefer, take them to one of the tray stations.

This unique and hidden café, lost in time and surprisingly accessible, is open Monday to Friday from 7 AM to 4 PM.