Fresh Portugese Sardines

[vaiguy777]

Anyone know where I can get them downtown besides SLM.

[phisherking]

Try Diana's seafood in Scarberia, i know they get fresh anchovies once a week and they are amazing. Not sure about sardines though. To be honest, the frozen are really quite good, they are meaty and grill up nicely. Pretty sure restaurants would be using the frozen as the availability would be more consistent.

[AzulH]

Both Starfish and Trattoria Giancarlo quite often have Portuguese type Sardines on the menu as a starter and they are always excellent. No idea if they are frozen or not; I suspect not. However, you in for quite a pricey, albeit delightfu,l way of satisfying the craving!

[TorontoJo]

Chiado also has excellent an grilled sardine, though it might be on the tapas/bar menu rather than the full menu. I'm pretty sure they source directly, but it might be worth asking about it.

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Chiado
864 College Street West, Toronto, ON M6H 1A3, CA

[AzulH]

I 2nd Chiado too for Sardines and much other excellent Portuguese type fish, again be prepared to pay for the top quality. ( & slightly stuffy atmosphere in this case!)

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Chiado
864 College Street West, Toronto, ON M6H 1A3, CA

[iMarilyn]

The OP seems to be requesting a fish store not a restaurant.

[tbonetak]

Osler Fish on Osler, just north of Dupont, between Symington and Dundas.

[juno]

Even the St. Lawrence Market's three fishmongers don't have fresh sardines nowadays. Two of them offer previously frozen. The third, Mike's, hasn't had any sardines at all for months. When I once asked why, Mike's manager said his customers balk at the price of fresh sardines, and previously frozen aren't - in his view -up to much. Fresh sardines only seem to pop up at SLM two or three times a year anyway - for just a couple of weeks at a time. Mind, to my taste, there doesn't seem to be that much difference in taste between fresh and previously frozen sardines. Slather them with a little olive oil, add salt and pepper to the innards, then a couple minutes on each side in the broiler, and they come out tasting just fine - whether fresh or previously frozen.

[Kagemusha]

Truly "just off the boat" fresh and GTA "fresh" just aren't the same. They don't travel well and, as juno notes, frozen is as good(maybe better) and cheaper.

[dmartins123]

Frozen is probably better than GTA fresh.

On a side note, I had fresh sardines (like "right from the net" fresh) in Portugal last summer. OMG!!! Nothing even comes close. Dinner that night was grilled sardines, black olives, cornbread and white wine.

[vaiguy777]

Thanks for the advice. Bought 6 tonight. I cleaned them myself, and to be honest they were not very fresh at all. The colour of the eyes were a little too greyish and the texture was a bit mushy. My own fault for buying them, but I had faith...even after grilling not so good....guess I'll try frozen. Thanks to all that responded.

[iMarilyn]

Baldwin Street?