Deciding on a place to go for lunch/dinner/drinks and nibbles can be quite the chore. Even for those who do such things for a living and should know exactly where to be at exactly that time (ahem) – you’d be surprised at how one can ‘urm and ah’ over the locale du jour. The indecision comes from a couple of factors: a) there are oodles of great places to eat in this city; and, b) there are oodles of great places to eat in this city. I mean really, when it comes to good eats Toronto has no shortage, and although you would think that incorporating restaurant hopping within one’s job description would ensure full city coverage and knowledge, it’s just not so easy. Attempting to keep up with this industry is like keeping up with the Kardashians. There are always new additions eager for their market share and often your old favourites are barely recognizable due to extensive renovations in order to stay relevant. It really is a job in and of itself!
Thank goodness for social media. Long gone are the days where you’d have to flip through a yellow tome using the ‘close your eyes and point’ technique to decide your final destination. Dedicating time searching the net for locations and reviews is less necessary now as more and more bars and restaurants are putting themselves out there via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, so we can spend less time clicking and more time pre-planning exactly what we’re ordering when we get there (you do that too right?).
Smart restaurateurs also take advantage of their online presence to communicate directly with potential clients and even as a quick and direct way to offer prompt resolutions to any problems that might have arisen during service. Twitter is especially great for swift action and can result in satisfied clients and a higher chance of repeat customers.
View the Vibe would not exist without social media; we use it all day, every day to communicate with our viewers and engage with other foodies who share our love of exploring the city one plate at a time. So we decided to throw together a top 5 list of the restaurants in Toronto who are perfectly on top of their online presence.
Gusto 101
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
The King West favourite keeps their audience salivating with Instagram pictures of specials and new additions to the menu while their Twitter feed shows that the team is adept at communicating with the online foodie community and updating their followers with what goes on behind the scenes.
Rock Lobster Food Co
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
With over 6,300 Twitter followers it is clear that Toronto has a lot of love for founder and owner Matt Dean Pettit and his team. Not only do we get to see lots of seafood porn from within the 2 locations, but Matty makes his followers feel like friends with snippets of what he gets up to when he’s not serving up lobster.
Canyon Creek Front St.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
The team at this popular Front Street steak house really knows how to use Twitter to engage in conversations with their audience and to entice beef-hungry foodies to swing on by for a solid iron intake. With over 4,000 likes on Facebook they obviously know how to keep their clients coming back for more.
Osteria Dei Ganzi
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Despite only opening this past summer, the Jarvis Street Italian has proven that they know what they’re doing when it comes to creating an online presence. They tweet several times daily and their consistency has seen their following rise to over 2,200 and climbing.
Fishbar
Facebook, Twitter
This Ossington fave was one of the first restaurants we started following when View the Vibe was launched and over the past 3 years they have managed to stay consistent with their social media presence. With almost 16,000 tweets it is no wonder why they have become a well-known voice in Toronto’s social media landscape.
Do you have a favourite restaurant on social media? Chime in below or tweet us @ViewTheVibe.
