Back when I lived in Toronto, Seven Lives was one of my favorite spots in town. Sometimes my Toronto years feel like a half-recalled dream or a story told to me about a stranger. I had just enough time to start to get a real handle on the city, and then I left. If you handed me a plate from Seven Lives, though, there would be no distance at all between me and the memory. To this day the best fish tacos I’ve ever eaten, somehow someway in frosty Toronto, far away from the nearest ocean. The Gobernador is justly famous (smoked fish, shrimp, cheese) but the Diabla is my pick for most valuable taco (shrimp in chipotle cream sauce); you can’t go wrong.

In the heart of Kensington Market, Seven Lives was kinda sorta on my walk from home to office (or, at least, worth the ten minute detour) and back in the day a quick ceviche and agua fresca fix was one of the few reliable ways to fill my motivation bar for a day’s work. Or, on the way home, a couple of tacos for an early-ish dinner to pair with a cocktail at Cold Tea (R.I.P. Cold Tea)… you see, just thinking about Seven Lives takes me right back to it. When I can visit Toronto again, there’s no place that will be higher on my food list than this.

Seven Lives Tacos y Mariscos 72 Kensington Avenue, Toronto, ON

Try: the Diabla, but you’ll be back to try ’em all