Toronto's most talked-about new restaurant — Donna's is a neighbourhood-scale Italian-American restaurant with serious pasta, excellent natural wine, and the kind of cooking that's technically accomplished without being pretentious. The bucatini all'amatriciana is the benchmark; the wine list is outstanding.
Neighbourhood: Harbord Village / Annex · Address: 12 Harbord St, Toronto, ON · Hours: Tue–Sat 5:30pm–10pm · Price Range: $$$ · Phone: (416) 901-0661 · Editorial status: Not yet verified
Donna’s serves up hand-made pastas and a thoughtful natural wine list in a cozy, unpretentious setting where the kitchen doesn’t phone it in, even on classics.
Unlike many trendy Italian spots, Donna’s focuses on casual but refined plates that capture seasonality and subtle technique—think scratch-made pastas, roasted veg dishes, and next-level snacks, no flexing. The wine list is one of the Annex’s best, heavily featuring low-intervention European labels you’d rarely see by the glass elsewhere.
Donna's arrived on Harbord Street as Toronto's most anticipated restaurant opening — a neighbourhood Italian-American project from a team with serious credentials, in a room that understood exactly what it wanted to be. No tasting menus, no tableside theatrics, no Instagram-designed plates. Just properly made pasta, excellent natural wine, and the relaxed confidence of a restaurant that knows its food is good.
The bucatini all'amatriciana is the dish Toronto's food writers keep referencing — guanciale (not bacon, never bacon), San Marzano tomatoes, pecorino Romano, and the thick hollow pasta that holds the sauce in its tube. It's a Roman classic that most North American Italian restaurants get wrong through substitution or timidity. Donna's gets it right, and the result is a pasta that makes you understand why Italy invented this dish.
The natural wine program is genuinely excellent and accessible — the staff will guide you toward bottles that amplify the food without requiring deep wine knowledge. The room holds about 45 covers, which keeps the energy intimate and the service quality high. Reservations are essential, and the Thursday evening slot is slightly easier than weekends.
Donna's represents a trend in Toronto's best new restaurants: less spectacle, more substance, food that respects the traditions it's working within rather than deconstructing them. The tiramisu is textbook — espresso-soaked, mascarpone-light, cocoa-dusted, and properly served at the right temperature. Order it. The entire meal is the kind you think about for days afterward.
Donna's is known for its bucatini all'amatriciana — considered the best version of this Roman pasta classic in Toronto — and for its exceptional natural wine list in an intimate Harbord Village room.
Weekends book out 2–3 weeks ahead. Thursday evening is the slightly easier night to get in. Book online as soon as your dates are set — walk-ins are rare and only available if there are last-minute cancellations.
Donna's is at 12 Harbord St in Harbord Village, just east of Spadina. Walk south from Spadina Station (Line 2) or take the 94 Wellesley bus. Street parking is limited but available on side streets.
There are vegetarian pasta options and antipasti, but the menu's strengths are meat-forward Roman dishes. Check the current menu online — it changes seasonally, and the kitchen can often accommodate with advance notice.
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