Streetcars run down the centre of Spadina Avenue and the storefronts carry signs in Chinese and English.
What Chinatown looks like
Chinatown runs along from north to College Street and Sullivan Street, with a second stretch along Dundas itself between Augusta Avenue and Beverley Street. A dedicated streetcar track runs down the centre of Spadina, itself about fifty metres wide.
Storefronts on both stretches have vertical signs stacked in Chinese and English, most in red and gold lettering. Street signs at several corners repeat the name in Chinese beneath the English. Produce and dried goods sit out in bins and on folding tables along the sidewalk in front of the grocers, under awnings that run block after block.
Many storefronts along Dundas West have a door at street level and a second door reached by a short flight of steps down to a shop below grade. The three storey brick building on the northeast corner of Spadina and Dundas holds a bank branch on the ground floor, and a building with a rooftop patio looks down over the corner across the street.
and , the neighbourhood's two largest malls, sit south of Dundas Street West on Spadina Avenue. The 's marquee stands at the northern end of the same avenue, near College Street.
Shot in Chinatown
Toronto's Chinatown has stood in for other cities' Chinatowns more than once. Due South used a restaurant here as Chicago's Chinatown in a 1994 episode. The Boys shot its season one Triad hideout at the real Kai Wei Supermarket, 253 Spadina Avenue, in 2019. Titans redressed Goldstone Noodle, at 266 Spadina Avenue, as the fictional Golden Noodle House in Gotham City during its third season in 2021.
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
The dojo storefronts
Played Caine's dojo
Storefronts on Spadina Avenue were the recurring location for Caine's dojo, according to a first hand account from a crew member on the production. The syndicated series filmed in Chinatown for many episodes across its 1993 to 1997 run, though it never named Toronto on screen and plays the Chinatown of an unspecified American city.
What Chinatown can double for
Wentworth Avenue in Chicago, Illinois
Due South's own writers used this street for Chicago's Chinatown, and the storefront blocks share the same stacked bilingual signage and narrow two and three storey shopfronts. Chicago's Chinatown has a more ornamented gate arch over Wentworth Avenue, and its shopfronts sit lower to the street, so a wide establishing shot has to avoid the arch. Try searching stacked bilingual signage now.
Mott Street in New York City, New York
The Boys used the real Kai Wei Supermarket at 253 Spadina Avenue to stand in for a grocery near Mott Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, and the narrow shopfronts under vertical signage read the same way on camera. Manhattan's blocks run narrower and taller, so a shot that lingers on upper storeys or fire escapes gives the difference away. Try searching vertical signage now.
Grant Avenue in San Francisco, California
Toronto's low brick storefronts under stacked signage share the general shape of a North American Chinatown strip, the same shape San Francisco's Grant Avenue is often used for. Grant Avenue's pagoda topped rooflines and its steep hill grade would need dressing out or a tight lens to hide, and Toronto's flat, wide streetcar avenue gives it away in any wide shot. Try searching pagoda topped rooflines now.
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