don't dismiss waterloo

Sept 19, 2025
My Google Maps list of recommended food, activities, buildings, parks and more around the KW region

One of my pet peeves is when my peers at the University of Waterloo claim "there is nothing to do in Waterloo, I can't wait to leave".

To no offense to Lance Yan specifically - there are droves of people at Waterloo and Laurier that truly believe the city is boring, and that they have no choice but to stay in their room and play video games, or go to Toronto on the weekend.

My pet peeve is that their opinion of the Kitchener-Waterloo region most often has nothing to do with having explored the city, seen the sights, and deemed them low quality, and is more often just that they have never dared to venture past King and University, and formed their opinion based on the immediate area around the two universities.

As somebody who was born and raised in the suburban Greater Toronto Area, I think Watterloo has a lot of excellent qualities that actually make me want to spend more time here over Toronto, especially as a student.

I believe that there is no reason for people to diminish their enjoyment of the time they have to spend in this city anyways when they could instead enjoy it, so I wanted to offer some of my favourite things to do in the area.

Near UWaterloo alone, we have really excellent food options, and as restaurants change, they honestly keep getting better. Some top tier restaurant chains from Toronto are making their way slowly to Waterloo, and the local options that are still punching are genuinely some of the best I've ever had. Some of my favourite local restaurants are:

• Myung Ga (Korean)
• Top Chicken (Korean Fried Chicken)
• Qing Shu Malatang (Chinese make-your-own hotpot bowl)
• Tahini's (Shawarma)
• Korner Kitchen (Breakfast/Brunch)
• Bao Sandwich Bar (Asian sandwiches)
• Brown Donkatsu (Japanese Katsu)
• Sultans Mediterranean Grill (Shawarma)
  No, Lazeez is not on this list.

But what if we go beyond the immediate Waterloo-Laurier region? Sure, these might look further on the map, but many of these are actually extremely accessible by the Ion light rail, which many people forget has a stop literally in front of E5 on campus - and a 20 minute ride on the Ion is extremely smooth.

• Daldongnae (Japanese BBQ)
• Gyubee (Korean BBQ)
• Poppy's Bagel and Bakery (incredibly good breakfast bagels)
• Champa Kitchen (Super tasty and authentic Laos food)
• Banh Mi Givrali Deli (Authentic and extremely cheap Banh Mi, cash only)
• Graffiti Market (Detroit-style pizza and more)
• Vincenzo's (Italian grocery store, featuring cheap and authentic Italian sandwich bar, hot foods, make-your-own-pizza, baked goods, and more)
• The Lancaster Smokehouse (Southern-style barbeque, featured on the Food Network)
• Jinzakaya / Kinkaku Izakaya (AYCE Sushi)
• Watami Sushi (Sushi)
  And more...

Most of the best cafes (including bubble tea) in the region aren't the ones closest to campus, but they're still transit accessible.

• Holly's Neighbourhood Cafe & Bar
• Coffee Brick
• Pilot Coffee Roasters
• Seven Shores
• Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters
• Now Tea
• Cafe Pyrus

Some really cool free to enter/public spaces, parks, buildings, businesses:

• Kitchener Public Library
• Victoria Park
• Waterloo Park
• Iron Horse Trail
• Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (it's FREE to enter!)
• Old Goat Books (their original location burned down :( but they're super goated)

If you want some more authentic Waterloo culture, there's also the St. Jacobs Farmers Market that you can go to on Tuesday/Saturday, and in the summer, also Thursday. It's pretty famous, often extremely busy, and are most well known for their apple fritters.

More locally there's the Kitchener Farmers Market which runs on Saturdays year-round.

Anyways, this is just a fraction of the more generically interesting things to do, see and eat in Kitchener-Waterloo region, and there's even things I'd recommend over at Stratford, Elora and Cambridge if you have access to a car. I made a list on Google Maps that I might update here and there with new entries I think are worth it, which you can find here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/D1cLqGYJVwx74GCfA