New restaurant openings in Toronto for January are setting us up for a wildly exciting year. We got our first deep dish pizza joint and a new Indian street food restaurant, as well as a destination for porridge lovers. What will local chefs think of next?

Here are my picks for the top ten new restaurant openings in Toronto for January.

Leela

This new Indian food bar in the Junction comes to us from the folks behind Amaya. They’re bringing a totally new twist to the city's Indian restaurant scene with roadside-style food in the form of desi tacos, smoked butter chicken and spicy salads.

La Banane

From chef Brandon Olsen comes brand new French restaurant La Banane, serving up jaw-dropping dishes such as pastry-encrusted bass, sweetbreads with sauce, and a much-instagrammed chocolate egg named after Ziggy Stardust.

Double D's

It’s finally arrived: Toronto’s first-ever Chicago-style deep dish pizza joint. At this Gerrard East spot you can customize your own buttery, saucy, super-thick pie or choose from prescribed combos like Chicago classic with pepperoni and sausage, jalapeno blue, or the vegetarian Farmer’s Market.

Pouridge

Though this Yorkville cafe only serves pourover coffee and a limited menu of small, healthy bowls like house made yogurt, soup, risotto, and of course, porridge, they’re doing it right with the help of Kosher chef wiz Eran Marom of Marron.

The Green Wood

This Leslieville restaurant is a cafe and lunch spot by day and takes on a gastropub feel at night, though great drinks, food and coffee are available all hours. The celeriac schnitzel sandwich is a must for Toronto vegetarians, and all their ingredients come from ethical, local companies.

Charidise

A new fast casual concept in Baldwin Village, this place serves up a huge range of Taiwanese drinks and meals that will provide closeby university students with much-needed fuel.

Conspiracy Pizza

Conspiracy Pizza in Leaside was engineered by the same folks at Adamson’s BBQ. Pizzas have names like Moon Landing Was a Hoax, and the Grassy Knoll is topped with two kinds of mushrooms and two kinds of kale.

Nutbar

This health-focused cafe near Summerhill subway station has taken up residence in a little basement corner spot, serving nutritious toasts topped with avocado or cashew butter, and their own house-made nut milk is in almost everything on the menu.

Japanhako

This yakitori house has joined the multitude of Asian restaurants in Koreatown, and looks to be holding its own with a menu of sashimi, sushi, skewers and donburi as well as premium sake.

Liberty Commons at Big Rock Brewery

This long-awaited brewpub will be yet another place for beer in Liberty Village with a slick interior and a menu that extends from lunch to dinner serving pub classics like beer nuts, wings, and calamari along with baked bean poutine.