On Apr. 12, 2026, over 500 attendees packed into the second-floor conference centre of the Crowne Plaza Kitchener-Waterloo to sample some of the most exciting dishes downtown Kitchener has to offer. The second annual Bite by Bite, hosted by the Downtown Kitchener Business Improvement Area (BIA), brought together 20 local restaurants from the downtown area to participate in some friendly competition. Both attendees and a panel of judges were tasked with trying a sample from every vendor and voting on their favourite sweet and savoury dish.
Dedicated guests had to work extra hard if they wanted to get through all of the delights.
“Our bellies are super full,” Payton Wentzlaff, an attendee and self-described foodie, said. “I’d say we’re three quarters of the way through and trying to make room for more because it’s all been delicious so far.”
Bite by Bite aims to connect the community with new local restaurants they haven’t tried before by putting together an appetizing collection of food with two rooms full of eager people. Staff worked throughout two long sessions serving the attendees, sharing stories of the origins of their recipes and guiding principles for their businesses.
“I was pleasantly surprised by Bombay Hot Pot. I had hot pot before, but the sample that they provided—it was unlike anything I’ve had. So, I would definitely love to check out their business,” Wentzlaff said.
“I think 95 per cent of the food today I have never seen before and I would definitely try 100 per cent of it in the future,” Caleb Wong, an attendee, said.
For local restaurant owners, the competition aspect of Bite by Bite takes second place to the space it provides them to connect with other businesses in the community and learn from each other.
“We did Bite by Bite last year, and it was just such a fun community building [event], getting to know all the other stores and seeing what’s available,” Kenny Horton, co-owner of Zazu Cafe, said.
Operating a restaurant can be extremely time-intensive and some small business owners can have a hard time keeping up with what everyone else in the community is working on. Bite by Bite provides the rare opportunity to have so many people under the same roof at the same time.
“It’s really fun to be able to see what everyone else is doing, and it’s just nice getting to know people. And at the end of the event, usually all the vendors go around and share all of their stuff with each other,” Horton said.
Reflecting on this year’s event compared to last year’s, Carolina Almada, a manager at KW Empanadas who won last year’s Judge’s Choice award (Savoury), noted an increase in attendees and excitement for the competition.
“Last year, it was also sold out, but it felt like this year was a lot busier,” she said. “Things went really well. We were very excited to see all the people. It was fun coming in to a huge lineup outside,” Almada said.
In the end, not all bites could come out victorious. During the awards ceremony, four prizes were awarded: one People’s Choice and one Judge’s Choice each for the Savoury category and the Sweet category. Judges awarded Turkish Cuisine Best Savoury and Coven Market Best Sweet. This was Coven Market’s second win in the category after last year’s event. After all attendees’ votes were tallied, the Best Savoury award winner was Casa Toro, and newcomer Cafe Clementina won the Best Sweet award.
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