AS one of the planet’s most diverse cities, Toronto is oddly clean and orderly. Sidewalks are spotless, trolleys run like clockwork, and the locals are polite almost to a fault. That’s not to say that Torontonians are dull. Far from it. With a population that is now half foreign-born — fueled by growing numbers of East Indians, Chinese and Sri Lankans — the lakeside city offers a kaleidoscope of world cultures. Sing karaoke in a Vietnamese bar, sip espresso in Little Italy and catch a new Bollywood release, all in one night. The art and design scenes are thriving, too, and not just on the bedazzled red carpets of the Toronto International Film Festival, held every September. Industrial zones have been reborn into gallery districts, and dark alleys now lead to designer studios, giving Canada’s financial capital an almost disheveled mien.

Friday

4 p.m.

1) WEST ENDERS

Toronto’s cool scene seems to migrate west along Queen Street West every few years. It started out at Yonge Street, with punk rockers and art students pouring into sweaty clubs. Then, when mainstream stores like the Gap moved in, the scenesters fled west, past Bathurst Street, to a district now called West Queen West (www.westqueenwest.ca), where old appliance stores are still being carved into rough-hewn galleries and hunter-chic boutiques. Start your stroll along Toronto’s art mile at Bathurst Street and go west. Raw spaces that showcase young Canadian artists include Paul Petro Contemporary Art (980 Queen Street West; 416-979-7874; www.paulpetro.com).

8 p.m.

2) DESIGNER MEAT

For a taste of hipsterdom, put on a T-shirt and squeeze into OddFellows (936 Queen Street West, 416-534-5244, www.oddfellows.ca), a boutique-like bistro where the area’s beard-and-flannel posse gathers nightly. The corner restaurant, which opened last fall, is run by Brian Richer and Kei Ng, partners in a maverick design firm, Castor Design (www.castordesign.ca), known for elevating mundane materials into clever objects. The menu follows similar sleights of hand. Manly cuts are skillfully turned into Canadian comfort dishes like bison meatloaf and venison burgers (both 18 Canadian dollars, or about $15 at 1.21 Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar). The long communal table, made of polished limestone and random legs, encourages chitchat.

10:30 p.m.

3) TREND NORTH

Let the frat boys have College Street. And West Queen West has been overrun lately with 905ers, slang for out-of-towners with suburban area codes. The cool kids, it seems, are now migrating north along Ossington Avenue, which some Toronto bloggers are already calling “Next West Queen West.” Bookending the district are Sweaty Betty’s (13 Ossington Avenue; 416-535-6861), a hole-in-the-wall with a brash jukebox, and Communist’s Daughter (1149 Dundas Street West; 647-435-0103), an understated lounge that attracts the skinny corduroy and high-top-wearing set. A trendy bar crawl is emerging in between, tucked among old Portuguese bakeries and kitchen supply stores.