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Four workers at Ki, the Bay Street sushi standby, come down with the mumps

Infection by the mumps virus can be prevented with a common vaccine (Image: Centers for Disease Control/Dr. F. A. Murphy)

Ki, best known as the go-to sushi joint for suits in the Financial District, became famous this weekend for something only slightly less unsettling than poorly prepared fugu: the mumps. Toronto Public Health warns that four employees at the Bay Street eatery had been diagnosed with mumps, which presents with symptoms like swelling and pain in the salivary glands, fever, headache, fatigue and a loss of appetite. Anyone who dined there between July 7 and July 18 is advised to watch for such symptoms. Despite this, the restaurant is expected to be open for business today.

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The Dish

Opening

May 19, 2011 | 10:29 am

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Introducing: Obikà, Brookfield Place’s long-awaited mozzarella bar

(Image: Laura Cameron)

If Toronto’s growing number of fromageries, pizza joints and restaurant cheese caves is any indication, the residents of this city love their cheese. It’s fitting, then, that Obikà Mozzarella Bar made its Canadian debut in downtown Toronto. After meeting with strong reviews in Rome, L.A. Tokyo and New York, Obikà opened this week at Brookfield Place in the heart of the Financial District. The sushi bar–inspired concept centres on one key ingredient: mozzarella di bufala from the Campagna region of Italy.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

March 30, 2011 | 10:05 am

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Greatest Hits: Chris Nuttall-Smith picks the 25 most delicious dishes of the last year

Enoteca Sociale’s octopus and fava beans

The 25 most delicious dishes Chris Nuttall-Smith tasted this year, ranging from lowbrow comforts (potato puffballs) to high-minded masterpieces (tea-smoked duck)*

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*Availability of dishes varies according to season and changing menus

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

February 10, 2011 | 10:19 am

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Muskoka’s Windermere House latest annexation in the ever-growing Oliver & Bonacini empire

After three new restaurant openings last year (O&B Canteen, Luma and O&B Café Grill), a $1 million facelift at Canoe and a host of new restaurants at Bay stores announced just last week, it seems as though nothing can hold Peter Oliver and Michael Bonacini back. Adding to their portfolio expansion, Oliver and Bonacini announced today that it will become the new food service provider at Muskoka’s historic Windermere House, one of the oldest hotels in Canada.

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The Dish

Food Porn

January 14, 2011 | 2:41 pm

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A photographic tour of Toronto’s unique sushi and sashimi experiences

If Bloor Street and Queen West are any indication, Toronto is flooded with a sea of all-you-can-eat restaurants serving raw fish with or without vinegared rice. Most provide a quick fix, but only a handful of establishments in this city promise unique experiences that will satisfy all senses. Here are nine gorgeous examples, from the delicate and rare to the dramatically innovative.

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: It’s not exactly a vacation to Tsukiji, but at least a visit to chef Johnny Zhenge’s Kokyo will help you save for a trip to the real deal. Here, the sweet and meaty spot prawns are three times the size of their sweet shrimp cousins, and the crunchy tsubu-gai clam tastes like fresh seawater. Other delicacies include herring flesh pressed with crisp herring roe and monkfish liver that earns its designation as foie gras of the sea. $2.50–$3.50 per piece.

: Chef Bruce Bu takes pride in the details, from his house-made miso and soy sauce to his meticulously crafted array of nigiri sushi. Bu torches scored ends to give silky squid fillets texture and depth, and tops sea eel with fried seaweed. Other thoughtful surprises include using spicy yuzu pepper paste to cut through the fat of the red sea bream snapper, aromatic fried leeks that add sweetness to B.C. albacore tuna, and topping fluke with grated daikon, scallions and a yuzu-ponzu jelly. $6–$20 per pair of conventional and customized nigiri; $70 per person for the omakase for two (sushi course pictured).

: Leslieville’s Sushi Marché operates as a takeout shop, but chef John Lee’s competitively priced and well-composed products are anything but humdrum. In his signature special maki, Lee, who trained under Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, wraps spicy salmon with crisp tempura bits, cucumber and fish roe in rice and nori. All orders are accompanied by decorative elements, like shiso flowers or orchids. Ample vegetarian options. Delivery available. $7 per roll (five pieces); omakase platters start at $60 for two.

: Leave all decisions up to chef Mitsuhiro Kaji when partaking of the omakase dinner at his namesake restaurant. The multi-course meal starts with a parade of cooked courses followed by some of the country’s best sushi and sashimi. On one occasion, we were greeted with pressed oshizushi (brick-shaped sushi); on another, loose thimbles of warm vinegared rice were topped with feathery minced tuna belly, crisp herring roe with bonito flakes and barbecued eel finished with unagi sauce and fine omelette threads. $80–$120.

: Chef Ken Zhang may be new to the Annex’s sushi row, but his aim is to elevate neighbourhood standards by offering affordable omakase experiences. Diners enjoy eight seasonally inspired dishes from both kitchen and sushi bar that go beyond Bloor Street’s usual rundown of teriyaki chicken and California rolls. Of the fish-focused plates, we were drawn to a perfect tower of tuna tartare with tiny edible shiso flowers. A quick blast from a butane torch gives the lemon- and soy sauce–seasoned fish complexity in aroma and flavour. Mixing the diced tuna with a raw quail egg creates a silky finish. Omakase requests should be made a week in advance. $70 per person.

: There are a few reasons why chef John Lee’s creations are easy to swallow. He applies contemporary techniques to traditional Japanese ingredients—think white tuna in garlic oil confit or slicked with house-smoked soy sauce and sweet chili—and 90 per cent of Omi’s menu uses sustainable fish. Bite-sized sushi pizzas feature flame-licked Hokkaido scallops over panko-crusted sushi rice. They are topped with flying fish roe, Kewpie mayo (Japan’s most popular brand), fresh grated ginger and scallions. Roasted garlic oil harmoniously binds all the elements. $8.95.

: Serious Japanophiles head to this local treasure to sample the only known traditional kaiseki in North America. Chef Masaki Hashimoto expertly prepares the finest ingredients, sourced locally or imported from Japan, in ways that enhance their natural characteristics and find balance between taste, texture and aesthetics. One of the nine seasonally driven courses pairs sculpted pickled vegetables and mirin-braised tree seeds with delicate porgy. Fresh grated wasabi and house-blended soy sauce accompany the dish, which is served on a platter that, like the food, reflects the season. $300 per person.

: Challenge sense and senses with bites of hamachi that are marinated in calamansi vinaigrette and served with such Asian-inspired components as sliced scallions, pickled ginger, puffed tapioca chips and black sesame powder. Avocado and cauliflower purées complement the dense and buttery fish while adding dramatic visual impact. Compressed cucumber spears, radish rounds and cress from Cookstown Greens are the final tweezer-set finishes. $17.

: Chirashizushi, the traditional Japanese dish of sushi rice mixed with various ingredients, rises to new heights at this Scarborough gem. Chef Kosuke Oi tops a bowl of rice with an assortment of fresh fish, including velvety sea urchin, sweet shrimp and a whimsical wasabi mayo–dotted tuna temarizushi (ball-shaped sushi). Also in the bowl: slices of snapper, squid, octopus and salmon. The real surprise lies between two layers of sushi rice: a thin omelette blanketing warm fillets of barbecued eel made more fragrant by minty kinome leaves. $35 per set; includes tea, seaweed salad and a slice of cake.

The Dish

From the Print Edition

January 13, 2011 | 9:14 am

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Good Stuff Cheap: four standout dinner dates for penny pinchers

(Image: Lorne Bridgman)

FOR A CINQ À SEPT
Devoted locavores should head to Beast after work Wednesday through Friday, when former Jamie Kennedy chefs Scott and Rachelle Vivian serve up nose-to-tail small plates—including pig’s head pappardelle for only $4. Lovely Quebec and Ontario beers for pairing are also just $4; a number of wines are $5 a glass. 96 Tecumseth St., 647-352-6000.

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The Dish

De-licious

January 4, 2011 | 4:15 am

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The Best of Winterlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s 62 favourite restaurants

(Image: Renée Suen, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)

January is upon us, and for many hungry Torontonians, that means one thing: Winterlicious. The menus are less predictable than previous years—crème brûlée’s out, lentils du Puy are in—so even the ’Licious haters might have a reason to take advantage of the festival this year. We’ve already named the 12 menus that we think are the best bets, but that doesn’t begin to cover it. Here, find Toronto Life’s 62 favourite Winterlicious restaurants, complete with menus, reviews and reservation numbers.

Winterlicious runs from January 28 to February 10. Reservations are accepted from January 13 onward (January 11 for American Express users).

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The Dish

Bottoms Up

December 22, 2010 | 12:13 pm

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Toronto to get its very own sake brewer in the Distillery District

(Image: Svadilfari)

When Ken Valvur first tried fresh, unpasteurized Japanese sake, it changed his life. “That’s how I fell in love with it,” he recalls. “When I tasted just-pressed sake, it was an amazing moment for me.” There are few sake breweries in North America (Canada has two on the west coast), so the alcoholic rice beverage is usually pasteurized for its transport over vast distances. Most Torontonians never get to enjoy sake the way it was meant to be. Valvur intends to change all that when he opens the Ontario Spring Water Sake Company, the first sake brewery in eastern North America. The doors are scheduled to open this spring in the Distillery District.

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The Goods

The Find

November 19, 2010 | 2:07 pm

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Holiday gift idea: for the fickle foodie

Sure, we already gave you 100 present ideas in our annual holiday gift guide, but we know you want more. So we’ve found this clever aquatic sushi set from Italy’s Alessi. The design house is known for its quirky home accessories, evident here in the lily pad soy dish, a lily plate, a fish chopstick rest and bird soy boat. Find it at Rolo, in store or on-line, for $136.95. We suggest throwing in a sushi recipe book to complete the gift.

Rolo, 24 Bellair St., 416-920-0100, rolostore.com.

The Dish

From the Print Edition

November 11, 2010 | 11:08 am

17 Comments

Toronto’s best Korean food: Chris Nuttall-Smith makes his picks

Move over, sushi. Now there’s something sexier. The new Korean cuisine is exciting, modern and worth crossing town for
By Chris Nuttall-Smith

The seafood stew at Tofu Village (Image: Ryan Szulc)

National cuisines, like drunk-driving starlets, get the reputations they deserve. Korean food—dependably rough-edged, cheap and fiery in Toronto’s first-wave Korean restaurants—has suffered a serious perception problem since it first appeared near Christie Pits in the early 1970s. Korean expats ate Korean food. Starving, steel-gutted U of T students ate Korean food. The rest of humanity got along quite happily without it.

That started to change about 10 years ago, when South Korea launched a sustained and successful campaign to become a major cultural exporter. What began with film and TV—including several food-obsessed soap operas that drew massive audiences across Asia—soon trickled down to dinner, and as a new, more cosmopolitan generation of Korean chefs began to refine the cuisine, the gastro-weenies of the world took notice. In London, Korean went high-end, and in New York, David Chang, of Momofuku fame, created a hybrid Korean–French–Southeast Asian style that has become one of the most influential forces in the business. Over the past few years, this culinary renaissance set down in Toronto, too, hidden—or hidden to non-Koreans, at least—in plain sight between the all-you-can-eat bulgogi joints and bibimbap houses where serious foodies would never have dared to dine.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

October 8, 2010 | 2:54 pm

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A preview of The Drake’s pop-up barbecue and DIY sushi

Sang Kim teaches the hungry to make sushi (Image: Karon Liu)

While news of the Drake Hotel’s barbecue pop-up shop has been circulating around the city, the hotel’s restaurant has introduced something else that’s equally intriguing: make-your-own sushi. Known as temaki, this process involves a platter of sashimi, vegetables and garnishes presented in front of diners who each have a plate of nori and sushi rice to make their own rolls. “As far as I know, no one else is doing this in Canada,” says Sang Kim, the hotel’s director of food and beverages.

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The Dish

Opening

September 20, 2010 | 4:06 pm

31 Comments

Introducing: Wabora, the latest restaurant to open at the Thompson Hotel

Minsoo Kim proudly sets one of his sushi creations, the South Beach roll, on the table. Nestled next to a set of rice-free rolls wrapped in cucumber are two slices of bluefin tuna, the sashimi mother lode, marbled with fat like a steak. “That is the best tuna in the entire world,” Kim says of the rare, contentious delicacy. “As soon as it’s available, I get the first phone call.” Kim is a schmoozer, clearly, as well as a former minor league pitcher and the owner of Wabora, the latest addition to the Thompson Hotel’s arsenal of restaurants.

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The Dish

Read All About It

August 20, 2010 | 11:50 am

7 Comments

Turns out that disposable chopsticks are an environmental nightmare

Sticky situation: eating implements create environmental problems (Image: Mykl Roventine)

Toronto loves Asian food. Witness the city’s endless supply of sushi restaurants and packed Chinese eateries— declared some of the best in North America. But all that glory and love comes with a hefty price: the burgeoning ecological disaster that is the disposable chopstick. In China, a jaw-dropping 100 acres of trees are felled per day to keep up with demand for the disposable utensils, according to Greenpeace China. That works out to about 16 to 25 million trees per year.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

August 9, 2010 | 4:28 pm

15 Comments

Fisherman’s Friends: Chris Nuttall-Smith reviews Maléna and The Atlantic

The season’s most anticipated openings are two seafood-centric spots By Chris Nuttall-Smith

Maléna at Av and Dav (Image: Ryan Szulc)

Toronto is a raw bar town. We’re over-served by excellent oyster houses, and we probably consume more sushi per capita than any city east of Vancouver. But cooked fish is a problem here; we’ve never had a standout seafood spot. This spring, Nathan Isberg, of Czehoski and Coca fame, opened what early adopters described as a nose-to-tail disciple’s take on the life aquatic on Dundas West. And in Yorkville, a neighbourhood that’s desperate for a few more decent places to eat, front-of-house kings David Minicucci and Sam Kalogiros launched Maléna, a flashy fish spot. It looked like Toronto might finally turn into a seafood town.

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The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick

July 26, 2010 | 8:12 am

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Where to eat lunch this week: Yuzu

At $31, this artful sushi platter is equal parts beautiful, original and affordable

The sushi platter for two at Yuzu (Images: Renée Suen)

The place: Tucked away in the northeast corner of the entertainment district, this slick Japanese eatery shares both its owners and its flair with the better-known Japango. The kitchen and sushi bar bustle with activity under the pretty display of the restaurant’s premium sakes.

The crowd: Aficionados park themselves at chef Bruce Bu’s sushi bar as buttoned-down business lunches take place at the tables.

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