Just Opened
Linda
Salad King’s sophisticated sibling opens its ornate doors at the Shops at Don Mills By Renée Suen
The interior of Linda reflects its Thai theme and Toronto locale.
Image credit: Renee Suen
After five years of sitting atop—and being overshadowed by—Salad King, its cheap and cheery sibling on Gould Street, Linda Restaurant is decamping for the Shops at Don Mills. Owners Ernest and Linda Liu hope the relocation will earn executive chef Wing Li’s house recipes new devotees. To draw diners in, the couple has created a $1.5-million restaurant full of Thai curiosities both culinary and decorative.
Entering the new Linda Restaurant is nothing like entering the old one. Gone are the steep stairs and exposed brick; at the new location, diners proceed through heavy doors, bedecked by a six-tusked golden elephant, into a hall with soaring ceilings and pivoting wood-and-steel partitions. Outfitted by Munge Leung—the firm won the Association for Retail Environments’ International Design Award for its work on Linda and Salad King—the new restaurant aims for a harmony between modern Toronto and classic Thai. Five VIP areas act as visual anchors; custom-made antique-y cabinets surround an airy space with a massive bronze bell as its centrepiece. (We’re told that this is a temporary fixture; in July, an even more impressive wooden sculpture by Monchai Sathaphornchaipanich will arrive from Asia.) For art, there are hand-carved pieces from northern Thailand and Burma, as well as a 54-foot mural above the banquette seating.
Although the grand opening is scheduled for the end of May, Linda’s 92 seats (not including the patio and bar) are already filled from midday to closing. Open seven days a week, Linda offers plenty of opportunities to savour such classics as beef panang ($15.50), crispy duck ($18.50) and mieng kum ($8.50)—a D.I.Y. appetizer that can be topped with peanuts, dry shrimp, shredded coconut, chilies, shallots and chopped lime. For piscivores, there’s honey–black bean sablefish ($17.95) and seafood fried rice ($16.95) with lobster, sea scallops, squid and mussels in crab sauce. Veggie lovers can sample the soft soy paper roll hot pot ($15.95).
Linda Restaurant, 11 Karl Fraser Rd., 416-642-3866, lindarestaurant.com.
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