aKin | TasteToronto

aKin

Written By

Christine Peddie

Photographs By

Carbelle Djossa

Eating out takes a dreamy, sumptuous turn at aKin, an ultra-luxe, Asian fine dining restaurant on Colborne Street. A place where food is about creativity and meditation, not merely sustenance, it’s a spot so imbued with nostalgia that eating here feels like taking an intimate trip with the chefs down their personal memory lanes.

For chefs Eric Chong and Alvin Leung (who first met when Chong won the first season of Masterchef Canada), aKin is a project that’s been years in the making. Partners at R&D, the duo always wanted to team up on a second project — something more refined that would afford them the opportunity to lean more deeply into their Asian roots while letting their imaginations run wild.

“I wouldn’t think of opening another restaurant in Toronto without him,” says Chong. “His wealth of experience and boldness paired with my youthful energy and willingness to take risks makes us a great team.”

And taking risks, it seems, is what aKin is all about. Theatrical and lavish in every sense, it invites guests to surrender their autonomy in exchange for a 10-course blind tasting of dishes as seemingly recognizable as bo lo bao and as fantastical as a crystalline youtiao meant to mimic the comfort of a steaming bowl of congee.

“What we want to do with aKin,” says Chong, “is create dishes that people are familiar with. We do our own take on hot pot, laksa, congee. But we do it in our own modern way so people can have that relatability.

“There is no fine dining, tasting-menu-only Asian restaurant in Toronto,” he adds. “We’re really trying to fill that void. … We’re actually going deep into traditional, classic Asian and Chinese dishes.”

The idea, adds Leung, of Michelin-starred Bo Innovation and Bo London, is to take “guests on a journey that brings together the best of two worlds: Canada, which we call home, and Asia, where our roots and heritage lie.”

The trip begins in an opulent room, where gleaming gold and emerald accents heighten the posh look of marble, leather and other premium finishes. From the custom plates to the cutlery, the hand-painted central service station to the dangling, helix-shaped central light fixture, “everything is really thought through and customized,” says Chong.

Similarly, every course is meticulously crafted. Beyond the very deliberate ingredient pairings and flawless presentations, what guests will notice first is the team’s powerful refusal to be boxed in.

First bites at aKin, a series of snacks lay the groundwork for the adventure to come. Among them are a gilded Foie Gras Pie Tee and the Clear Youtiao. A nod to chef Chong’s Malaysian heritage, crisp pie tee is layered with velvety foie gras parfait, strawberry plum jam and a flurry of glassy verjus jelly. Meant to be scarfed in one (admittedly large) bite, the morsel is fatty and sweet, crisp, silky and utterly enchanting.

Inspired by congee, Clear Youtiao is as novel a take on that dish as one can possibly imagine. Elegant where traditional congee is homey, a finger food where traditional congee is decidedly not, it still delivers the seasoned rice and shellfish umami of its muse. Why make it clear? “Because it’s dope,” laughs Chong.

Knowing the intricacies of spherification, the chefs’ commitment to morphing Hot Pot into a single orb of meaty soup seems, at best, laudable, at worst, masochistic. Still, when that savoury bubble of tingly mala broth pops in your mouth, you’ll fervently applaud the dedication to an idea, however grueling. Beyond turning a beloved comfort-food into a singularly surprising bite, the team ups the ante by suspending Iberico pork inside the soup, then topping each sphere with a translucent blanket of lardo and a series of micro-garnishes, from sesame to the world’s tiniest specks of carrot and chive.

Indulge in cocktail pairings, and chase the Hot Pot down with a fresh, zingy burst of lime-leaf-spiked Gimlet. Meant to cleanse the palate and cool the Szechuan pepper burn, it completes the one-two punch of an unforgettable course.

Prefer à la carte drinks? Options include the Thai chili-spiked Fashionably Late and the foam-capped Nosutaruji. With lychee sake, vodka, yuzu and a snowy cap of baby pink foam infused with Haw Flakes— a Chinese candy made from hawthorn berries — the latter is a playful reinvention of one of chef Chong’s childhood go-tos.

Layered into a vessel modelled after a sea urchin, the chefs’ Chawanmushi is a rich ode to the classic. Meant to showcase premium Canadian and Japanese shellfish, it features geoduck beurre blanc and a buttery blob of uni, along with steamed egg custard and the surprising lift of apple and umeboshi foam.

Immaculately glazed in blue and white, colours that call to mind revered Chinese ceramics, Chocolate Porcelain is an indulgent combination of chocolate mousse and calamansi curd. Sat atop a mixed nut tuille, with a companion quenelle of makgeolli sorbet, it’s an appropriately extravagant end (well, almost) to an intensely sumptuous meal. “We wanted to make something just as beautiful,” says Chong. “Something that would make a lasting impression.”

But it’s not just the dessert that diners will remember: it’s the sophistication of the entire meal, the near-fanatical attention to detail and the nods to heritage and family that will make the most lasting mark. For diners who don’t share chef Chong or Leung’s ethnicity, a meal at aKin will feel more novel than nostalgic. Still, they’ll marvel at the artistry and the bonkers ingenuity of every course. They’ll startle at the route from notion to final dish. Most of all, they’ll find joy in the surprises and in the ambition of two chefs looking to put their passion and their memories on a plate for Toronto diners to enjoy.