While a food court is where you go to choose one cuisine out of many, at the new BOLD Food Hub on Baldwin St., you’re invited to sample bites from every vendor to fill up your perfectly rounded meal.
Putting Three Kingdoms Pizza, A Bite of Sichuan and Fortune Tea in the same space, the lively and integrated layout at BOLD Food Hub feels like a walking tour of Sichuan and Jingzhou, complete with fresh-hot street bites and local delicacies to guide your way.
As their team members—Robin and Darren—tell me, the placement of these three brands is not a mishmash of popular Chinese foods, but a very intentional design to bring together complementary flavours in an elaborate food experience.
Three Kingdoms Pizza
A typical tour of BOLD Food Hub begins at Three Kingdoms Pizza, a Chinese franchise specializing in “guokui” (鍋盔), a crispy, stuffed flatbread from the city of Jingzhou, Hubei.
Although they already have over 5000 locations throughout Asia and Australia, the Three Kingdoms at BOLD Food Hub marks the brand’s first presence in North America.
As Robin fondly remembers from growing up in Jingzhou, guokui’s have a special place in his heart as a go-to after-school snack on his way home.
Before biting into a freshly made guokui, Darren suggests everyone should pay attention to the sound of the crisp.
“Think of it as an auditory treat. Really listen to the crunch as you eat it,” he says.
Get your made-to-order guokui at the Three Kingdoms stall and choose from a range of equally popular stuffings, including the Three Delicacy, Spicy Beef, BBQ Mushroom and Pork with Preserved Chinese Mustard Greens.
A Bite of Sichuan
After opening your appetite with an easy, mild and crunchy snack, the next part of your “BOLD” journey will spice things up. Like Three Kingdoms, A Bite of Sichuan is an established brand with over 500 stores spread throughout China. This opening in Toronto marks their first international location.
The Signature Nine Dishes at A Bite of Sichuan is a must-have for first-time visitors looking to sample a bit of everything. The chef’s-choice set, which Darren describes as a “Sichuanese omakase tapas” concept, is presented in a pleasantly symmetrical box of nine small squares, each containing an amuse-bouche-sized dish of a popular Sichuanese street food.
Currently, an order of the Signature Nine Dishes consists of vegetable spring rolls, spicy cold beef, deep fried pork, quail eggs, ci ba (sticky rice cake), chili oil liang fen (mung bean jelly), steamed leaf-wrapped sticky rice dough, pork sausage and sweetened cherry tomatoes, each expertly peeled by hand.
Also on the menu are individual orders of various spicy noodles, fried oyster mushrooms, chili oil wontons, and a selection of desserts to help you cool off.
Fortune Tea
Alternatively, you can skip dessert at A Bite of Sichuan and opt for something light and fruity at Fortune Tea.
Unlike the other two established brands, Fortune Tea is a brand-new name that’s original to Toronto at BOLD Food Hub.
While fruity teas are not exactly new to the city, Fortune Tea differentiates itself with a focus on infusing more natural flavours and using less sugar. You can also adjust the sugar and ice levels to your liking.
With the motto, “A little less sugar, a whole lotta more healthy,” this final stop completes the complementary flavours at BOLD Food Hub by naturalizing the spiciness from Sichuanese food, ending your food journey on a light and refreshing note.
Sourcing all their tea leaves from different regions in China, Robin emphasizes the importance of roots for Fortune Tea.
“It’s not just about the tea itself, but also the culture behind it,” he says.
Accompanying the Fortune Tea stall, you’ll find a fun and elaborate illustration of Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, a mythical figure from the 16th century-Chinese novel, Journey to the West.
In this depiction by a Chinese artist, Sun Wukong is riding on a tea-slurping dragon with a Fortune Tea cup in his hand, and a comically large straw hanging on his shoulder instead of his iconic metal rod.
Bringing out the natural flavours of traditional Chinese teas, some popular choices at Fortune Tea include the Big Red Robe Tea Crème, which uses the pricey tea leaf, Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe), as its base.
If you prefer something fruitier, try the Lychee Tea Crème—another fan favourite at Fortune Tea. In this infusion, the refreshing, sweet-and-sour lychee is combined with the creaminess of crème topping, creating a not-too-sweet dessert with a just-right amount of indulgence.
Neither Chinese street foods nor food hubs are themselves novel to the city, but combined at BOLD Food Hub, it feels like you’ve landed somewhere new.
BOLD Food Hub is located on 5 Baldwin St. (or as Robin and Darren call it – “BOLDwin” St.) and is open every day of the week from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. You can order takeout and delivery from each of the three kitchens (Three Kingdoms Pizza, A Bite of Sichuan, Fortune Tea) through Uber Eats, DoorDash and Facedrive.
