Name: Doma
Neighbourhood: Little Italy
Contact: 50C Clinton St., 416-551-1550, domatoronto.com Previously: Acadia, Red Sauce and Backwoods Smokehouse
Chef and owner: Paul Kim
The food
A changing menu of dishes that blend refined French cooking techniques (Kim trained in French cuisine at Ottawa’s Le Cordon Bleu) with traditional Korean ingredients—or vice versa. “I want to do French-inspired Korean cuisine and Korean-inspired French cuisine,” Kim says. “These dishes don’t exist anywhere else but here.” Diners can choose to taste the entire menu for a reasonable $65 per person.
Butternut squash and yam soup with soy-milk foam and soybean powder. It’s served with fried sticky rice doughnuts. $10. Seven Jeolpan: house-made Korean crepes (plain, beet and spinach), shiitake mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, egg yolk, egg white, bell pepper and black sesame sauce with mandarin orange zest. Traditionally, the DIY dish has nine components, but this vegetarian dish has seven. $12. Grilled octopus with a slaw made of cabbage, bell pepper, pear, three kinds of seaweed and konnyaku (konjac jelly). The slaw is tossed in a Korean mustard dressing and topped with house-made pickled mustard seeds and cucumber granita. $20. Duck two ways: duck breast, duck confit-foie gras dumplings, foie gras and sweet ginger duck jus, persimmon purée, cauliflower purée and roasted cauliflower florets. $26 The Spanish mackerel en papillote is flavoured with Korean chili powder, onion, candied ginger, red chili, green onion, bok choy, daikon radish, lemon zest and tomato. $22. Kim’s bread pudding features alternating layers of white and multigrain bread studded with cranberries and raisins. It’s topped with mixed nuts and finished with crème Anglaise. $10. Chef Kim in his kitchen.
The drinks
A largely international wine card and a short list of local beers. House cocktails incorporate Asian flavours, like the Old Boy that combines cucumber-infused gin with rice vinegar, soy and daikon.
In Harmony (left) mixes Campari with grapefruit, lime, sesame orgeat, toasted rosemary; and the Antidote (right) combines Johnnie Walker Red Label scotch, yuzu, ginger and a honey-yuzu marmalade. $13 each.
The space
The 44-seat room is Scandinavian in its minimalist design. A street-side patio will allow for another 30 diners come warmer weather.
The July issue of Toronto Life features the monster cottages of Muskoka versus the resistance. Plus, our obsessive coverage of everything that matters now in the city.
