Inside Riley’s Fish and Steak, an over-the-top new restaurant for surf and turf

Name: Riley’s Fish and Steak Contact: 155 Wellington St. W., rileysrestaurant.ca/toronto, @rileysfishandsteak
Neighbourhood: Entertainment District Owner: Emad Yacoub (Glowbal Restaurant Group) Head chef: Scott Saunderson Accessibility: Fully accessible

Emad Yacoub, president of the massive BC-based Glowbal Restaurant Group—which brought Toronto the two-storey, 9,000-square-foot steakhouse Black and Blue—literally squeezed his way to the top. In 1984, Yacoub emigrated from Egypt to Toronto. He was only 19 years old and didn’t speak a word of English. “My first job was juicing oranges at the Harbour Castle Hilton,” he says.

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Yacoub knew early on that he wanted to work in the hospitality industry. “Being from the Silk Route, where we were constantly playing host to people from all over the world, I believe hospitality runs in my blood,” he says. He worked his way up the hotel ranks, eventually becoming chef de cuisine at the King Edward Hotel, then at Aqua. Later, he moved out west to head up Joe Fortes Seafood and Chop House in Vancouver. “I got fired from that job,” he says. “I think I had too many ideas.” Eventually, Yacoub ended up back in Toronto.

His first restaurant was a tiny café at Yonge and Gloucester called Brownstone. “I bought the business in late 1999—with help from my brother and cousin—from owners who desperately wanted out,” says Yacoub. “It cost $92,000. That’s less than what I paid for the wine fridge at Riley’s.” To get people through the door, he set up a free coffee station right on Yonge. The trick: he hid the cream and sugar at the back of the café, so people had to pass by display cases stocked with a curated selection of salads and sandwiches. The strategy worked. A year later, Yacoub opened the fine-dining spot Solo next door before being pulled back to Vancouver for personal reasons.

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In 2002, Yacoub opened Glowbal in Vancouver’s Yaletown, then went on to deliver hit after hit. “My plan for Toronto has always been to bring my best of the list,” he says.

Enter Riley’s Fish and Steak, a surf-and-turf restaurant with Michelin recognition at its original Vancouver location, in the former Shore Club space. “My brand had been blocked in Toronto many times by restaurant-world bigwigs, so getting this former Aisenstat spot was a win for me,” says Yacoub.

Inside, diners are treated to a kind of theatre—whole roast chickens, oversized cuts of meat and lobster pot pies are rolled out on carts, some ceremoniously carved or finished right at the table.

The Food

The appetizer menu is surf-forward, with things like oysters, crispy calamari, crab cakes and jumbo prawn cocktails. Even the short ribs arrive glossed in escargot butter. Show-stopping seafood towers (both hot and cold) and sharable mains—like the 36-ounce bone-in cowboy rib-eye steak or the whole roast branzino—are escorted from the kitchen to their tables like Oscar winners.

The Drinks

The wine list ventures into both explored and still-emerging producers from Ontario, British Columbia and the old world, offering 30 by-the-glass options at any given time. The cocktails remain classic, with only a gentle twist here and there, and a roaming martini cart brings the ritual tableside.

The Space

At 7,800 square feet with 175-seats (not including the 100-seat patio coming soon), archways, marble, splashy millwork and a massive bar, Riley’s is a certified show-off and proud of it. It’s the kind of restaurant that makes all the others feel honoured just to be nominated.