Name: Ayla
Contact: 794 Dundas St. W., 2nd floor, aylaupstairs.com, @aylaupstairs
Neighbourhood: Trinity-Bellwoods
Previously: Bar Mignonette
Owners: Kevin Shawcross, Danvee Kwok, Craig Wong and Ivy Lam
Chefs: Kevin Shawcross, Danvee Kwok
Accessibility: Not fully accessible; up a flight of stairs
The idea of dining out in Hong Kong may conjure up images of wok-fried noodles, glistening scarlet char siu and steaming bamboo baskets filled with chubby dumplings. And while you’ll find all those delicacies there, Cantonese food is only part of the region’s kaleidoscopic culinary scene. That’s why the team behind Ayla—chefs Kevin Shawcross, Danvee Kwok and Craig Wong and restaurateur Ivy Lam—decided that a Hong Kong–inspired yet globally influenced restaurant would be right at home in Toronto. “I don’t know if there’s another big city that would let us have quite this much fun with the menu,” says Shawcross.
Shawcross and Kwok, partners in business and life, met in Vancouver before relocating to Kwok’s native Hong Kong during the pandemic. While they were there, Shawcross, who had previously worked in Barbados, launched a Caribbean pop-up called Caribana Social Club, a reference to Toronto’s annual summer festival.
Meanwhile, Wong had been running Patois, Toronto’s first sit-down Asian-Caribbean restaurant, since 2014. Their shared interests led Shawcross—who had heard about Patois’s success through the culinary grapevine—to invite Wong to Hong Kong so they could collaborate on a menu. The two quickly became friends and soon began discussing the idea of opening a restaurant back in Toronto. When Wong and Lam closed Bar Mignonette, their raw bar above Patois, the opportunity presented itself.
“Between us, we bring experience from Mediterranean, Italian, Japanese, French, Caribbean and Cantonese cuisines,” says Shawcross. “This restaurant is our love letter to Hong Kong—told through our own unique lens and in a way we could only do in a place like Toronto.”
Related: Yan Dining Room, chef Eva Chin’s new neo-Chinese dinner series at Hong Shing
Expect to find familiar-sounding dishes on this tight menu of sharing plates—but also to be surprised (in a good way) by what arrives at the table. There’s cheung fun, the rice-noodle-roll dim-sum staple, but stuffed with a Vietnamese-inspired beef tartare and dressed with fish sauce and Marmite. Sweet, sticky char siu comes with a punchy Bajan-style green sauce. And caesar salad subs tangy chrysanthemum greens for romaine and a creamy toasted sesame dressing for the classic. In the wrong hands, drawing from such a broad range of cuisines could yield confused, discordant dishes; here, every element on each plate pulls in the same delectable direction, no matter its origins.
Traditional pairing wisdom dictates that beverages should enhance, never upstage, a given dish. Here, rather than merely mirroring or balancing the flavours of the food, the cocktails—like a playful sake martini with pomelo and chili pepper—stand boldly on their own. There’s a tight wine list with a nice mix of funky and traditional styles as well as a handful of craft beers, including the Violet Moon sour from Leslieville brewery Avling.
Up a steep and narrow staircase, Ayla feels like a secret hideaway. But, with vaulted ceilings and intelligent, intentional design, the small space is cozy without feeling cramped. The aesthetic is heavily influenced by the golden era of Hong Kong cinema—particularly the work of director Wong Kar-wai—with rich hues of red and jade and market lighting in the installation-like hallway leading up to the space. Framed art and playful trinkets, some from Lam’s personal collection, line the walls. Many are traditional Chinese symbols of prosperity, like ceramic fish, peacocks and horses.
NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY
Sign up for Table Talk, our free newsletter with essential food and drink stories.