Name: Henry’s
Contact: 922 Queen St. West, henrystoronto.ca, @henrys.to
Neighbourhood: West Queen West
Owners: Roxanne and Ben Hodson
Chefs: Kevin Le, Alex Fields
Seating: 51 indoors
Accessibility: Not fully accessible
Symbiosis between food and wine is the through line for this Queen West kitchen. What’s available by the glass rotates weekly, as does the menu; the kitchen confers closely with the front of house to make sure their offerings are cohesive, touching base before each service. Chefs Le and Fields—alumni of Noma and Momofuku Kojin, respectively—bring the menu a strong focus on seasonality, working with purveyors like 100km Foods and Woodward Meats.
Expect unexpected flavour combinations, like skate wing in a vivid pool of green coconut curry dotted with Kashmiri chili oil, heirloom tomato with brown butter plums, and macerated strawberries with a lovely chamomile stem–infused oil. It’s refined fare, but free of gratuitous complexity and well-suited to enjoy with a glass of something special.
Co-owner Ben Hodson also runs Brix and Mortar, a wine import agency that focuses on traditional, mostly old-world bottles from family-owned wineries—if you’re looking for a break from the natural wine scene’s funk, you’ll find it here. (Hodson has a predilection for magnums, so this is a solid place to bring a large party.) The broad, evolving list is likely to offer something new each time you visit. And, should you want to take your favourite bottle (or five) home, there’s a small bottle shop next to the dining room.
A clean palette of cream, green and gold gives the room a warm glow accented with soft curves and lime-washed walls. At the front, a U-shaped marble bar comfortably seats 15, flowing into a large dining room composed of mostly cozy booths. The bottle shop neighbouring the dining room doubles as a special event and tasting space.
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