What’s on the menu at Miss Likklemore’s, a fancy new Caribbean kitchen on King West with a rum list 100 bottles long
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Name: Miss Likklemore’s
Contact info: 433 King St. W., 647-484-8789, misslikklemores.com, @misslikklemores
Neighbourhood: King West
Owners: Hanif Harji (Scale Hospitality), Lonie Murdock, Darren Hinds
Chef: Lonie Murdock
Accessibility: Not fully accessible
Miss Likklemore’s is the fruit of a fortuitous meeting back in 2020, when Lonie Murdock and Darren Hinds (The Good Son) invited Scale Hospitality’s Hanif Harji to sample Caribbean cuisine at their hugely popular Queen West pop-up.
Drawing on her Jamaican roots, Murdock served up tender house-made patties, macaroni pie and a delicately spiced carrot cake (made using Hinds’s mother’s recipe) among other delectable hits. The food made a serious impression on Harji, and the trio embarked on a partnership that would eventually bring Miss Likklemore’s to its new King West home.
“It’s so cool to see people order oysters and a bottle of wine before tucking into some jerk chicken,” says Murdock. (Those oysters, by the way, are served with mango mignonette, calamansi and house hot sauce.) “The partnership has given us the platform to highlight beautiful Caribbean dishes in an upscale fashion. Guests who’ve never tried Caribbean food love it—and so do those who cook it at home every day.”
The food
Murdock teamed up with Scale’s corporate executive head chef, Ted Corrado, to design the menu. The duo drew on their respective strengths—Murdock’s intimate knowledge of Caribbean flavours, Corrado’s fine-dining flare—to design playful dishes that would retain the integrity of their roots.
Take the fried Madai snapper, a Jamaican classic that would normally be served scattered with escovitch, a bright medley of peppers, carrots and onions. Murdock’s version—in which fried, filleted chunks of fish are placed gingerly back on the bones for a head-on presentation—comes with the escovitch on the side, along with a wildly delicious citrus relish.
There’s a delicate balancing act going on here—the food is refined but not precious. In the kitchen, Murdock plays with flavours she knows well, spinning them into delightful new forms without compromising their soul.
The drinks
The restaurant boasts one of the most comprehensive rum collections this side of the Caribbean Sea. The menu of more than 100 labels (and counting) is a veritable world tour of the sugarcane-based spirit. There’s a Caribbean focus, of course, but other bottles hail from Fiji, Denmark and India, to name a few.
Classic cocktails are infused with Caribbean flavours, like the Sweet Ting, a play on a cosmopolitan that subs watermelon juice for the standard cranberry. A tight beer menu features heavy hitters like Jamaica’s Red Stripe and Dragon Stout. The wine list was curated to complement the menu’s bright, bold flavours and includes a selection of crisp, refreshing whites and elegant, structured reds.
The space
When you walk in, you’ll be greeted by a vibrant portrait of Miss Edna, Lonie’s grandmother and greatest inspiration. (An adaptation of her jerk chicken recipe is one of the menu’s early favourites.) There’s an island feel with minimal kitsch: think premium textured finishes, wood accents, and pops of colour and greenery. It’s a welcoming taste of the tropics to offset the reality of Canadian fall.
Liza Agrba has worked as a freelance journalist in Toronto for over a decade and has earned multiple awards. She covers food, business and culture and writes memoir-style pieces. Her work frequently appears in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Toronto Life and many other publications
