Toridori — Restaurant in Halifax

Enjoyed the meal immensely. I sat at the bar as I always do when eating solo. I was fortunate to be served by Mae, who was a true professional.

Some fun Chinese ingredients too. The executive chef was seated close to me and I asked him about a particular ingredient, olive leaf. He told me they ferment and press the leaves into a paste and is a traditional Chinese ingredient. This was amongst many other inventive ingredients on the menu.

The open kitchen has a few dozen cookbooks which are owned by the chef. I asked if I could read one, and he said that’s what they were there for.

With the open kitchen it might be a tad loud, but it didn’t bother me. Pan-pacific decor lends to a cool and casual vibe.

Food was excellent. The Singapore vermicelli noodles with shrimp and pork was perfectly cooked, it brought me back to my early 20's when a take out of said dish at the Silver Dragon on Young Street would last three meals, with each being better as the curry intensified.

For a new resto, this one is polished all ready. Kudos.

UPDATE:

Went back last week and the house manager, Mac, recognized me. I commented the last time I was in that the delicious salad didn’t properly hold the toasted taro chips.

He came over to me and said that they had changed the bowl based on my comments. He even brought over a steamer basket over pork buns on the house.

This place is a gem. Don’t sleep on it...

I've visited this place 5 times and only once have I been disappointed. It broke my heart into pieces when I heard the Egg Roll was retired (unless!? 👀). That egg roll was probably the closest thing to heaven I've ever experienced since coming back to Halifax. It was super crisp and had an airy bite even a good amount of loosely packed filling. I believe it was filled with glass noodles and some kind of mushroom inside to complement each EXTREMELY JUICY bite. I'm actually foaming in the mouth just recounting my egg roll experience.

All the other dishes and sides have been straight 🔥. I particularly liked how they prepared both Dumplings and Siumai. The Siumai is more of an elevated experience rather than the usual Chinese brunch I'm used to. It was a delicious bite from top to bottom starting with a traditional flavors and then being finished with some vinegar base.

My top 3 mains, out of the 6 I've tried: #1 Vietnamese Shaking Beef #2 Singapore Rice Vermicelli Noodles #3 Sashimi Bowl

I'm excited to try the whole menu... but I'm also scared of falling in love with a dish that's about to get rotated out. 😩 Would love to see it coming so I can...

Arrived here about 5pm on a sunny Saturday in September. The place was mostly empty, so we were asked where we would like to sit and I pointed to a table at the front that had a neat looking seat (looked like a tree stump, painted red, sturdier than the other regular chairs). The place is heavily staffed and they are very attentive, coming constantly to make sure things are ok and if you want more. My friend and I decided to share several menu items. The Tapioca Shrimp Chips with XO Caramel Kewpie Dip ($8) were good, rice cake texture, in two shapes & colors, very light. The Twisted Pods (edamame with peanuts & Szechuan pepper sauce, $7) were very good and savory. Small serving but that's ok. The Egg Rolls (cabbage, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, red currant dipping sauce, three pieces for $14) were excellent. Look like your everyday egg roll but just a lot better, slightly greasy, very crunchy. The Singpore Rice Vermicelli noodles (shrimp, bbq pork, egg curry, $21) are definitely a main for one person, good flavor, the noodles on the tad dry like which I prefer). I'd...