Kateryna Topol –
Tucked away at 51 Colborne Street, aKin Toronto is one of the city’s newest Michelin-rated restaurants. aKin offers a one-of-a-kind blind tasting menu: 10 courses of elevated Asian cuisine modernized through storytelling and artistry.
“The concept of aKin has been 10 years in the making,” shared chef Eric Chong. Chong’s culinary career began publicly when he won MasterChef Canada on national television. One of the judges, Alvin Leung, saw a lot of himself in Chong, “both being self-taught chefs with an engineering background,” and invited Chong to work a few events with him in Singapore and Hong Kong.
The partnership came to fruition shortly after with the opening of R&D Restaurant on Spadina Avenue, which received a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand (value for money) award every year since the guide’s arrival in Toronto.
aKin was always at the back of Chong’s mind, but opening a tasting restaurant is a risky move for a new chef. “A tasting menu is a good expression of the chef’s passion, creativity and talent,” he says, implying he needed some practice first. Having learned from a decade at R&D, Chong and Leung opened aKin in November 2024, choosing the Colborne location to be close to Union Station.
“The first year of any restaurant is the hardest. It was quite challenging prior to earning a star,” Chong admitted. “It was kind of an uphill battle, being one of the first of our kind – Asian-inspired, pulling flavours from all across Asia… not serving omakase .”
The menus, often driven by local seasonal ingredients, change every two months or so. Each menu draws inspiration from seasonal holidays (Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day) or a specific country in Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.).
The dining experience begins with a variety of snacks, “like five separate bites,” Chong says. “Later on, the menu, they get larger and larger, followed by desserts…People are definitely leaving satisfied.”
The word aKin means “of similar nature or character” or “related by blood,” and serves as the restaurant’s culinary fundamentals: dishes need to be recognizable. “We always try to base the menu on famous classic dishes like Dim Sum, Cheung Bao, doing plays on Takoyaki, mango sticky rice, chilli crab, laksa – the dishes people would’ve heard of before. We want our dishes to be relatable to all cultures,” he continued. “It creates a memorable dining experience when guests can at least have some frame of reference on what the original dish was and how we change it, make it modern.”
The kitchen works closely with the beverage team to create pairings, one of which includes cocktails. Each cocktail is created for the tasting menu, echoing the ingredients.
The restaurant accommodates around 30 people each seating. Four of these are the coveted seats at the chef’s counter, where you can engage with the chef preparing your meal and get a look behind the scenes.
Learn more and make reservations at akintoronto.com.
