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| - With Torvehallerne in Copenhagen and Revival Food Hall in Chicago being my 2 top favourite food halls in the world (so far), I was really hoping Toronto Assembly Chef's call could live up to the hype. After my first quick visit, I think it hit it great in some aspects and ... unfortunately missed in one key attribute. Overall, this is a great quick & casual spot ESPECIALLY in the after hours. I've only come here on a Saturday which is much more reasonable than the weekday lunch where you have all the office workers just piling in and sounds more painful than a Gardiner trip at 8 am.
What makes a great food hall... approachable quality food, large variety of flavours and cuisines, chef driven instead of corporate driven, fun vibe and clean space, and affordable (not necessarily cheap) options. Torvehallerne and Revival fulfilled both perfectly ... Assembly almost does.
Assembly has approachable quality food with a vast offering from everything from vegetarian to Japanese ramen to Thai curries to thin crust pizza to smoked BBQ to highly frosted topped cupcake. This is a solid offering of what a food hall can do. I also love how Assembly has each space be driven by a well established Toronto Chef... you can trace most of these places to a well regarded restaurant. You have Little Dailo from Chef Nick Liu of famed Dailo, Ramen Isshin from the well regarded Kingyo Izakaya... each spot goes back to a great spot. As for the space, this is great. You have a fair amount of seating in a modern space and it's clean!! You have no idea how many food halls around the world are just dirty ... where you dread sitting down. This is spotless guys!
So the last requirement... affordability. Oh Assembly... I hope this doesn't hamper your repeating success. In Revival and Torvehallerne, I could have a wonderful 3 part meal from Noma stages or their former sous chef for only C$15 and be so sated. After reading the current reviews of the Assembly 1s or 3s stars... it's value and price that's the sticking point. C$20 for a snack sized meal or 3 pieces of tiny chicken that is supposed to be an entree? Oh no... that doesn't work well for most of Toronto. I get it that the rent is probably high in Google's first floor and maybe this is just a glorified cafe just for the highly paid. If you want to bring back people over and over again... the value needs to be there. It doesn't have to be cheap... but people can't walk away hungry after a $20 lunch. I really want a good food hall to stay in Toronto so please rethink this!
Aside from the prices and value, I think there is a lot of potential great options here. From my short stop here, I'm going to call out 3 in particular that were wonderful ... and one not so great.
Bulldog Coffee - You want a passionate and genuinely friendly barista who has charisma and a good cup for you... come here. Solid flat whites.
Short & Sweet - Loved the owner who knows how to strike up a fun conversation, bring on the click bait 'gram' shots, and passionate about his baking... come here. Definitely coming back to try a cupcake or bar
Good Son - One of the other friendly spots that called to us as we walked around... they were clearly enjoying themselves and proud of what they can create.
Colibri - I was hoping to stop here for a taco since my last great taco was in San Diego. Toronto taco scene is ... ahem anyhow. They ran out of mas (the corn needed to make taco shell... yeah, basic ingredient). With the prices sitting at $7+ (Im hoping this is NOT per taco but I think it is), this seemed to be a bit disorganized and hitting higher than what a good taco should be. Even in San Diego, the upscale spots were doing $15 for 3 Baja Fish tacos.
I'll give Assembly the benefit of a doubt and come back to see if my optimism is not misplaced. 4 stars for a repeat and with hopes it stays that way or get better. Hopefully my update will bring this place up a star.
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