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| - Hanmoto is just a pleasure.
I've been to Leemo Han's other restaurant, Pinky's Ca Phe - a reasonably good experience, if disappointing for the most part. Similar to his other restaurants, Hanmoto is designed unlike most other restaurants. Most of it seems to run counter to the inviting design of restaurants past.
That said, Hanmoto is truly excellent, and perhaps the best izakaya I have been to in Toronto. Many of the dishes are a play on the traditional izakaya dishes - and the subtle, and overt twists are what makes it so good.
In many parts of East Asia, the drinking culture has given birth to incredibly diverse sets of dishes. Izakayas are, loosely speaking, casual bars in Japan - but in the North American context, where accompanying dishes are rarely as creative, izakayas can be seen as much closer to restaurants.
We ordered most of the menu, and many of the dishes incited surprise - my favourite emotion when visiting a restaurant.
We started with the salmon aburi, uni bomb, and dyno wings - all must-orders. The dyno wings, in particular, incited an involuntary groan (of pleasure). These were boneless wings stuffed with dumpling stuffing. Absolutely glorious.
The uni bomb was also excellent - the chicken skin was a nice touch, and there was plenty of uni to go around. Portions were fine, and the food was neither too sweet nor salty.
By the time we were working on the salmon aburi, I wished there was something to cut through the grease - perhaps with something more acidic.
Our subsequent dishes were fine, but not as spectacular as the earlier ones. The ice cream was great for the initial few bites, simply because it was such a unique flavour. Extremely rich, like most of the meal, but certainly an interesting thing to try.
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