Neon Tiger seemed to
sneak up on me as I was walking down the dark Dupont Avenue, it’s glowing neon
image a welcoming bat signal against the cold winter night. The eerily glow
continued as I entered the restaurant and was led to our table on the second
floor – the workers must have buns of steel scaling up and down the three flights
during every shift.
Somehow, my typical
glass of wine didn’t seem like the right drink of choice with Neon Tiger’s
speakeasy vibes. Instead, I opted for the Vice City ($16) a creamy cold frothy
cocktail made with pitu cachaca and coco Lopez cream tinged
with blue curacao. It was a delicious sipping drink with just a hint of
sweetness from the pineapple juice. Toronto’s snow was momentarily forgotten
and replaced by the sea breeze of the tropics.
Who would have
thought I’d enjoy the spicy scallions and avocado slaw ($11) so much? The
simple mixed green and vegetable salad was enhanced with a flavourful sweet and
spicy sesame dressing, pickled chili, and crispy shallots. What a refreshing
way to start the meal and a good palette cleanser for the heavier dishes as
well.
We found the scallion
slaw was much tastier than the Hakka ginger mushroom salad ($14), where the
ginger soy glaze was too pungent and thick against the deep-fried mushrooms,
which were great on their own. The dressing almost seemed like a very gingery
hoisin and chili bean paste that overpowered all the fungi and vegetables. A
lighter vinaigrette tossed with the mixed greens, carrots, and green onions,
while leaving the fried mushrooms simply seasoned with salt would have worked
better.
The jap
chae ($14) is large enough that it can even work as a main for one
person. While the sweet soy sauce was too liberally added, I liked the
abundance of mushrooms, vegetables (bok choy, carrot, bell pepper), and
seasoning (pickled chili and crispy shallots) that were evenly distributed
amongst the glass noodles. The starch itself was cooked perfectly so there was
a bit of bite to the noodles. A sprinkle of scallions or some other herb on top
would have added that fresh element that would really round out the dish.
As we were working our way through the starters, we realize that Neon Tiger doesn’t provide any sharing utensils with each dish. Ultimately, they ended up giving us extra pairs of disposable chopsticks to use, which is environmentally wasteful considering they could just invest in some fork and spoons. My plea to restauranteurs and chefs: if you are going to serve a sharing menu, you need to invest in sharing utensils. It’s expected, even more so when we are in a COVID era.
The golden curry
snapper ($33) was a strong dish with great flavours, the finely chopped gai
lan and red cabbage adding a wonderful crunchy contrast against the
curry rice. While the menu notes the dish uses steamed basmati, I found the
starch almost had a creamy risotto-like consistency; although, I could have
done without the hard bits that made its way into some bites. The dish could be
improved if the fish were done less - I enjoyed the crispy skin but the flesh
was too dry.
There’s not one thing
I would change with the prawn tacos ($17), which were absolutely delicious made
from crispy hot prawns, paired with a pickled iceberg lettuce & radish
slaw, and creamy Thai remoulade. It all sat on a warm, soft, and chewy tortilla
that almost reminded me of a thicker Peking duck wrapper. I could have devoured
a whole order of these.
Even though Neon
Tiger presents a speakeasy vibe, there was a hurried frantic pace to the
dinner. Perhaps it’s due to the strict one-and-a-half hour seating limit, but
the dishes come out way too quickly so we couldn’t enjoy each one fully - it
seemed like we were always trying to make room for the other. I’d suggest
ordering in two batches to avoid having everything arrive in such quick
succession.
There’s also no dessert menu to ensure you don’t loiter past the
time limit, so you’ll have to make do with another cocktail if you’d like to
finish with something sweet. All in all, the restaurant is best for a quick
catch-up or if you were like me, for a brief period of respite against the
outdoor elements.
Overall mark - 7 out of 10
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Gastro World's Grading System
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Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 14 Dupont Street
Address: 14 Dupont Street
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
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