Kissa Tanto homeowners Tannis Ling, left, Joel Watanabe, centre and Alain Chow, appropriate. Gerry Kahrmann / PNG
Share modify comment PrintA 2d-floor restaurant, like a lady dancing backward in high heels together with her accomplice gliding forward in loafers, need to work more durable than these on the ground.
No problem for Kissa Tanto, the new upstairs Chinatown restaurant, "a darkly poetic nod to a lost time when it became ok to drink whiskey and hearken to jazz on vinyl all nighttime lengthy," in phrases lifted off the clicking liberate.
Kissa Tanto (an historical eastern be aware for café and the Italian for 'a whole lot') doesn't bypass a beat. I knew i was in for a treat, and not necessarily a darkly poetic one given the two who run it: Tannis Ling (Bao Bei Brasserie proprietor) and chef Joel Watanabe (Bao Bei chef). At this one, Watanabe is part owner as smartly.
The room aims for mid-century contemporary. It's superbly and moodily lit. A lipstick crimson stretch banquette pops towards a pistachio wall and a few activity room aspects preserve it humble. Jazz fills the room, however quietly.
"The design is an ode to the inn Okura Tokyo, a modernist design masterpiece with a wink to the work of Italian designer and architect Gio Ponti," says Ling.
Kissa Tanto is a fine reminder (and we want reminders) of what an exquisite meals city this is. Watanabe navigates an Italian-japanese path, a route on which he could drive off a cliff without a sixth sense about stability and concord.
"It's actually an intuitive thing," says Watanabe. "the two cuisines are equivalent in the sense of regionality, simplicity and seasonality. both have umami components. It's greater than pushing two foods collectively. We're no longer making an attempt to force it."
"We wanted to do whatever Asian but a little greater comforting," Ling says. "Joel threw out the japanese-Italian theory sooner or later. It sounded weird initially, then i assumed about it and realized lots of people are already doing it but they're now not definitely calling it japanese-Italian."
Watanabe's mom is Corsican/Italian and his father is jap so it might appear pre-ordained, and what he's get a hold of is actually greater sophisticated than SpagheTei on Robson road, offering about a dozen misplaced in Translation spaghetti dishes.
I started my meal with the housemade sourdough bread ($6) after our server extolled its goodness. first rate suggestions. We hoovered it down. Such respectable bread with an elastic, moist crumb and a crisp, crackly crust. It comes with nori butter and olive oil.
"It became a long process to get to there," says Watanabe. The wild yeast sourdough starter came from one of the vital cooks. "We named it Kevin, after him. The natural airborne wild yeast isn't ancient but we feel perhaps it's picked up remnants of an old chinese restaurant that used to be right here way back when. It's really active in our kitchen."
Chawan mushi ($13), continually an easy unadorned custard, looked bejewelled with a coverlet of little spheres of pressed cucumber and dashi-flavoured potato. A porcini mushroom and Parmesan gave it umami, which is like bells going off.
A starter of chawan mushi, porcini and Parmesan. Gerry Kahrmann / PNG
Millefoglio Tonkatsu ($19) is deep-fried pork cutlet rolled around squid (cooked sous vide, sliced, layered, pressed); on the side, a few bites of cabbage slaw, pickled asparagus and miso sesame sauce. Who said meat and fish can't be BFFs!
The fish of the day, described as flash-fried complete fish with daikon soy dipping sauce, grew to become out to be a collar from a seventy two-pound yellowfin tuna ($30). We snapped it up and it arrived searching like a half pterodactyl with its sweeping winged curves. It changed into glazed with soy kombu broth and the meat was moist and loose (tuna likes to head right to dry and dense upon cooking); cucumber salad offered a clean distinction.
Pork and fennel sausage ($24) was coiled right into a circle like a garden hose; it become topped with sautéed onions, shishito peppers and the dish glistened with decreased chicken jus. All tasty, but I pick sausages dry and charred. It become caramelized however moistened by way of the jus.
Pork sausages with sauted onion, shishito peppers, and brown fowl jus. Gerry Kahrmann / PNG
muffins aren't Japan's amazing swimsuit and Watanabe does a hard lean into Italy for concept, with just a touch of Japan.
Tiramisu has tofu blended into the mascarpone, lightening each the dessert and guilt load. Zeppole feels like an everyday Italian job unless you cleave via certainly one of them with a fork and have a bite. There are jap nods — cherry blossom sugar dirt on the surface, caramel dip with miso and a trace of umeboshi (salted plum) flavour in the honey ricotta filling — however the gentle japanese flavours are rather timid.
Zeppole.
I'm nevertheless hoping towards hope that a local chef will make a dessert crafted from mochi I came throughout in Vietnam. I'd love, love, love to have an extra. A ball of mochi turned into twirled around in effervescent sizzling oil until it ballooned into an crispy golden orb with a bit of the mochi nonetheless inside. Wouldn't or not it's decent with the miso caramel dip?
The cocktails by using Wendy McGuinness (Chambar, Royal Dinette) are yummy — as an example, four on Six Swizzle with bourbon, Noilly Prat Amber, lemon grass shrub, Ardbeg and a slice of charred pineapple. There are natural wines, an excellent sake listing and some native beers.
And a shout-out to our cheerful server, Melanie, who become enthusiastic, useful and excited concerning the meals. (desire there have been clones of you across the metropolis.)
Kissa Tanto is happening a highway no longer previously taken in Vancouver and it's interesting.
"I'm just hoping americans are available with an open intellect and trust that Joel's going to take the premier ingredients and put them collectively in the most reliable way he can," says Ling.
Kissa Tanto
263 East Pender road | 778-379-8078
Open: for dinner Tuesday to Saturday, kissatanto.com
mstainsby@postmedia.com
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