Your new favourite uncle
Uncle Mikey’s (out of 4) Address: 1597 Dundas St. W. (at Brock Ave.), 416-537-8973 Chef: Michael Kim Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 5:30 to 11 p.m. Reservations: No Wheelchair access: Washrooms downstairs Price: Dinner for two with beer, tax and tip: $50 Mike Kim once lived on $2 bowls of peanut noodles.
He was learning to cook at Manhattan’s French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center), a short walk from Chinatown.
“New York is such an expensive place. I was always broke. I loved those cheap noodles,” says Kim, 30.
In homage to those Chinese restaurants, Kim makes a version of that dish at Uncle Mikey’s, his Asian shared-plates restaurant on Dundas St. W. He calls it Starving Artist noodles ($5).
The silky sauce smells like melted peanut butter but tastes like heaven, with mirin, soy sauce, dashi, hoisin and sesame oil in the mix. Black sesame seeds and slivered radish kick up the presentability factor.
Both the noodles and Mikey’s are worth knowing. The casual restaurant, christened by Kim’s 7-year-old nephew, distils Kim’s Korean background, French training and preference for Japanese and Chinese flavours into a cohesive and delicious whole. Kim (ex-Le Sélect) launched Mikey’s on June 28 in what was the Atlantic.
A model ship from the original occupant remains but Kim replaced the former sea theme with minimalist black walls and a large graphic work by artist Suzy Taekyung Kim.
Mikey’s is where I learn that pinot noir, or at least the René Bouvier from Burgundy served here by the glass ($11), pairs excellently with baby cucumbers ($6) dipped in fermented soybeans. This Korean doenjang paste, augmented with shredded pork, is to miso what Don Draper is to Charlie Brown. That is, intense.
Lots of big flavours here. Mikey’s shishito peppers ($7), ubiquitous on Toronto menus, come with a hugely successful riff on Greek tzatziki made with chopped Japanese pickled plums. The pale pink yogurt
“New York is such an expensive place. I was always broke. I loved those cheap noodles.” MIKE KIM UNCLE MIKEY’S
sauce cools any fires lit by the blistered peppers; if not, sweetened Chung Ha ($11) Korean sake soothes the palate.
Fried kombu ($3.50) is pure umami; the properties of the thick seaweed, after all, led to the development of flavour-enhancing MSG. Inky black bean jajang is another powerhouse, the sauce pooling in- side concave orecchiette ($13) instead of sliding off the customary long noodles.
Muscular fried chicken gizzards ($6.80) are exactly as they should be. Onigiri ($3.20), meanwhile, are formed from brown rice seasoned with sake. Fifteen minutes on the griddle gives each ball a distinct crust; a final pass over an open flame adds a lick of charring. Take that, arancini.
Then there are the twists. Pork is first vacuum-cooked before turning into tonkatsu ($17). This doesn’t make for the most tender meat. But it’s juicy and the fat is wobbly under proper breading. Instead of pork bel- ly, ssam ($16.50) is done with excellent flatiron steak. And Kim takes the recipe for Parisian gnocchi ($12), piped from choux paste à la Jacques Pepin, and fries them for welcome texture.
Smooth pacing and zero hard selling — other Toronto servers always seem to advise ordering eight dishes for two people, when four would do — make for a pleasant experience. The staff, mainly students from Korea or Japan, proudly talk up Kim’s credentials but keep the vibe relaxed.
There’s only one dessert: ice cream. Order it. Kim has a passion for ice cream; he planned to open a shop in Kensington Market before finding the Mikey’s space and changing his concept.
His ice cream is gorgeous, a rich caramel underscored by tangy saltiness. It’s made from Norwegian gjetost, a caramelized whey cheese Kim came across at Whole Foods. He melts the cheese into a base of cream, milk and sugar and churns it, one quart at a time, throughout the day. Its creaminess is accented by pleasantly crunchy toasted buckwheat.
It is also $5 a serving, like the noodles. Starving artists in Brockton Village aside, Uncle Mikey’s is a godsend for anyone who values good taste.