Alma

What is Alma? Anchoring a stretch of Bloor Street West just west of Dufferin, Alma is chef Anna Chen’s intimate 34-seat dining room in Bloordale Village. Chen pulls from her Kolkata Hakka-Chinese roots and classical Italian background to craft a tightly edited, idiosyncratic point of view. The minimalist room relies on pale wood, dangling paper lanterns, and an open pass, rounded out by a compact sidewalk patio in the summer.

Alma Menu & What to Order Nearly every element is made from scratch in-house, spanning hand-rolled pastas to scratch misos and fermented chili oils. You cannot skip the crispy, chewy parmesan tapioca fritters or the golden scallion bao served with housemade stracciatella cheese. The crowd favorite remains the wide bowl of bouncy handmade noodles tossed with pork wontons in a peppery soy dressing, followed by charcoal-grilled char siu and a glass of low-intervention skin-contact wine.

Know Before You Go As a long-standing Michelin Bib Gourmand honouree with fewer than a dozen tables, reservations booked via their site are practically mandatory on weekends. Bar seating accommodates casual solo diners and early walk-ins, but tables fill rapidly past 6:30 p.m. Alma is a quick two-minute stroll west of Dufferin subway station, which avoids the headache of Bloor West street parking.