Chez Wa

A wine bar, supper club, and daytime bottle shop crammed into one tight Little Italy room — Chez Wa pairs Asian cooking with low-intervention wine and new-generation sake, all under the watch of a frog logo balancing a glass on its head.

The dish that put the place on the map is the mapo tofu pasta — a Sichuan–Italian mash-up that's been ricocheting around Toronto food Instagram since the doors opened. The kitchen treats wine pairing as the point, not an afterthought, and the menu is built to riff with whatever bottle the room happens to be drinking that night.

The wine and sake program

Founders Tia Zhang, Kevin Guo, and Chevonne Hsueh built the list around character over prestige — harder-to-find producers, culturally interesting bottles, and sakes that punch above their price tag. "We don't want to act like wine snobs, talking down to guests," Zhang told blogTO. "Taste is very personal, and everyone is encouraged to have their own opinions." By day the same shelves work as a bottle shop, so you can drink in or take home whatever caught your ear at the bar.

The room

Dark walnut wood, brushed stainless steel, and a big round window table set the tone. There's no front-of-house/back-of-house wall — the open kitchen is part of the dining room, which makes the whole place feel more like a friend's apartment than a restaurant. Seats are tight, so reservations move fast.