Seahorse

A SoHo-inspired seafood room on the Summerhill stretch of Yonge, Seahorse pairs chilled shellfish and charcoal-grilled mains with the kind of confident, unfussy room that only comes from a genuinely heavyweight team behind it.

The centrepiece is the Seahorse Ice Box, a tiered raw-bar platter that's become the table's showpiece order — oysters, crudo, and shellfish piled over crushed ice — but the char-grilled whole fish and mains off the live-fire program are just as much the point.

The team

Restaurateurs Simon Bower (Lucien, Mercer Street Grill) and Richard Renaud (Piano Piano, Speducci Mercatto) built Seahorse with executive chef Federico Garcia, whose résumé runs through George and Quetzal. It's the kind of pedigree that shows up in the details — a tight, seafood-forward menu rather than a sprawling one, and a wine list built to match.

The room

Warm wood, brass, and a raw bar up front give Seahorse the feel of a downtown seafood counter transplanted uptown. It's dressed-up enough for a special occasion but loose enough for a Tuesday night with oysters and a bottle of something crisp.