Recently had the pleasure of visiting my first Michelin Star restaurant at aKin in Downtown Toronto. This is the second restaurant of MasterChef Canada Season 1 winner Eric Chong and they just received their first Michelin star in 2025. The cuisine is Modern Chinese so I was looking forward to trying it out, and at the time of visiting (03/07/2026) they are currently on their Chinese New Year menu, which Eric Chong said will be changed around the end of April. The price is $225 per person + tax and tip.
Service: When we were first seated, our server came to our table and gave us a brief overview of the restaurant, the founders, type of cuisine etc. The chef/server would also give us a brief overview of the ten courses when they were presented to us and promptly clean our table in-between courses. They were also timely with water refills without being too overbearing. The staff were quite friendly as well and overall I did enjoy the service provided.
Menu: aKin offers a ten-course menu, with three starters, four mains, and three desserts. The "Auspicious Vegetables" was a strong start and I really enjoyed the variety of items we were able to try. I enjoyed the Sea Bream dish the most and thought the mala numbing sensation worked well with the fish. The tajarin pasta was a bit too al dente for my liking, but the lobster was cooked incredibly and very tender. I wasn't a fan of the second dish (horseradish, jellyfish, and caviar) due to the kick, but my girlfriend enjoyed that one. I especially enjoyed the last two desserts, which was a black sesame mouse paired a rice wine sorbet, and four Chinese inspired sweets. I also felt pretty full at the end of the ten-courses. You can see the pictures of all ten-courses attached. From start to finish, we were there for about 3.5 hours.
At the end of your meal, the restaurant also offers you a gift bag with a printed version of their menu as well as a small jar of spice which can be used for cooking. Overall, I was really satisfied with my experience at aKin and looking forward to trying out other Michelin starred restaurants in the future.
by Traxus99