Assembly Chefs Hall - The permanent popup is here.

The future of dining is here!

January 25, 2018

Assembly Chef's Hall -Grand Opening

111 Richmond St. W.

Website:  Eat Assembly

@eatassembly

#eatresponsibly

I died and went to my food heaven in Toronto this week.  I attended the Grand Opening of the NEW Assembly Chefs Hall and saw my dream of a permanent place that was like all the best pop up events in Toronto all in one fantastic space. 

Assembly is located at the Richmond-Adelaide Centre in the heart of downtown Toronto nestled in the ground floor of the Google building on Richmond St. W.

Boasting 18,000 square feet, 17 vendors, a sprawling beer hall, coffee bar and over 3,000 square feet of outdoor patio space.This is not your typical food court with generic low quality fast food. This should be the future of food courts or food halls.

Led by executive chefs, baristas and culinary directors alike, the line-up includes second locations and new concepts from some of the city’s best. Toronto will enjoy spin-offs from the teams behind Bulldog Coffee, Cherry Street BBQ, DaiLo, Hibiscus, Khao San Road, Los Colibris & El Caballito, Love Chix, Nutbar, Ramen Isshin, Bar Reyna, Short & Sweet Bakeshop, The Good Son and Tokyo Smoke. Additionally, current and former chefs of The Chase & Colette, Raca Café & Ufficio, Little Anthony's and Shoushin. 

If you have been keeping up with my blog posts over the past couple of years you will know that I have checked out most of the best food festivals, pop-ups and charity events in Toronto and there is always 1 or 2 things that bug me about them.   Mostly the locations and trek to them or things like washroom facilities and seating.  Well this new Food Hall solves all those issues.  It's as if I designed this place myself or someone has been reading my blog because I have been talking about these things for a long time.   Assembly Food Hall is located on Richmond St. W.  about an 8 minute walk from Osgoode Station and it's close to Hotels, office buildings and even City Hall.   It's also on the next block to where I used to work and at the time I used to go to the food court in that same building on the level below Assembly.  
My timing is always off.  Hopefully I will work closer to the Hall again soon though.

The space has a great flow on various levels with different seating areas and even a Stand Up Sushi restaurant that promises to deliver lunch in 30 minutes.

Most of the chef's in the Hall are experienced in providing small flavour packed bites of food at festivals, pop ups and charity events all over Toronto besides their bricks and mortar locations.  This gives them a permanent home to be able to provide the same small scale quick food without having to carry a whole restaurant.  With the minimum wage increase and the high cost of rents and taxes in Toronto this makes the most sense for a group of some of the best restaurants and I would say a lot of these people are probably friends too, so it makes sense for them to team up and provide a community as well as a viable restaurant business option.

The food is fantastic, I think I tried something from almost every vendor.  Some of my favourites included the Pork belly from Dailo,  the Gnocchi from Boemo, the ribs from Cherry St. BBQ, the chicken from Love Chix, the lamb in phyllo from Bar Reyna and let's talk about the Sushi from the stand up bar Tachi and the Chirashi from Shari so fresh is just melts in your mouth.  Also notable was the real deal taste of Italy Napolitano pizza from the Good Son.  One of the cities favourite Thai dishes from Khao San Road is their Khao Soi noodles.  

But really, most of it was amazing and really there was something for everyone even the Vegan's in your life will be happy.  It's a great place to have lunch with your coworkers or meet up with your friends because you can choose whatever you like and get whatever you want to drink too with 2 bars and a coffee stands that will take care of your beverage needs.

There will also be music in the space so no more boring background noise and the awful food court seating and lighting.  This place is modern and sleek and cozy at the same time.  Kudos to the designers of this place.  It's simple but there are touches of artistic creativity in the different stalls and the wall murals and there is even a selfie stop.  They really thought out this whole concept and I have a feeling that the wealth of experience from the group of Chefs contributed to it's design.

I can't say much about the prices because not all of the prices are listed on the menus on their website but even though it's probably higher than your usual food court prices it's closer to eating in a great service restaurant and the quality of the food is far superior to a food court.

I will be back.

*Disclaimer - The food was complimentary but the opinions and photos are my own.