REVIEW Chef Roger Mooking
raids the world for dramatic flavours with a menu of small, sometimes whimsical dishes ($6–$14) intended for sharing. Most work well. Green apple and rocket refresh wickedly fatty duck prosciutto. Crème fraîche and shredded shiso boost a thick, chilled, minted pea soup. A simple cured pork chop, thickly sliced, is flattered by a gentle harissa. Tiny samosas of chicken, asiago and sage are the stuff of legend; mashing perfectly good cheeses into dense “cheesecake” patties is a crime. A smooth, professional team handles service with ease.
Source: torontolife.com

REVIEW
Hanif Harji adhered to a two-word ethos ("hip dining") when creating his fleetingly iconic Blowfish Restaurant, but his latest big-budget resto-lounge eschews the Japanese restaurant's pastel glamour in favour of hard-edged, in-your-face design. Indeed, you can now slot Kultura in there alongside other restaurants that, while reaching for exclusively masculine sight lines, romances the historical building in which it resides.

Kultura, like Blowfish, is carved out of a historic gem. It's a breathless restaurant design in its own right, yet the entire retrofit of the landmark pushes the best elements of the original site to a glorified level, making the building quip, “Look at me.”

There's an intoxicating idea behind this three-level restaurant design. Though forcing diners up a purple back-lit stairway to a second-level restaurant, thus liberating the main level for lounge activities, smacks of cocky, private-club hubris, the intention is innocent: Kultura wants to utilize a drop-dead beautiful space.

While the main floor exudes brash energy, the meticulously structured and elegantly composed second level effuses chill. The long narrow space fuses righteous heritage with an interior designer's new interpretation, packaged with exposed brick and dark wood floors. At the back of this level, an adjacent room – The Grand Room – showcases a communal table made of 200-year-old oak.

Designed by Core Architects Inc. and interior decorating firm Commute Homes, the 70 seat restaurant's interior glimmer is suggestive of 1920's romance with an exotic chocolate brown and not-so-subtle purple backlighting. Clever, stylish nuggets like rich leather chairs from Toronto's Found Objects fill all three levels, while a perfectly matched couch by Legendary Leather runs along one wall of the main lounge area.

The third floor is the Mafia Room, featuring a single table that seats 25, as well as two original fireplaces. This level – continuing the 1920's aesthetics, with original beams gloriously owning the space - will be used for private functions and overflow from the second floor dining room.

With partners Kent Farrell and Executive Chef Roger Mooking (Barrio), Mr. Harji has gathered a serious crew. Placing Mooking in the kitchen and throwing in sommelier Kim Cyr, freshly snatched from George, all bases are covered.

Upon arrival, a finely-tuned host introduces your waiter, who thusly introduces you to the trip that you're about to take; there is a bit of a learning curve here, or perhaps re-adjusting, of what we're to do with the menu and the wine list. Instead of following a set path, Kultura beckons you to soak up a social dining culinary and drinking expedition. Waiters - channeling the staff at Rain in its early years - take us through the menu, explaining the virtues of sharing plates, and how many to order.

At this point, Kim Cyr appears at the table. Cyr knows her stuff, working her magic at Vancouver’s C Restaurant and more recently at Toronto's George. Here, she guides us through the options, and there are many, as the sampling concept continues through to the wine list. Twenty four varietals are available by the glass, allowing you to try different types of wine – quality wines, sans generic house brands - without being forced to buy the bottle.

Kultura's social dining concept, where dishes are shared amongst the table, isn't new. Kultura's global fare – ranging from Thai and Chinese to Italian and Indian – has been explored and repackaged in shared plates. A Lemon Chicken Schnitzel, for example, has been repackaged with Chipotle Chilis, while a Chicken Samosa gets the Asiago and sage treatment.

"Social dining," explains Harji," is a concept where a group can sample trans-ethnic flavours while celebrating centuries of mixed culinary traditions. We really want diners to understand that the concept has been around for ages. The word Kultura, in fact, is a literal translation of the word “culture” in multiple languages.”

As I dip my bread into a gutsy Chicken Samosa perfumed with spiced apple gari chutney, a woman, spot-lit by sweet and subtle back-lighting, turns her head and unconsciously strikes a starlet's pose from a black-and-white still. Not far away, a group of the city's A-listers work their way through plates of Spiced Tandori Beef and Caribbean Shrimp with remarkable alacrity. Meanwhile a magazine editor and her entourage take over the back room communal table, making delightful fools of themselves. With the loud buzz in the air, the Kultura wonderland is going full throttle, its finger firmly pressed on the pulse of the Toronto dining scene.

The whole Kultura package, as an upshot, is original, fun, slightly ambiguous and devoted to delivering quality cuisine. The conspicuous-crowd hot-spot melds old-school swank with a razor-edge hip to draw in the Pilates and nu-yoga-mat-set. Its breathless design and well-chosen wine-list make Kultura an alluring, cork and chill space. Spread out over three levels, the sprawling resto-lounge embraces its historic ambiance, offering look-at-me, smooth-cow seating and chic lean-spaces for culture seeking epicureans.
Source: Don Ellis at martiniboys.com