Mott 32 Toronto: Chinese Fine Dining at Its Best

Picture your favourite Cantonese classics getting the full fine dining treatment. At Mott 32, music sets the mood, the bar shakes creative cocktails, and every plate of handmade dim sum or barbecue pork arrives with its story told at the table. In Toronto, it all plays out over three floors at the Shangri-La hotel, with Canadian products joining the traditional recipes. The formula works: the Toronto and Vancouver locations share first place on the Chinese Restaurant Awards’ 2026 Elite 30 Canada list.

“I always describe Mott 32 as a world-class fine dining restaurant that just happens to serve authentic Chinese cuisine,” says Eric Yang, managing director. Born and raised in China, he spent years in Western hotel kitchens, from Shangri-La to Four Seasons Vancouver, then opened Mott 32 Vancouver before coming east to launch Toronto. In the kitchen, executive chef Kwan Man Chiu has more than 40 years of Cantonese cuisine behind him, including six years at Lai Wah Heen, where he rose to executive chef. “He’s open-minded about different concepts, but with solid, solid fundamental skills,” says Yang.

A Chinese Kitchen With a Canadian Pantry

“We’re in a great location in Ontario, there are lots of nice farms,” Yang explains, and the team reaches just as easily for beef from Alberta and seafood and mushrooms from British Columbia. He believes no other Mott 32 relies on local ingredients to the same extent.

The recipes themselves stay faithful to tradition. Where the Hong Kong location makes its lobster mapo tofu with southern Australian lobster, Toronto turns to Nova Scotia. The beef is Albertan rather than Australian or American wagyu. Everything else follows the traditional recipes, simply with some extra local flavour.

The barbecue pork remains the house signature, made with pluma from acorn-fed Iberico pigs, the most tender cut, prized for its nutty, juicy texture. All the dim sum is handmade, with high-quality pork and prawns. The same dim sum carries the weekend brunch, served all-you-can-eat alongside other Chinese favourites.

His own favourites lean local. First comes the Peking duck: Yang grew up eating it in northern China, and the Ontario bird, fattier and juicier with a thicker skin, comes remarkably close. Then comes a three-bone short rib from Alberta, braised, steamed and baked over 18 hours, its sauce reduced with red wine and soy until naturally sticky. “It’s a bomb of flavour and texture,” he says.

Built for Gathering Over Three Floors

No other Mott 32 is spread across three levels. The ground floor holds a lounge and a full bar, the second is devoted entirely to private dining, and the third opens onto the main dining floor. That private floor carries real weight: in Chinese culture, Yang notes, nearly every festival is about reunion, celebrated through dining and drinking together.

The cocktails follow the group’s recipes, adjusted to local ingredients and tastes. Toronto guests lean toward tea-forward, floral cocktails, so jasmine tea and lychee find their way into the glass. The wine list balances Old World, New World and a growing share of Niagara bottles, with some picks specifically chosen to pair with Chinese cuisine. Each evening, golden hour opens with head sommelier Justin Manzoni sabering a bottle of Champagne in the dining room.

For a man who grew up on Peking duck, these classics still manage to surprise. He has eaten them countless times, yet here, he says, they taste like a first discovery. It’s easy to see why Mott 32 claims the top spot among Chinese restaurants in Canada, standing out in a city with no shortage of great Chinese restaurants.

Écrit par Marie-Ève Godin
Photographié par Mott 32

Updated on 5 November 2026

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