Fat Choi @ Soos (Toronto)


On Monday and Tuesdays, Soos temporarily hands over their kitchen to Fat Choi and the menu morphs into a vegetarian’s paradise. While Soos’ menu is based on Malaysian street food, Fat Choi expands across the world, drawing inspiration from Malaysia, India, China, Indonesia, and Japan (to name a few) – anything that’s tasty and vegetarian.

I would have never ordered the cold tofu ($9) without prompting from a friend… why would I want something cold, especially if it’s tofu? But, as I bit into the silky soy bean block, swimming in a salty Szechuan hot chili oil and topped with onion frizzles, green onions, garlic, and peanuts, I wonder what inventive thinker came up with such a delicious take on tofu. This isn't your regular boring soy bean dish.


Make sure you’ve finished your conversation before biting into the satay wrap ($11)… once you start you just have to keep eating it as it’s impossible to put down and if you wait too long, the filling will start sliding out. The seitan adds a meaty texture against the delicate Bibb lettuce and the crunchy pickled vegetables; it’s then drenched in a diluted peanut sauce that starts out slightly sweet but ends with a spicy bite.


Even before finishing the okonomiyaki ($13) we were already contemplating if another order was needed. The light thin chewy batter with the crispy edges is slathered with flavourful shallots and spicy kewpie. On its own it would have been too heavy, but Fat Choi balanced the dish off with raw crisp red cabbage and Brussels sprouts to create a slaw topping on the savoury pancake. A dish that seems so simple but is surprisingly delicious.


In general, all the flatbread-like dishes were tasty. The stuffed roti ($15) consisted of two pan fried flaky roti sandwiching a spiced chickpea, onion, and potato mixture. A curry garlic sauce comes with the hearty roti, which is thinned and the spice level restrained.


Make sure you get the nasi goreng ($16), this Indonesian fried rice was oh so flavourful. To make it vegan, a tofu crumble is added that still gives the fried rice an eggy texture, while bits of okra and bell peppers provide a crunchy texture throughout the rice. I love the black pepper bite to the rice… and the smell, oh the smell.


The no mapo no tofu ($17) is an interesting dish incorporating the sweet, beany, spicy sauce you’d expect from the traditional mapo tofu. However, the name of no mapo and no tofu calls out the fact that the dish contains no pork and no tofu. Instead, it’s replaced with creamy eggplant with flecks of pickled vegetables, the sauce cooked so long together that it becomes thick and caramelized; all sticky and sweet with the rice. Served in clay pot, this would be even better if the rice was lightly toasted so the bottom so that it develops a golden crispy crust – I can just imagine how epic it’d be if the mapo sauce is enhanced with crispy rice.


We finished off with the daily nood, that evening a curried laksa ($18 for a large bowl or $11 for individual portions). The smaller bowl is a great option as you really need to dig in and have spoonfuls of the coconut and curry broth to really augment the experience, although the soup should be a hotter temperature. Pieces of smoked tofu gives an interesting heartiness to the noodles in place of meat. In the past, I’ve had laksa with rice or egg noodles; at Fat Choi, they use a combination of the thicker miki noodle and a thin vermicelli, the mix reminiscent of a bowl of Fukien noodles at Kim Po.


People ask if I miss having meat during weekdays. Truthfully, we have such amazing plant-based options in Toronto that no, I can happily forgo animal protein Monday to Thursdays, with some exceptions. Fat Choi is an example of one of these restaurants. When the vegetarian dishes are this good, who needs meat? 

Overall mark - 8 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 94 Ossington Avenue

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Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!


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