Toronto isn’t short of good Japanese restaurants by any means, but Shinji is creating buzz among local foodies. Located in the base of the West Tower at Bay Adelaide Centre, a 1920s heritage building tucked beneath one of Toronto’s newest office towers in the Financial District, this modern Japanese steakhouse comes from Harlo Entertainment – the hospitality group behind local stalwarts, Mimi Chinese and Sunny’s Chinese – who asked Toronto studio Odami for a restaurant that felt Japanese without falling into cliché.
Founders Arancha González Bernardo and Michael Fohring found their answer in denim. ‘It is equally at home in workwear and high fashion, and that balance between humility and refinement became the conceptual lens through which we approached the entire project,’ says Fohring, who saw in denim’s rough, functional glamour a fitting metaphor for a steakhouse built on craft rather than spectacle.
Wallpaper* dines at Shinji, Toronto
The mood: Indigo walls, one neon surprise
An existing ramp into the dining room is now enclosed in dark-stained wood and acoustic panelling. ‘Rather than treating it simply as passive circulation, we transformed it into a critical part of the experience,’ says González Bernardo. The walls and ceiling are coated in a custom indigo limewash, layered by hand until the surface reads more like ink or dyed cloth than paint.
Overhead, navy felt baffles dampen the noise of a full room while echoing the texture of woven denim without spelling it out. The one bright interruption is saved for the washroom corridor, where pink light bleeds into view gradually – a wink at Japan’s neon-lit nightlife that’s kept apart from the dining room and appears as a surprise only when guests go looking for the washroom.
The Food: Wagyu, direct sourcing, shared plates
Executive chef and partner Jia Zou, who cut his teeth at Miku and Kasa Moto, has built a literally sizzling à la carte menu around Shinji’s central grill, where raw preparations and nigiri sit paired with a full run of Japanese wagyu from A3 to A5, sourced from Iwate, Miyazaki, Hokkaido and Kagoshima, alongside true Kobe beef brought in directly from Hyogo prefecture. For guests after a more curated progression, there’s also a chef’s choice menu and a dedicated omakase experience at the chef’s counter.
Fish, shiso flower and kinome leaf arrive from Japan several times a week to keep things close to source. Start with the A5 wagyu, ordered by the ounce, or the Shinji surf and turf – black cod and sliced wagyu in yakiniku sauce with crispy leeks – which Zou calls ‘the single bite that captures the restaurant’s dual identity most efficiently.’
Shinji, base of the West Tower, Bay Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay St, Toronto ON M5H 2R2, Canada