Belle Isle is a bar and restaurant from the team behind Little India staple, Lake Inez, but in recent months, it's taken on an identity entirely its own.

Despite their shared DNA, to merely refer to Belle Isle as a sister location or spinoff to Lake Inez would be the misnomer of the century.

Sure, they have some similarities, like the jovial energy that's rare to find in restaurants serving fine dining-level food, and the whimsical, meandering Instagram captions written by owner Zac Schwartz on both accounts, but there are big differences between the two as well.

Especially nowadays, after chefs Keith Siu (formerly Mimi Chinese, Frilu) and Ronan Shaftoe (Bonito's) took over the kitchen in December 2025.

The shift behind the pass was matched with an equally seismic one on the menu, wherein the food offerings at Belle Isle shifted from light, flexible snacks to a more substantial suite of Cantonese dishes. At the time, it proudly proclaimed that the "More Dinner-y Menu" would usher in a new era and identity for Belle Isle.

Nearly two months into Siu and Shaftoe's tenure in the Belle Isle kitchen, it's clear that, somehow, that's both completely the case and not entirely so. Where the culinary offerings at the bar-restaurant have taken on a starring role, none of what made Belle Isle so appealing in the first place has been lost. It's just the cherry on top.

I'm typically the type to save the best for last, but the Cheung Fun ($22) is so deserving of a mention that I won't waste anyone's time burying the lead. Not only is it my favourite dish on the menu, but it's also Siu's, too.

"It's something that's kind of close to my heart because it was the first dish that I did after I started really recommitting to my own style of cooking," he explains. He first made the dish for a pop-up in New York last spring, urging his friends to "just trust" him on it.

The result is a Cheung Fun unlike anything you've ever had before. A layer of bouncy, slippery rice roll lies atop an unexpected terrine of braised beef tendon and shank with confit onions cooked in the beef fat from the braise. The flavour — rich and smoky with a tiptoeing sweetness — is undeniably Hong Kong while the dish maintains its singularity.

Phew. Now that that's out of the way, on to all the other things I absolutely loved, starting from the top.

The HK Curry Crudo ($20) is one of the more pleasantly surprising takes on crudo you'll find in the city. All too often, you'll run into the desire to get experimental with slices of raw hamachi, and it doesn't always work out.

Here, it really works. Generous pieces of the fish and bright yellow tomatoes sit atop a pool of appropriately mild Hong Kong Curry, all garnished with goldfish cracker-shaped potato chips for crunch.

Dan Dan Mian ($26) is one of those staples that's hard to mess up, but is equally hard to make memorable. At Belle Isle, the familiar numbing tingle of chili cuts through the rich peanut butter and fatty pork with a decisiveness that does exactly that.

Siu is Chinese-Canadian, and, while Shaftoe is not, Siu credits Shaftoe — who has spent time working and living in Hong Kong — for many of the Chinese dishes that have ended up on the menu. The Seasonal Claypot Rice ($MP) is one such dish.

"I think about the time I spent living in Hong Kong very fondly, and I was pretty excited to use some of those lived experiences to support the vision that Keith had," Shaftoe says.

"Some of the stuff on the menu now is stuff that I really enjoyed eating there, and having that palate and that lived experience, I think, is able to bolster the offering by adding a little more nuance without distracting from what we were trying to do."

When it comes to sweet stuff, you're in equally good hands. The Oishii strawberry rice pudding ($12), for example, is a delight. The broadly sweet flavours of coconut and juinang get a welcome zip from a hit of ginger, while picture-perfect Oishii strawberries brighten the whole thing up.

A crown of snow fungus on top of it all adds a chewy texture that adds a satisfying bite.

Even if you thought you'd never heard of Belle Isle before today, odds are you've seen the bar's iconic jello shot ($14) come across your social media feeds once or twice.

Ultimately, there's a good reason for that. The dessert-cocktail-combo is the absolute embodiment of the devil-may-care-meets-attention-to-detail attitude that makes Belle Isle stand out so markedly from other restaurants and bars in the city.

James McCole, Ronan Shaftoe, Keith Siu.

Throughout the culinary changes, the cocktail program, headed up by James McCole, remains sturdy and effervescent as ever.

Cocktails with playful names (anyone up for a Grey Swatpants Banana Contours?) are equally as vibrant in practice, leveraging familiar flavours in unexpected ways and giving them names that'll make you blush when you order.

This Cold Pizza Is Curing My Depression ($18) has been as notable a menu item since day one as the jello shot, though the two occupy wholly opposite ends of the flavour spectrum.

This riff on a dirty martini is not — I repeat, not — for those who don't tolerate savoury cocktails well. I'd have three if I weren't on the clock. Vodka and akvavit are boosted with tomato and house brine, finished with a nutritional yeast and Aleppo rim. And yes, it does taste like pizza.

For those who prefer more familiar flavours in their beverages, meet Selvedge Jeans Double Tote Matcha Boi ($21), a boozy riff on the omni-popular combination of matcha and strawberry.

Pisco, white vermouth, matcha and passion fruit are all topped with a splash of soda water to wake it all up and topped with an admittedly fast-melting cloud of strawberry foam.

It's edgy, modestly tropical and distinct all at once, and damn near impossible not to crush in a few sips.

Even in its earliest days, Belle Isle had achieved the near-impossible task of being one of the most-talked-about, must-visit, et. al. spots in the city, and its willingness to reinvent itself, to take risks and to do it all with a laugh, is the only proof I need to believe that its star won't be dimming any time soon.

Belle Isle is located at 1455 Gerrard East.