Toronto's hottest hidden noodle restaurant back in business after 2-year closure
Two years after Toronto cook Vei Chong put Malaysian Hokkien Mee on local foodies' radars with his micro noodle shop, Tapow Toronto, he's finally back in business.
Find yourself at Kensington Market's Dipped Donuts in 2024, and you'd be just as likely to be met with the aromas of simmering chives and pork bone broth and sizzling shrimp as you were the expected powdered sugar and deep-fried dough.
No, Dipped wasn't experimenting with savoury, South Asian-inspired donuts at the time; it was emanating from Tapow Toronto — or Tapow Tdot — where Chong whipped up heaping piles of Malaysian Hokkien Mee for throngs of hungry patrons in the back of the kitchen.
A follower of the school of doing one thing really, really well, the noodle shop exclusively offered the single menu item, perfected over years working at street food and fine dining institutions alike from Singapore and Malaysia to Montreal and Toronto.
After a short but fruitful first month in business, though, Chong's partnership with Dipped Donuts timed out, and Tapow was forced to find another home. For nearly two years, Chong operated Tapow Toronto as the odd pop-up, shilling noodles at U of T frosh or occasionally out of Baldwin Village's Tiger Den.
Lately, though, Chong seems to have found a new home, setting up shop on the patio of Parkdale's Bar Dystopia every Thursday through Saturday, serving his noodles to hungry bar patrons and, on Saturdays, from 1 to 6 p.m., for takeout.
Chong remains the sole man running the show: taking orders, cooking them up, and handling the ins and outs of operating a business. And, even more importantly, his hot, savoury Hokkien Mee remains the star of the show.
You can now find Tapow Toronto at 1704 Queen St. W.
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