HIDDEN AWAY IN A SECOND-STOREY LOFT on the gritty side of Chinatown, this jazzy supper club transports you to a time when people dressed for dinner and a night on the town and evokes a sense of occasion. Dreamed up by Tannis Ling, owner of the acclaimed Bao Bei, along with her long-time executive chef, Joël Watanabe, and sous-chef, Alain Chow, it’s a place designed for holding hands in dimly lit corners. The imaginative menu — a sophisticated confluence of Japanese and Italian cuisines — has recently included the likes of charcoal udon with seafood and Calabrian chili butter, and fennel- and chili-rubbed lamb accompanied by seaweed tsukudani and bagna càuda made with miso. Whole fried fish — diamond-scored and dusted in potato starch, so the skin puffs up crispy — has been the signature dish since opening day. Bar manager Fraser Crawford presides over an impressive selection of sakes and Japanese whiskies, as well as clever cocktails that, like the food, deftly walk the tightrope between Kissa Tanto’s two culinary ports of call. (To wit: the Dark End of the Street, which blends Suntory Whisky, Cynar, plum wine and an amarena cherry.)

Consistently exceptional”

–Sal Howell