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Best Bars 2025 No. 17

Laowai & Blnd Tger

Behind the garage-style front of Blnd Tger, a modest Chinatown dumpling shop with a sidewalk patio, lies a not-so-secret-anymore bar that you may be able to visit, once you give the open-sesame password. Enter through a “freezer” door, and an opulent 1920s Shanghai speakeasy in peacock shades of teal and gold is gloriously revealed. Find more than 50 baijiu bottlings here (Canada’s largest selection) and sample the Chinese spirit in tasting portions, wildly original cocktails or revamped classics. The Final Warning is a nod to the Last Word, but made with phoenix-aroma baijiu. Oh, and do order the dumplings: They are made in-house and they’re delicious.

Feeling lucky?
During happy hour, roll the dice and if you score a seven, the house buys your food.
Owner Lewis Hart (left) and head bartender Oleg Dobrovolskyi.
So secret
There’s a speakeasy within this speakeasy.
Book it
Now takes reservations (via link in Highlights on @whereislaowai on Instagram).

Photography by Joshua Neufeld


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