Review: R&D

Remember when I said in the last article that I haven’t written in a long time? Well, it’s ok if you don’t, because I had to go back and check. This time, I seriously haven’t posted in eons, but with finishing my first year of university and starting my first real job, I think I’ll give myself some leeway. It’s been a couple months into summer now, so I think I’ll return from my absence and hopefully (cross your fingers), stay for a bit. I have lots of restaurants and topics I want to explore this summer so you should be seeing lots of FREATS articles! For this article, I went to R&D, a restaurant opened up by Eric Chong (who my girlfriend thinks I look like), the winner of the first MasterChef Canada.

To start, they gave us free champagne! We were celebrating our one year anniversary and I mentioned that in the reservation, so that was super cool of them. Both of us aren’t even 19 yet, so it’s actually illegal for us to drink, but there was no harm in taking a couple of sips here and there.

As our appetizer, we got the Xiao Long Bao, which are steamed soup dumplings, but the twist was that they were spicy, or ma la. They weren’t spicy in the traditional way, and instead, were numbing. This was a very cool take on a traditional dish, as I’d never had xiao long bao this way and I found it a cool experience. The xiao long bao itself was cooked amazingly and the dough was stretchy enough to hold all the filling. The pork was delicious, and the broth inside was piping hot, but rich and flavourful. However, I feel like the ma la was too overpowering and didn’t let the rest of the flavours shine to their maximum potential. For this reason, the xiao long bao get a FREATS rating of 8.4/10.

We also ordered the Brussels Sprouts, R&D Fried Rice, and the Fried Chicken. Initially, we wanted to get the Iberico Char Siu, but they were sold out, so we had to swap too the Fried Chicken. The brussels sprouts were addicting; they were perfectly crispy and came with this sweet chili glaze. The only issue was that the chili glaze was a bit too sweet, which made it difficult to eat them in rapid succession. If not, I definitely could’ve eaten all of them at once. Because of this, the brussels sprouts get a FREATS rating of 8.4/10, but if they were less sweet, you can bet that the rating would’ve been closer to a 9.

The R&D Fried Rice came with mushroom xo, porcini butter, maitake, and singapore crunch (the yellow thing on the top). If you can’t tell, this was an incredibly rich dish, but it was so flavourful. The mushroom xo and porcini butter gave it a savoury taste, and combined with the maitake, added so much umami, which elevated the overall depth and richness of the rice. Rounding out the dish, the singapore crunch added the much needed texture to every bite. It was a little salty, so you either had to wait between every bite, or eat it with something sweet, which is what I did. All in all, this is one of the best and most flavourful fried rice’s I’ve ever had, and it gets a FREATS rating of 8.8/10.

The Fried Chicken was coated with a mandarin gastrique, which is caramelized sugar, deglazed with vinegar or other liquids. Paired with the mandarin, it created a sweet and smooth sauce that coated the entire surface area of the chicken. The chicken was boneless and perfectly tender and juicy. They topped it off with a 16-spice blend and togarashi chili, which gave every bite a hint of spice. This created a much more enhanced flavour profile and layered the flavours well. All the individual parts of this dish combined well to create a great fried chicken, but like the other dishes, there was a flaw – it was too sweet. However, when you combined the chicken with the rice, they cancelled each other’s flaws and created an amazing bite. By itself, the fried chicken gets a FREATS rating of 8.5/10, but with the fried rice, they get a combined FREATS rating of 9/10.

For dessert, we ordered the sticky toffee pudding, which was good, apart from the fact that the ice cream had way too much rum. The pudding, toffee, and dates were great, but the ice cream was completely overpowering and didn’t let the rest of the flavours shine. Thus, this dish gets a FREATs rating of 7/10.

R&D was a great experience, and each bite was an explosion of flavour. Ironically, if they pulled back on these flavours a bit, every dish would’ve been more enjoyable. Overall, R&D gets a FREATS rating of 8.5/10, and it was a great place to spend a special day. The next time I go, I’ll get their “Best Duck in the City”, which according to them, is supposed to be the best duck in the city. It’s their most famous dish, but it serves 3 – 4, and we were only 2 and wanted to try more items on the menu. If you’re around downtown, I would definitely recommend you visit R&D, it’s right at Spadina and Dundas. Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll catch you guys on the next one!