Spice Route Features Asian Antiques, Outdoor Koi Pond

Nick Di Donato of the Liberty Entertainment Group and Charles Khabouth of Ink have collaborated on a second venue following the opening of Tattoo Rock Parlour, their first joint venture, which launched late last year. The pair opened the doors to Spice Route, a bistro-bar on King Street West, on May 1. The pan-Asian restaurant features 8,000 square feet of space inside—including two private rooms—and a 3,000-square-foot patio that looks onto the street and wraps around the east side of the building.

Designed by Nadia Di Donato, Liberty Entertainment Group's creative director, Spice Route incorporates a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Indian aspects. The entranceway features antique teak Asian doors, flanked by two water urns and flaming torches. "We're not going to do any signage. I think it's going to speak for itself," Di Donato said during a tour. "People are going to know where it is." Inside, many of the artifacts that dress the space are imports. But several pieces, including the hand-carved Burmese goddess that graces the reception area, are from Di Donato's personal collection of Asian antiques.The main dining room, which seats 276, features a dark palette with plush fabrics in various shades of brown and black. "I wanted to go with the dark colours. I wanted to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction from all the whites and harder materials that are often used," Di Donato said. A black granite bar, featuring lit-up glass panels of bird's eye maple wood veneer, surrounds a 16-foot waterfall in the centre of the room. A second smaller bar provides all of the tea service for the restaurant. Eco-friendly bamboo covers the floors, and oversize images photographed and then painted onto the restaurant walls by artist-photographer Douglas MacRae decorate the space.

Spice Route includes two private rooms, the first of which is off the lounge area near the entrance, with plush red seating for 20. A king-size Chinese bed frame filled with red rose petals and topped with glass serves as an oversize table. The second private area, at the top of a small staircase at the back of the restaurant, has audiovisual equipment and holds 22.

The restaurant's seven restrooms all feature floor-to-ceiling windows that look into a private garden (which is inaccessible by patrons) where a 10-foot winged statue stands in the grass. (Di Donato also designed the much-talked-about coed washrooms at C Lounge, another Liberty Entertainment Group venue.) Outside, the patio features a functioning koi pond and cabanas with custom cement fixtures topped with cushions covered in a suede-textured outdoor fabric. The patio holds 150.

The menu, created by executive chef Winlai Wong—formerly of Monsoon Restaurant—includes a selection of sharing plates like pork potstickers and Kobe carpaccio. Rice and noodle dishes include Cantonese chow mein, Singapore rice noodles with wok-seared beef and spicy curry sauce, and Mandarin-sizzled fried rice with barbecue roast pork and sweet peas. Desserts, created by Sharon D’Costa, Liberty Entertainment Group’s executive pastry chef, include mango and apple dragon rolls served with pineapple strawberry salsa and Szechuan pepper caramel, lemongrass and ginger crème brûlée topped with chocolate chopsticks, and tempura banana served with vanilla-bean ice cream.