[Korean] DOMA – CLOSED

Restaurant: Doma Toronto
Location: 50C Clinton Street, Toronto, ON M6G 2Y3
Price Range: $$$

Located in Little Italy, Doma is a French-inspired Korean restaurant that combines French cooking techniques with traditional Korean ingredients and flavors. According to the server, the menu changes every month so whatever I had in November’s menu might no longer be available. With that said, each month’s menu would include chef Paul Kim’s newest creations, as well as 2-3 popular dishes from the previous month.

Karen (stenoodie), Raymond (TravellinFoodie) and myself decided to do the “Tasting Whole Menu” for $65 per person where you will get an amuse bouche, 6 courses and a dessert. In terms of value, each dishes would come to around $10, I highly recommend it as you basically get to try the entire menu. My only issue with the tasting menu was that instead of getting a plate per person, you are getting shared plates instead, otherwise the experience was fantastic!

The potato leek foam was surprisingly refreshing with the salty fried leek as toppings.

I’m not a huge fan of beet due to its aftertaste, thus I thought this dish was alright. There were a lot of different flavors, but it didn’t really “mask” the beet’s aftertaste for me.

The sweet potato was perfect in term of texture, however the highlight here was definitely the sauce. It had a strong truffle flavor and incredibly flavorful.

The meaty octopus were well-seasoned and not too chewy at all. The salad were not drenched in sauce and it was quite refreshing, just a perfect starter for the upcoming main courses.

There was a slight smokiness in korean chili which didn’t pair well with the delicate seafood at all. I also thought the overall flavor in this dish was quite weak compared to the others, nonetheless, the seafood was done to perfection.

The pork jowl was incredibly moist, well-seasoned and the slight charred added an additional depth of flavor to the dish. The smokiness in the gochujang wasn’t overpowering and it was just spicy enough to give a light kick to the dish, yet didn’t take away the natural flavor of the pork jowl. This was definitely the highlight of the meal for me.

The grilled beef was nicely marinated and the picked radish added a refreshing component to the dish. Overall, it was a well-balanced dish and Doma really know how cook their meat!

The duck breast had a crispy skin and it was perfectly cooked, really tender. The mandoo or duck confit dumplings were divine with a thin wrapping. I thought the slight sweetness from the persimmon sauce paired really well with the gamey duck meat.

Both desserts were creative and had a subtle sweetness to it. This is my personal preference as I like to finish the meal with a light dessert, instead of overly sweet ones. The mugwart ice cream was an outstanding item. If I had to describe the flavor of mugwart, it would be similar to an unsweetened matcha ice cream with a strong grassy flavor, it was quite an acquired taste.

I’m sure you could tell, I loved most of the dishes at Doma. The menu was inventive, creative and it was definitely not your typical Asian dining at all. In addition, I applaud Chef Kim for combining fine dining into Korean cuisine and introducing it to Toronto’s dining scene. I can’t wait to see what else chef Paul Kim will offer and it is definitely a restaurant worth visiting at least once.

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