Quick note before we start: Alma y Gil isn’t ours. It’s owned by Gerry and Mandy, and it’s an independent partner we’re friends with, not something we own. We’re putting this on our site because it’s a really good example of a restaurant concept with a clear point of view, and that’s kind of our whole thing. But mostly it’s just a fun food story.
What a cha chaan tang actually is
If you’ve never been to Hong Kong, a cha chaan tang is a “tea restaurant.” Think casual diner, but Hong Kong style. They took a lot of Western influences, like toast, sandwiches and milky tea, and made them very much their own. Hong Kong milk tea is strong black tea with evaporated or condensed milk. Hong Kong French toast is thick, fried and usually drowned in something sweet. It’s fast, cheap, comforting food, the kind you eat at a crowded table with strangers.
For a lot of people who grew up with it, it’s pure nostalgia. And that’s exactly where Chef Mandy Sou’s version starts.
Mandy’s version of the Hong Kong cafe
Mandy cooked in Toronto kitchens like Globe Bistro, Yours Truly, Momofuku Noodle Bar and Linda Modern Thai, and kept coming back to the Hong Kong diner. At Alma y Gil she took those classic cha chaan tang flavours and gave them her fine dining background, without making it stuffy.
On Alma y Gil’s brunch menu you’ll find:
HK French Toast, deep fried, with kaya custard milk bread and very dark maple syrup.
Radish Cakes, steamed daikon that gets stir-fried with egg, scallion and chili crisp.
The Egg Sando, soft boiled egg with cold egg salad and nori on brioche.
HK Milk Tea, bottled, plus a Thai Milk Tea and a Yuzu Arnold Palmer.
The site also says classics like sorrowful rice are back, alongside newer dishes like shrimp toast and seasonal salads. Sorrowful rice is Chinese barbecue pork over rice with vegetables and a fried egg, and it’s inspired by Stephen Chow’s 1996 movie The God of Cookery, which is about as Hong Kong as a dish origin story gets. Shrimp toast is one of the new brunch dishes.
Now add a Mexican chef
Here’s the twist. The other half of the kitchen is Chef Gerry Quintero, who’s from Mexico and is very into nixtamalization, fermentation and dry aging. So this Hong Kong style cafe in Toronto also has a tortilleria. Like, an actual one. They sell house tortillas in two sizes plus salsa roja, salsa verde and a very hot lacto-fermented ginger habanero sauce.
On the brunch side that shows up as Chilaquiles with house nixtamalized corn chips, salsa, a sunny egg, crema and cotija. On cafe days there’s a Breakfast Taco on a fresh house tortilla with fried egg, potato, salsa roja and cotija.
Then there’s the drinks. Xoco Maiz is a purple corn lemonade with cacao and vanilla, with Peruvian and Mexican roots. Fun bit of history: Alma y Gil actually started out as a kombucha brewery, and the ALMA and GIL names come from Gerry’s grandparents. Kombucha isn’t on the current menu, but between the milk teas and the corn lemonade it’s still a drinks place in more ways than one.
Where the two meet
The breakfast sandos are where it really blends. The Belly Breakfast Sando and Avocado Breakfast Sando both have an over-easy egg, cheese chicharron and caramelized onion sauce on brioche. Chicharron is very Mexican. A soft egg sandwich on fluffy bread is very cha chaan tang. Put them together and noone asks which cuisine it is, they just eat it.
How it actually runs
The cafe side is open Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and it’s laptop friendly. Those are prep and admin days, so the menu is smaller, with cafe-only treats like a Ham + Egg Sando (mortadella, basil aioli, egg custard patty, milk bun) and a genmaicha cookie. Brunch is Thursday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can pre-order brunch for takeout through the site if your going to be in a rush. Dinner is paused for now (the reservations page says a new cafe-wine-bar is coming soon), and Mondays they’re closed.
Why this matters if you run a restaurant
Since you’re reading this on a restaurant marketing site, here’s the takeaway. Alma y Gil defintely isn’t trying to be “a Hong Kong cafe” in general. It’s Mandy’s Hong Kong cafe, with Gerry’s corn in it. That specificity is what makes people remember it, and it’s what makes it easy to talk about. Generic is forgettable. Personal sticks.
Alma y Gil is at 392 Dufferin St in Little Portugal, in the pocket locals call Beaconsfield Village (or just “Dufferin & Dundas”).