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2021-03-26
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Summary: Interesting and crowd-pleasing food that takes a lot of flavor shortcuts, and turns out to be pretty satisfying. With lots of mushroom, uni and seafood in the menu, it's flavor bomb after flavor bomb, with a heavy Japanese influence. Currently without liquor license which means BYOB (^_^), but even when they get a liquor license, I think this place is worth a try, especially if you live in the area.Umami Factory is located between Caine and Staunton on Aberdeen (the shoplot Al Forno use
Umami Factory is located between Caine and Staunton on Aberdeen (the shoplot Al Forno used to occupy), and it uses the tiny space well, converting the pizza oven area into a bar. It's homey and comfortable, and they've made the interesting decision to add a couple of couches, in particular a comfy one facing out onto Aberdeen for people-watching.
The menu is cool, going for lingering, grazing offerings with lots of dishes that pair well with alcohol or as small bites
As you can see, lots of noodles/pasta, which works well for fusion food. They do rely quite heavily on umami-heavy ingredients, which can be a crutch for poor technique, but that wasn't the case overall. The menu is quite also inventive, experimental but always appealing, and it bodes well for a long restaurant run. We ordered a range of stuff to see what worked:Toro Tartare with Sea Urchin
Small bites - the toro is creamy (mixed with mayo?), and is nicely balanced with the crunchy seaweed base. The smudge of sea urchin they give you is pretty embarrassing though... rather they'd just left it out. Skippable.Fried Aji
A dream drinking snack, especially with the wine we brought... just nicely fried bite-sized fish. Surprised to see such small aji, but very tasty (not as generous a portion as it looks though; there's a bed of cabbage underneath)Chicken Skewers with Mozzarella
A big deal for two small skewers, but theater is part of dining isn't it? And the smoked Applewood does impart some (probably imagined) character to the chicken. The cheese is utterly flavorless though... i wonder if a cheddar or jack cheese wouldn't have been a better fit.Seafood Fregola
I'd never tried fregola before! Looks like rice but are wonderfully chewy pasta, and bathed in this super-fragrant seafood broth/sauce; it's a flavor bomb. The seafood was also surprisingly fresh (tasting at least), and all the ingredients worked without overpowering others. The first dish I thought lived up to the restaurant's name.Crab meat squid ink spaghetti
Tasty but didn't feel the sea urchin (which does look that sickly in person) was necessary or even really worked. The crab and lobster sauce are so strong that the subtleness of the uni gets lost. Visually though, love how the yellow uni pops against the squid ink, so there's that!Triple Chocolate Tart
My friend said this was great, but i didn't try.Overall, it's a great lunch/dinner spot for people in the neighborhood which isn't as overpriced and noisy as Soho, and offers better food than most of the dumps on Staunton or Elgin. I look forward to their liquor license to see what wines they pair with their idiosyncratic menu, but in the meantime, BYOB is awesome. It's a a step above neighborhood-food/local-fusion quality, but in terms of technique and polish, it's not quite at the level of other mid-upper tier restaurants like Kinship or 121BC. I think the menu is okay-priced though, and it's arguably a more pleasant experience than comparable places, between the location and the spacious vibe.
As such, while I'm not sure the food is enough of a draw to come from far and wide; if you live in the area, Umami Factory could be your new weeknight hangout.
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