Toronto’s cheapest, and maybe best noodles, are hidden in an alleyway

Toronto’s most inexpensive, most flavourful, and most hidden noodle shop is tucked away in a west end alley.

It’s getting cold (and that sucks) but there is one local chef who, for the last few months, has been running a secret noodle shop behind a Parkdale bar that is a sanctuary from the upcoming winter blues.

Vei Chong, a gourmand who has worked in high-end kitchens between Toronto and Montreal, has been running Tapow from a hidden patio space ever since this summer.

Specializing in Malaysian-style street fare, the spot has been earning immense praise from those cunning enough to find it.

“It took me a minute to figure out exactly what I wanted; I spent roughly two to three weeks just sitting in my house, burning through my own kitchen supplies, and just testing recipes that I could remember from my childhood, because those memories are so prominent for me and I wanted to bring them back,” Chong tells yourcitywithIN.

[Vei Chong prepping for a back alley dinner rush at Tapow]

Tapow’s genesis, according to Chong, has been a long time coming, as he spent the last several years tinkering with recipes through celebrated food pop-ups all over town.

Now, with a place to call his own, Chong is taking everything he has learned, be it from home kitchens, fancy dinner services, and street corner pop-ups, and is applying it to building his own culinary clubhouse.

“This is hot cooking, just a wok and some propane, and you learn things along the way; you can try and tackle it in the style of French cooking, hold your cookware with a rag and such, but that’ll catch fire quick. Here, I get to be a renegade; I pretty much told the owners of the bar [Dystopia] that I wanted to do some noodles behind their shop, and they said to go for it,” says Chong.

[All ingredients are sourced from local grocers and butchers at Tapow]

Whether you access Tapow through the alley or the bar’s back door, you’ll be greeted with a heated patio, a cozy atmosphere, aromas, and yes, a big TV with some Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros.

Beyond that, the menu, which features Hokkien mee, pork, shrimp, cabbage, and noodles, tossed in pork fat in a wok; mie goreng: noodles with egg, chicken, and veggies, caramelized in the master sauce; and the Tapow burger, a spicy burger Chong reverse-engineered from his favourite food stand in Malaysia — is only around $10.

“Basically, affordable and fun is all I wanted to do from the start, because let’s face it, for some restaurants in this city, the number one thing they aim to do sometimes is screw you over. I want people to come in and have a good time; that’s important to me. I mean, half of this menu is inspired by places that were by my school growing up,” says Chong.

As for how Tapow came to be, Chong notes that between pop-ups, he was shopping around for a place to call his own. However, moonlighting as a stand-up comedian, he stumbled upon Dystopia’s unused back patio and realized he’d found a diamond in the rough.

[Hokkien Mee getting ready to be served at Tapow]

“Between the comedy and karaoke, I found myself hanging out here a lot, and realized, man, I really like these guys; they’re the right kind of wacky and fun. So when they showed me out back, I just ended up going for it, because my girlfriend was like, ‘You’re basically living there, you got your comedy, now go get your food,’” says Chong.

What followed was Chong tackling an abandoned shed and getting it up to code, dragging in fridges and deep fryers more or less by himself.

Now, with an established rhythm at Tapow, the place is a neighbourhood spot for couples and families to grab inexpensive authentic takeout, as well as a late-night nook for regulars at Dystopia to stumble into to get a healing plate of noodles.

Something that, as a man who aims to comfort above all else, Chong is quite pleased with, as he states:

[Chong, in his element, plating for the dinner rush at Tapow]

“It’s what it’s all about; I get to ask people about their day, hang out with them, and ask them how they are… I like to make people happy; I like making people laugh, and making sure they are well fed. If their stomachs are full and their faces hurt from laughing, I’ve done my job.”

Tapow can be found behind Dystopia at 1704 Queen Street West and will be rolling out a soup-heavy winter menu any day now.