Toronto hasn’t seen anything quite like DaiLo before: an unexpectedly refined dining space serving New Asian Cuisine, or what the owners bill as “#sickasianfood.” At the front are tufted teal banquettes partitioned off by elegant filigree screens; across is a delicate, hand-painted mural channelling French Orientalism circa 1750. The space is a departure for Ian Rydberg, founder and principal designer at Solid Design & Build Inc., whose previous restaurant projects – like the scruffy-hip La Carnita next door and Valdez – tended toward the industrial (with street art accents). The dining room’s visual focus is a huge skylight anchoring the main bar, which was once an enclosed courtyard: in the early evening, diffuse sunlight bathes the green marble bar below in a soft glow, while at night, it’s illuminated by a bright red cage made to resemble a Chinese lantern (one of many eye-catching lighting designs by local firm Milke Bau).
