pend more than a million bucks on what was a former car dealership and you too can have a spot capable of luring the highly desirable King West masses. Indeed, the scaffolding has come down and the heavily anticipated Spice Route opens to the masses tonight. The new Ian Schrager–esque restaurant has been generating much buzz, as this is the latest big-budget effort from Nick Di Donato (Liberty Group) and Charles Khabouth (INK).

The two club kings, who have earned their impressive stripes, surprised the local masses last year by teaming up in order to produce the Tattoo Rock Parlour. With Tattoo, the layout and design was in the hands of Khabouth (Guvernment, Ultra Supper Club and Dragonfly), who cleverly spun out a big-budget, graffiti-drenched residual squalor.

With Spice Route, the design is all Liberty Group. Or more specifically, creative director Nadia Di Donato primed the space into what is destined to be a perennial favourite. When the partners took over the space – which was previously the short-lived Touch Lounge (originally, the building was a Mitsubishi dealership) – in 2007, they quickly went to work turning the 8,000sq space into their definition of a Buddha bar-esque restaurant.

Di Donato knew what it would take to bring the large, square space to life. Her vision was to set all inhibitions aside and outfit the space in pure Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Indian regalia. Fast forward a year, and oversized antique doors now welcome you into a huge, dark and earthy space, tricked out with its bamboo flooring and Douglas MacRae wallpaper (gorgeous photography? Look closer – these are handcrafted paintings).

With dollar sign design and nonchalant Buddha statues in tow – and not a sign in sight – Spice Route boasts a natural physical and attitudinal resemblance to Chicago’s Japonais; A hand-carved Buddha icon from the 1600’s hovers over the host station. Walls are pockmarked with tea light candles.

The dark lounge area is outfitted with cowhide leather ottomans (custom-built by Dragonair) and sultry lounge beats. The bar – a gorgeous wood-crafted monolith – centers the room. A slick 16ft waterfall serves as a semi opaque wall-divider. Dark wood dining tables are on an elevated level, which surrounds the entire main area.

A VIP room dubbed the “Harem Room,” is in our opinion, a genius idea. Tucked in a corner – roped off from the plebs – this room is tricked out with banquette seating and a huge cocktail table (an antique bed, in a previous life) filled with rose pedals. “They were soaked in glycerine to keep from withering”, says Di Donato.

The 220-seat capacity dining room opens out onto a hedonistic, wrap-around patio where concrete blends with cedar, and koi swim alongside diners, happily in their custom-built pond. It’s in small things like this that Di Donato tips her hand, slowly revealing the nocturnal naughtiness behind this huge area that begs for a compelling ounce of summer heat.

Spice Route’s lure, however, will be Executive Chef Winlai Wong’s ambitious roll call of homeland northern heat and southern sweet treats. There is an inexhaustible list of shared plates to play around with. The menu includes dishes like the dim sum platter (shrimp shui mai – Buddha vegetable dumplings). Thai crab cakes are plated with a fiercely spicy purple basil aioli. Spiced chicken & Peking duck lettuce wraps glisten with a brandied hoisin sauce. The distinctive wasabi-crusted shrimp are further fueled by a potent ginger & Malaysian mango dipping.

Wong’s nostalgia for this Indo-Chinese mix reflects not just her years behind the stoves at Monsoon Restaurant, but growing up in Toronto with cuisines of south and east Asia. Spice Route could be the spotlight that Kwong deserves, as her culinary skills shine with a standout talent for combining strong and subtle flavours. Media demands don’t mean that Wong has taken her eye off the stove. Wong’s father, and mentor, Manfred Wong (Canton China) joins her in the kitchen, creating a menu specifically designed to enjoy the tradition of Asian culture.

As a bombastic, if derivative, restaurant and lounge, Spice Route ultimately showcases its owners’ mega budget muscles in a design-heavy fashion that goes beyond mere architecure: Joeffer Caoc designed Spice Route’s staff uniforms. DJ Julien Nolan (French Riviera) has been brought in as house DJ to dish out his signature electro disco and house mixes. A henna artist is stationed near the washrooms (six individual rooms that look out onto a private garden), ready for your henna-treatment pleasure.

And, if you didn’t quite get Spice Route out of your system, you can take a piece of it home with you: Producer/ DJ, Nick Fiorucci has produced the Spice Route “The Journey Begins” CD. Pick up a copy, as its hip quotient is quite high in itself.

Address: 499 King Street West, Toronto, ON
Contact: 416-849-1808
Cuisine: Asian
Area: King West
Venue: Restaurant, Lounge
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 5:00pm-1:00am
Sat. 5:00pm – 2:00am
Price Range: $$$ (within reach)
Payment: Master Card, Visa, American Express