“Mini Jatoba” Kozu Lands on the Plateau

Former supper club and bottle service spot Rachel Rachel is back — but now it’s a brasserie, named Kozu.

As Eater highlighted a couple of months back, the Rachel Street space has been remade as something akin to a mini version of downtown fusion restaurant Jatoba. The same chef, Olivier Vigneault, is behind the food side of it — the feel overlaps with that of Jatoba (see: gyoza, dumplings, salads), but Kozu has a longer menu, and a heftier selection of fish options, from crab bao to sesame pan-fried salmon. It’s billed as Chinese and Japanese-inspired — in practice, that means that rather than attempting to reproduce traditional dishes, it’s just grounded in flavours or ideas from those cuisines, but with a few novel elements added in (see: chestnut-vegetable dumplings).

Vigneault is just one partner in Kozu, along with David Schmidt (owner of Kabinet, and a major player in numerous other bars and restaurants), and A5 Hospitality (Kampai Garden, amongst many others). Designer Amlyne Phillips — who has been behind numerous other A5 designs executed another solid interior here, with a classy (but not ostentatious) marble open kitchen, and white oak flooring — take a look.

Grid View

STATUS — Kozu is open at 500 Rachel from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.

• The Rachel Rachel Reboot is Taking Shape in the Plateau [EMTL]