Toronto, ON, Canada — Mhel may be all of 645 square feet, but its presence looms large.

Not only did it garner a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation, but last week it also landed on the No. 27 spot on the 2026 list of the “50 Best Restaurants North America,” up from No. 44 last year.

Mehl is not fancy, not formal, but cozy, charming, and full of life.

Husband-and-wife team Ji Young-Hoon and Yi Seung-min opened the restaurant in 2023, naming it after the word for “anchovy” in the Jeju dialect, spoken in Dangjin, Korea, where Yi’s mother was born.

Ji is the executive chef of this compact 30-seat restaurant, 12 of which are bar seats situated right in front of him and the open kitchen much like a sushi counter. Yi runs the front of house and is beverage director.

The food is a delightful mix of Japanese and Korean, and the ambiance very much like that of an izakaya, where sharing small plates over sake is definitely the way to go.

We managed to snag seats at the bar, the best vantage point to wach Ji and his team in action.

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