
Papi Chulo smokes marinated meats over wood for at least six hours to create an intense barbeque pit flavour that comes straight from the American Deep South. This spanking new smokehouse and grill is turning Hemmes’ Merivale restaurant stable into a rather unique and colourful piece of headwear. His latest venture is not just another feather onto his hat. Wong was awarded two hats and Best New Restaurant in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2014 in its first year of operation – quite a feat in itself, let alone in a cuisine completely foreign to his heritage. Hemmes’ has drawn first blood though – his modern Chinese restaurant Mr. His foray into Cantonese cuisine, taking on Chinatown heavyweight restaurants, is like Chuck Norris taking on Bruce Lee. From fine dining to casual fish and chips, from French, Italian and Japanese to modern Cantonese, Hemmes is reinventing the flavours of these cuisines with his own brand of flair and panache, offering points of difference that must surely be relegating competitors back to the drawing board. He now has a collection of restaurants in just about every foreseeable cuisine in Sydney. ~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~ It’s a well-known fact that restaurant linchpin Justin Hemmes don’t do things in halves. As long as you are okay with a bit of grease, you can expect a plethora of delicious toppings down to the last bite! Which I find an honestly rare! I also had a delicious Mojito to quench my thirst after the long walk, and it was super tasty - almost like the ones i have had in Mexico.“It’s so tasty, I’m digging the crap out of this crab” We didn't have much of an opinion of Papi Chulo's at first, but when we received our nachos, they were the best nachos I have received in all of downtown Toronto (cause I don't eat outside downtown Toronto lol). We came across Papi Chulo's and had no clue what the experience would be like - all we knew was we like Mexican food, and the music was fantastic.

In summary, I definitely recommend Papi Chulo's Mexicana for a casual friends get together, family time, or a date night! My experience: After a horribly long walk down Bloor and Ossington in the blistering 35 degree weather, my friend and I were super hungry and couldn't find a place that had a nice patio hidden from the sun.
