Visit Us
We are a first come, first serve restaurant with a daily rotating menu, every day is a surprise and an opportunity to be creative for you.
Your order will be taken at the counter. We love to take the time to walk you through our menu of the day. You’ll seat yourself in our dining room or charming outdoor patio.
Your finely plated dishes will arrive one by one. We will introduce ingredients and social history of every dishes placed on your table. This is what we stand for and wake up every day excited to do. Food's power resides in its humanity, and this is also how your flavour journey with us starts.
*Please note, large party of 8 guests and more can be accommodated if capacity permits.
Intentional hospitality
When you walk-in into our restaurant, you will immediately notice that we have a unique way to approach dining hospitality. Our decisions are guided by our intention to be true to ourselves. Through food, we've all once in our lives felt seen, felt understood, and cared for by someone who has cooked for us. After reflecting, we realized what we long for is how food makes us feel cared for. And so, we are designing a restaurant experience that is more than about just serving food. The difference lies in the choice of humanizing food and food service. We asked ourselves: what if we could take a step back from our days and age restaurant culture, what if we could slow it down, sprinkle a bit of warmth and connection, a few tablespoon of democratization and ethics, what could we have?
Let's take it from the beginning. At its core, the social function of food is one of identities. Food tells you something about others. It can also cement bonds with others, conjure memories, and carry stories. Food can tell a story of belonging. Sure, food can be a divider and an excluder. However, iv opening this restaurant we hold the narrative. We want to create an inclusive space, a shared space to share belonging together.
If food is all about our humanity, then, why does dining at restaurant can feel so detached from this said essence? We do not believe that servers and line-cooks should be hidden in plain sight. That dining rooms should be dark, that everyone should speak quietly, and that your surrounding tables should all remain strangers. We have been touched by the magical power of food. Its warmth, its nostalgia, its ability to make whole when emptiness resides, and its ability to make friends where there were none. We do not want our restaurant to be a place that embodies anonymity. On the contrary, our restaurant is a place of belonging, of community, and humanity. We, as the staff of GTE, are all in agreement to make your dining experience one that is above and beyond one of being fed, but one of connection and care.
The pandemic made visible deep issues in the restaurant industry. Low wages, hierarchy, part time "gig" culture, and burnout all came to light. But we can guarantee you, us from food industry, are all craft makers and passionate about bringing good into people's lives. When we were planning to open this restaurant at the height of the pandemic, we knew that if we were going to do this, it had to be different. We are working hard to create a space to enable both BOH and FOH to share each other's passion with each other and break the boundaries between our stations so we can all together create a fair and inclusive maker's space for us all. This way, we can all collaborate in creating a restaurant that resonates with both employees and guests.
If food is a testament of our humanity’s journey. It tells the stories of our ancestors' journeys, their social movements through history that influenced each other’s cultures.
We are dedicating ourselves to offer these stories as part of your meal experience at GTE.