The Review: It Gets Emotional at Chef Chanthy Yen’s Touk

There are few pleasures in life that—when a really outstanding experience happens—can elicit tears. Weddings, graduations, big life milestones. For some, that pleasure is food, and it happened when Top Chef Canada Season 11 winner chef Chanthy Yen served an absolutely immaculate bowl of borbor, a Cambodian-style congee, to judge Mijune Pak.

When I was treated to the same dish, one year after watching that particular episode, on a visit to the newly-opened Touk earlier this month, it was easy to understand why the carefully crafted dish could bring one to (happy) tears. 

Chef Yen’s famous borbor ($32) is a Cambodian rice porridge that’s layered so perfectly, each bite is a delightful surprise. With laksa-style flavours, delicate spoonfuls of congee reveal unanticipated crunches of puffed rice, then tender, squeaky bites of spot prawn or squid, spiced delicately with a kampot pepper foam.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Celebratory tears could also extend to the opening of Touk itself—Yen’s first solo restaurant venture in which he’s the head chef, having previously cooked at vegan spot Nightshade and helmed the pack as culinary director of Kitchen Table Group. His other claim to fame, by the way, was being the personal chef of former Canadian prime minister (and current boyfriend to Katy Perry) Justin Trudeau.

Where much of Canada fell in love with him, though—his hometown of Vancouver very much included—was on the small screen during his winning season of Top Chef Canada, where we would see (but sadly, not taste) his passionately crafted dishes from our living rooms each week.

We no longer have to simply imagine how Chef Yen’s plates might taste, as his Cambodian-Canadian concept Touk opened its doors on Alberni Street in late December.

In the 50-seater dining room (which includes an upper level bar), there are textured walls with lights popping out at each table, giving off an ambient glow. Walnut wood tones and rattan accents make up much of the restaurant’s decor, while behind a white stone bar is a smoked mirror. Most prominently, though, is a triptych panel mural on the restaurant’s north wall by Cambodian artist Fonki. Hidden in the panels are a representation of Yen himself with a chicken, an amusing nod to his culinary family lore.

Once, back in Cambodia when Yen was hungry, his dad told him it was his responsibility to go get his own food. Yen walked into his backyard, then back into the kitchen, holding a chicken. “And that’s how I learned to cook,” he laughed.

But in seriousness, Touk is a first of its kind in Vancouver. Boasting all share plates, the dishes at Touk are all made with Cambodian ingredients and executed with French-Cambodian technique.

The pommes dauphine ($18), for example, are perfectly crisped fried potato puffs, topped with crème fraiche and trout roe for a bite that’s all-at-once crunchy, tender and savoury—with a pleasant burst of salt. Similarly, the chicken wings ($18), tossed in roasted rice salt, have a perfect crisp to their skin, revealing a tender meat inside. Two dipping sauces—a peppery tamarind and a green mignonette—are served alongside them.

Yen’s take on these elevated share starters, naturally, pair well with their Southeast Asian-inspired drinks developed by bar manager (and 2025 Restaurant Awards Bartender of the Year) Tara Davies: the Sora ($20)—a tequila drink with East Indian solera, pandan, lemongrass and banana fat-washed water and carbonation—and the Kha-Fey ($21), a Cambodian take on the ever-popular espresso martini. A thick, foamed condensed milk sits atop a martini full of St. Remy brandy, spent coffee liqueur, toasted rice and cold brew. If there’s a heaven, they’re serving this cocktail there. And speaking of piety, each of the aforementioned cocktails also double as zero-proof options for those inclined to skip the spirits.

As heartier fare starts to arrive at the table, palates are whet for what’s to come: the twa ko ($26), a grilled beef sausage seasoned with galangal and toasted rice that reminds me, loosely, of the Isaan sausage that I tried at Sainam, with its crispy cabbage and fermented house pickles. The prawn nantua ($24)—grilled and tossed in a sweet red curry with the taste of charred lemon—melts in the mouth, while the leftover spice dances on the tongue.

Then, the saraman ($42) steals the show. Slow-simmered beef cheeks are smothered in a fragrant curry, made with coconut cream and served alongside tender chunks of kabocha, an earthy Japanese squash, and decorated by crunchy lotus chips. This dish, Yen tells our table, is something you’ll “want to take your time on.” While the dish is definitely meant to savour, it’s difficult not to devour in record time.

 

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Then comes the menu item that can turn on the waterworks: Yen’s borbor. It’s a comforting indulgence, multi-layered in both texture and taste.

Rounding out the meal is the magret de canard ($48), a duck breast rubbed in coffee and spices for 48 hours before charred and lightly grilled, served with watermelon radishes and galangal, along with a pistou of prahok.

To end our journey through Yen’s culinary mind and memory, we try two desserts: the mochi crueller ($19) and the guava cake ($16). Both gently toe the line between Cambodian and French tastes; the mochi crueller leaning into a savoury foie gras, with confit apples and rum raisins soaking in a pandan basil oil, topped with a scoop of kampot peppercorn gelato; and the guava cake ($16) revealing a spongy, tropical taste, decorated by scorched marshmallow ganache and flecks of candied orange.

As our table practices false modesty in scooping up the last scraps of dessert left on the plate (“No, you go ahead!” “It’s yours!”), Yen leans in to whisper in my ear.

“My heart is so warm,” he says. And I imagine there’s more than one dish here that could bring someone to tears.

Touk
1152 Alberni St.