West Hill Wine Bar

Address: 4637 Kingston Rd. (at Manse Rd.), 416-724-0970 or 289-224-9463, westhillwinebar.com

Chef: Chris Kanka

Hours: Lunch, Monday to Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner, Monday to Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.

Reservations: Yes

Wheelchair access: Yes

Price: Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip: $125

Jamie Kennedy, watch your back. There are new fries in town.

You will find these potato paragons on the motel strip of Kingston Rd. in Scarborough.

It’s not a neighbourhood that screams “fine dining,” yet this is exactly what the unobtrusive West Hill Wine Bar offers.

Chef Chris Kanka opened West Hill last September as a way to bring downtown food to the east end. He is a classicist who churns his own ice cream, arranges food with flair and makes a demi-glace to be proud of.

Kanka, 38, blazed this trail after competing in Season 1 of Top Chef Canada, from which he was eliminated after losing episode five’s poutine battle.

“I’m still angry about that. The challenge was to ‘recreate poutine.’ I used sweet potatoes and a cheese fondue for gravy. (Judge) Chuck Hughes said my version was phenomenal, so I don’t understand how I lost,” Kanka says.

A poutine defeat is hard to comprehend, given Kanka’s way with fries at West Hill. He uses russet potatoes for maximal crispness, cutting them supermodel thin and salting them just so. Fresh thyme, rosemary and parsley brightens them, while chipped Grana Padano cheese adds umami richness.

Such nuances of flavour are in contrast to West Hill’s plain looks. The stripped-down dining room is decorated with Dr. Seuss aphorisms. The restaurant transmits its personality through the eclectic menu and its affable servers, who notice everything.

There clearly is a wine focus, with Riedel and Luigi Bormioli stemware tailored for Coriole Redstone shiraz ($11) or Tik Tok Sauvignon Blanc ($7).

There are moments when it’s clear we’re not in a trendy downtown restaurant, such as finding warm roasted garlic to spread on cottony baguette slices, an idea I associate with the ’80s. Palate-cleansing sorbets are also out of vogue.

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For the most part, though, Kanka stays contemporary. He transforms long Asian eggplants ($9) into miso-glazed pleasure boats. He grounds his smoky seafood chowder ($11) with cubed celeriac and a spark of fresh tarragon.

A quenelle of chopped braised beef — think warm tartare — stars in a painstaking appetizer salad ($14). Kanka is proud to make his own crème fraîche (enlivened with fresh horseradish) and to peel grape tomatoes before simmering them in duck fat.

Chefs use the word “deconstructed” to get to the essence of a familiar dish. Here, the elaborate Caesar salad ($11) is better described as “constructed.” Kanka ties a stack of romaine leaves with ribbons of prosciutto and white anchovy like a bridal bouquet. Dots of dressing are precious; ditto the long curling tuile. But the anchovy-strong dressing keeps it real.

When you order chicken — and you should — know that Kanka vacuum-cooks the breast ($24) for optimal moistness. He balances the earthy sweetness of the accompanying pale pink beets with rich scalloped potatoes and textbook haricots verts.

Steak is another winner. You pay by the ounce ($4 for tenderloin, $3 for strip loin), an option I wish more restaurants offered. This is where the fries come in, as well as that demi-glace, a cooked-down sauce that tastes like meat times 10.

He glamourizes moist organic salmon ($16) with a tart golden sauce that’s zabaglione meets hollandaise. It’s a satisfying carb-free meal, with its cornucopia of frisée wrapped in cucumber slices. But Kanka does good things with pasta, like the spaghettini ($18) and shrimp splashed with garlic, olive oil and red wine.

Dessert is even more surprising. Sous-chef Brian Palanik’s chili-kissed pecan tart ($11) tastes like spicy holiday nuts. A mini-Bundt carrot cake ($11) is smartly paired with intense lime sorbet.

But it’s the chocolate fondue ($13), perhaps more than the fries, that is West Hill’s greatest gift to the neighbourhood.

It’s simple, really: Melted Toblerone chocolate beefed up with oodles of pure cocoa powder and smoothed with cream. You’re meant to dip hairy rambutans, finger-sized bananas and cut pineapple into it, and then drink the leftover chocolate straight from the cup.

“You’d be surprised how many people leave half a cup of chocolate behind,” says the server.

After finding good food at West Hill, nothing surprises me.