Alvin Leung Plans a Pan-Asian Steakhouse in Markham for September

Alvin Leung already has two Toronto addresses with Eric Chong: Chinatown’s R&D and one-Michelin-star aKin downtown. This September he is adding a third Ontario room, and it is not another tasting-menu kitchen. It is a steakhouse.

The Leo, announced in late July, is Leung’s first chophouse concept. The 68-seat restaurant lands at 162 Enterprise Boulevard in Downtown Markham, with an eight-seat bar and patios on both levels. Leung grew up in Scarborough, judged MasterChef Canada for its first seven seasons, and still calls Canada home. Markham, he told Toronto Life, is where he already has a fan base across Chinese and Southeast Asian diners. “I didn’t want to open just another chop house,” he told BlogTO. “The Leo is about taking premium beef and seafood and serving it with flavours I’ve spent my career cooking.”

The board will carry Canadian Prime and Australian Wagyu beside chophouse standards such as crab cakes and steak tartare. The sharper pitch is seafood and seasoning drawn from East and Southeast Asian cooking, the same free range of references that shaped Leung’s X-treme Chinese work at Bo Innovation in Hong Kong. That Central room currently holds two Michelin stars; it previously held three.

Diners can order à la carte or take a three-course set starting at $120, with a choice of appetizer, steak or seafood, and dessert. Leung has said the format comes from Café Bau, his Michelin-recommended Hong Kong project with LUBUDS, and that sets will scale for one, two, four, or six people. BlogTO describes a Van Gogh-inspired dining room. Joining him from aKin are chef Edan Lister-Stevens, the Stratford Chefs School alum who is executive sous there, and beverage director Nathan Murray.

Enterprise Boulevard already hosts hotel dining, sushi upstairs, and a Ruth’s Chris a short walk away. The denser everyday Chinese map still sits farther into Agincourt plazas and Pacific Mall. The Leo is aiming at a different night: a chef-known chophouse for diners who want steak and seafood dressed the way Leung cooks, without booking aKin’s blind tasting.

With R&D’s Bib Gourmand lane and aKin’s star already on the books, the September open is Leung planting a third flag closer to the suburban GTA audience he says already knows his food. Reservations and hours have not been published yet. For now the useful facts are the address, the September target, and the menu shape: Prime and Wagyu, seafood with Asian seasoning, and a set that starts at $120.