New Toronto restaurant brings inclusive and accessible space to neurodiverse people

Sarang Kitchen is a new Toronto restaurant that provides an inclusive, accessible space for neurodiverse people. (Sarang Kitchen/Owen Nam)

When Jennifer Low and Deon Kim moved to Toronto last year, talks of opening up their own restaurant came to the forefront.

Kim, a chef with countless recipes and a drive to experiment with flavours, and Low, a specialist teacher with decade-long experience working with neurodiverse children, thought to combine their skills (and dreams) together to create Sarang Kitchen – an inclusive space for all their diners.

“I was thinking, ‘Instead of just a restaurant, why not make it more special and something that can, you know, make the world a better place?’” Low told CTV News Toronto.

Through Low’s career experience, planning activities with the kids she teaches and works with, she says there aren’t many accessible or inclusive places for neurodivergent people.

“When we go on outings, we still get a lot of stares from people and from the public that don’t understand or are not as accepting, and for my students, I like to bring them out for meals and shopping – you know, things that teenagers like to do,” she said, adding she has heard from parents who haven’t taken their kids out to eat since they were still crawling.

“It hit me that’s something we take for granted, going out for meals with family can be such a stressful and hard to come by opportunity for families with neurodiverse kids.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Sarang Kitchen | 💯 Halal حلال | Korean Fried Chicken (@sarangkitchento)

Sarang Kitchen opened up its doors on March 11 in Dovercourt Village, just east of Dufferin station. The restaurant serves up Korean fried chicken – made with halal chicken – and snacks, and party platters that can be shared among the table.

“The reason why we got this place was because I could envision building a sensory room,” she said. “I think it’s really important for [the] neurodivergent community because there’s somewhere for them to take a break, for employees and also for our customers.”

Inside the sensory room calm music quietly plays, the lights are dimmed and there is a fish tank to look at.

The restaurant also provides weighted blankets, sensory boxes that contain fidget toys and noise cancelling headphones, and there is even an AAC core board which helps non-verbal people communicate with others.

“Sometimes for people on the spectrum, once the get scared or shocked, the first thing they do is to run,” Low said. “Having a booth seat is actually quite important because we want to keep them safe […] our restaurant has booth seating and it has bean bags as well.”

Outside of creating an inclusive space for their customers, the owners make a point to do the same with their staff.

“Our training materials and the way we work with them, it’s very individually catered so,” Low said, as the restaurant makes a point to employ neurodivergent staff. “We usually have chats with them to ask them what’s going well, what’s the best way they can learn, or what’s the best way we can function in the workplace, and we try our best to accommodate to that.”

Sarang Kitchen, a certified living wage employer, also follows a “hospitality included” model where all front of house and back of house staff get compensated equitably and tips are discouraged.

“We just wanted to make sure that our employees are paid fairly, and we don’t want them to be relying on tips which can kind of go up and down, and that’s quite stressful,” Low said Whatever tips that are given to staff are evenly distributed to all employees based on the number of hours worked.

In the next few years, Low hopes to eventually be able to bring a restaurant like this to the students she used to work with when she lived in New Zealand.

“But of course, we would love to have a few more outlets and hopefully spread the idea that it’s not that difficult to be inclusive and accessible,” she said. “And also to spread the idea that neurodiversity is actually something that should be embraced.”