What to know
- Dinners are intimate, 20-person gatherings in a neighbour’s apartment led by Daniel Tuba D’Souza.
- Menus draw inspiration from D’Souza’s travels, with each meal featuring unique international flavours.
- It’s BYOP (Bring Your Own Plate) and BYOB, creating a relaxed, communal feel.
- The experience is about making connections—no profit, just good food and new friends.
Give your taste buds an international experience right here in Toronto at this local’s pop-up dinner inside his neighbour’s apartment.
Make new friends with the comfort of a home-cooked meal, inspired by part-time chef Daniel Tuba D’Souza’s travels. From Japanese to Portuguese food, be ready for an explosion of flavours in this cozy, intimate 20-person setting.
“It feels like you’re at a friend’s house,” D’Souza said.
What inspired these pop-up dinners?
Two years ago, D’Souza wanted his friends to connect, so he hosted a dinner with 10-12 dishes.
“Everyone would make a new friend, and that kind of just kept growing,” D’Souza told Now Toronto.
From there, he’d invite people he had just met, some people from work, just to make new friends.
Later, his neighbour Charles Voon offered to help out by hosting in his bigger apartment, and cooking in D’Souza’s apartment.
How does it work?
It’s BYOP, meaning Bring Your Own Plate, as there are too many people to be able to have that many dishes. It’s also BYOB, so it feels like going to dinner rather than a restaurant.
“I think just the feeling of like you’re in someone’s house. You’re not at a venue or something, you’re in an apartment, and I think that made it really special,” D’Souza said.
The pop-up dinners usually run on Sundays at 2 p.m. or Saturdays at 7 p.m. This time, the next one is being hosted on Saturday, June 27.
So, bring an individual six-inch plate and come ready to socialize. Expect appetizers, heavier foods such as grains or meat, and dessert.
“So, serving on the plate, then you take your plate, you eat it, and whenever you’re done, you just put it back on the number, and then we’ll handle cleaning if it needs to be cleaned. And then that way they’re ready for the next course,” he explained. “It is really like a big communal type of event.”
@thecookingtuba We’ve been running BYOB pop up dinner parties out of our apartments in Toronto for the past 2 years. The next one is coming up in a just a few weeks! Drop a comment to get on the waitlist 🍝
♬ sonido original – Jhey 🙂
How much does this experience cost?
To sustain the communal environment, D’Souza keeps the cost around $30 for six courses.
“We’re not trying to make any money from it, really, as long as we can cover the cost of food… I have a day job, and so it’s really about just being able to, like, meet new people and have my friends meet each other,” he said. “I think for me, the special thing is, like, it’s a way for me to show people that I love that I care about them, and that includes all the new people as well.”
What’s on the menu?
“A lot of times, the menu is based on somewhere I’ve travelled to,” D’Souza explained.
At the last pop-up dinner, he cooked Sichuan cuisine inspired by his trip to Shanghai, using traditional ingredients such as fermented bean paste and chilli sauce, and combining them with an Italian twist.
“I’ll go somewhere, I’ll find ingredients that are, like, very core to the region, are really interesting, and then figure out, like, kind of how to blend them with other dishes that I’ve tried out in a way that is both unique, but, like, familiar as well,” he said.
D’Souza also recently travelled to Korea, so expect Korean cuisine at this next pop-up event.
He rarely shares the menu in advance, but D’Souza gave Now Toronto a sneak peek at potential dishes such as
- Spicy rigatoni with black garlic gochujang butter
- Miso-ssamjang whipped tofu with garlic scapes and pork belly
- Assorted cold dishes and banchans
What’s his plan for the future of the pop-up dinners?
D’Souza plans to continue the dinners and hopes to partner with local brands to help cover food costs.
“I’d love to spend as much time cooking for friends as I possibly can. It’s kind of like my dream job being to host these pop-up dinners and meeting people,” he said.
