A Toronto restaurant that's gradually reopening is raising their prices by 15 per cent.

Roger Yang is the owner of vegan restaurant Avelo, and will be raising prices due to multiple factors when they reopen this month.

He's raising prices to account for reduced capacity due to COVID restrictions, increased cost of things like ingredients, and to increase wages to account for the cost of living.

The restaurant is known for sophisticated vegan dining, with dishes like pastas, soups and plant-based cheese boards.

"While we have always had competitive and more equitable wages, we want to ensure that we're always able to attract and cultivate top talent for both the kitchen and service," Yang tells blogTO.

"This is separate from the service charge, which replaced tipping."

He's also planning to do pricing at his new restaurant Osteria Du along the same lines when it reopens shortly after Avelo.

Osteria is an evolved indoor dining extension of Pizzeria Du, and will be serving four-course prix fixe plant-based Italian meals.

"Dining has long been underpriced in most Toronto restaurants, making it difficult to balance numbers and pay fair wages even during good times," says Yang.

"I'm seeing that customers are more able to understand and appreciate the costs and work involved, and that means that the industry will be in a better position to recover, and also to raise wages to more sustainable levels."

Avelo is planning to reopen on July 23. Both Avelo and Du posted about a week ago that they were hiring for server and cook positions.