647 253 8000  |   $6-16 Small Plates, $23-27 Mains

Momofuku fever has hit Toronto pretty hard since its much-anticipated openings over the past week. Noodle bar gets mobbed at lunch daily and I’ve heard it’s been tough to get a reservation at Daisho or Shoto.

Thankfully, I managed to scoop up a table for 4 and invited a few friends to taste the creations of David Chang and former Acadia chef Matt Blondin.

Food

At first glance, the menu is sorted into some pleasantly unusual sections: miscellaneous starters, autumn, apple, starches, meat, large format meals, and dessert. It’s clearly designed for sharing, and once confirmed by our server, we got to ordering a spread for the table.

Some complimentary garlicky cucumbers arrived at our table right off the bat to get us started, which I’ve always taken as a sign of good things to come.

Our first appetizer to arrive was the cabbage with pork, pine nuts, and pok pok vinegar. My first impression was ‘I’m missing the pork and pine nuts’ from a flavour standpoint. Texturally, the firm cabbage and pine nuts provide a satisfying chew but I was hoping for assertive nuttiness and meat to compliment the vinegar.

Our next was eggplant with capsicum sauce, cardamom, and black olive. Very well-received at our table, this dish had really satisfying depth of flavour. The saucy eggplant was a comforting base for the olive and slight heat of the capsicum, and while it was hard to pick out cardamom, we could tell there something more to this dish. Definitely one of our favourites.

The wild rice with stinky tofu, oyster mushroom, and yuzu rounded out the trio of our first set of dishes. Another table favourite, we loved the texture of the rice. It was perfectly done, had the subtle varieties of crispiness that you expect from wild rice and the squishy quality of mushrooms. The stinky tofu wasn’t too fragrant and when mixed with the oyster mushrooms gave it a solid earthy quality. Maybe could use a touch more yuzu though?

The first of our next couple dishes was this famous import from Ssam Bar in New York: rice cakes, spicy pork sausage, chinese broccoli and tofu. The best part is undoubtedly the rice cakes, which are probably best described as crispy gnocchi with a soft and chewy interior. Such a pleasurable combination when joined with spice, pork, and greens for bitterness. I still dream about this one.

Our last dish pre-mains was the roasted (guessing) potatoes with fermented black bean, chili and orange. This was the only true miss of the meal, likely because none of us are super fond of fermented black bean. Maybe we’re too sensitive, but it’s use felt heavy-handed and the chili/orange promise didn’t seem to hit the plate. 

Our first main was a perfectly cooked hanger steak with mushed up kimchi sauce, a ginger scallion sauce, some caramelized onions and bibb lettuce for wrapping. Definitely a tasty bite when all combined, but we could have used more onions and a stronger bite from the kimchi (both in terms of texture and sharpness of flavour).

Our last main was likely the most inventive of the evening, which is no surprise since it’s concept is credited to wd-50. Each piece of chicken was juicy and tender (sous-vide?), the egg yolk sauce at the bottom added richness, and the carrots did their job. All that said, the mole chip both delighted and disappointed me. 

The delight? I’ve never seen it done before and after a bite of the chip, you get the slow sensation of some of the heat you’d fine in a mole. It challenges you’re preconception of what mole means to a dish.

The disappointment? My ideal mole smothers your mouth in heat, notes of chocolate and fruit, but still has a savoury quality that brings you back for more. It’s homey, decadent, and deep all at once. I found the mole chip was unable to convey all of that. 

After an ambitious meal, we decided to close it with a pear trifle with frangipane, bourbon and black sesame ice cream. I’ll warn you now, it comes in a really large bowl that will be challenging to finish between four people if you’ve eaten well that day. You’ll want to try though because the black sesame is very forward and creamy, and we had no trouble finding great flavour from the pear, almond, and bourbon in the trifle.

I will say though that the ice cream was more like a paste than anything; assuming it melted quite a bit before arriving at the table.

Service and Ambience

This place is just beautiful. You would think eating in a giant glass box would feel overly opulent, but it’s really tastefully designed inside and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. 

Great story from our waiter: More than $30,000 worth of plates and cutlery were originally purchased for the restaurant. David Chang came to Toronto to check on the project, told them not to bother with the fancy stuff, went to Chinatown just up the street and bought everything there. Today, the glitzy settings are still in storage and cheap stuff is on the tables.

Image credit: Momofuku Website

From a service perspective, this place was sensational for a restaurant whose doors opened only a few days prior. Our server was perfect: knowledgeable, conversational at the right times, and always helpful. Kudos upon kudos.

The Reco?

Toronto doesn’t have another restaurant like this: homey, classy, buzzing, and ambitious. Every dish isn’t hitting the mark yet, but you will certainly enjoy what does. It’s already one of the best ambiances in the city hands down, and within a few months, the kitchen’s likely to be even stronger. Personally, I can’t wait.

Other Reviews? 
Can’t find any others yet for Daisho. Plenty for Noodle Bar, which is currently swaying the Urbanspoon rating. Hopefully, they’ll separate the four restos soon. You can find some opinions on Yelp though.

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited Sep 28, 2012

416 274 8766  |   $17-34  Mains

Does King West have enough restaurants? Yes. Does it have enough good restaurants? Debatable. East of Spadina? There’s serious room for improvement.

While Weslodge isn’t precisely east of Spadina, it’s close enough to get folks who work downtown excited. I kept hearing people say they wanted to try the place with ‘the big yellow doors’, so I decided I’d head there and sample it. 

Food

A drink is definitely food, so I’ll start with what I drank. The mixed drink menu is a fair size and kinda pricey, and since this is a saloon, I felt compelled. 

The drink above was entitled the Gentlemen’s Quarterly. Quite strong, really pronounced herbal/licorice flavour. At first I was surprised at the size for $16, but it packed a punch.

After a few sips, our two starters arrived. The first, a scotch egg surrounded by chorizo with tomato jam and truffle. While quite tasty, the best thing on the plate is the jam. Chorizo and truffle felt like it was missing unfortunately.

Next up, awesome garlicky snap peas. If you want to start with something green, this will be a great choice. The parmesan and radish are fairly subtle, but these are just really fresh and delicious. We should have ordered two of them.

Our first main was the fried cornish hen with chantrelles, corn, and black kale. The sauce had a bourbon note to it which was great and the hen was quite moist. The breading was a bit thick and maybe lacked a bit of crunch, but I think the dish fell short due to lack of salt. It just felt under-seasoned and the flavours didn’t pop.

This dish was terrific. The veal cheek was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, but the balance of this dish was what sold me. The white bean puree provides a good hearty base, the escarole has a great sharp vinegar taste, the dates were just sweet enough, and the bacon adds just enough pork to round everything out.

We also ordered a side of carrots with harissa, yogurt, and crispy carrot tops. This was an unfortunate miss. It looked cool, but was ultimately more about harissa than carrot. I also thought the tops didn’t work given their lack of flavour and toughness.

Thankfully, the dessert was really creative to end the meal. It’s a cherry sorbet, with a machego cheesecake, melting chocolate bits and crumbs of condensed milk (I’m guessing) for texture. While the cherry wasn’t super pronounced, the machego cheesecake DEFINITELY tasted like manchego and the texture was really close to melting cheese. It’s hard to describe, but I think it’s a really unique composed dish.

Service and Ambience

It’s clear a ton of work went into to creating the vibe of this place. I’m terrible with describing these types of things, but the three words I’d use are old-fashion, ornate and open. I’ll say you can’t help but just look around for the first 10 minutes or so. 

Our service was great for the most part. The server was very personable, helped speed up our meal so we could make a flight, and ensured we had everything we needed. He did miss the carrots when we ordered it, but was apologetic and got an order to us right away.

The Reco?

I would definitely recommend this place, but I think there’s attainable room for improvement. The veal cheek, snap peas, and dessert were real highs, and a few other dish concepts are inches away from that same territory. With an already impressive dining room and charismatic servers, this isn’t so far from a 3.5/4 in my book. 

 blogTO   |    dine.TO

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited Sep 17, 2012

416 977 0999  |   $3.50 - $9.80  Small Plates

I’ll start by saying this review is way overdue given that I’ve written almost 70 of these since last September. If you’re a reader of the blog, chances are you’ve already been to Guu because it’s massively popular and has been since it opened in 2009. I’d been a couple times before, but finally got around to going again, taking some pics, and thinking about what I’m eating. Here goes what you already know.

Photo Credit: blogTO

Food

The menu is a collection of 48 Japanese tapas nestled into categories like apps, cold dishes, deep fried, oden (slow cooked hot pot), grilled, and rice & noodle. The variety is impressive and, from my experience, you’re not likely to get a dud if you close your eyes and just pick items at random. That said, we decided not to do that, and instead picked what looked interesting.

Of course, you have to start with a ‘big mug’ of Sapporo by virtue of its novelty. It’s $9.50, looks about the size of a pitcher, and makes you happy. Good value. 

I’ve also heard good things about the cocktails here, and at $6-$7 each, why not try one? (note: ordering the big mug is a valid excuse)

We started with the gyu shabu salad on the recommendation of our server, which is essentially very thinly-sliced beef warm beef on greens with an exceptional black sesame dressing. The salad greens and peppers were fine, but the tender beef with sesame combo was a definite winner. 

Next up, deep fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce (delicious) and karashi mayo (a Japanese mustard-mayo). It’s kind of hard for these not be awesome; the two sauces are savoury and sharp, and the hot inner-octopus, while a bit chewy, was a good complement. Overall this is a very unique flavour combination for most North American palates. 

Next up was marinated octopus with wasabi stem and nori wrappers. Octopus was much more tender here, and the I liked the idea of wrapping your own little bites. However, the wasabi stem is powerful. I’m not an enormous wasabi fan, so I got a little blown out by the dominance of the flavour. 

Next up was marinated jellyfish, a first for me. It comes to the table looking like a clear rice noodle, but upon further inspection it’s clear this is something different. I’ll say it doesn’t really taste like anything; the marinade and salad is what you’ll taste. I found the jelly fish tough, rubbery, and arduous to chew even with a marinade that may have tenderized it.

Next up, we came back to traditional flavours with bacon-wrapped scallops and enoki mushrooms, a soy sauce and more karashi mayo. These are going to be tasty no matter what, and the added sweetness from the sauce with a little bit of mayo was delicious. I don’t understand why only half of them are stuffed with enokis though. Leaves some folks at the table wanting more.

We then jumped into the deep fried section again with prawns and mayo. This dish is really quite basic, but lets the seafood shine. The prawns were juicy and perfectly cooked with a thin, crispy batter and some spicy mayo. 

As I went through the menu, it became obvious that mayo was on a fair number of these dishes. Not sure if that’s a Japanese preference with fried foods or just a Guu-ism.

Another deep friend item we ordered was egglplant with sweet miso sauce. While tasty, I was missing the crunch you come to expect when you read ‘deep fried’. Parts of the pieces were sort of crispy, but there isn’t any batter, so the sauce made the majority of them quite mushy. Conceptually, deep fried eggplant sounds like a great contrast between crunch and mush, but the contrast just wasn’t here.

Next we grabbed buta kimchi bibimbap with ground pork served in a sizzling stone bowl. This was great once we let our rice crisp up and gave everything a quick mix. I think we were hoping for a higher ‘stuff’ to rice ratio though.

We finished with a pseudo-dessert as opposed to something on the menu: deep fried brie with mango and blueberry sauce. Suffice to say this was an indulgence. 

We found the textural contrast we were looking for here for sure, and the two sweet sauces with the fatty goodness over top made me promise myself that the next day would be a ‘salad day’.

Service and Ambience

The ambience here is particularly novel for Toronto (or at least it was before the copycats). The room is bustling with hungry folks at communal tables, happy to no longer be waiting in line, all of whom are greeted in unison by the kitchen and waitstaff both when they enter and when they leave. 

Photo Credit: Toronto Life

Service was also pretty good, given how hectic the restaurant was (and usually is). You get the feeling the staff have gotten used to the high-paced environment.

Our food came out reasonably quickly, as is to be expected with tapas, and our server was happy to make a recommendation when we needed her to.

The Reco?

You already know you should go to Guu. For most of us, it’s the first time we’ve tried many of the dishes, and more often than not they leave you quite satisfied.

Yes, you’ll need to wait at least 30 minutes in line most days, but plan ahead, put your name down, kill some time, then enjoy one of the more unique dining experiences Toronto has to offer.

Other reviews:
 FoodiegatorJ     |    Cafe Joie

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited August 12, 2012

416 214 2252  |   $19-25 Pasta/Risotto, $25-50  Mains

Eating in the financial district during weekdays is usually an exercise in banker avoidance. When the business model is built around alcohol sales on the patio, it’s hard to find somewhere that puts great emphasis on food. I was skeptical about Vertical for this very reason, but I think it’s safe to say you can eat well here even surrounded by our suited friends.

Photo Credit: blogTO

Food

A read through the menu shows you this is more than a bar. It reads very modern Italian with everything you’d expect to find in the apps and pastas, along with some mains that veer away from the traditional. 

The four of us decided to start with three apps that we all agreed were the highlights of the meal.

The lamb meatballs in tomato sauce (above) were delicious - juicy and full of lamb flavour you’re looking for when you order lamb. I also enjoyed the focaccia with it to sop up all the leftovers. 

Next up were the five balls of arancini (above) filled with saffron risotto and fontina cheese. I will always order arancini when I see them on a menu because, when perfected, nothing is more addictive. That, and they’re usually tasty even when botched.

That said, I thought these were pretty darn good. If you don’t like saffron, avoid these, because the risotto is rife with it. I enjoyed the bold flavour, along with thin exterior and accompanying sauce. Just a touch more fontina would have won it for me. I’m very picky.

This was a dish that tasted as good as it read on the menu. Seared scallop, watermelon, speck, corn and watercress. Watermelon and corn makes sense. Speck and scallop makes sense. Fresh, juicy, porky goodness.

The first main that caught my eye was the halibut over spinach, with a fennel and star-anise puree along with a porcini and potato ’crochetta’. In theory, sounds like a really smart flavour profile. 

The good: Most of the fish was perfect, with an excellent crispy layer on top and moist, flaky interior. Spinach was a nice strong compliment. The mix of textures throughout the dish was really successful.

The not: The puree was ultra mild to the point where it was hard to say what it tasted like. The filling of the crochetta didn’t yell porcini either.

I think this dish has huge potential, but I really missed the promise of fennel, star-anise and porcini.

You may think the above is a ravioli, but this stamp-shaped pasta is called Sfoja Lorda. Vertical fills it with halibut and services with lobster, tomato, and wild fennel. I’ll say the star of the dish was the halibut filling, which I’ve yet to have in a pasta dish. My issue was the lobster is overwhelmed and the fennel flavour was missing again.

The last dish looked beautiful. The risotto of the day was also lobster, so we said why not?

The mouth feel was great and the flavour was pleasant, but I really wish something had stood out. Lobster meat is really quite subtle so anything to dial it up is appreciated and I just felt like I was missing it again.

The last dish of the night was the dessert above. I can’t seem to find that night’s dessert menu online, so I’m not going to take wild guesses at the ingredients. What I do remember is that the cake fell apart really easily, got sopped up in the sweet sauce below and turned into a bit of mess with the cocoa-flavoured sauce.

Dining Date Night

You may have heard me mention this service before, but I’m just going to reiterate how useful and easy it is. 

It lets you make a reservation at some solid restaurants for $10 during off-peak nights (usually excludes Fridays & Weekends) for up to six people. In exchange, they give you 30% off the entire bill including alcohol. The four of us save $40+ and turned this pricier place into something pretty affordable.

Click below to sign up. Highly recommend it:

Service and Ambience

So here’s the obvious part: during weekdays in the summer this is a bar for business people in the financial district (and those eager folks that pursue them). If you don’t like that atmosphere, you may be put off. If you’re not and don’t mind a lively patio in a great location, this is your scene.

On the service side, I was impressed. The great thing about these restaurants is that the kitchen isn’t particularly bombarded with orders so your food comes out pretty quickly. Our server was also very attentive and was always around when we needed her.

The Reco?

This was a really tough one. The apps were great and definitely reco-worthy, but the mains and dessert all had some issues that held them back from fully delivering on the menu’s compelling promises.

Without the 30% off, I’ll say Vertical borders on being too rich for what it delivers. That said, the apps give me faith that there’s more delicious food to be had here, and with the available discount, there aren’t enough reasons not to come back.

Other reviews:
 Food Junkie Chronicles (tasting menu)   |   Toronto City Gossip

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited August 2, 2012

416 504 9463  |   $5-$16 “Tapas”

So to be completely honest, I didn’t know much about Wine Bar before deciding to go there. Upon further inspection, it was once a celebrated Jamie Kennedy restaurant and also home of Scott Vivian (now of Beast). Today, there’s very little buzz about the place, but it’s conveniently located near Union so I managed to convince 20 friends to come with me to sample the menu.

Photo Credit: blogTO

Food

Wine Bar bills itself as a ‘tapas’ style restaurant with some serious variety. The menu really is all over the place with no consistent culinary theme, which did worry me initially. I also wasn’t pleased to hear they had a Summerlicious menu, so I abstained from those choices. Others at the table liked the good value though, so we ordered a mix of everything. It’s also worth noting that the dishes change, so you likely won’t be eating what we did.

I started with some mixed greens, apple, cheddar, grapes, spiced cashews, and mustard vinaigrette. This was actually pretty tasty overall. The cashew, grape, apple combo was dead-on. I’ll say the cheddar wasn’t very apparent, which was surprising given it was called an ‘apple and cheddar salad’.

Next up was a mixed platter of crostini/bread, prosciutto, chorizo, grainy mustard, pickles and pickled cauliflower. Again, the flavours were pretty satisfying. None of the ingredients wowed in particular, but they all worked.

Some friends of mine got the crab cake topped with some smoked salmon. This was probably my best bite. I’d never had a cake topped with salmon and I’d definitely do it again. Really appreciated the crab/salmon duo.

Next up was butter chicken poutine. I know, what the hell is this doing on the menu and why did you order it? I didn’t, but when there are 20 of you, someone’s going to take the plunge. Kudos to them though - it tasted good! Texturally, it was pretty soggy throughout, but I wasn’t complaining.

I believe the above steak dish was one of the Summerlicious options, and I think it showed. The presentation wasn’t very appealing, the leek underneath was served whole and stringy, and I heard a lot of people around the table say the word ‘Ziggy’s’ when they had the potato salad. As for the protein, the steak was prepared well with a sweet glaze that was met with mixed reviews around the table.

This was a pork shoulder with couscous from what I can remember. I think there was also an apple component here of some kind, just can’t remember if it was a glaze or what. I’ll say the portion size definitely wasn’t ‘tapas’ (could be a positive or negative), but from what I remember, it wasn’t bad. Quite tender, but fatty and didn’t get much flavour from it.

The beef cheek with root vegetables was the apple of my eye on the menu, but I’ll say I was kind of disappointed. While fork tender and melt-in-your-mouth, I found the cheek kind of bland and tasteless. Possibly under-seasoned? The potatoes and carrots around didn’t do much to that effect either. 

We finished up with two desserts, the first was a strawberry creme brulee topped with berries and the other was an apple crumble. 

The strawberry was quite sublte in the creme. I had trouble finding it, but others said it was there so I took their word for it. To be honest, I don’t have any memory of the crumble. 

Wine

I know this is a wine bar so I feel obliged to make a quick amateur comment about it. The menu has a ton of choice by the bottle and decent amount by the glass with 3oz tasters available as well.

It is pricey though. I can’t remember if the wine menu in person matches the one online, but there’s only one glass under $10 which doesn’t make it very accessible for those looking for something simpler with their meal.

Service and Ambience

I like the design of the place. It’s dark and warm with a ton of seating around the bars on either side of the room. I was also really impressed that they managed to seat so many of us in the main dining area. The table they set up can seat 16 comfortably, but we managed to squeeze in a few more.

Photo Credit: DiningDateNight.com

From a service perspective, I have to really commend our server and the kitchen. We had 20 people all on separate bills, several of which arrived and ordered at different times. Everyone’s food came out shortly after ordering and there were barely any mistakes on the checks at the end of the night. Really impressive.

The Reco?

I was surprised by Wine Bar. The menu variety freaked me out a bit and I wasn’t a fan of the Summerlicious menu, but I did try some tasty things here. My hesitation with going to three stars is that none of the ‘mains’ were particularly strong and I didn’t have any ‘gotta order this again!’ moments. I might be back for a few bites if I’m in the area, but I wouldn’t put this among the better tapas in the city. 

Other reviews:
 kiki’s BFF    |   Nothing else recent

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited July 20, 2012

416 532 7700   |   $24 Sample for One, $42 Sampler for Two

I’m admittedly a little late on the Roncy bandwagon. This was my first restaurant visit out on the west side and I’m happy I took the trip. There are a few supposedly good options including Hopgood’s Foodliner, The Ace, and The Westerly, but Barque felt most summery and frankly the dinner menu literally made my mouth water. That’s really all it takes, so out I went. 

Food

It’s one thing for the allure of BBQ to tantalize you, but when you can add on great starters and compelling sides, it gets really difficult to pick. Thankfully, Barque understands and provides you with sampler options for 1 or 2 that give you the opportunity to taste a good chunk of the menu. We opted for the two-person configuration and grabbed some apps to start us off. 

We began with some pulled duck tacos (above) that really didn’t sound like they belonged on the menu. To my surprise, they challenged for the best bite of the night. The pickled carrots really sliced through the hoisin and duck, and the tortillas were undoubtedly fresh. A great surprise to begin.

Next up came the smoked shrimp and bay scallop cocktail. Portion’s a little small, but the subtly smokey fresh seafood was tasty. Found the shrimp in the habanero sauce and scallops in the salsa verde to be the best combos. I’d say the salsa verde was oily and bit flat though.

Next we went the ‘Barque Plate’ (above). My assumption is this changes on a rolling basis, but when we dined there, it included two chicken fingers and two zucchini blossoms stuffed with pureed onion and bacon, then deep fried. Accompanying this included some cashews, almonds, olives, smoked tomato aioli and an awesome smoked hummus. The standous on the plate included the blossoms, fingers, aioli and hummus. Really hit the spot before the sampler arrived.

In a two-person sampler, you select three meats and three sides. We went with beef brisket, competition chicken thighs, and a 1/2 rack of baby back ribs for the proteins, and were thoroughly satisfied. The brisket is outstanding (especially when painted with a little more of the house BBQ sauce), the smoke on the baby back ribs is delicious, and the chicken is juicy and tender.

The side of smoked asparagus wasn’t a unanimous favourite. I quite liked the addition of smoke to it for a change, but the rest of table preferred a good charred asparagus sans-smoke.

The ‘Cuban corn’ was sweet and juicy, but I found myself looking for more. Some spice on it would have been a welcome addition.

We also ordered the picked vegetables as a way to cut through all the fatty, smokey proteins. While they were tasty enough, the form didn’t lend itself very well to eating with the BBQ. A really unique slaw incorporating some of the beets and/or carrots would have been ideal.

As our stomachs filled up, we decided to swing for the fence and close on a potential high note. Suuuuch a good decision. This pecan tart with strawberries and cinnamon gelato (above) was dead-on. The pastry was light and crumbly (think shortbread-ish), the filling wasn’t too sweet, and the cinnamon gelato was expert. Everything you could want in a dessert on one spoon.

Service and Ambience

I’d heard the dining room was quaint, but I have to say the place is a fair size, especially with the covered patio out to the side. The room’s a little quirky with Teletoon Retro playing on a TV behind the bar, a wall full of nic nacs, and some great fixtures all over the place. When packed full of happy people, it really is an enjoyable atmosphere though. On the other hand, maybe it’s just the meat talking. I find protein highs generally improve everything that surrounds you.

Despite almost every table being jammed, our food flew out of the kitchen quickly and we never found ourselves waiting long between dishes. Servers were also helpful letting us know what certain things were on the plate and recommending a good portion size for the three of us.

The Reco?

I really enjoyed the meal here and would certainly recommend coming over to Roncy. While some sides could use improvement, I can’t help but gush about the brisket, zucchini blossoms, hummus, pecan pie and duck tacos.

You don’t usually get to say things like that about a BBQ restaurant, and that’s why I’ll definitely be coming back for more. Enjoy. 

Other reviews:
 The Globe & Mail   | blogTO

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited July 14, 2012

647 352 7476   |   $10 - $22 Mains

Where in the city can you find a beer menu like this? I counted 99 on the menu online and found several of my favourites including Schneider Weisse. I’m truly a sucker for wheat beer and it looked like some effort was being put in to avoid settling at mediocre ‘pub food’. For those reasons and more, I dropped by this spot just before Spadina on King West.

Photo Credit: David Ort, Post City

Beer

Before we talk food, let’s talk beer. This place is all about it.

I’m not a connoisseur by any means, but I’m fairly confident there are at least a handful on this list that you can’t find in any other restaurant in the GTA. It’s comprehensive to the point of being obscure, which is kind of fun to be honest. You could keep coming back just to try bottles at random.

I ordered the Denison’s Weisse (never heard of it). More or less like a Weihenstephaner, but apparently made in Toronto. Learn something new every day.

Food

The food menu itself is a little all over the place to be honest: Italian, Mexican, an entire mussels menu, oysters, schnitzel, and chili among other things. You can either look at it as (1) all your favourites or (2) what on earth is this place doing?

I decided to reserve judgement and jump right in.

We jumped right in with some bar hop pops (above), essentially tempura-crusted meatballs on a stick with a parmesan marinara sauce. The batter was pretty thin and lacked crunch, but I found the meatballs quite flavourful. That said, $9 for four the size of Ikea meatballs isn’t what I call good value.

Next up were two orders of mussels, one of the lager & jerk persuasion, the other a green curry and lemongrass version. Both had bold and aggressive flavours that partially overwhelmed the mussels, but were particularly awesome for dunking the limitless supply of bread. 

For my main, I went with the pork schnitzel with mac & cheese and greens (above). I was hoping for a bit of a guilty pleasure, but it fell short in a lot of areas. Mac and cheese was overdone and mild in actual flavour, greens were overdressed, and the schnitzel was a bit too thin so it dried out. A bite of all together was a bit better actually, but every element could have used improvement.

Even though I was full, I acted against my better judgement and ordered the beeramisu (above) because it sounded fun. My biggest complaint about tiramisu is usually that it’s not light enough, so one made with a porter wasn’t likely to impress. It was definitely heavy, but you could pick out the beer which is a positive.

Service and Ambience

One thing I really like is the location of this place: situated on King West just outside the entertainment district, but you don’t have to walk all the way to Portland to find something worth walking into. It’s also got a little patio that makes for great people watching.

I really liked our server. He was friendly, easy-going, and checked back on us frequently to ensure we had everything we needed (bread refills especially). I think part of the charm of this place is that it’s not ‘trendy’. If that’s something you don’t like about Bier Markt, I think you’ll like it here.

The Reco?

If this place didn’t have a killer beer menu, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it very much. The food was decent, but disappointing on more than one occasion. Even though that usually prevents me from recommending somewhere, I’d probably go back and try out more beer and give another dish a shot. Worst case, at least I get a great brew. I’m fine with that. Cheers.

Other reviews:
 Caroline’s Culinary Delights

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited July 12, 2012

647 346 2377   |   $35 Five-Course Tasting

I was immediately drawn to the concept at Lamesa for two reasons: it’s a five-course tasting that changes nightly for $35 (win!) and it’s rooted in Filipino cuisine, an under-represented food culture in the Toronto restaurant scene. That was all I needed to know, so I grabbed a group of eight friends and ventured over to the new spot on Queen West to check out what it had to offer.

Photo Credit: blogTO

Food

So let’s jump right into the tasting menu: it’s composed of an amuse-bouche, a pulutan (small plate, tapas-equivalent), an ulam (main), a pre-dessert and a dessert.  

Our amuse was a coconut and corn soup, topped with a chewy piece of bacon for some texture. This may have been one of the best bites of the night. I’m a sucker for great corn flavour and the coconut morphs it just enough to make it different. The bacon bit was also satisfying to munch on afterward.

I then selected the canton noodles with shrimp, beans, carrots, and cabbage for my pulutan. This dish was really clean overall, especially with a healthy squeeze of lemon over top. The shrimp flavour could be tasted throughout, and it was refreshingly devoid of anything overly fatty or oily.

The other pulutan ordered around the table was the ‘halo halo sisig’, a dish of ground pork, chicken and beef with garlic, chillies, tomatoes and onions topped with a fried egg. Some loved it, but some commented it was a bit too salty for them. I’ve been informed the onion and tomato are supposed to balance out the dish, but not sure that happened here. In my bite I also had trouble finding any of the garlic or chillies and felt the egg could have been left runnier for easy mixing (halo halo means to mix around).

The first main to come out was the steak with roasted red pepper, fingerling potatoes, olive tapenade and a pineapple and carrot puree. In concept and look, this dish looks like a standout. Despite the explosive colour, I found the flavour a bit bland. Perhaps the presentation over-promises, but the puree and jus on the plate didn’t deliver much and I couldn’t find the sweetness of the pineapple. That said, the steak was tender and couldn’t have been prepared much better.

The other main was the opposite to the steak dish in many ways. The pork cheek sinigang is a soup, presented here as a deconstruction of sorts, and looked a little bland. However, the tamarind found in the broth delivers a pronounced sour flavour that was probably more assertive than anything on the steak plate.

I see this dish as a bit of an acquired taste. The daikon puree is a bit bitter and when combined with the sour broth may not be your favourite combination. Thankfully, the pork cheek melts in your mouth and again shows these guys are good with their proteins.

The pre-dessert came as a crumbly little cookie that was playfully wrapped in brightly-coloured tissue paper. I’ve been told this is called a polvoron, a beloved cultural treat. It also came laced with a ‘surprise’ ingredient that changes the mouth-feel of the cookie. I won’t divulge what it is, but you’ll know a few seconds after you pop it in.

We had both of the two dessert choices: a maple-custard flan (above) and mini-empanada filled with a little bit of plantain (below). People really enjoyed the flan, with a texture similar to panna cotta and mild maple flavour. I ordered the empanada and was a bit disappointed. The pastry was OK and there was very little plantain to be tasted. Didn’t really get it.

Service and Ambience

I like the inside of the place, clearly designed to complement the more ‘contemporary’ style of the dishes. I was also a fan of the mellow hip-hop being played that keeps the atmosphere chill and casual. The one thing I didn’t get was the flat-screen TVs showing tropical landscapes. Added a bit of cheesiness to an otherwise beautiful room in my opinion.

Our service was excellent throughout the night. Our server ensured we always had a drink if we needed one, and all dishes were explained with careful attention paid to explaining the Filipino origin of the dish. Really appreciated that detail.

The Reco?

I’m really on the fence with the score for Lamesa. I think there were a number of dishes that were just OK and I wouldn’t say I had any ‘wow’ bites. That said, I think the $35 tasting concept is brilliant (even if two of the courses are one bite) and I really enjoyed the service.

I think I would recommend it to others on the basis of value and uniqueness, but not sure if I myself would go back for a second try.

Other reviews:
 dine.TO     |    Food Trippin’

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited June 22, 2012

P.S. Special thanks to Sam Chung for the Filipino subtleties. 

416 551 6362   |   $3-$12 lunch rolls, $9-$19 boxes

I’ve eaten a lot on Baldwin Street. Having tried almost every spot of interest, you start wondering about places of no interest at all.

My coworkers and I have consistently walked past ND for one reason: the sign yells everything but “we have excellent Japanese cuisine!”. We’d walk down the street to Etsu for our sushi fix, completely ignorant of the quality that lay right before our eyes. Thankfully, I came across blogTO’s very positive write up and decided to walk in one afternoon for lunch. See how it went…

Photo Credit: blogTO

Food

We just popped in for lunch, so I’ll call this a mini-review since I’m sure their dinner options are more ambitious. 

The lunch menu itself won’t wow you with anything really different; a few apps, udon dishes, bento boxes and rolls are you options. The difference comes in the quality of what arrives at your table.

I know it’s silly, but I’ll start with edamame. Most of us enjoy these absent-mindedly, but I’d swear these were ‘fresher’ than usual. Couldn’t really tell you why or how, but they just were.

After having polished off all the beans, the mains arrived. The first order was a vegetarian box with crispy agedashi tofu, veggie-filled maki, and a great seaweed salad. The presentation was meticulous (shards of nori over the tofu) and all the elements on the plate were beautifully executed. I’m usually not a huge tofu fan, but the textural contrast was dead-on.

Next up was a spicy salmon roll with avocado, crispy tempura bits, and scallion. I’m guessing you’ve had your fare share of of spicy salmon rolls, but here are the little details that shine: the rice falls apart when it hits your mouth, the salmon melts, and you can actually pick out the flavour of the scallions. It’s still just a spicy salmon roll, but I can’t imagine it being done much better.

I decided to go a bit more ambitious for my main and went for the Spicy Rainbow roll. The layering of tuna, salmon, and butter fish with tempura prawn, and avocado running through it called my name on the menu. I put the first one in my mouth with a nice chunk of ginger and it was delicious. 

The heat comes from spicy oil drizzled atop that builds as you make your way through the roll. Without the ginger to contrast, I think it overpowered the fresh fish a bit. That said, the textures are excellent throughout and the portion size was also good for a $12 roll.

Service and Ambience

The room itself is pretty bare bones and is surely not meant to be the focus of the experience here. It’s also pretty evident because there are rarely large groups of people inside. With some more positive reviews and a new sign, I could see this place picking up many more loyal customers.

Photo Credit: blogTO

Our server was very pleasant and ensured our water glasses were filled throughout lunch. Unfortunately, it was necessary because (1) there’s no A/C and (2) it took about 30 minutes for the food to come out of the kitchen in a pretty empty restaurant. You can tell your food is made to order, but I wonder if there’s any more than one chef in the kitchen.

The Reco?

I struggled between 2.5 and 3 stars on this, but I think it’s important to promote excellent food even in the presence of some negatives during the service. I used to call Etsu the best sushi on Baldwin, but I’m comfortable crowning ND as the new champ. I’ll be back.

Other reviews:
 blogTO

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited June 20, 2012

416 703 4222   |   $9-$32 sharing plates

Niagara Street Cafe occupied this same spot just off King West for years, but as of about a month ago, it was reborn as Edulis. What does Edulis mean you ask? It’s a type of porcini mushroom. Who knew? Learn something every day!

The new menu caught my eye, so I decided to bring eight friends to descend upon the restaurant and chow down. Here’s how it went.

Photo Credit: Facebook Page

Food

The changing menu not only features some great shrooms, but offers an eclectic mix of Spanish, French, Italian and more that I’ve yet to find downtown. You’ll see things like paella, sweetbreads, foie gras torchon, lamb neck, ceviche and veal belly among other things, which really makes this menu stand out. Generally, I’m wary of too many cuisines on one menu, but everything just sounded so good.

We were graciously presented with a couple servings of this traditional ‘pintxos’ (spanish amuse-bouche/snack if you will) of olives stuffed with anchovies and spicy guindillo peppers (above). Very traditional salty, spicy, fishy combo with some bread to balance it out. Perfect little bites.

Had some fresh greens (above) to start off with. Not much to say here other than the menu reads ‘Soiled Reputation Greens’, which is just a reference to the name of the farm in Stratford where the greens come from. You won’t get any soil =P

Next up was the foie gras torchon with fresh oregon porcinis stacked with toasts and a pinenut vinaigrette (above). I stay away from foie personally, but my friends quite enjoyed the dish. Fresh, earthy, and nutty are words they uttered along with ‘mmm’. So far so good.

The next dish we ordered was the BC spot prawn ceviche with aji amarillo and cripsy corn. I was an idiot, and mistakenly deleted the picture of my favourite dish of the night. The juicy chunks of prawn were great, but the star was the really bright spicy peruvian chile pepper along the bottom of the plate that brought the dish to life. I’m also a sucker for corn nuts, so the cripsy corn was a great touch for taste and texture. Excellent dish.

Next up was the lamb neck with chickpeas (pieces and puree) and a simple carrot, onion and parsley salad (above). I quite enjoyed the lamb neck and the accompaniments. I’m not sure if it was too simple or I’m just being picky, but I feel like one more element (acid? extra seasoning of some kind?) could have made it just a bit better.

Then came the veal belly that many folks around the table quite enjoyed. I’d never had it before, but it’s like your pork belly texturally, but remove the bacon quotient from it. This dish was also clean, fresh, and straightforward.

A friend of mine wanted a healthy fish dish, so we got her the salmon cooked in cedar leaves with butter poached radishes, wheatberries and pea shoots. The preparation of the salmon was rare and you could really pick out the cedar flavour. That said, she was really hoping for crispy-seared skin on the top. Thought $24 for this portion size was also a tad pricey.

A new item on the menu that night was the soft shell crab ‘schnitzel’ with a fried egg and a bacon salsa verde…how can you not order that? All the combos made sense: deep fried, egg, bacon, seafood, fresh. The bacon flavour wasn’t quite as forward though, so if that’s what caught your attention on the menu, don’t expect tons of bacon. The portion overall is generous though, so you should get your fill of crab.

Another must order on the menu seemed to be the baby octopus paella for two. The chef clearly likes his Spanish food, and I’ve been longing for a great paella in Toronto to bring back memories of Valencia and Barcelona. Unfortunately, two critical things that make paella great were missing: (1) the soccarat and (2) perfectly cooked seafood (found the octopus to be chewy). The soccarat is the carmelized, crispy rice layer on the bottom that forms to give paella its trademark texture. It wasn’t there on arrival, so we let it sit for a while in the hopes it would develop - still no dice. Maybe it’s the pan or something, but it was disappointing for sure.

Next were the sweetbreads with porcini, asparagus and nettle-parsley pesto (above). I enjoyed the deep-woodsy green flavours in this, but found my sweetbreads chewier than I’d like. In my experience, great sweetbreads are juicy, tender, and taste reminiscent of a chicken’s dark meat. Didn’t quite get that here.

While the savoury part of the meal ended on a bit of sour note, I had faith some sweets could resurrect it. Our first order was baba au rhum. I’d never heard of it, but the description of fluffy, semi-rum-saturated cake with whipped cream was enough for me to order it. I’ve read reviews saying they didn’t ‘get it right’, but I really enjoyed it. Nice punchy, deep rum flavour with light cake and cream was just swell for me.

The last bites of the night were taken from a lemon tart with a brunoise of rhubarb and some crunchy crumble (above). Pastry was well done, lemon tart was clean and bright, and the little juicy rhubarb cubes and crumble provided the ideal textural mix for the topping.

Service and Ambience

I love how it feels to sit in this place. It’s homey, comfortable, and looks distinctly like a rustic french cafe/bistro. The polished stone tables give it a bit of class as well that you could say bridge into the somewhat less rustic food preparations.

Photo Credit: Facebook Page

I thought service was great. This was the night of the Union flood, so a lot of our party arrived sporadically late. Thankfully, our server had no problem explaining the menu items and concepts to everyone multiple times, and kept our courses coming out at a pleasant pace. I was also particularly pleased that upon our arrival, we were offered some wines by the glass that are usually only available by the bottle. I happily ordered a spicy Hungarian red on the server’s recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Reco?

I think it needs to be said this menu is ambitious; the scope and depth of European cuisines presented here aren’t easy to pull off. The place is also just a month old, and with more feedback, I believe you’ll see more and more home run dishes being put out of the kitchen. While you might get a miss, you’re also sure to be wowed and I think that’s a real reason to come back. I sure will.

Other reviews:
 National Post  |    dine.TO   |    Cookbook Store Blog

 Posted by: Jacob, Visited June 1, 2012