So here is my reviews of the restaurants I went to in Toronto. The first night we got in, we didn’t have any reservations and I had wanted to go to Xacutti, which is supposed to be a very good Indian restaurant. However, when I went down to the concierge, they said the restaurant was closed. They weren’t sure whether it was closed for renovations or if it had just closed down. So they recommended 35 Elm across the street from where we were staying, which was nice because it was freezing, below freezing actually. 35 Elm, which also happens to be their address was a really nice neighborhood bistro-type restaurant.
I took this picture the next day and there was filming going on right in front of the restaurant, hence all the equipment. But the restaurant itself is n a really cute building. Actually all the buildings there were really cute.
This is the list of the dishes we had:
Fresh artisan bread with cranberry butter- Bread was freshly baked or at least it was freshly heated. The cranberry butter was slightly tart and creamy and it was pink. How cute!
Curried Caribou tartare with apple jam on flat bread– This was our amuse bouche. I’ve never had caribou before and I didn’t really get a good taste of the meat itself because it had curry spices in it but it was quite tender. The apple jam paired with it nicely. It gave it a sweet element that toned down the curry flavor. The flat bread had big chunks of salt on it that enhanced the flavor of the everything but was a little too salty.
Chicken Liver pate with pear chutney– We shared this dish as our appetizer. I love pate and the sweetness of the pear chutney was really great. It was so much of a chutney as it was a jam because there wasn’t any vinegary-ness to it.
Lobster Risotto– This was their pasta of the day and is what my sister got as her entree and it was not good. She thought it was ok but she also had a stuffy nose so… It tasted a little petrol-y and there weren’t even any pieces of lobster in it. It was just a risotto with what I assume was supposed to be lobster flavor. It didn’t even taste like lobster to me and the only hint of lobster in the dish was the lobster antennae that garnished the dish.
Ontario Lamb shoulder slowly braised in Mill street coffee porter, Chestnut flour dumplings and brown butter brussel sprouts– This was what I got as my entree and it was very tender. The chestnut dumplings were really interesting. I didn’t realize that was what they were because they looked just like pieces of meat.
Beef Short ribs with caramelized onions and brussel sprouts– This was the other special for the evening and is what my dad got as his entree. It was also super tender and flavorful.
Overall, the meal was good. All the dishes were tasty with the exception of the lobster risotto. The service was attentive and helpful.
There is such a huge chinese community in Toronto that we decided we were going to try all the different dim sum restaurants. We started off our second day at Lai Wah Heen at the Metropolitan Hotel. This is supposed to be one of the best Chinese restaurants in the city so we wanted to see what it was all about. While it was good, it wasn’t amazing. I didn’t find it to be better than the dim sum in Hong Kong are even comparable. It was also very expensive, about 3x more than average dim sum, which isn’t so much of a concern except that it wasn’t exceptional. I think my favorite there was a beef pot sticker. The beef was very finely ground so that it was almost fluffy, not chunky at all and very flavorful. There was also a chicken pie that was freshly baked. The crust was very flaky and the filling was full of different flavors. Very good!
The next day was Easter Sunday and there were very few restaurants that were open. The concierge recommended a restaurant called the Pearl at Harborfront Centre. We had been at the Centre the day before and had seen the restaurant. I had brushed it off as a tourist trap and my comment was quickly refuted by a magazine article displayed in front of the restaurant, claiming that it wasn’t just a tourist trap but actually had good dim sum. I thought that was funny. So when the concierge recommended it, we decided we would give it try. It was decent dim sum. Again, not spectacular. Not as good as Lai Wah Heen but was decently good, probably comparable to dim sum restaurant in LA.
On Monday, we went to Chinatown to see what else we could find. We passed a restaurant called the Bright Pearl that I had heard mentioned somewhere. We were hungry and anxious to get out of the cold so we went in. This was the cheapest of our dim sum experiences and was definitely a low end Chinese restaurant. It seemed to be something of a institution in Toronto. The walls were covered with various magazine reviews, it was also featured in a Managerial Accounting text book. The food was decent. Not great but for $20, I can’t really complain.
The best meal by far was without a doubt, Perigee. It’s located in the Distillery District and was sooooo hard to find. It was in a little alley and it was soooo windy that night. We walked around and around looking for the place before we found it. The sign was very small and assuming and again it was in a little alley.
I tried to convince my family to get the tasting menu but my dad wasn’t going for it. He said he just couldn’t justify paying $400 for a meal. So we ended up ordering a la carte, which was fine. Everything was amazingly good. I don’t have any pictures because I don’t really believe in taking pictures at restaurants. I find it a little tacky. Especially when a bright flash goes off in the dining room.
Artisan bread w/ house-churned butter, beef terrine, olive oil, olive hummus- The hummus was delicious. It was my favorite of the bread plate. The beef terrine was really great too. It was odd because it looked like raw beef but it was made into a very thick chunky spreadable consistency. The butter was nice and sweet and the olive oil was very fruity. I could’ve almost drank the little pitcher.
Cured Yellowtail Carrot Slaw, Fried Artichoke Heart, Lemon and Chive Aioli– The fried artichoke was sooooo good. So perfectly cooked. It was almost like a tempura, just very lightly battered, hot, and perfect.
Nova Scotia Lobster poached sous vide over a sunchoke purée with a fennel & tarragon sauce, carrot glaze and a salad of frisée greens and fingerling potatoes – Actual chunks of half a lobster, not like the risotto from the previous night. The lobster was very tender. I think it was butter poached because it was so tender. I’m not sure what sous vide means exactly but it was good.
Roasted ocean trout fillet served over crispy potato gnocchi, roasted wild mushrooms and braised pistachios with a salad of mustard greens, preserved lemon and shallot chips– This was what I ordered and was also my favorite of the appetizers. The ocean trout is different than trout that I’ve had in the past. It tastes like a white fish but looks just like salmon. Cooked perfectly and the potato gnocchi were indeed crispy.
Wild mushrooms roasted in their own juices, tossed with pearl onions and quickly pickled cherry tomatoes served on a spiced cracker cradle over salsify and a roasted garlic emulsion sauce– Very meaty and earthy mushrooms. Yum!
They brought us palate cleansers between the appetizers and entree of passion fruit sorbet with a rum sauce. It was soooo good and refreshing I would have eaten a whole bowl of it.
Ginger bread spiced venison rack with goat cheese croquettes and a roasted apple and pepper green salad over a apple turnip puree– I was worried that the gingerbread spices would be overpowering but I loved venison and considering it’s not served often in restaurants, I couldn’t resist ordering it. I was very skeptical of the gingerbread spices. I love gingerbread but wasn’t sure how it was going to pair with the venison but it was lovely. The spices were very light so you got just a hint that paired really well with the venison. You could totally taste the venison and the spices just added a nice background, which I was very happy with. The goat cheese croquettes however, were waaaay too overpowering. I like goat cheese but it completely masked the venison. I tried to cut one open and it just popped and spewed goat cheese “sauce” ALL over my venison. I tried to save my venison by moving it up the sides of the plate but they still got drenched. The goat cheese was just waaay to strong for that dish. Served in another dish, it would’ve been nice but in this dish, it was too much.
Dry aged Canadian Prime rib eye steak served with barley “maki” and braised greens over a tomato & red wine jus– The barkley maki was a cute idea. It was made to look like a sushi roll. The “rice” part of it was made with barley, while the inside was filled with shredded braised beef, and everything was covered in a “seaweed” made of cooked spinach. I tried this after my venison so it seemed a bit dry. I think it would’ve been a very lovely prime rib had I not had my venison first. After the venison, the beef just couldn’t stand up.
Roasted Hudson Bay Pickerel with a salad of Dungeness crab and celery spaghetti over an artichoke purée in a crab bisque– I just had a small taste of the pickerel, which I’ve never had before. It was a firm white fish with a crispy skin, just the way I like my fish skin prepared.
Trio of Chocolate– They gave this to us by mistake because they thought we ordered this for dessert. It was just ok.
Manjari chocolate filled profiteroles with dark raspberry sauce- These were really cute but a bit hard White chocolate bavaroise over a crispy pistachio feuilletine- This tasted like a cookie or a crumble and was my favorite of the three. Warm chocolate liqueur soaked baba– I really didn’t care for this at all.
Chocolate Banana Trifle– Canella scented roast bananas layered with morsels of angel food cake and passion fruit curd nestled in a crisp sponge cake tuille with roasted bananas and silky dark chocolate sorbet Canella scented roast bananas layered with morsels of angel food cake and passion fruit curd nestled in a crisp sponge cake tuille with roasted bananas and silky dark chocolate sorbet- This wasn’t your traditional trifle and frankly I didn’t think it was especially good. Everything was good individually but they just didn’t mesh well together. The chocolate came in the form of a valrhona chocolate sorbet, which was very rich and decadent. Wonderful! That was on one side of the plate and on the other side, was the crisp sponge cake tuille that was a tart-like shell filled with custard that was flavored with passion fruit. It was nice, creamy, and tart. The bananas were sliced and layered on top.
This was without a doubt the best meal of our trip. The service was a little slow but we didn’t really mind so much because we enjoyed hanging out. The meal took about two and a half hours. It seemed as though they didn’t have enough servers. Unfortunately, all the tables by the kitchen were taken so we didn’t get to watch them preparing our food. However, it was a wonderful meal and a wonderful experience and considering all that we got, it wasn’t overly expensive.
On our last day in Toronto, I really wanted to go to Susur or Lee but neither was open. We ended up going to Biff’s Bistro and wine bar in the Financial District. It was a had beautiful decor. We sat in the bar which had gray upholstered walls and crown molding. The food was bistro food, not traditional French bistro but noveau bistro I guess.
My sister had the prix fixe menu that had a Basque-style chicken and mushroom soup. The chicken was fall-aparty and I didn’t try the soup but she said it was really good. My dad had Roast wing of skate with red cabbage and speck, which I thought was overly salted but he said was ok. The texture was nicely. I had the Wild striped bass with roasted artichoke and nicoise olives that was decent. It wasn’t amazing but it was prepared nicely. Overall, I thought the restaurant was a bit overpriced. It was decent food and nice decor but probably wouldn’t be a place that I would crave. It is what it is in a financial district.