Toronto restaurant recommendation - Page 58

i think upstairs will be half decent, that's prob the tasting menu you received an invite for.

I went to The Grove on Wednesday night. I had the lamb and my dining mate had the beef entree. I have to say the portions look small but the food is very heavy. I left with the taste of lamb in my mouth all night and the piece they gave me had a 2cm layer of fat on top of it. You can't really tell from the dark light. Next to me was a hipster girl inviting her grandparents for a birthday party. With the loud music, I felt it was a bit much for the dapper grandfather. Drinks are big and strong trending to dark hoppy beers and bourbon. Service could use some improvement though. There was a je ne sais quoi insincerity.

Two other places I went to with fruit fly infestations - Stock in Trump Tower - I wanted to check their patio which seemed closed. And Don Don Izakaya, extremely dodgy service and wait staff who half heartedly greet you.

funny, my friend invited this japanese girl to sansotei who works at don don and she hardly spoke any english so i understand why the wait staff might only half heartedly greet you.

Gotta recommend Jacob's & Co. steakhouse. Possibly the best steak I've had so far; steak tartare is excellent too. They have a $1000 50oz aged kobe steak from Japan on the menu, but my wallet only let me order the aged USDA prime.

Wine list is highway robbery though. Pitiful amount of choice under $125 and majority is $200+.

I meant more of the enthusiasm. It was also terrible getting the cheque and the bartender passed by more than once seeing our glasses were empty (novel idea, sitting at the bar so we could get more frequent refills).

I can't remember the last time I thought a steakhouse was a great value. Wines being overpriced seem par for the course. 50 oz? I'm slowly getting used to eating 6 oz.

Well, I'm in the "country" for a few more days before getting back in town. Maybe I should try one of these noodle ramen places people keep talking about.

in the japanese countryside? yea you should def try the ramen there, eat as much as possible. what we get here is a fraction of the product as over there. and if you're going to try it here, only go to kinton, and santouka when it opens, the others suck.

I tried Museum Tavern yesterday. The space is nice. I liked the cutlery although the lack of cloth napkins was disappointing. I went in with a flannel suit and it took a whole night to shake off the odour from all the fried foods. I had a "popcorn whitefish" which sounds more exotic than it really is - it's just fish balls fried in batter. Even with the batter seasoning and the mustard tartar looking sauce some pieces of the fish tasted like a cheap tilapia. I can't imagine what it would taste like if it was simply grilled. I also got a few carrot sticks which looked like the outer shell of carrots that I normally would toss out. My dining mate had a trout on a bed of zucchinis which she shared with me - better. But the lunch took forever to show up. We went through two glasses of wine for close to forty minutes before food came to the table. Most people around us appeared to have ordered sandwiches, although the table next to me was begging for their cheque. Luckily our server was quick enough to notice my card when she brought coffee. No explanation for the wait for the entrees and I was rather glad I didn't order dessert or appetizers. If I come again, I'm going to sit near the bar further away from the kitchen.

Add Jacobs & Co. to my ever growing list of Toronto establishments I miss. Maybe I'll fly home for my 30th and have a b-day outing with some buddies there next month.

Agree on the weak wine selection though . . . That's one area where the U.S. has us licked. For e.g., I go to a place called Vita here in Denver at least once a month on Tuesdays -- they have an 85 bottle wine list they put on half off every Tuesday, and they are already reasonably priced. I find myself paying 15-25% below LCBO prices, with more variety, for some great wines. We usually end up taking down a pre-dinner and appetizer bottle of Cakebread ($36) followed by an Emeritus Pinot Noir ($40) during dinner. Simply impossible in Canada (well, Ontario anyway).

anyone been to boulouds new spot in 4 seasons? going to have to get over there soon

I read it wasn't that impressive but I have to admit I need an excuse to make it up to Yorkville.

I did try Bosk at Shangri-La. I wonder how they maintain the pretense of equal opportunity employment since many of the wait staff were chosen blatantly for being Asian. My lunch mate complained the hostess' dress was unzipped but I rather think that was her intention since none of her peers pointed it out to her. And I wasn't going to either. The entrance is rather stupid to Bosk and if you sit by the window you'll see many people struggle to get into the restaurant. I had the soup to start, which is brought over in a flask and then poured into a soup dish in front of you. I then had the lamb sirloin. I asked for medium and it could have easily been mistaken for well done. Service was a bit spotty. I like how the waitress wrote down which utensils to bring over in a cue card. Coffee and espresso are very strong. Milk is served warm and whipped up into a foam; a nice touch. For a $150 lunch with wine, it wasn't exactly earth shattering. Maybe the restaurant is still new but even if it's running well, the food isn't amazing.

I also went back and revisited Acadia since Patrick Kriss took over. I ate at the bar this time. It's still a busy place. I got two free amuse bouche from the kitchen. One was some kind of crisp from either chicken or pork. And I think the other one was the charred octopus. The curious thing was only one of these was served to a chap who sat next to me and he got half the portion I got. I'm not sure how they judge who gets what. I didn't feel like I waited particularly long for my food so I wasn't sure whether it was compensation. The bartender told me the chef was being generous. I had ordered the grits to start which was very creamy and heavenly. I can't imagine it's heart healthy though. And then I had a chicken leg & liver for entree. I felt the food was different than under Blondin. The portions are the same but I felt the entrees have this deconstructed theme going and the "Acadian" feeling is a bit lost. It's still all good stuff though. The chef appears to spend his time brushing up the presentation of dishes or supervising staff to do it but in the hour or so I was there, he was very present in the kitchen. Cocktails were strong but there isn't a whole lot of choice if you're going for top shelf liquor. Oh and the best thing about eating at the bar is the bartender's offer of a copy of the enroute magazine (the same one from Air Canada) so I was able to flip through that to pass the time. The bad thing was having the wait staff explain the dish and then the bartender re-explaining it again. I'll definitely try again.

Finally I also tried Michael's on Simcoe which is supposed to be some kind of modern take on a steakhouse. The modernity comes into play with coloured mood lighting. For $30 entrees I expected better food. I had their 7oz tenderloin and a side of mushrooms. Bunch of work mates had salmon, pasta and a steak & focaccia sandwich. I can't say the steak struck me as something special. I thought the wine prices were a bit high too. $11 or $12/glass for a regular malbec? Okay. 4 people, two bottles of wine = $300. The restaurant also needs better signage. I can't remember seeing the name on the front other than an indication the establishment featured steaks and seafood. And when I went downstairs, the hostess station was empty. The restaurant being empty at 12:15p on a Friday didn't help make it more welcoming either.

 

Came here this past weekend.. pretty uninspired. Food is OK.. probably similar to Nota Bene.. found it below quality of say Splendido. Decent addition to Yorkville though which was really lacking a good variety of decent dining.

Managed to swing by Momofuku Shoto this week. The architecture of that entire building - the glass cube beside the Shangri La - is impressive. You walk in at street level to the noodle bar, a soaring open space as the 2nd floor above it is mostly catwalk. There is a bar on that 2nd floor which you get to over the catwalk but it is tucked into the hotel side. There are actually two small restaurants on the 3rd floor. We were in Shoto, the staff they said the other side was a more traditional restaurant, asian-inspired.

Shoto has only a tasting menu, maybe a dozen items, they seat 22 people in groups of 2-4. The space is interesting although awkward with four people. Its taken up by a granite bar, in a big U shape. Everybody sits on the outer edge on high bar chairs and the chefs are working in full sight on the inner side. A bit like eating at the bar at Origin. With 2 or 3 people it would have been fine, with our group even though they seated us wrapped around one the corners, the one on either end tended to be left out of one conversation or another. Watching the chefs is great if you have an interest in cooking, its almost like performance art. The meal took almost 3 hours - I should say I didn't find it interesting enough to keep my attention for that long. Its great to watch the plating - I always suck at that when I cook - everything is very precise, often arranged with large tweezers.

Overall the food was very good although with that many courses they ranged from ho-hum to fabulous. There was a little amuse of sea urchin in a cranberry sauce but the cranberry just overpowered everything and all you had left was the texture of the urchin. The spaghetti with sardine was...a lot like spaghetti in a carbonara with some fried sardines in it. Yawn. But the fatty goose wontons were great, as was the monkfish, and the foie gras in consomme. 36-hour veal cheek just melted in your mouth. Will definitely go again, would try to keep it to 2 or 3 people. Not the top restaurant I've ever been to but I really enjoyed it. The "can't get a sitting" vibe you get from the NY and Sydney restaurants isn't in place here yet. The guy we were talking to said they were always full near the end of the week but often had a few seats open at the beginning of each.

I have the whole week in town. I tried Oxley and it's exactly like Queen and Beaver except a few quibbles. The upstairs pub doesn't have the same coziness as the Elm street establishment. There is only one toilet per gender upstairs too. Feeble for a pub. I will try to reserve Shoto to go with my cousin before Christmas.

I had a horrid 300 dollar dinner at Far Niente. No wonder it was empty on Friday. Service was rubbish and my dinner date refused to eat her tuna steak.

If it wasn't raining today, I'd try the new Sukothai on Wellington.

I tried the new Suko Thai on Wellington. The place is new - very new. The ratio of wait staff to customers is quite high but the service is still dodgy. We got in and out in fifty minutes but our waiter kept apologizing for the long wait. Starters came without plates. When we finished, he thought we were still eating.

I had the yellow curry noodles with chicken - except they brought beef. My lunch mate had a red curry something. Portions are large and the curry kept me warm all day. The shrimp fresh rolls were disappointing.

It's a very dark space and when filled up can be loud. They have a bar but I can't quite see anyone lingering around.

I went to Harlem last night on Richmond and Church. Got fried chicken with collard greens and mac and cheese. I enjoyed the atmosphere and they blasted a lot of MJ but I thought the food was just okay.

 

Where do you guys go for fried chicken? I still need to try Stockyards. I tried Country General's fried chicken leg sandwich the other day and finished it in two bites.