Toronto restaurant recommendation

Hello, I'm looking for a rec from someone here.

I need to take a few people out to dinner in Toronto who like nice places but are kind of scared of serious "fine dining". Ideally I'm looking for something like Craft; a place that makes excellently executed food that is understandable and accessible to people who like good food but aren't up on the latest trends and are not especially adventurous. I don't want to take them to a steak house, which seems to be the go to for people who aren't quite foodies by want something well prepared in a nice atmosphere. It should also be downtown, and budget isn't the main concern.
I did like Truffles at the Four Seasons, but I know Lynn Crawford left for the Four Seasons in NYC.

Any help would be seriously, greatly appreciated.

Maybe try L'Unita, just up the street from Four Seasons.

Jamie Kennedy's Wine Bar is always a safe bet. A tasting style menu of Canadian/local food most with a twist. The room and servers don't make it feel like fine dining but the food is great. Only problem is that they don't take reservations.

I'd also try lee(or it may be susur, the less expensive of the two), another great room, with good food, if you like the spice mix they use. Asian fusion food. They take reservations and have been known to be pushy about seating times.

Swan, another interesting room, shabby chic is the best way to describe it. Small menu of simple fare, but relatively well done.

If they are ok with veg/vegan try fressen. Expect it to be slow, everything is made to order.

For spanish style tapas I'd try torito. (no reservations again)

There is always chowhound for more and better recommendations.

Canoe

Great view
Great bar
Good service
Pretty good list
Canadian inspired menu, making it:

1) Accessible menu as per your guests' preference
2) Not as good as it thinks it is

Toronto has no great restaurants, but very much like the city, quite a few approaching excellence. North 44 was supposed to be played out, but I had an excellent meal there last week.

IMO, stay away from trendy crap like Rosewater, Sassafraz and Sotto Sotto (which is particularly awful)

Good luck and enjoy.

I'd probably consider myself representative of the folks that you're planning to take out - and I very much enjoyed my experience at Canoe.

I've only been to TDot once, and it was 3 years ago, so who knows what the food scene is like now. Since the stop wasn't planned, most of the stops were last minute reservations. During the week, my friends and I went to Canoe, which afforded a nice view and interesting meat selections. It was good, but it certainly wasn't amazing like food I could find in NYC or SF. We also tried a place called Bymark which was located, in what seemed to be the basement of an office building/underground mall, apparently to shelter it from the snow. It was surprisingly good, and both the female friends I was with enjoyed the Bymark Burger with the shaved truffles; the menu seems more accessible to the non-foodie sticking to the traditional meat and fish courses, but with a little oomph. Before leaving, we had a casual sushi dinner at a place called Ki -- the ambiance was nice and the sushi average.

I took some customers to the resteraunt in the CN tower a few months ago. they had a huge tower of sea food, and some pretty good cheeses. not too fancy, but pretty good and the overall expereince was great.

We also tried a place called Bymark which was located, in what seemed to be the basement of an office building/underground mall, apparently to shelter it from the snow. It was surprisingly good, and both the female friends I was with enjoyed the Bymark Burger with the shaved truffles

Click to expand...

It's actually in the basement of the same building that houses Canoe (Mies's TD Centre). This is Mark McEwan (North 44, One, TV show "The Heat" fame). A sophisticated, yet subdued Yabu Pushelburg designed space with a pretty serious kitchen. That Bymark Burger is the "joke" on the menue, but it's ******* good, and at $37, a bargain if you can get past the "burger" label. All-in-all, probably up your alley for reasonably comfortable with better than decent food.

Lee sounds like a place that may suit you...great spot on King West, where you can dine casually and walk to a more grown-up type of club/bar afterwards.

The CN Tower ??? Not to knock the restaurant, but why don't you just go down to Queen & Bathurst and have "TOURIST" tattooed on your forehead. You come to Toronto, you "eat", not sit in ******* revolving restaurants.

For a great rustic Italian meal, try Romagna Mia. For some of the best Portuguese, go to Chiado. If you're feeling like maybe dim sum, try Lai Wah Heen. If an old school steak is what you're tasting, Barberian's has been getting it right for 50 years. How about a comfy meal at Julie's Cuban...only a short walk to hanf with the morons at The Drake (or be less of a moron and hang at the Gladstone for some great karaoke). Or perhaps you want to combine your Clubland-dining experience...try The Fifth.

But the CN Tower?? **** me.

Some good suggestions above. The one I'm going to try on my next trip out is Nota Bene, which seems to meet SField's criteria from what I've read up on it (I don't think I could slide it's older sibling Splendido through on my limited per diem).

http://notabenerestaurant.com/menus

Originally Posted by freshcutgrass

Click to expand...

It's actually in the basement of the same building that houses Canoe (Mies's TD Centre). This is Mark McEwan (North 44, One, TV show "The Heat" fame). A sophisticated, yet subdued Yabu Pushelburg designed space with a pretty serious kitchen. That Bymark Burger is the "joke" on the menue, but it's ******* good, and at $37, a bargain if you can get past the "burger" label. All-in-all, probably up your alley for reasonably comfortable with better than decent food.


That makes sense then since the hotel I was at was on King St., so lots of the places we ate at were pretty close. Compared to the rest of the menu, the burger did seem out of place, but so many top places are doing gourmet burgers now, it wasn't totally unexpected. What was unexpected to me was how good it was, but my friends refused to let me have any more than a sampling from their burgers, but then I didn't let either of them have more than a bite of my veal.

Not sure if it would be considered touristy, but one fun thing to do is to walk around and grab lunch at St. Lawrence Market.

Originally Posted by Roikins

Click to expand...

Not sure if it would be considered touristy, but one fun thing to do is to walk around and grab lunch at St. Lawrence Market.


Not touristy, lots of locals do it.

One set of places to avoid are any of the places along King Street by the Royal Alex, all are just edible and overpriced tourist traps.

Originally Posted by doink

Click to expand...

Not touristy, lots of locals do it.

+1. I used to it regularly when I worked in downtown Toronto (and even more off topic, nearly every saturday morning between 2001 and 2005, I went for a peameal and egg at Carousel. God, I miss that)

Originally Posted by Spatlese

Click to expand...

Some good suggestions above. The one I'm going to try on my next trip out is Nota Bene, which seems to meet SField's criteria from what I've read up on it (I don't think I could slide it's older sibling Splendido through on my limited per diem).

http://notabenerestaurant.com/menus

Walked by it 15 minutes ago. My brother commented that he took two clients (at their request) last week. It was $500 and ****. YMMV.

edit

edit