Cantine Bistro
138 Avenue Road
416-923-4822
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine: $120

Cantine has all the makings of a successful mid-range bistro: the chic location just a few doors down from hot spot L’unita in upper Yorkville, the refurbished decor with exposed brick, low candlelight and modern art (for sale, of course), and even a live acoustic guitarist crooning everything from Neil Young to Jobim. With all this appeal, and with the number of hotels in the area, it’s no surprise the room was buzzing and full on a chilly Friday night. There were, however, some unpleasant surprises, which account for the lack of enthusiasm shown by Toronto’s foodie community for this two-year-old spot.

First impressions speak volumes, particularly in the restaurant business. At Cantine, the first contact is not a conveniently positioned host or cloakroom, but an open room with a few coatracks - self-serve of course. Servers pass by and eventually escort diners to the tables scattered throughout the main room, with a centre booth on the right and the bar on the left dominating the space. The couch-like armchairs at the front of the room, while plush, romantic and intimately paired in twos and threes, suffer from being too far from the warmth and action of the main space, but they are prime seats once the live music starts up. Service seems rushed and lost in taking orders, and servers appear less and less as the evening wears on, with pronounced delays in both the bringing and clearing of plates.

Cantine offers a variety of bistro fare, from salad and seafood appetizers, three pizzas, four pastas, and mains centring around meats and seafoods. Appetizers offer the most consistent pleasure of the evening. The warm-goat cheese napoleon ($10.95), served on a grilled eggplant with a hearty side of greens in a tangy vinaigrette, pleases with a light crispy breading and rich herb flavour. The artichoke salad ($10.95), served with tomatoes and black olives, tops a smoky grilled portobello and compliments the deep woody flavour with a more acidic kick, complete with the same greens as the goat cheese.

The mains arrive while appetizers are still on the table, and suffer from redundancy. The same greens and grilled peppers that accompanied the apps appear next to a grilled salmon fillet, and while the portion is hearty, it doesn’t exactly fit the menu description of grilled salmon salad ($16.95). Further, the fillet is dry, overcooked and cool, lacking any of the moisture of flesh that the grilling could have preserved. The one stand-out dish, both on paper and in flavour, is the chicken curry ($15.95). This hearty stew comes with a large side of rice and a small papadum, and the complex flavours of the sauce, combined with veggies and moist chicken, rival any of the city’s new haute Indian spots. The rest of the mains, from the lamb chops ($19.95) to the half-chicken ($15.95), suffer the fate of the salmon - predictable, expendable, middle-of-the-range cuisine at a higher-than-respectable price.

Dessert, despite an unacceptably long wait, excites with a range of sorbets, cheesecakes and torte, as well as more unique items. In particular, the wine-roasted pear ($7), topped with chocolate sauce and very necessary vanilla ice cream, is a tart treat and offers an alternative to a sweeter, richer dessert. The wine list offers a mix of Old and New classics, but with only a dozen by-the-glass and all bottles over $40, there isn’t much of value.

The clientele at Cantine seems quite content to wile the night away with mediocre food, a slightly overpriced wine list, and slower-than-acceptable, too-laid back service. Most dinners look as though they have left their teenagers and college kids at home in nearby Rosedale, and are out for a night on the town. With a dinner for two over $100, however, the food doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. Toronto is in great need of affordable mid-range spots, where satisfying and simple food is served efficiently by knowledgeable and agreeable staff in a comforting and laid-back space. Cantine, while providing some hits on the menu in an ambient space, fails to live up to potential, leaving Toronto’s exacting mid-range foodie to continue the search in vain.

Lauren Simmons is a frugal uptown foodie who teaches music. She divides her leisure time between her love of food (cooking, hunting down, and writing about) and her love of athletics. She is currently training for the 200k, 2 day Ride to Conquer Cancer, and can  be found cycling through the streets with Jules croissants, Bagel House bagels and Summerhill Market salads falling out of her bag.