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.

Continue reading Cantine - Half Empty or Half Full? »

Karuchie
924 College Street
416-850-1729
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine - $125

It has me at konichiwa. The pristine aquarium at the front door, the dark wood, the small pieces of Japanese charm displayed here and there. A contemporary French bistro displaying the (paradoxically) complex simplicity of an origami box, Karuchie is a fresh culinary cerisiers en fleur to the neighbourhood. Bonus extra = I score a (free) parking spot within yards of the entrance. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone – always a big plus when planning an evening out.

My fellow diner begins with watercress salad ($9) comprised of toasted pumpkin seeds, sections of blood orange, and avocado – this is a lovely salad, but a tad frustrating. Like eating a plate of flower stems, the watercress doesn’t lend itself especially well to eating with a fork – it falls all over the place. I don’t know what to suggest – maybe chopsticks would be more practical. Or fingers. For those who desire a beginning to their meal on the lighter side, this is a winning combination of ingredients. Never mind my own difficulties in getting the greenery up to my own piehole.

Continue reading That was Zen, This is Now »

Tati Bistro
124 Harbord Street
416-962-8284
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine: $130

I’m not a fan of science fiction. I’m a grounded in reality kind of gal. So every time I watch the film Mon Oncle by famed French actor/director Jacques Tati, I am always relieved when main character Monsieur Hulot leaves his sister’s “house of the future” to return to his little garret across the market square from the quintessential Parisian bistro. The juxtaposition of the modern kitchen and M. Hulot’s primitive, neighbourhood, family-run bistro speak to generations of people, both in France and elsewhere, who long to retain their cultural roots.

Chef Laurent Brion manages to capture exactly the mood of Hulot’s neighbourhood bistro (okay, minus the pack of dogs out front) in Harbord Street’s newest gem, Tati Bistro. Sporting a logo of Tati’s bumbling postman character atop his bicycle from the film Jour du Fête, the restaurant takes over the location of the former Kensington Kitchen and brings a tiny touch of Paris to downtown Toronto.

Continue reading A Tiny Touch of Tati’s Paris »

Ninth Gate Korean Bistro
11 Jarvis Street East
416-981-1919
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine: $55

Over the past year, I have become quite enamoured with Korean cuisine. On a quest motivated by my belly and palate, I continue to seek out my favourite dishes at both well-known locations and obscure gems.

Since Seoul, the capital of Korea, was once a walled city with 8 gates, the owners of Ninth Gate Korean Bistro have “opened the 9th gate to offer [their] patrons this gateway to the unique tastes and flavours of Korean foods.” Located at Front & Jarvis Streets in Old St. Lawrence Market, this seemingly upscale establishment provided a casual and comfortable atmosphere.

Continue reading Ninth Gate Korean Bistro »

Cowbell
1564 Queen Street West
416-849-1095

Say “cowbell” to someone, and they’ll most likely think of the percussive instrument that was featured on many disco and hard rock hits of the ’70s and ’80s, and immortalised in the infamous Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell. Perhaps it’s a sign of the urban disconnection from our rural roots that the original and literal definition of “a bell hung around the neck of cow” has become a secondary and almost archaic meaning for the word.

This is something that chef Mark Cutrara hopes to change via the Parkdale bistro that he and his wife, Karin Culliton, have recently opened and branded with the Cowbell moniker. While the musical meaning of the word is not lost on them, the name is mainly meant to draw attention to the restaurant’s mandate of featuring local produce, meats that are butchered in-house for “nose-to-tail” usage, and a menu that changes daily based on what is available.

Continue reading Restaurant Profile - Cowbell »

Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar
9 Church Street
416-362-1957
Brunch for two with cocktails, tax and tip: $65

At the Slow Food Green Link conference back in February at the Hart House, I had the opportunity to hear Tobey Nemeth, long-time sous-chef at Jamie Kennedy Kitchens, speak passionately about her views on the importance of seasonal and local products and it hit me: this is what Canadian cuisine is all about. I wondered if this vision, one that some still consider a passing fad, would translate seamlessly to a meal normally relegated to one of convenience.

On my latest visit to the Wine Bar for brunch, Tobey Nemeth is cheerily chatting up my two dining companions and me at the bar that winds around the small open kitchen. “It’s only our eighth week serving brunch so I’m very protective of the menu. It’s all just really good,” she gushes.

Continue reading Bringing Brunch Back Home »

Kubo Radio
894 Queen Street East
416-406-5826
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine: $90

Yes, somehow I ended up sitting pretty close to celebrity chef Susur Lee on my first visit to Kubo Radio. But before I get to that, here’s how I ended up eating there in the first place. I don’t spend a lot of time on the east end, so when I knew I’d be out on Queen East for a concert at the Opera House, I decided to do a little online investigating for an interesting restaurant to have a nosh at before the show.

Personally I enjoy a restaurant with a good website. When I don’t spend a lot of time in the neighbourhood I’m heading to, it’s a huge help, and Kubo Radio has a nice little site with all the information I was looking for: menu, location and an overall sense of what the place is all about. With all the information I needed, I called up my fellow concert-going gal pal and she sounded as interested as I was in trying this place out.

Continue reading The Best Burger I’ve Ever Eaten. Was it Because Susur Lee Was a Couple Tables Over? »

beerbistro
18 King Street East
416-861-9872
Three course brunch for two with all taxes and tip: $90

There’s an old cliché about the difference between night and day, but I’ve actually found a good example for which to apply it. I guess you could say I’m one of those “sensitive types”, or maybe my hearing is shot from too many industrial concerts in the 90s, but I hate, hate, hate loud restaurants. All that clinking of cutlery and loud music and raucous laughter. When you’re out for a quiet dinner or actually want to talk to the people you’re with, many restaurants are just not conducive to that situation.

Thus, I’ve become a bruncher. Even though I know how kitchen staff across the city, yea, around the world, hate the concept of getting up early after a night of busy service to poach eggs for those too intimidated to do it themselves, I really do prefer the usually quiet solitude of brunch over dinner.

Continue reading beerbistro Brunch - Get It While It’s Quiet »

Café Bernate
1024 Queen Street West
416-535-2835
lunch for two (including a cookie) with taxes, tip and coffee: $30

Regularly for the past ten or twelve years or so, I’d pass Café Bernate and say to myself, “We’ve really got to go there sometime!” Located on Queen West at Ossington, I’d be reminded of it twice a day as I rode the streetcar back and forth to work, yet somehow I never made it over there. Not for lack of trying through – a couple of times Greg, the husband, and I set out with the express intention to have lunch at the little gem of a café only to find it closed or packed.

So when we were walking along Queen Street a couple of weekends ago and both of us found our stomachs rumbling for lunch, we were surprised, astounded even, to find the place open. Finally, we would get to eat at Café Bernate.

Continue reading Café Bernate - What Was I Missing All These Years? »

The Fat Belgian
115 John Street
416-596-0000
Dinner for two (appetizers and mains only) with a glass of wine or beer, plus all taxes and tip: $100

As a general rule, I try to avoid the Entertainment District. There’s not much about it I find entertaining, except occasionally riding through it late at night in a cab where I can point at the people shivering in the cold at 2am desperately hoping to get into some overcrowded nightclub, and emit my loudest and most obnoxious “Ha Ha!!” Because what pleasure is there in life if you can’t include a Simpson’s reference at someone else’s expense?

No, I am a decrepit old punk rocker and once they closed down the Twilight Zone and razed the Silver Crown to make a parking lot back in the eighties, that area had little to offer me. Which is why I had no clue there were so many restaurants wedged in between all those clubs. Oh, I knew they were there, they were just off my radar in terms of destinations. I assumed they were all overpriced and mediocre.

My visit to the Fat Belgian has validated that assumption.

Continue reading The Fat Belgian »

Café La Gaffe
24 Baldwin Street (at McCaul)
416-596-2397
Lunch for two with wine, including taxes and tip - $55

It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago we had a gorgeous sunny day with patios hastily opening at various eateries. It took the staff at Café La Gaffe a moment to adjust when we sat ourselves at one of their patio tables. Being a little early for lunch was probably another reason why it took some time for them to notice us there. Considering how fast this small café fills up during lunch, we thought it best to arrive a little early.

Café La Gaffe is located near the University of Toronto on Baldwin Street. Baldwin features a neat strip of varied restaurants, ranging from vegetarian to sushi, and small grocery shops. The café itself has an eclectic feel to it with its purple and black furniture complete with worn edges.

Continue reading Café La Gaffe - A Mixed Review »

Kaffeehaus Konditor
1856 Queen Street East
416-693-7997
Desserts for two with specialty coffee, all taxes and tip - $22

I feel inferior as I stand outside the Kaffeehaus Konditor, a Viennese-style café on Queen Street East. Everything about me demonstrates inferiority. My bald spot radiates failure. My faded coat smells of stale sweat and Beefoghetti. My shifting eyes and furtive expression indicate a man of physical and mental degeneracy, a man unworthy to consume the “world’s best” apple strudel. This is as it should be though.

Ah yes, Vienna. Athens is the cradle of democracy; Dayton is the birthplace of aviation; Corbin, Kentucky gave the world Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). But from Vienna emerged psychoanalysis. Freud and Jung and other pioneers of the human mind explored the darkest depths of the psyche there. In a Viennese kaffeehaus, one might sit where Sigmund Freud once mused about penis envy; or where, even more meaningfully to me, Alfred Adler expounded on the inferiority complex.

Continue reading Strudel at Kaffeehaus Konditor »

Dessert Trends Patisserie-Bistro
154 Harbord Street
416-916-8155
brunch for two with coffee and juice, including taxes and tip: $60

What I sometimes miss in Toronto is the profusion of French-style patisserie-cafés, with lots of adorably wicked small cakes; all cream, mousse etc., that seduce both the eye and the appetite (as if mine needed seducing!). So when I stumbled upon Dessert Trends right at the Harbord/Brunswick intersection I was immediately fascinated by the exquisite array of colours and shapes that greeted me from the glass display case: individual golden pear tarts, with a cute little pear baked whole in the middle; monochrome geometrical chocolate bark boxes with chocolate mousse; and brilliant glazed mini-domes topped with exotic fruit. And it turns out they serve weekend brunch as well.

Continue reading Weekend Brunch for the Sweet-Toothed - Dessert Trends »

Esplanade Bier Markt
58 The Esplanade
(416) 535-8089
dinner for two with beer, tax & tip: $125

I like good food. I like good beer. I really like good food and good beer together. So applying accepted scientific principles, it would seem that I should just love Esplanade Bier Markt. Before beerbistro and other so-called gastropubs came along, the Markt was the first place in Toronto that attempted to show that beer can be paired with good quality food just as well as wine. They had a beer list that was at the time rivalled only Smokeless Joe, and they served a solid line-up of bistro-inspired dishes. All in all, it was a seemingly perfect place for me.

For a number of reasons, though, I’ve never really enjoyed myself there. The ambience suffers from a severe case of split personality, and while beer is obviously the Bier Markt’s main raison d’être, it sometimes feels as if it’s not given the attention it deserves. But before getting too negative, I should focus on some of the good things about the Bier Markt. As noted above, the food has always been great, and remains so under executive chef Michael Cipollo.

Continue reading Esplanade Bier Markt »