Posted by Sheryl Kirby in chinese, french, restaurant profile on March 4, 2008 at 7:18 am

Senses
328 Wellington Street West
416-935-0400

I’ve gone on record as saying that I don’t like foie gras. That was before I had the foie gras as prepared by Chef Patrick Lin at Senses.

Working on the “try it ten times” theory as espoused by Vogue food writer Jeffrey Steingarten, I continue to try foods that I’ve had bad experiences with in the hope that I’ll eventually learn to at least like them, if not love them. After trying the duo of foie gras on Senses new menu, consider me a convert. Chef Lin’s technique of offering the tasty liver both pan-seared and poached in Peking duck consommé is a testament to both an exquisite ingredient and his skill and creativity behind the stove.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in nutrition, restaurant profile on February 26, 2008 at 7:31 am

Four
187 Bay Street, Commerce Court South, concourse level
416-368-1444

Fine dining and healthy eating have never exactly gone together. Luxurious sauces, marbled steaks and decadent desserts are a far cry from the salads without dressing and those awful “diet plates” of cottage cheese and melba toast that we tend to think of as low calorie meals. And pious health food restaurants serve up hefty portions of morality but the food at those places has never been known for being especially tasty.

Four aims to change that.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in italian, restaurant profile on January 25, 2008 at 11:15 am

My dogs always know when the pizza guy is coming. They go crazy when the door buzzer rings and run around the house in a frenzy. Pizza is their favourite food and they believe it is their dog-given right to the uneaten crusts. They are less happy when the pizza comes from Magic Oven, though, since their share of the crust is minimal indeed. I love my dogs, but when I’m having a healthy pizza with organic ingredients, my pups are outta luck because I’m eating the whole thing.

Which is to say, this ain’t your average pizza.

Posted by Jeff Jurmain in beverages, coffee, restaurant profile on December 10, 2007 at 8:15 am

Just Us! Cafe
2010 Queen Street East, 490 Queen Street West
416-862-2233

Twelve years ago this month, Jeff Moore travelled to Chiapas, one of Mexico's poorest and most populous states. In the mountains, farmers were growing, producing and exporting excellent organic coffee beans independently. When Moore arrived there was a civil war brewing over who got the money from the coffee. “Coyotes” – agents for huge international coffee companies – were after the this homegrown business’s funds.

Maneuvering past military road blocks, Moore hiked up the mountains. He met farmers that, even amidst unstable political conditions, felt empowered through their co-op setup. Fair trade had provided them hope. Moore struck a deal to import the farmers’ coffee to Halifax. It would take a minimum shipment of 10 tonnes of coffee, for which he and wife Debra put their house up as security. And they hadn’t yet had a single customer.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in beverages, pubs and bars, restaurant profile, wine on December 4, 2007 at 7:32 am

cafe Taste
1330 Queen Street West
416-536-7748

Deserved or not, Parkdale has a reputation for being a bit dirty and gritty, less known as a fine wine kind of place than Fine Old Canadian Sherry. Wine guy Jeremy Day has set out to change that and for the past year or so has been running a warm and welcoming little wine bar that has not just made Parkdale a destination for good wine, but has embraced the community in the process.

I spoke with Day via email, and while I don't normally like running straight up Q&A articles, his answers were so well thought-out and eloquent that it seemed only fair to run his replies in full.

Posted by Lisa Paul in japanese, restaurant profile on November 28, 2007 at 7:46 am

kaiseki-Sakura
416-923-1010
556 Church Street

Literally translated, kaiseki means “stone in the bossom,” named for the practice whereby Zen Buddhist monks placed warm stones in the folds of their obi as a way to stave off hunger. But its meaning is derived from more than that, says Yumi Izutsu, who with her husband, chef Daisuke Izutsu, opened kaiseki-Sakura last August. Around 1,000 years ago, Buddhist monks held traditional tea ceremonies, during which they offered small, light dishes of food to balance the effects of the strong green tea, she says. At one time kaiseki was also used to describe the style of food served at drinking parties held by Shoguns, or the highest-ranking Samurai. In modern North American vernacular, think of kaiseki as a tasting, or a small plates menu.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in hotel, restaurant profile on November 27, 2007 at 1:51 pm

The Windsor Arms
18 St. Thomas Street
416-971-9666

“The Windsor Arms has a reputation for being a bit stuffy,” said Executive Chef Stephen Ricci. And then I cocked my eyebrow. And then he caught me cocking my eyebrow. And then I was forced to explain.

Historically, while the 80-year-old hotel does have a reputation for being very “old money”, in recent years that reputation has changed from stuffy to a more modern take on high society, which roughly translated still means rich, but now comes with the glitter (or tinge, depending on your point of view) of celebrity. With a guest list that has included such non-stuffy names as Jennifer Lopez and Drew Barrymore, the Windsor Arms is still saddled with the reputation of being unattainable to the common folks; of being the type of place that everyone talks about, but that no one has actually been to.

Posted by Lisa Paul in restaurant profile, sandwiches, shops on October 31, 2007 at 7:54 am

Petit Four
187 Bay Street
Commerce Court South, Concourse Level
416-368-1221

Petit Four has the makings of an oxymoron. On one hand, it serves tiny desserts, but on the other it dishes up hefty sandwiches. Its conceptual slogan is "An artisanal approach to everyday living," meanwhile it lives on the lower level of Bay Street's Commerce Court, catering to cerebral people whose familiarity with artisan anything probably comes from reading the buzzword in trendy urban magazines. And the bakery is owned not by craftsmen but by a corporate entity made up of more than 40 restaurants, which pulled in $150 million last year.

Still, you have to give credit to anyone who opens an operation with the goal of changing the face of take-out by coddling customers with concierges and emphasizing quality in the Bay streeters’ food court. It’s a jungle down there. Most competitors have developed masterful computerized technology turning food prep into an uber-efficient assembly line. Order a meal for under $10 and it will be in your hands before you can say investment banker.

Posted by Catherine Gerson in beverages, coffee, restaurant profile on August 19, 2007 at 7:16 pm

Aroma Espresso Bar
500 Bloor Street West
416-536-7750

With the hustle and bustle of the Annex, the neighbourhood was an obvious choice of venue for Aroma Espresso Bar, the Israeli import and only the second location in North America - the other is in New York City’s Soho neighbourhood. I met Anat Davidzon, operating partner, one Friday morning to see how she’s settling in to their new digs. She is excited by the varying demographics of the neighbourhood which is home to everyone from students and club-goers to working professionals.

At 10am, a smattering of people occupy the large space, a former JJ Muggs venue. An older couple takes a late breakfast, two twenty-somethings gossip about the latest Hollywood scandal, a single man holds up the newspaper to cover his face; yes, this is most definitely a coffee shop, er, an espresso bar.

Posted by Greg Clow in bistros, restaurant profile, restaurant review on August 12, 2007 at 4:52 pm

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.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in fusion, restaurant profile on July 22, 2007 at 2:37 pm

First of all, apologies to Royal Ontario Museum CEO William Thorsell, architect Daniel Libeskind and Michael Lee-Chin whose name is on the place, but I just can’t bring myself to like the new Crystal addition. I’m one of those silly people who really like old buildings, and standing both outside and inside the lobby of the addition, I get an odd sense of uneasiness and vertigo, and feel very much like I’m in some sort of 1960s spy movie. I kept expecting Bond villain Ernst Blofeld and that cat to come strolling around a corner.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in mixed menu, nutrition, restaurant profile on July 17, 2007 at 7:29 am

When we started this site some six months ago, we determined that our mandate was to cover anything and everything to do with food in Toronto. It’s easy to fall into the foodie trap of focussing on either cutting-edge and high end places, or hole-in-the-wall spots serving “authentic” cuisine from various cultures and completely ignoring a whole cross-section of stuff in the middle - which just happens to be where most people eat.

I was reminded of this recently when I received a press release inviting me to a tasting at The Pickle Barrel. The restaurant, which opened its first location in 1971 serving corn beef sandwiches and coleslaw, had recently undergone a make-over. The décor in most of the locations has been updated to a sleek and modern new look with cosy booths and tiled pillars. More importantly, the menu has been updated from its humble beginnings of deli meat sandwiches to a more cosmopolitan selection. The old favourites are now complimented by a variety of healthy options created by cookbook author and healthy living expert Rose Reisman. There is even a newly added menu of options that all come in at under 500 calories.

Go ahead and scoff, all you food snobs – the stuff is fantastic.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in indian, restaurant profile, south asian on June 5, 2007 at 7:32 am

Indus Junction
811 Queen Street West
647-428-7119

If I say “let’s go for Indian food,” to any of my friends, their first thought is going to be buffet, where we all fill our plates over and over again with passable but not especially memorable food. Sure, there are some upscale Indian restaurants in Toronto, but even there, the focus is on traditional, with the compartmentalized plates reminiscent of a cafeteria. Like so many ethnic cuisines that are now part of the culture of our city, we have this idea that Indian food must be traditional. But India as a culture has embraced the 21st century, and there’s no reason why Indian food can’t be modernized as well.

Enter Alka and Poonam Dhir, whose month-old Queen Street restaurant Indus Junction serves up beautiful Indian food, laced with authentic flavours and techniques, but with a modern twist. It is the junction where east meets west, old meets new, and the traditionally male-dominated industry gets a feminine touch that is as breath-taking as a jewelled sari.