Our critics ate their way through the year — and had some fantastic meals:
 
Colborne Lane *****
45 Colborne, 416-368-9009
“Claudio Aprile’s Colborne Lane is a new kind of food laboratory filtered through a refreshingly rustic sensibility. As we’ve come to expect, the menu follows the small-plates, tasting menu–like format — which is great for sharing. But with food this spectacular, be prepared to slap your partner’s hand as they reach across the table for a try.”
ALAN A. VERNON AND DON DOULOFF

ARTHURS ****
501 College, 416-413-9998
“[The space is beige and] unconsciously, I suppose I thought the food would follow suit. Flavour-ambiguous food for a decor-ambivalent restaurant, I thought. This assumption? Cretinous. Embarrassing. Arthurs might be beige, but the food is a collision and ensuing explosion of Van Gogh and Kandinsky paintings. A rainbow of palate-and-eyeball-­ravaging wonder.” KATHRYN BOREL

Rebozos ****
126 Rogers, 416-658-5001
“Rebozos is the best Mexican joint in El Grande Smoke ... arrive very hungry and eat your way through the seven-item menu, as I did. You will sweat, your eyes will water, your nose will run, but what a delicious facial beating it is.” KB

Fuzion ****
580 Church, 416-944-9888
“I flagged down Jimmy, Fuzion’s owner, to ask him how closely [chef] Patrick Wiese had worked with Oprah, because the food had been shockingly untainted by her aura. He explained there had been minimal direct contact with her. Which was comforting. Though not comforting enough for me to do up the button of my pants.” KB

KARUCHIE *****
924 College, 416-850-1729
“Right on the burgeoning strip of College near Ossington, the mid-sized Karuchie isn’t a recent resto reno that you’ll see in a design mag anytime soon. ‘Basic’ is a polite word to describe it, albeit some fun Kozyndan originals do adorn the front walls. But clearly, the decor was never intended to seduce — the food is. Chef-owner Chris Thorn knows the value of a buck. His plated artistry is not just pretty darned astounding, it’s unbelievably priced.” AAV & DENISE BALKISSOON

E-pan ****
369 Spadina Av., 416-260-9988
“[The decor] seemed alarmingly out of place [on Spadina], like the high-school tomboy who gets dragged to the girls’ washroom by the cheerleaders for an awkward makeover. Not so. Erroneous assumption. E-Pan has the goods of a homecoming queen, if the homecoming queen were stuffed with steaming platters of duck and abalone and beef and congee.” KB

Oishi Kada ****
280 Augusta, 416-413-1703
“Go there. Eat the maki. It is the best maki I've found in this city saturated with maki. Everything about it is correct.... Never has there been a prouder, pluckier tempura shrimp, its half-moon body puffy and crispy with golden-fried panko.” KB

Fare Bistro ****
1097 Queen E., 416-645-0914
“Chef Brad Clark has stacked the menu with classic Gallic signifiers: French onion soup, steak frites, salade niçoise, fillet de boeuf, escargots in phyllo. Excellent and unshocking. What is shocking, however, is the masterful way Clark has designed the plating of each dish. Portions are alarmingly generous, artfully composed, done up in lovely bountiful stacks.” KB

Foxley *****
207 Ossington, 416-534-8520
Chef Tom Thai may never be able to offer local foodies the kind of revelry he experienced on the streets of Korea, but Foxley is already that casual, low-key, neighbourhood haunt where you come to celebrate everyday life while you chow down on not-so-everyday food.” AAV & DB

Indus Junction ****
811 Queen W., 647-428-7119
“From an unpretentious, yet elegantly chic ambience to an inventive and well-executed menu that includes house-made desserts and an array of Indian-style drinks, Oakville-raised siblings Alka and Poonam Dhir clearly understand that it’s the little things that count. After all, when was the last time you enjoyed an amuse bouche when you went out for Indian?”
AAV & SEAN KELLY KEENAN

JACOBS & CO. ****
12 Brant, 416-366-0200
“Perhaps a price tag this steep, for most people, is reserved for special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries. And many might figure they’ll blow their special-occasion wad on something a bit more stacked and foamed and experimental [than steak]. But we’re pretty sure this is where gramps would feel comfortable taking you for your graduation dinner and heck, you’d enjoy it too. Especially if he’s picking up the cheque.”

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