FOOD - THIS JUST IN

The Harbord Room

2008/04/30

Painting walls a Pepto Bismol pink might seem a bit in-your-face for a serious restaurant, but it works — like most everything else at Harbord Room. Whether front-of-house master Dave Mitton (formerly of Czehoski, and pictured at left) and chef Cory Vitiello (formerly of the Drake Hotel) are gently poking fun at the stuffier, more high-end boîtes that pepper the lower Annex’s restaurant row is pure conjecture. Regardless of their motives, they’ve taken a pub and given it a refined, yet relaxed elegance.

Paradise Fine Chinese Dining

2008/04/09

Preparation for a dim-sum meal is a delicate art. The appetite must be expansive enough for a gorging, but not so great as to impair one’s judgment when ordering. A packed dining room, carts whizzing by, babies crying and an empty stomach can be a dangerous combination. For, “in the heat of action,” as Kasper Gutman says, “men are likely to forget where their best interests lie and let their emotions carry them away.”

Nyood

2008/04/02

You would think that for all the Drake-inspired, 905-attracting hoopla that has made Queen West of Dovercourt T.O.’s biggest nightlife destination, you’d be tripping all over upscale cuisine on the strip. Not so. Other than some good plates from a couple chefs at the Drake, the street has so far been a foodie-deficient zone. Hanif Harji plans to change that.

L’unita

2008/03/12

There’s something so very right about L’unita, and it’s not just the food. Owners Sam Kalogiros and David Minicucci must have sprung from the womb with the hospitality gene, which comes in handy when you’re a couple of budding restaurateurs. Not only do they remember how you like your cocktail (from three restaurants ago), but the duo bend over backwards to satisfy your every whim.

EYEWEEKLY.COM video launch with Goodhandy's!

2008/03/11

Watch all the runway action from Goodhandy's recent Diamond Dolls shemale beauty pageant on the new EYEWEEKLY.COM video player!

Satori Supper Club

2008/02/20

Fascism may not be a fair way to run a county but it’s a great way to run a kitchen. While cooking can be a collaborative process, a chef needs to have the final say. Too often, menus read like summer sequels written by eight writers. Satori seems like a case in point. Scott McDonough can cook, as evidenced by his treatment of a chicken leg — usually ammunition for staff meals and burritos — that spins something spectacular, yet honest. But too many of the dishes are ill-conceived. These two factors meet awkwardly on the table, design overreached by execution, searching for rhythm. Someone needs to get off McDonough’s back and let him do what he does best.

Prime

2008/02/13

In this brave new era of X-treme cuisine, even a delicacy previously known only to a small band of Himalayan goat farmers could easily become a menu must-have. Feeding that frenzy are restaurateurs constantly in search of the next big trend, stimulating our taste buds with the latest in über-exotic ingredients, and our eyeballs with the showiest in award-winning decor.

Perola's

2008/01/30

It takes a bit of archeology to get to the meal at Perola’s. A small, orange sign protruding from the Mexican grocery, its entrance overflowing with anchos, chipotles and habaneros, is the only indication that there’s something to eat in the back. Walk past the bustle of Augusta Avenue, with Kensington’s crazy bird lady (who cruises on her low-rider bike with a bird on her shoulder) sneering obscenities at pedestrians, past the chamber of chilies.

Tati Bistro

2008/01/23

The silhouette of Monsieur Heulot, an easy-to-miss wisp of frosting against the floor-to-ceiling windows facing Harbord Street, welcomes you to Tati Bistro. Consistently anonymous in his trench coat and trilby hat, the pre-war French everyman smoking a pipe on his bicycle is positioned as ambassador to an antiquated world reanimated on the canvas of chef Laurent Brion’s lively cooking.
The bistro, like the films of French director Jacques Tati, rejects modernity in favour of old Parisian charm. The menu eschews manicured, over-garnished contraptions for deep, lush dishes of classically wedded flavours. Even the menu design borrows from a century-old style: Victorian boxiness sections off a page of antiquated fonts, headlined by turn-of-the-century engraver’s script and flourishes.

Pop Bistro

2008/01/16

One thing we can say for restaurateurs Joe Hume and Marc Degagne: they sure know how to doll up a dining room. Their Pop Bistro in South Riverdale is a picture-perfect model of the quaint little French bistro it claims to be. The cozy, moody boîte, rich in dark-wood accents and charmed up with a ’50s-era diner counter, seamlessly synchs simple design elements to create a space that’s as elegant as it is casual.

Noon

2008/01/09

There’s a shadowy organization known as the Toronto Brunch Cabal, a group of breakfast and lunch restaurants (Aunties and Uncles, Le Petit Dejeuner, Bonjour Brioche) that pride themselves on short menus, lineups out the ass and beautiful, hand-loved food resulting in slow service. They are the rare weekend jewels that make our devotion to brunch worthwhile. Noon is not one of those places.

Johny Banana

2008/01/02

Just like in foreign diplomacy, restaurants often reach an impasse where they’re forced to decide between “supporting the troops” or “cutting and running.” Maybe this roadblock, for Johny Banana, was the retina-burning brightness of the Day-Glo interior design, or the hobo-centric neighbourhood (though kitty-cornered Rosebud is doing gangbusters), or maybe it was that awful name. Or maybe it was that stencil on the front window of a stylized capuchin in a pork-pie hat — monkeys have bupkes to do with Mexican food and, unless they’re being abused for our amusement in candy bar and cellphone commercials, they generally do not wear hats.

Seoul City

2007/12/21

Truth is sometimes found in unexpected places. In the case of Seoul City, it's in the complimentary dish of kimchi the server drops off at your table moments after your arrival.

As anyone who has spent more than 24 minutes on Bloor Street west of Bathurst knows, kimchi is the traditional Korean dish of vegetables - usually cabbage - made with fermented chili peppers.

Lucien

2007/12/19

There’s a certain je ne sais quoi about Lucien that suggests culinary wunderkind Scot Woods (who ran the kitchen at Habitat after stints at Canoe and Avalon) and stylish restaurateur Simon Bower (YYZ, Mercer Street Grill) may have made a deal with the old Prince o’ Darkness himself.
Perhaps it’s the name, “Lucien,” which sounds uncomfortably like “Lucifer,” or reminds us of a certain devilish, one-legged separatist. Or, perhaps it’s the warm, yet eerily gothic, charm of a dining room (designed by Bower) awash in autumnal tones with the incandescent glow of a Dali-esque chandelier and ritualistic-style candles.

The Local: Margret

2007/12/14

For the sake of full disclosure, I should note that I have been an official Junction inhabitant for about, oh, just over a month. Since forgoing their dry status back in 2000, the Dundas West neighborhood that stretches between Keele and Runnymede has seen an upsurge in family friendly spots (like breakfast joint The Purple Onion) and the slim selection of hipster-savvy bars such as the recently reviewed folksy piano bar the Troubadour.

Imperia

2007/12/14

Toronto has its share of revered restaurateurs, and Franco Agostino is certainly among them. With the pedigree of popular restaurants like Il Posto and Banfi under his Versace kidskin belt, Agostino has garnered a certain amount of respect from feeding Toronto's monied maws over the years.

Picnic

2007/12/12

Seeing as how our internal gastronomic seasonal clocks have already converted to Slow-Braised-Shank Time, you’d think that dining out on summer-park fare would fail to stoke the ol’ gut furnace. But serial restaurateur Jennifer Cardella (Li’ly, Chinadoll) aims to change our seasonal affective disorder with her latest venture, Picnic — a walk in the park at any time of year.
Especially if your idea of picnicking includes ooey-gooey chili cheese fries ($9), home-style mac ’n’ cheese with truffle oil ($12), garlic shrimp crostinis with parmigiano and mozzarella cheese ($12) or that diabetic Scot’s nightmare: Mars bars corn doggies ($8), golden brown greasy heaven on-a-stick by way of molten chocolate and caramel wrapped up in a rich blanket of crispy batter.

The Local: The Black Dog Pub

2007/12/07

The corner of Port Union and the 401 may not be on your way to anywhere but next time you’re on you way to Montreal make a point to stop at The Black Dog Pub — you won’t be disappointed. In fact, it’s only a 30-minute drive from Yonge and Bloor. So reserve your Zipcar and head to the border, the border of Scarborough and Pickering.

Jacob’s & Co.

2007/12/05

In ye olde pre-disco dining-out era, greasing the palm of the grey-haired maître d’ in the checked sport coat was commonplace; that old $20 handshake got you the best table in the house.

The Local: Park Hyatt

2007/11/30

A forlorn-faced Bill Murray sits at a bar stool, the Tokyo cityscape behind him. He is at New York Bar, the Tokyo Hyatt’s rooftop lounge, which makes an alluring cameo in the film Lost In Translation. The world-renowned bar plays host to live jazz at night, and boasts a $20 cover fee, providing a stunning view of Tokyo in all its cosmopolitan glory, and thanks to the movie, tourist flock to the locale in attempt to recreate the scene where Bill Murray chats up a much younger Scarlett Johansson. The image of the hotel lounge is a classic one, and luckily Toronto’s Park Hyatt plays host to a very similar incarnation of the roof top bar,

Buddha Dog

2007/11/28

A hot dog ain’t nothing but a sausage — just emulsified, rather than blended. It’s got as much dignity as its maker and eater choose to give it. It can be one of the handmade gems of cured, Spanish chorizo from Segovia Meats. Or it can be a tube of questionable origin, caged in the rotisserie heat-lamp prison at 7-11, waiting to feed drunkards at 3am.

Food Notebook: Nov. 26-30

2007/11/26

A comforting fact with the approaching holidays is that, as far as gifts are concerned, you can never go wrong with alcohol. The following are just a couple of time-saving and sure-to-please ideas for anyone on your list. And go ahead and purchase some extra for yourself while you’re at it — you might very well need it to help ease you into your impending, post-celebratory credit doom.

The Local: Eton House

2007/11/23

Along the Danforth east of Pape, though, some relics of Toronto Past remain untouched. Eton House, neatly preserved, like a capsule from the linoleum-tiled '30s, is one of these spots, and for a beer and a night stripped bare of all pretensions, there’s really nothing better.

M&B Yummy House

2007/11/21

Seasoned restaurateurs with million-dollar renos generate their own publicity through guile, connections and shameless, hyperbolic showmanship (for proof, see the Food Network). Others, like the owner of a Rastafarian restaurant we once contacted, shun it. When we called to find out how long they’ve been open, a suspicious voice said: “Who dis? Why you want to know?”

Sassafraz

2007/11/14

Last December, a catastrophic fire nearly razed Sassafraz to the $1,000-per-square-foot ground. What began in a basement kitchen as a common grease fire nearly engulfed the swank eatery, causing $5 million in damages. Many watched in horror (others with schadenfreude) as Yorkville’s grand poobah of it-spots smouldered. And, as time ticked by, there was talk that this A-list magnet would never reopen, leaving land-speculating sharks to muscle for yet another prohibitively priced condo project.