toronto stories

restaurant reviews: rants and raves

So I've finished eating my way through 3 restaurants in Toronto and I must say that only one really impressed me. For those who know me, I'm a real foodie so please excuse me while I list the items that I ate! The first meal was at Monte Cristo in the downtown core. I chose the place based purely on looks, but I should have known better. I had walked by during the summer and the white drapes drew me in. The dishes themselves were good; we had asparagus cream soup to start and then venison osso buco and finally, I chose the lemon brule tart (the other choice being sorbet.) The service was not too great - the waitress was artificially interested in us and I guess for the dining deals, they said gratuity was to be added automatically. Well, the girl charged me $3 for hot water and called it a 'tea'. When I questioned her, she said they charged for hot water! I think she was hoping to add tip to that. When she gave us the bill, she had handwritten in the tip, and not only that, but she charged MORE than 15% of the total bill (i.e. she tipped on the tax!) Hello? I will NOT be going back to this restaurant/lounge again.

On to restaurant no. 2: Crush Wine Bar. Wow. The service was great - waiters helped each other out, the atmosphere casual with brick walls, exposed pipes, and an open kitchen. I started off with a butternut squash soup and followed with an entree of duck confit with warm three bean salad and five spice consomme. Fantastic. I knew my next meal had duck as well so I was going to choose another main but the girl recommended this one and I'm glad I chose it! Dessert was a lovely chocolate brownie souffle, orange anglaise, and port poached cherries. The night was made that much more cosy with low lighting and snow falling heavily outside. I felt like I was on a holiday at a chalet!

The last restaurant for this round was Pangaea. I had heard it was a good restaurant...and it was, except it was again lacking in service. Once our waiter saw that we were not ordering wine, that was it. No checking on us at all to see how our meals were. The maitre d' was the one who came to clear our plates!! The meal itself was fairly good (duck again but not as good as Crush!) and the dessert was heavenly!! The appy I chose was foie gras (torchon, with mushroom salad, marmalade of onion, caraway melba toast), the main was duck confit (duck legs on apple & cinnamon braised cabbage, roasted duck and juniper reduction) and the dessert was sour lemon cake with caramel whipped cream, and crisp demerara baked meringue. To die for! Can't wait til Summerlicious. :)

posted by toronto girl @ 11:42 PM