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Group-Ready Toronto Restaurant ‘Bests’
The lower-level private room at Mengrai.
Best Wine List – Via Allegro. Overseen by five on-staff sommeliers, the 5,500-label list comprehensively covers New and Old World wines, features at least 60 vintages by the glass and offers what the restaurant says is the world’s largest collection of Scotch (1,000 varieties) and Amarone (over 300). A perfect complement to the deeply satisfying rustic pastas, the menu’s strength. Two private rooms, seating 15 and 22, available.
Best Thai – Mengrai. Hailing from Northern Thailand, chef Sasi Meechai-Lim puts her highly personal stamp on exuberantly flavourful, haute-Thai dishes. Don’t miss Sasi’s Royal Cuisine Signatures, such as golden pumpkin soup; braised curry lamb with peach; and striped bass in tamarind/coconut sauce. Groups can take advantage of two private rooms, seating up to 26, and a special-event lounge hosting 75.
Best Hotel Restaurant – One (Hazelton Hotel). Meltingly delicate oven-roasted black cod. Silky, spun potatoes with chives. Swoonworthy peanut-butter brulee. Lemon-ricotta pancakes, at breakfast, that are carb heaven. Just another palate-pleasing meal in elegantly understated One restaurant, uber-chef Mark McEwan’s Yorkville outpost. Two private rooms, seating 18 and 60, are ideal for secluded group dine-arounds.
Best Steakhouse – Harbour Sixty. An August, 2009, renovation brightened and modernized the classy space. Steaks are first-rate, as are the shrimp cocktail, stone-crab claws, sides and desserts (especially the banana soufflé with dark-chocolate sauce). The cherry on the sundae, though, is a serving staff that is polished, knowledgeable and gracious. Six private rooms host nine to 50 people. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at at 12:25 P.M.
Ten Unique Food-Themed Group Ideas
A spirited show at Medieval Times.
O.Noir – Experience sightless, set-menu dining in a pitch-dark environment. In Toronto, O.Noir’s three rooms (two seating 40 each and one hosting 20) are available for group buyouts. Original location operates on Montreal’s Ste-Catherine W.
CopaCabana – Brazilian rodizio restaurant offers a hot and cold buffet table, followed by 14 to 16 all-you-can-eat skewered meats brought to your table by obliging wait staff. Musical entertainment and samba dancers, too. Locations operate in Toronto and Niagara Falls, Ont.
Medieval Times – Seating 1,350, this amphitheatre-style venue offers a four-course medieval feast accompanied by a lively jousting competition. Multimedia available in main theatre and Knight Club room (seating 275). A third business-meeting room seats 22. Toronto location.
Catch Your Own Crab – Hastings House hotel, on Salt Spring Island, B.C., operates a one-of-a-kind fishing excursion whereby groups of up to 25, led by a local fisherman, trap their own Dungeness crab. The following evening, the hotel’s chef turns the group’s catch into a multi-course meal.
Hashimoto – Master chef Masaki Hashimoto crafts set-price, multi-course Japanese kaiseki meals whose refinement and quality warrant their steep prices. Mississauga location seats six; North Toronto location, 10. Reservations must be made at least a week in advance, so ingredients can be ordered from Japan. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at at 2:46 P.M.
Top Ten New Orleans Restaurants
Galatoire's Restaurant.
Galatoire’s – Since 1905, the grande dame of Bourbon Street has been feeding gourmands impeccably – the oysters Rockefeller, oysters en brochette and shrimp remoulade are unequalled. Three private rooms available as a business meeting venue.
NOLA – Nestled in the character-laden French quarter, this lively bistro serves up exuberantly spiced food that never loses sight of its New Orleans roots. Don’t miss the gumbo (perhaps the city’s best!) and, if it’s available, the smoked beef with oysters and oyster mushrooms in tasso cream. Third-floor room seats 72 for private events.
Emeril’s – Emeril Lagasse’s eponymous New Orleans eatery hews to a Creole-based philosophy, with modern touches (the banana cream pie is wicked-rich). Wine Room (private area hosting 10 to 14) and semi-private events room (seating 25 to 88) available for groups. Main restaurant available for buyouts.
Acme Oyster House – Lineups form at 11:00 a.m. at this French Quarter favourite and don’t let up ’til midnight. The reason? Impeccably fresh Louisiana oysters. Main-floor room (140, seated; 200, reception) and second-floor room (50, seated; 100, reception) host private events.
Cuvée – Chef Bob Iacovone’s refined takes on Creole food boast rich textures and light flavours – say, a Napoleon of spiced shrimp and crisp sheets of chayote squash in remoulade sauce. Enhancing the experience is an appealingly understated, white-linen room outfitted in exposed brick. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Friday, December 14th, 2009 at 11:02 A.M.
Top Ten Sources for Holiday Gift Baskets
Santa Domingo gift basket, from Lina Epicure.
Cheese Boutique – Cheese, yes, but also gourmet vinegars, sauces, mustards, cookies, chutneys, spice rubs, oils, chocolates. Corporate gift baskets can be themed and either pre-selected or customized.
Pusateri’s Fine Foods – Baskets feature everything from coffees, teas, chocolates and cookies to fruitcake, nuts, salsas and dips. Home and Garden pieces (candles, crystal and the like) also available. Exclusive Canadian distributor of Caspian Sea caviar.
Meinhardt Fine Foods – High-end Vancouver food store offers 10 themed gift boxes, in various price ranges. Creative themes include Dinner for Six; Fruit & Cheese; Italian; Party in a Box; and The Best of B.C.
Soma – Artisanal chocolate maker produces small-batch confections made directly from the cocoa bean. Choose your own gift products or provide your specs (dark chocolate, for instance) and Soma will put together a basket.
Inniskillin Wines – Gift baskets feature the winery’s products, including such specialty items as ice wine, mini ice-wine bottles and two- and six-bottle boxed sets. Wine books and stemware can also be added to the mix.
Patisserie de Gascogne – This three-store chain of Montreal bakeries can create gift baskets bulging with such treats as chocolates, jams, marzipan, candies, teas, dried pasta and cookies. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 3:30 P.M.
Top Ten California Restaurants
The patio at Brix restaurant, Napa Valley.
Chinois on Main – Opened in 1983, this bustling Santa Monica mainstay in Wolfgang Puck’s empire pioneered East/West fusion anchored by California’s peerless ingredients. A compact, airy room fosters a convivial vibe with across-the-board appeal. Private room available for business meetings.
Matsuhisa – This is where it all began for Nobu Matsuhisa’s global empire of haute, Japanese-inflected restaurants. Drawing on influences from around the world, Matsuhisa’s food embraces creativity realized with top-notch ingredients. Patio seats 35 for private events. Restaurant can be bought out, too.
Petros – Classic Greek, given an haute twist, in Los Angeles’s Manhattan Beach. Decked out in California Cool, the space is casual and welcoming and the service professional. The 110-seat restaurant and 60-seat patio are available for group buyout.
Mediterraneo – Little dishes, big flavours, all with a playful Spanish, Italian, French and Greek slant. Hermosa Beach loves this fab ‘n’ funky tapas-focused resto, and why not? Every city should have a place like this. On Tuesdays, it’s two-for-one tapas, all day.
Brix – Italian, with a global slant, deep in Napa Valley wine country, a short drive from San Francisco. The view of the Brix Vineyard and Mayacamas Mountains is breathtaking. Three private-dining spaces, including the Reserve Wine Cellar, in the main dining room, and two other spaces feature private garden areas. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 3:43 P.M.
Deep Dish: The Latest Restaurant News
Bigliardi's steakhouse closed after decades in business.
With the closing of Bigliardi’s steakhouse, and the shuttering of high-end Truffles, in the Four Seasons Yorkville, Toronto has lost two more mainstay, Old Guard restaurants. The Truffles space is being used for private functions and word on the street is that a pizza restaurant has taken over Bigliardi’s. Mexican restaurant Milagro has opened on Queen Street West, in downtown Toronto, several blocks west of Bathurst, in the space formerly occupied by short-lived Coca tapas bar. This is Milagro’s third Toronto location. The 56-seat main dining room can be rented out for events and as a business meeting venue, as can the second-floor space, seating 64 (sit-down) and hosting 80 (cocktails). Superstar Paris chef Pierre Gagnaire is launching Twist by Pierre Gagnaire in Las Vegas. The restaurant is slated to open Dec. 4, in the 23rd-floor lobby of the 47-storey Mandarin Oriental Hotel, in the $8.5-billion City Center project. Costing $7-million, and featuring a design by Adam Tihany, Twist will feature Gagnaire’s highly inventive food. Average price per person, including wine, is expected to be around $135. Gagnaire operates restaurants in Paris, London, Tokyo, Seoul, Dubai and Hong Kong. Back in Toronto, just-launched Buca, whose kitchen is headed up by ex-One chef Rob Gentile, continues to pack them in. But good luck finding the place; reports say the restaurant is down a back alley, in Toronto’s King Street West nabe, and is bereft of signage. The team behind Jacobs & Co. and The Saint are bankrolling Buca. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 10:36 P.M.
Enchantment Resort’s Delicious Dishes
Yavapai dining room at Enchantment Resort.
I visited the aptly named Enchantment Resort, in Sedona, Ariz., on an Oct. 20-23 FAM trip and enjoyed some first-rate food courtesy of exec chef Steven Bernstein and his kitchen brigade. On the first evening, our group sampled a Native American buffet in spacious and high-ceilinged Anasazi Ballroom. Best-in-show went to a butter-soft, smoked Colorado buffalo tenderloin animated by a blackberry-sage sauce. Also excellent was a salad of cactus (tender and tasting like mild green pepper) and white beans scented with coriander. At dessert, I loved the rich, velvety cajeta/caramel flan and the apple tart jazzed with jalapeno. Accessorized with towering teepees, the Native Indian buffet is available for meeting and incentive travel groups and can be customized. The next morning, at a breakfast buffet in the brand-new Agave Ballroom business meeting facility, I enjoyed a custard-rich, orange-brioche bread pudding, dense ‘n’ delicious cranberry-walnut bread and house-made chicken-apple sausage. That night, we visited the private room at the resort’s high-end Yavapai dining room, where I was treated to pumpkin-seed-crusted scallops in a lively tomatillo sauce and black-bean salsa. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 12:35 P.M.
Top Ten Montreal Restaurant Faves
Restaurant Laloux. (Photo: Sun Knudsen).
Au Pied de Cochon - The soul of Montreal: French country cooking anchored by Quebec’s first-rate ingredients. Martin Picard’s hearty menu focuses on pork, duck, foie gras, game and beef – vegetarians need not apply. All of this unfolds in a boisterous bistro in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood.
Le Club Chasse et Peche – Since it opened almost four years ago, in Old Montreal, this has been the city’s upscale It restaurant. Claude Pelletier’s menu brings a refined spin to first-rate ingredients, in a classy atmosphere that recalls a sophisticated hunting-lodge vibe. Semi-private room, seating 30, available as a business meeting venue.
Milos – The best, freshest seafood, flown in from around the world, but focusing on the Mediterranean. Steep prices, so clear plenty of room on your Visa. Enhancing the experience is an airy room, done in a modern Greek mode. Groups of up to 60 accommodated in the main dining room; semi-private room, seating 30, also available for special events.
DNA – An ultra-stylized decor (floor-to-ceiling Plexiglas partitions; mirrored columns; industrial light fixtures) contrasts with a menu that takes gutsy, ‘sophisticated farmhouse’ to new heights. There’s something for everyone: game, seafood, pork, organ meats, prepared with care and boasting maximum flavour. Private dining room seats 12; lounge can be rented out for business events hosting up to 100.
Jun I – Considered one of Montreal’s top sushi restaurants, Jun I produces some first-rate Japanese fare, infused with global influences, in a low-key, minimalist room realized in soothing earth tones. Desserts (say, apricot-chocolate gingerbread) raise the (Japanese-resto) bar considerably. From Monday to Wednesday, the dining room, seating 45, can be rented out to groups as a corporate meeting and event venue. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 4:18 P.M.
Amaya Bread Bar Raises the (Indian) Bar
Amaya Bread Bar offers a private room.
Amaya Bread Bar ranks among the top handful of Toronto’s Indian restaurants. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Bread Bar follows the trendy New Indian style, which favours a lighter, more inventive touch that borrows Western spices and flavours. Yet New Indian creativity doesn’t mean a thing if it isn’t backed up with first-rate technique – and most of the time, this kitchen has that, in spades. Its highs are very high, indeed. Take its lamb ‘lollipops,’ whisper-tender lamb chops animated with a balanced mint/fenugreek sauce. Equally beguiling is the deeply smoky tandoori beef tenderloin jazzed by a red-wine cumin curry zapped with just the right amount of heat. The most interesting veg is eggplant, in tender chunks, swaddled in a thick, sweet/sour tamarind-based sauce. And trad veggie dishes (chickpea masala, lentil makhani, spinach with paneer) are adroitly prepared. Among starters, the killer app is samosa chaat – a fat, potato-stuffed samosa drizzled with a lively coriander-tamarind chutney and set atop a bed of al dente, perfectly sauced chickpeas. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 12:43 P.M.
Relaunched Splendido Delivers
Splendido's dining room.
In July, Toronto’s Splendido re-opened after a changing of the guard. Executive chef David Lee and owner Yannick Bigourdan decided to focus their energies on Nota Bene, so they sold Splendido to chef de cuisine Victor Barry and general manager Carlo Catallo. After a brief renovation, Splendido re-opened with the same high-ceilinged room, augmented by new light fixtures and shelves of jarred preserves, lending a rustic, homespun touch. The menu, too, was rejigged and downscaled slightly, in a sophisticated-farmhouse mode. For the most part, Barry’s food – straightforward, yet robustly flavoured – hits the mark. I loved the pappardelle topped with shaved reggiano and delicately fragrant, shaved black summer truffles from Molise, Italy. Moist suckling pig is paired with blood sausage – made with chestnut flour and raisins – textured like a mousse. It sits on a homey corn succotash. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 A.M.
Deep Dish: The Latest Restaurant News
George Katagai.
George Katagai is the new general manager of Vancouver’s Miku Restaurant, as the Japanese eatery prepares to mark its first anniversary in November. During his time in the restaurant industry, Katagai helped open the Park Royal Keg and Vancouver’s Saltaire and Terrace eateries. He was also part of the management team at Cardero’s and Sandbar Seafood Restaurant, also in Vancouver.
Since June, Bob Bermann, former chef/owner of Toronto’s much-missed Boba, which closed late last year, has been working the stoves at downtown Toronto’s venerable Senator Diner, bringing his refined style to homespun classics Brad Long (ex of Veritas) is opening, in stages, a “Canadian Pub” called My Place, in Toronto’s west end. The menu will follow the same buy-fresh, buy-local mode he practiced at Veritas.
In October, kaiseki master Masaki Hashimoto will start serving his delicate, seasonally focused Japanese tasting menus in the Japanese Cultural Centre, in Don Mills, in north Toronto. This marks a move from the strip-mall location he operated for years. Reserve at least a week in advance, to allow the kitchen to order ingredients from Japan. > Read More
Posted by Don Douloff on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 11:08 A.M.
Archive
Ame Throws Splashy Opening Bash
Samovar Caviar Lounge Opens in Toronto
Deep Dish: The Latest Restaurant News (Aug. 18th, 09)
Top Ten Washington, D.C., Food Faves
Delicious Lessons at George Brown’s Chefs’ House
My Dinner-in-the-Dark at O.Noir
Top Ten Quebec City Food Faves
Deep Dish: The Latest Restaurant News (July 10th, 09)
Top Ten Toronto Restaurant Meals 2008/09
Deep Dish: The Latest Restaurant News
Deep Dish: The Latest Restaurant News (July 16th, 09)
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July 29th, 2010 at 6:33 am