Recommended Eats

My foodie friend highly recommends the following locales:

Scaramouche
Lobsterlicious
Few restaurants in this city have star power like Scaramouche. The hidden gem on Benvenuto has been serving classic French-inspired cuisine for nearly 30 years, collecting numerous accolades for food and attention to detail. Chef Keith Froggett’s reputation for seasonal ingredients and culinary consistency is unparalleled. Oh, the view of the city skyline in the tiered dining room is also famous. Wait, doesn’t the coconut cream pie also have a reputation? [...]

Whitehouse Meats
Top-notch meat and down-home service are the winning formula here. There’s incredible variety in game meats and birds (venison, ostrich, pheasant, kangaroo and wild boar are just a start). Meats may be conventionally or naturally raised: Top Meadow Farms’ beef (aged at least three to four weeks) and Berkshire pork are examples of the latter. Fresh Quebec duck breast and foie gras are always in stock. [TorontoLife.com]

Cumbrae's

Cumbrae's Naturally Raised Fine Meats
Owner and expert butcher Steven Alexander opened Cumbrae's Naturally Raised Fine Meats eleven years ago after emigrating here from his native Australia. As a third generation butcher, his vision was to create the type of shop he grew up in - a butcher shop that carries high-end meat and poultry raised by specialty farmers. [...]

Gremolata - Cumbrae's TV - Dry Ageing

Black Hoof

If you want a definition of charcuterie, skip the dictionary or Wikipedia, zip up your “fat” pants and head straight to Black Hoof.

With the exception of Marc Thuet, who brought snob appeal to cold cuts, few boîtes have been as genuine about the goings on at their deli counter. A duck confit sandwich ($13), on a crispy demi-pain stuffed with a massive amount of pulled bird and sour-cherry compote, crackles with each aorta-clogging mouthful while rivulets of liquefied duck run down your hands. (Can we say wrist-licking good?) A cassoulet ($16) of butter-soft white beans blended with pulled duck, Toulouse sausage and a giant slab of disintegratingly tender pork belly, will make you consider additional life insurance coverage. [...]

Cold Cuts Get Hot
Baloney! And smoked salmon, and duck confit and head cheese jerky: such is charcuterie, the hottest resto trend around. [...]

Famed and Acclaimed Charcuterie Heaven!
The Black Hoof began with an ad on craigslist. Jennifer Agg, the former owner of Colbalt, was on the search for a chef to partner with in hopes to open a charcuterie bar. Grant Van Gameren was on hiatus from Lucien, where he was a sous-chef, working alongside his mentor Scot Woods – whom he met while employed at Canoe. [...]

Martini Boys review
Warning: This place is not for vegetarians. Black Hoof is, however, a carnivore’s dream. A bastion of the old-school. Kind of romantic, for a certain kind of eater. [...]

COMMENTS
Great young chef. Unfortunately he has a teamed up with a horrible young partner.
Starting with the good. The food is outstanding with flavours that are sure to please the palate and at a very reasonable price. If you appreciate a great charcuterie plate you will love it here. If your like me though and you want it all, then you just might be sadly disappointed. Disappointed by the fact that the chef has certainly done his part, the hard part, but the easy part, comparitively, the front of the house has totally missed the mark. This place has all the makings for a great hole in the wall restaurant with a hip atmosphere but comes up way short. My disappointment lies in two areas. One is with the wine list. Horrible. Absolutley horrible. No consideration has been given to how to match the wines with the flavourful and delicate foods carefully served. Why, because there is no understanding of this concept. I see this all too often in restaurants in Toronto. Young wine buyers with inexperienced palates buying only wines that they like. Oh well.
The service, not bad, cool but efficient, unless you have the unfortunate experience of having to deal with the front of house partner. Wow. She is definitely in the wrong business! Clearly she has no concept of hospitality. I was embarrassed at the way she spoke to one of the people in our party. My message to her is we patronise you so don't partronise us. People frequent your restaurant because your partner is talented not you!
And while I'm at it I might as well ad this. I work hard for my money as many of us do, and I like to go out for dinner and when we do we usually spend a lot of money. A Thank You On the way out would be appreciative. The only thing you or your staff were thankful for was that we gave up the table.

Way over-hyped.
Food was mediocre, nothing particularly exciting or unique.
Washrooms were filthy, dining area wasn't terribly neat or clean.
Most of all though, the service spoiled the whole experience. Since when is it appropriate to dish out attitude with dinner?
I was with a party of 4 that was made to wait over 2 hours for a table that never came. Our expectations were mis-managed from the get-go as we were told time and time again that a table would be "coming up shortly".
We spent a small fortune on mediocre cocktails, bread, olives and meat. None of it was the least bit extraordinary and when we left we were all starving.
The owner Jen appears to still be stuck in her Cobalt days and believes an establishment can survive simply because it's cool & trendy.
Cobalt died soon after the martini trend did, I can't help but wonder what will happen to Black Hoof when the current popularity of charcuterie ends.
The only upside to the night was discovering The Burger Shoppe on Ossington and the fact that their kitchen is open 'til 11. Great service, great atmosphere and decent burgers (at least when you and three friends are irate and starving).

I will give you 4 stars as your foods are outstanding. However, I feel it is wrong to use horse meat for 2 reasons.
One, because a horse is a companion animal- like a dog to many people.
And two, all the drugs and products used to worm horses and treat horses, have warnings on the labels that the products are NOT to be used on any livestock for humans to eat.
I realize your country slaughters horses and sells the meat overseas...however things like steriods, wormers, Bute and all the many other drugs commonly used on horses are dangerous to people.
So your restaurant should really not feed horses to people.

Regarding horse slaughter...yes. Many horses are still alive when they are mutilated.The captivebolt used by many slaughter houses is designed for cattle. Not a longer necked animal that is swinging is head around trying to escape.
Second, this seems to be USA's dirty little secret....no one inspects these horses, attend an auction sometime and see what you are eating. I was a Standardbred trainer...my horses had everything from fly spray, to Lasix, hormones, steroids and not to mention one of the topicals we use is Furazone/Furacin which explicitedly warns to use gloves when applying because it is a carcinogen to humans. All of the products carry heavy warnings not for use in animals intended for slaughter. Then there are pleasure horses,they use fly sprays and we all use deworming medicine. When horses go to auction, they are usually heavily sedated and have had alot of Bute to get them thru the ring.
Greed is motivating horse slaughter. People are paying top dollar for horse meat and no one,including the USDA is going to interfere.
There is a cute little saying that the killbuyers here love to chant..."from stable to table in 7 days". Egads,that is not enough time for an aspirin to leave the body let alone steroids. We use Celestone which is a liquid powder and dissolves slowly over a period of three months.
Bon Apetite!

Chowhound review
Even Martin Picard puts some - darned good - vegetable dishes on his menu. No disrespect to pristine visions, but all that salt and fat kinda hammers the ol' taste buds to death after awhile.

COMMENT
He mentioned on his blog about the salad issue. When it was on the menu, nobody ordered it and they ended up having to bin a lot of greens.

Lai Wah Heen
Lai Wah Heen is located inside the Metropolitan Hotel behind City Hall. The exquisitely crafted dishes will make you understand what 'fantastiche' tastes like. Alongside the traditional standards, specialty dishes include abalone & shrimp mousse coiled with fine Taiwanese vermicelli and wok-seared crepe with spicy smoked salmon.

COMMENT
Lai Wah Heen is super awesome, but it's not quite the average dim sum place. You should mention that the majority of dim sum regulars don't usually go anywhere this expensive. Everyone who does dim sum knows Lai Wah Heen, but rarely goes because it does happen to be extremely expensive in comparison to the average dim sum restaurant. This more of a once a year dining out experience unless you always expect to eat with a silver spoon. I do have to admit however, it is always a memorable experience when going. Remember to dress appropriately at Lai Wah Heen, it is sort of an unwritten rule
[blogTO.com]

Senses
Harry Wu, who already has two excellent restaurants - Lai Wah Heen and Hemispheres - is the man behind this venture at his SoHo Metropolitan Hotel. The Senses brand now encompasses a bakery, cafes, and a gourmet food emporium, but this is the granddaddy of them all. Dining here is an experience for -- what else? -- all the senses. The serene sandy tones are serious eye candy, the background music soothes, and velvety banquettes rub you the right way. Get revved up for starters like the salad of seared tuna, cucumber, nashi pear, and avocado, or the lobster and scallops layered with Osetra caviar and spicy mayonnaise. The main-dish triple-seared beef tenderloin with Stilton-and-miso tart and foie gras sauce is beautifully executed. The apple crumble with cardamom ice cream is a fantastic finish. Service is extremely well informed and professional. [Frommers.com]

Toronto Life review

Canoe

Martini Boys review
You want Canadian cuisine at its finest without the beavers, hockey or Lumberjack references but are sick of Tim Hortons turkey bacon club. On the menu at Canoe: Refined Canadiana. [...]

COMMENTS
Thoroughly unimpressed. Although the atmosphere and service was acceptable, the food was mediocre at best. The flavour combinations were misguided, the textures were off and some items were so salty, all subtleties were masked. I had difficulty finishing an entree as the salt was so overwhelming. It was as if a novice chef was experimenting with creative combinations without considering any sort of balance. The dessert, however, seemed to hit the mark the appetizer and entree were aiming for and missed. Temperatures, flavours and textures were perfectly paired with novel ingredients. Bacon and toffee were combined for a surprisingly excellent experience. In summary, the concept of a Canadian-themed, well-serviced restaurant is appealing, but the food significantly fell short. The service manager should research other more moderately priced restaurants (like Gramercy Tavern in NYC) for service standards and the food should be more carefully seasoned, paired and cooked. Excellent dessert, though!

Upon a request to accomodate our entire party -- thus needing a single additional chair -- the manager made the comment:
"We don't do that... That's not what we're about here."
I need to point out that this was on a Tuesday, and we were seated in the corner by the kitchen bar, probably due to the fact that we are largely in our thirties and I guess are assumed to be small spenders.
Needless to say, my dining experience continued at 50 stories below at Bymark. I don't need that kind of attitude on a Tuesday.
Is there a service rating below 1?

My Vegan Adventures
Can random eateries prepare a meal without a trace of animal products?

Japango
Japango is like a beacon along the desolate stretch of Dundas between Bay and University. On this stretch, there is no shortage of grimy restaurants with misspelt signs, but Japango is an exception with its surprisingly authentic atmosphere and impeccably fresh sushi. [...]

COMMENTS
You want cheap Japanese (but not sushi), go to Manpuku. You want a reasonable 'izakaya', go to Ema-tei. You want sushi, damn the cost, go to Sushi Kaji (below). Hiro's fine too, but been coasting on the Bay Street crowd too long.
Thank God I'm going to Japan on a trip in a few weeks.

I hate to recommend Japanese food in Toronto to anyone from Vancouver (much less Japan). I've eaten much better for less in Vancouver than the norm in Toronto, and since the Japanese economy has nose-dived for a few decades now, good sushi is half the cost in Tokyo than Toronto, too.
That said, if you're jonesing in Toronto, and can take the $100 - $150 hit, get a spot at Kaji's counter. Not just from my gaijin-mouth, but my wife agrees.

I highly recommend the black sesame ice cream. Scrumptious!

Japango? are you kidding?...Mediocrity at it's finest.

I wonder why sushi restaurants are not required to list mercury content levels of the various fish they serve? Considering that tuna and mackerel are dangerously high in mercury while other fish (depending on the source) can be perfectly safe, it seems like important information, doesn't it?
Also, I hope we're not secretly eating dolphin, labeled as tuna, as happens in Japan.

Richmond, BC is near a large body of water called the Pacific ocean. Toronto is near a polluted lake. You can't compare. It's like me saying, "why are the baguettes so much better in Paris than in Toronto?"

You call those tiny rolls that are mostly rice 'california roll' that you paid 18.99 for?!?!?!?!??!?!
Boy sounds like you've never had real good sushi.
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RELATED
Sushi Kaji
Chef-owner Mitsuhiro Kaji’s peerless command of classic Japanese cuisine combined with well-structured creativity is evident in every morsel of food on his epic omakase menus ($80, $100 or $120). On this night, it all starts with an ethereal, sweet squid cake robed in tender napa cabbage and set in a pool of richly flavoured dashi broth. Snow crab legs and a silky Japanese crab risotto are set off by grilled sea bream topped with sweet nori paste. Kaji juxtaposes delicate and intense flavours and textures in the sashimi and sushi courses, which might be the best in Canada. Outstanding sashimi includes barely charred slices of ocean trout on mitsuba (a Japanese herb), and tender octopus graced with fresh sansho leaves. For sushi, a seasoned sea eel and rice mixture, bound beautifully in a bamboo leaf, is paired with loosely formed squares of rice topped with warm freshwater eel. Everything is cut and assembled by a true master’s hand. Excellent sakes are offered along with Japanese beer and shochu. Service is nimble and alert. [TorontoLife.com]

Photoset

Sushi Kaji: An Omakase Odyssey
Our bellies were treated to a parade of Japanese delights - presented in the photos after the jump - and we left with the happy impression that, despite the economy, many chefs still choose to eat out and support one another's craft. [...]

Top Ten Most Expensive Restaurants
Birthday Fun
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Top Ten New Restaurants 2009
The year’s best launches turned their backs on glamour and glitz in favour of honest food and easygoing ambience. When the economy plunged, they looked like prescient geniuses.
chef Jean-Charles Dupoire__Loire

Top Ten Restaurants 2009
These are the places of proven and consistent quality that set the city’s fine-dining standard: the stars in our gastronomical firmament.
Splendido, the torchbearer of Toronto’s fine-dining scene, unfailingly delivers impeccable service and luxurious food

North 44°’s haute take on comfort food has a devoted uptown following
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NEW
Queen West's New Playground for the Senses
Since the recent opening of the ultra stylish Nadège, French pastries in the city just got edgier...