At La Société, the service is an amalgam of the pair’s experiences: for every server who’s polished and professional (Longo’s influence, I presume), there are two who are young, gorgeous and personable (in this I see Khabouth’s hand) but not entirely competent. One night, it took a full 30 minutes after being seated to get a glass of wine (10 minutes to flag down a busser who never returned, another 10 to find a waiter, five more before the waiter returned to say he’d forgotten which wine I wanted…), and longer still to place a food order. That same evening, we watched a hapless young busser circle the dining room with a pair of desserts before finally asking if they were ours (they were).
This is a shame, because some of the food, when you eventually get it, is good. Khabouth and Longo have hired James Olberg, a 20-year hotel veteran, to run their kitchen. Olberg’s job isn’t cooking so much as marshalling forces: it takes a masterful planner to provision, prepare and plate breakfast, lunch and dinner at a 380-seat restaurant seven days a week. And it takes a chef with superhuman ego control to render all those meals as faithful facsimiles of classic bistro dishes without letting his own ideas get in the way.
La Société, in spite of its moneyed crowd, high-rent real estate and glorious faux pre-war Parisian decor (if you like that sort of thing), is not overly expensive. Every day has a relatively bargain-priced plat du jour, from Tuesday’s $18 sauerkraut and boiled potatoes to the $24 seared pickerel on Fridays.
Olberg and Trevor Ritchie, his chef de cuisine, do an excellent steak frites—one of the best I’ve eaten—for a very fair $26. The hangar steak is both freakishly tender and beautifully aged. The frites are thin and crispy, double-fried, skin on, and served—if your waiter remembers to bring it—with garlic aioli. I loved the lobster and truffle risotto, which came with crisp asparagus spears and a welcome glut of butter-poached lobster. The niçoise salad is far too plain, underdressed, too dietetic-tasting to bear its name (it will become one of La Société’s most popular dishes, I bet). The pan-seared Dover sole, which at $44 is the most expensive entrée on the à la carte menu, is available amandine or meunière, but not all of the waiters know the difference. One night my amandine order arrived meunière. It was fine and fresh tasting (Khabouth’s business partner, Danny Soberano, runs All-Seas Fisheries), but overcooked. Not a disaster, but you want better for $44. Desserts, including a plate of sweet, tasty friandises, are worth ordering, though they won’t exactly change your life.
What just might do that, if only momentarily, is the restaurant’s $145 grand plateau de fruits de mer. The seafood platter brings three teetering tiers of lobster, raw oysters, grilled prawns, enormous shrimp, scallops, mussels, raw tuna and wild salmon. It turns heads, and entire bodies. Within minutes of its arrival, a procession of servers, management and curious diners started streaming past. In a room where status is nearly everything, the grand plateau bumps you up a couple of notches, which you shouldn’t care about, but of course you do. After ordering one, you know you’re going to get a patio reservation next time.
La Société 
½
131 Bloor St. W.,
416-551-9929
Mains $18–$44
Reviews marked with this symbol allow one person to dine well for $30 or less, including tax and tip; they are not star rated.
its funny how the article is about the space and not the food…as it should be because the food is lousy with hopes of meh….but the room is beautiful
August 11, 2011 at 1:43 pm | by beentheredonethatI would have liked to have known what the food was like, who the chef is, and what Chris ate while he was slouched in the corner with his guests. It will be interesting to see if this place is as popular in a year from now…
August 11, 2011 at 2:21 pm | by mNo reason to critique the food. Not why people go there. They go to see and be seen. By all ‘the society’.
August 11, 2011 at 10:26 pm | by RCI went the grand opening event and found the space devine. I am looking forward to going back and grabbing a drink with Toronto’s best.
August 12, 2011 at 1:40 am | by perryThe space is beautiful, the eggs benedict were very good (as were the mussels I stole from a friend), but to me the biggest drawback is the clientele. I knew going in that this was a destination for obnoxiousness, but Toronto’s self proclaimed socialites need to turn it down just a notch. We’re on Bloor St. not Fifth Ave, and it gets a little embarrassing to watch.
August 12, 2011 at 7:08 am | by Jessiehow shockingly pretentious!!!!
August 12, 2011 at 10:06 am | by kykei had the croque madame and while the ham was tasty at la societe-the best croque madame or variation of it continues to be at the bloor yorkville marriott….
August 12, 2011 at 11:48 am | by beentheredonethatThese comments are great. So the poached eggs are good and the ham sandwich is good, Anything else I can’t make at home that is worth trying?
Perry* good comment who is Toronto’s Best? I didnt see any names in the last Toronto Life mag, Its seems like I need to make new friends in new areas of this city. Damn Parkdale!!
August 12, 2011 at 11:59 am | by CulinerdDoes Khabouth also own Dolce Social Ballroom?
August 12, 2011 at 12:56 pm | by johnbthe ham sandwich is okay-not good and only for the ham-the rest of the sandwich wasn’t great…as i said the croque madame down the street is better-way better
August 12, 2011 at 2:35 pm | by beentheredonethat1.5 stars… LOL
August 12, 2011 at 6:34 pm | by BG011remember the hey-days of the early eighties when toronto’s tout monde gathered at the windsor arms…and then moved to prego for saturday lunch…versace shirts, early botox and catherine nugent in the corner….well…here it is again. these folks have to recognize ea. other, because out of town, no one does.
August 13, 2011 at 8:36 am | by fred s.btw…the food is good, and the room is beautiful.
I guess the first few commentators didn’t make it to page 2 of the review… I’ve eaten here twice, once for a birthday party for 10, and once just for two. Both evenings were delicious. The food is bistro simple (be definition, a bistro serves simple food). The decor is a slavish reproduction and I see nothing wrong with that. Belle Epoque has been beautiful for years and will continue to be so. It may be a head-turning restaurant, but it’s not out of reach for the rest of us, which I think is what I most appreciated. I even got to sit on the patio! Must have been a slow night – or they thought I was someone else. Whatever the reason, I’ll go back, and I’ll take friends. If for no other reason, it’s impossible to find a decent meal in Yorkville for the same price.
August 16, 2011 at 8:12 am | by nickithe food is merely average, ‘meh’ defined.
August 16, 2011 at 10:06 am | by yorkdaleeaterSounds like a lot of fluff with little substance; exactly what Yorkville is all about.
August 16, 2011 at 11:49 am | by overit