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Zagat’s 2012 survey picks Toronto’s best restos and settles that pesky average tipping question

Scaramouche’s Keith Froggett (Image: Renée Suen)

Online restaurant review sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon may have cut into the crowd-sourced territory that Zagat once owned, but the yearly survey still has some clout—and the power to get diners in the door. The 2,266 food-loving Torontonians who voted in this year’s survey were crazy for Keith Froggett, giving fine dining restaurant Scaramouche top honours for food and also placing Scaramouche’s pasta bar in the top 10. But the winners weren’t all about linen tablecloths and tasting menus: The Burger’s Priest, with its epically greasy Vatican City burger, broke the top three for best food, while pan-Asian chain Spring Rolls was voted most popular restaurant (proving that democracy isn’t foolproof).

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The Dish

De-licious

January 9, 2012 | 3:15 pm

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Winterlicious 2012: Toronto Life’s picks north of St. Clair

WINTERLICIOUS 2012 | UPTOWN

The vast area north of St. Clair is well represented in Winterlicious this year. Here, our 14 picks.

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The Dish

Opening

August 29, 2011 | 11:16 am

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Introducing: Hardys, the second southern barbecue joint to grace St. Clair West

Inside the front dining room area of Hardys (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Back in May, we reported on an upcoming barbecue joint, Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie (its name a riff on Toronto’s pig-farming past) that was setting up shop just a few blocks west of barbecue stalwart The Stockyards. On Friday, the restaurant had its grand opening and we stopped in to check it out.

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The Dish

De-licious

June 22, 2011 | 5:06 pm

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Summerlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s lunch and dinner picks north of St. Clair

SUMMERLICIOUS 2011 | UPTOWN

Summerlicious is well represented north of St. Clair. Here are the 16 Toronto Life picks for Leaside, Davisville, Don Mills and Yonge and Eglinton.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

June 16, 2011 | 3:58 pm

10 Comments

Toronto Taste 2011: We get the latest news from top chefs and restaurateurs from Woodlot, Buca, Nota Bene, O&B and many more

Rob Gentile (Buca), David Lee (Nota Bene), Andrea Nicholson (Great Cooks on Eight), Paul Boehmer (Böhmer), Teo Paul (Union)

Two thousand of Toronto’s food lovers and makers gathered at the ROM on Sunday for the 21st edition of Toronto Taste. The annual fundraiser—which raises money for Second Harvest—saw more than 60 restaurants and 30 beverage purveyors offering their best to the guests. Burgers and tacos might have been the plats du jour, but new restaurant openings seemed to be the hottest item on the plates of many chefs and restaurateurs we spoke to. Here’s what we heard from Buca’s Rob Gentile, Woodlot’s David Haman, Scarpetta’s Scott Conant, Splendido’s Victor Barry, Top Chef Canada contestants Dustin Gallagher and Andrea Nicholson and many more. Words and images by Renée Suen

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The Dish

De-licious

January 4, 2011 | 4:15 am

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The Best of Winterlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s 62 favourite restaurants

(Image: Renée Suen, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)

January is upon us, and for many hungry Torontonians, that means one thing: Winterlicious. The menus are less predictable than previous years—crème brûlée’s out, lentils du Puy are in—so even the ’Licious haters might have a reason to take advantage of the festival this year. We’ve already named the 12 menus that we think are the best bets, but that doesn’t begin to cover it. Here, find Toronto Life’s 62 favourite Winterlicious restaurants, complete with menus, reviews and reservation numbers.

Winterlicious runs from January 28 to February 10. Reservations are accepted from January 13 onward (January 11 for American Express users).

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

December 10, 2010 | 11:09 am

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Frisky Business: Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on Mark McEwan’s Fabbrica

Bling king Mark McEwan has abandoned his usual opulence with Fabbrica. It’s loud, lusty and the one thing elite chefs tend to forget: fun By Chris Nuttall-Smith

(Image: Vanessa Heins)

After four hit restaurants, two television shows, one catering company, one high-end grocery emporium and 26 years as a hospitality magnate (plus another 10 as a mere chef before that), Mark McEwan has his formula down. The chef mixes knowing, professional service with French-Italian food that’s expertly prepared, exorbitantly priced and touched with just enough exoticisms (chipotle-yuzu aïoli, “laughing bird” shrimp, “illokai,” which lesser places just call passion fruit) to keep it all safely au courant. McEwan’s not a businessman; he’s a business, man—a consistent, constantly expanding luxury brand in a time when luxury was supposed to have been given up for dead. The feel of his places is exclusive and timeless, but in that late-’90s way, where the design is spare, the market is always rising, and Thievery Corporation—those turn-of-the-century masters of inoffensive and vaguely international electro-pop—plays in the background to keep things light.

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The Dish

Opening

August 25, 2010 | 12:43 pm

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Introducing: O&B Canteen, Oliver and Bonacini’s restaurant in the eye of the TIFF storm

Jason Bangerter at O&B Canteen (Image: Karon Liu)

After eight years at suburban Auberge du Pommier, chef Jason Bangerter was called downtown to head up Luma and O&B Canteen at the soon-to-open Bell Lightbox—the new King West epicentre of TIFF. The former is not yet running, but the latter is open for business. “Auberge du Pommier was strictly French and high-end but [at O&B Canteen] I’m doing breakfast sandwiches and coleslaw. I went from $50 entrées to $12 main courses,” he says. “The biggest challenge is not making it too fancy.”

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The Dish

Opening

July 28, 2010 | 10:42 am

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O&B reveals the names of its Lightbox restos

Oliver and Bonacini thinks inside the Box (Image: Bell Lightbox)

What a coincidence: Oliver and Bonacini put out a press release about its new Lightbox restaurants just as TIFF published its list of 50 special presentations.

First things first: we finally have the names of the two restaurants. The 3,500-square-foot bistro right at the building’s main entrance at King and John is called O&B Canteen and will open mid-August, serving meals from breakfast to late-night seven days a week. It will seat 90 people inside (banquettes and a communal table) and 70 on the patio.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

June 15, 2010 | 2:52 pm

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We ask the top chefs at Toronto Taste what’s in store at George, Splendido, Scaramouche and the rest of the city’s hot restaurants

This past Sunday marked the 20^th anniversary of Toronto Taste, the annual event that unites Toronto’s food lovers and food makers for a day of innovative cooking, tasking and fundraising for Second Harvest. 60 of Toronto’s top chefs—including Jason Bangerter, Donna Dooher, Chris McDonald, Mark McEwan, Anthony Walsh and Anne Yarymowich—doled out top-notch cuisine to an estimated 1,600 guests at the ROM. We caught up with the chefs and asked them what’s in store for them and their restaurants this summer.

The Dish

De-licious

June 9, 2010 | 3:28 pm

11 Comments

Summerlicious 2010: the restaurants have been announced, so let’s pick them apart

The view from Toula: be a tourist in your own city (Image: Ian Muttoo)

First things first: there’s not much change under the Summerlicious sun. All of the old favourites are here (including Canoe and Bymark, which always sell out first). Seven Numbers, which by Winter/Summerlicious rules is allowed only one location, has swapped out its Danforth location for its Eglinton one. Winterlicious participant Conviction is out for the summer edition as the second season of Conviction Kitchen films in Vancouver. The new owners of Crush Wine Bar are apparently not feeling the ’licious love—nor is Moroco. And while The Citizen’s digs are alive and kicking under new ownership, its vaunted replacement, Ruby Watchco, is opting out.

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The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick

May 3, 2010 | 8:33 am

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Where to eat lunch this week: Auberge du Pommier

The $18 midday menu at this legendary French fixture is the best lunch north of Bloor

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The Dish

De-licious

December 23, 2009 | 3:02 pm

7 Comments

Winterlicious 2010: the list of restaurants is out

(Photo by John Hritz)

It’s that time of year again, when sniping begins over the dozens of menus featuring new (and often unexciting) ways to prepare house salad, chicken and a trio of sorbet. That’s right: the Winterlicious list is out, and it’s 150 restaurants strong.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

December 18, 2009 | 3:40 pm

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Prix fixe, midnight madness: where to eat on New Year’s Eve

(Photo by Sally Mahoney)

December 31st is rapidly approaching, and the pressure’s on: what to do on New Year’s Eve? For those who hate crowds, messy house parties and shivering in Nathan Phillips Square but still don’t want to feel curmudgeonly come the stroke of midnight, Toronto’s best restaurants are offering multi-course meals at bargain prices. Here, our list of nine of the best prix fixe menus throughout the city. (Looking for the guide to Toronto’s high profile NYE parties? Click here »)

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