(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).
Top toque Michael Steh, bronze medallist at Toronto’s annual Gold Medal Plates competition, is the culinary mastermind behind this haute mac-and-cheese. The bowl of al dente ditalini is enriched with moist shreds of crab and scallions, spiked with just enough grainy mustard to give it a nutty crunch. It’s all baked under a blistered layer of fontina. The final product is like a crab cake, only made better thanks to the naughty combination of the nostalgia of kiddie comfort food and a three-ounce pour of muscat blanc ($7).
Didier Leroy, English Canada’s first Maître Cuisinier de France, offers one of Toronto’s more curious lunch experiences: a three-course mystery menu in which the entire table must participate. On this sunny afternoon, our trust in the chef pays off handsomely. A pair of baked eggs coddled with black truffles and foie gras arrive in an irresistibly rich madeira sauce. Next, Atlantic salmon roulade, kissed with briny sturgeon caviar, arrives on a bed of sweet braised leeks and puréed potatoes. The meal finishes with a crème brûlée that’s creamy cool, with hints of Tahitian vanilla and a thick, golden sugar crust. 
Former Splendido mastermind David Lee named his restaurant after the Latin for “take note”—and this BLT is one of many reasons to do just that. The classic lunch sandwich more than lives up to its acronym: crisp bacon, fresh greens, lemon-herb mayo and plum tomatoes as red as they are flavourful are nestled between toasted slices of toasted white Epi Bread. Lee ups the ante by stuffing it full of crispy, deep-fried, chipotle-zinged soft-shell crab. With a few house-made potato chips and gherkins, the deli staple becomes a lunchtime luxury.
Any list—
The place: La Bettola di Terroni is the boisterous new member of the Terroni family. There is plenty of culinary crossover here: it shares a kitchen with Osteria Ciceri e Tria next door and several menu items with Terroni Adelaide. While it’s certainly the most casual of all the Terroni incarnations, it boasts an impressive wine selection and a stylishly rustic interior by Giannone Petricone Associates Inc. with graphics by Small Design, proving “bettola” (Italian for a dive or shabby restaurant) a humble misnomer.
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