Velouté with spot prawns; Ocean Wise steelhead (Image: Renée Suen)

Although Winterlicious kicked off last Friday (see our 61 best bets), it’s still possible to secure a seat at one of the city’s top tables, especially if it’s just outside the downtown core. Pangaea’s open dining room typically caters to a well-heeled Yorkville crowd (with prices to match), but during the culinary fest, the restaurant offers a steal of a three-course prix fixe for $20 (we stopped by just before the festival commenced). On our visit, the soup, which changes daily, is a creamy vegetable stock–based velouté ($12) that’s poured tableside over briny spot prawns and a tight quenelle of caviar. It’s a heavenly match with black olive bread that we coat with a thick blanket of sweet roasted pear butter. A silky steelhead trout fillet ($32) is served medium-rare over slices of sweet roasted golden beets and shallots, and sided with braised Swiss chard and confit potatoes (Yukon Gold and Peruvian purple fingerlings), giving the light course some meaty depth. The plate is rounded out with a rich beurre blanc threaded with chopped tarragon.

Cost: $72.46, including tax, tip, sparkling Q water ($2.50) and a pot of Kambaa Estate Kenyan tea ($7). Winterlicious diners can expect a similarly excellent meal at a fraction of the price, so we’d suggest ordering a glass or two of wine to go with the prix fixe menu.

Time: 41 minutes. N.B.: There’s no wait when we arrive, but the room steadily fills as the hour creeps past noon.

Pangaea, 1221 Bay St., 416-920-2323, pangaearestaurant.com

Trying to choose a selection of our favourite lunch picks from the last year proved too much like choosing a selection of our favourite children. So instead we present a complete year of lunch picks, ranked by price, from a humble porchetta sandwich (a reasonable $6.75) to a somewhat less humble five-course feast (treat yourself for $100).

• porchetta sandwich at Sausage King by Oliffe: $6.75
• tinga tostada at Agave y Aguacate: $8.25
• pan bagna sandwich at Morning Glory: $8.50
• roast beef sandwich at Brick Street Bakery: $9.89
• Philly cheese steak and poutine at Food Cabbie: $10
• soup-and-sandwich combo at Delica Kitchen: $10.72
• spicy chicken manakeesh at Paramount: $11
• coconut shrimp and Singapore-style noodles at Taste of Orient: $11.05
• sandwich special at Nadège: $12.43
• barbecue tofu sandwich at Urban Herbivore: $14
• pork belly bao and kalbi taco at Banh Mi Boys: $14.66
• rainbow trout at Sense Appeal: $14.69
• Square Peg lunch at Fabarnak: $15
• bison burger at Brassaii: $15.50
• soon dubu at Swish by Han: $16
• curried apricot and red lentil soup and sandwich at RaviSoups: $17
• rotisserie chicken sandwich at Le Kensington Bistro: $17
• a northern Chinese dim sum at Asian Legend: $18.50
• pad Thai done right at Khao San Road: $19
• tawük lunch plate at Tabülè: $19
• 30th-anniversary prix fixe at the Boulevard Café: $19.50
• fried fish feast at The One That Got Away: $19.50
• fregola at Gallery Grill: $21
• oyakojyu rice bowl at Take Sushi: $21
• ricotta gnocchi at Carisma: $21
• bento box at Ematei: $21.50
• onion and anchovy tartlet with parsnip soup at Biff’s: $22
• Buffola pizza at Bar Mercurio: $23.50
• crispy pork belly at Mercatto: $24
• soup and sandwich at Gilead: $24
• lamb sandwich at Great Cooks on Eight: $26
• beer can chicken at Hotel Ocho: $27
• guinea fowl sausage and beer at Wvrst: $27
• venison chili at Bannock: $27
• 24-hour sam gye tang soup at Etsu: $30
• black cod at The Gabardine: $30
• beef dip sandwich at Frank: $31
• prosciutto pizza at Paese: $31
• grilled octopus at Adega: $32.50
• dim sum feast for two at Dim Sum King: $33
• croque madame at La Société: $35
• exohico at Estiatorio Volos: $37
• seared scallops over curried cauliflower at O&B Canteen: $39
• oysters at Rodney’s by Bay: $40
• lobster BLT at Toca: $42
• duck confit and clafoutis at La Palette: $46
• grass-fed steak frites at Aria: $56
• European Retreat at Splendido: $100

In case you were wondering, that’s a mean of $24.49, a median of $21 and a mode of $21. Happy New Year.

Get those dialing digits ready: Toronto Special Events has just announced the slate of restaurants for Winterlicious 2012. The prix fixe extravaganza has now reached its 10th year, and it’s come such a long way from the winter pick-me-up for 36 Toronto restaurants hoping to draw people out of their homes and into the cold night. This year, 175 restaurants have signed up—up from last year’s 150—and prices have stayed the same: lunch menus will go for $15, $20 or $25, and dinner menus for $25, $35 or $45 (see charts below for a breakdown). The madness kicks off on January 10, when American Express cardholders can start making their reservations. The lines open up to the plebs on January 12, and the menus themselves will be served from January 27 to February 9. Tickets for the associated culinary events—like a meal devoted to sustainable fish or a beer-pairing primer—go on sale tomorrow. Check out the city’s website for the full roster of participating restaurants and stay tuned for our comprehensive guide early in the new year. In the meantime, here’s a pair of pie charts with breakdowns of how many restaurants are participating at the various price points at lunch and dinner (yes, they’re very similar):

Toronto restaurants are firmly in the grip of Summerlicious, which continues to this Sunday, so we decided to find out how the annual prix-fixe fete has treated them. The consensus? It’s been a wild week-and-a-half. “It’s definitely crazier than normal,” the folks at Brassaii told us. “Crazy busy,” echoed the people at Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill, who also had some sage advice for those spurned by packed houses and peculiarly empty tables: “If you’re unsure [of availabilities], call in or swing past, because there are always no-shows” (ah, the infamous Summerlicious no-shows). With less than a week left before the summer food fest wraps up, we got in touch with the 10 restaurants whose menus got the most hits from our list of the 63 best bets to find out whether and when tables are still available.

1. Fabbrica
Lunch is by far the busiest, but any time outside of that you should have good luck.

2. Canoe
No longer taking Summerlicious reservations. Sorry.

3. The Fifth Grill
No specific best available time, but be prepared to be flexible, as they are steadily busy with Summerlicious guests.

4. King Street Social
You shouldn’t experience difficulties getting reservations during the week, but Friday and Saturday are a different story.

5. Luma
For dinner, Thursday or Friday nights are your best bets at the moment. For lunch, weekdays have better availability.

6. Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill
Pick any day, but be prepared to be flexible on the time.

7. Drake Hotel
Thursday is much less busy than Friday, which is much less busy than Saturday. Same deal for both lunch and dinner.

8. Pangaea
At lunchtime, noon to 1:15 p.m. is the busiest. At dinner, it’s between 7 and 8. If you can eat a little earlier or later and avoid the rush, you should be able to get a table.

9. Globe Bistro
The busiest time is 7:30 p.m., but you can generally get a table during most dining hours.

10. Brassaii
Generally, weekday evenings right after work are the best time to secure a table.

DOWNTOWN NORTH | DOWNTOWN SOUTH | EAST | WEST | UPTOWN

Got restaurant news, tips or rumours? Send them to thedish@torontolife.com.

The creole salad and the quesadilla de pollo at the Boulevard Café (Image: Renée Suen)

The Boulevard Café has been serving Peruvian staples from its cozy, two-storey Annex home for the last 31 years, and to mark the occasion, the owners are offering a $15 prix fixe two-course lunch from Sundays to Thursdays. On our visit, the canopied patio is partially filled with nearby U of T professors and administrative staff lingering over the summer-friendly menu. A creole salad makes for a delicate starter, with Boston lettuce, garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts, heirloom tomatoes, olives, cucumber and avocado in a tarragon-infused vinaigrette. For our main we opt for the substantial quesadilla de aji de pollo, which is stuffed with shredded chicken breast and sliced almonds sautéed in a creamy aji mirasol pepper sauce. Hearty grilled tomatoes and silky roasted beets complement the belly-filling dish.

The cost: $19.50, including tax and tip.

The time: 47 minutes, not including a much-needed afternoon nap.

The Boulevard Café, 161 Harbord St. (at Borden St.), 416-961-7676.

This year’s crop of restaurants, from a million-dollar dining room to a brazen burger joint, pushed Toronto’s culinary culture in creative, comforting and blessedly cheap directions. Here, the 10 new spots that are redefining the way we eat, drink and play in the city By Chris Nuttall-Smith | Photography by Ryan Szulc

See the list »

1. SNAP! 2011
Over 16,000 Torontonians are living with HIV/AIDS right now, and two more are infected every day. That’s why this annual photographic fundraiser for the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) is more than just a fun, artsy event (though it’s that, too). Gorgeous photos and photo-based art make up the catalogue of the evening’s live and silent auctions, which raise money for ACT’s education and community outreach programs. March 27. $90. Canada’s National Ballet School, 400 Jarvis St., 416-340-8484, snap-toronto.com.

2. ETHIO T.O.
When we think of jazz-funk sounds from Africa, we’re usually thinking of Nigerian icon Fela Kuti thanks to Fela! (the much-lauded Broadway musical about his life) and accolades from hip-hop greats like Jay-Z and Questlove. Lesser-known artists from Ethiopia and Eritrea deserve props, too, though. Ethiopian ex-pat Girma Wolde Michael, who now lives in the GTA, headlines this weekend’s concert with his band Ethio Fidel. Support acts also come from Toronto, including Canaille, the jazz quintet fronted by Isla Craig. March 25. $15. The Music Gallery, 197 John St., 416-204-1080, ticketweb.ca.

3. PAINT ROCKS!
This OCADU fundraiser, which supports the school’s drawing and painting program, is part white elephant sale and part art auction. All pieces are by student, alumni and faculty painters, and are priced at $200. Art lovers bid on their favourite pieces but don’t find out who the painter is until they win. With pizza and beer on sale, this 19-plus event will almost certainly “rock.” March 25. $5. OCADU Auditorium, 100 McCaul St., 416-977-6000 ext. 312, ocad.ca.

4. JUNO CUP
After months of build up, the 40th annual Juno Awards are finally taking place this Sunday, and we’re not ashamed to admit that we’re excited (hello, Drizzy is hosting!). But before the erstwhile “Wheelchair Jimmy” even takes the stage, rockers and star hockey players are going head-to-head in the annual Rockers versus NHL Greats game. Watch for possible clashes between DJ Tanner’s hubby (Valeri Bure) and Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy. March 25. $20. Ricoh Coliseum, 100 Princes Blvd., 416-870-8000, ticketmaster.ca.

5. EARTH HOUR ASTRONOMY NIGHT (FREE!)
Stars may not be on earth, but they’re a perfectly acceptable way to spend an Earth Hour. When the rest of the city turns off the lights, amateur astronomers join the pros at U of T’s department of astronomy and astrophysics to catch glimpses of celestial bodies like the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades. March 26. McLennan Physical Labs, University of Toronto, 60 St. George St., astro.utoronto.ca.

6. CELEBRATE WITH TEQUILA
Thanks to its frat boy associations, it’s easy to underestimate tequila. Chef Mali Fernandez hopes to bust the myths surrounding the spirit with a tasting menu of tequila-infused foods, with a prix fixe of starter, tapas and dessert. For hardcore fans, a tasting of three different tequilas is also on offer. To March 27. $45 prix fixe, tequila tasting: $24 (for blindfolded version) to $29, Embrujo Flamenco and Café Madrid, 97 Danforth Ave., 416-778-0007, embrujoflamenco.com.

7. SPOTLIGHT ON ITALY
This interdisciplinary festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification, with theatre, music, art, fashion and, of course, food and wine. This weekend, don’t miss La Festa, a humorous play about the quotidian cruelties a family can inflict upon one another (presented in Italian with English subtitles), or the fashion show of Juliana Carlucci’s old Hollywood glam-inspired collection. To March 26. $22-$32. Berkeley Street Theatre, 26 Berkeley St., 416-368-3110, canadianstage.com/italy.

8. RAISE FOR JAPAN: INTERNATIONAL CHARITY DANCE PARTY
The double whammy of earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 ranks among the most devastating natural disaster to hit any country over the past century. If you didn’t score tickets to the celeb chef–studded Support for Japan dinner on Sunday, take heart: there’s still this dance party at Augusta House, which is also raising money for relief efforts on the hard-hit nation. Fifty per cent of the proceeds go to Red Cross Japan. March 26. $10. Augusta House, 152 Augusta Ave., 416-841-5386, Facebook page.

(Images: tequila, Anthony Easton; Earth Hour, Jeff Denberg)

Few subjects are as divisive among Toronto diners and industry people as the merits of Summer- and Winterlicious. While the biannual culinary event may help restaurants fill empty tables during an otherwise slow season, as we’ve explored before, participation in the city-run festival can have its limitations (dining rooms filled with stingy tippers, owners bound by the city’s rules). As in previous years, a number of restaurants have decided to strike out on their own with prix fixe specials.

Graham Culp, the owner of Simple Bistro, introduced the Simple Comforts menu last year after missing the registration deadline (six months earlier). The deal was so well received that the restaurant ended up incorporating a prix fixe option into its regular menu.  “Not only does the program raise the profile of the restaurant,” he told us, “but it gives us more latitude to improve on the promotion. If we were part of Winterlicious, we would be obliged to carry certain wines and serve a limited menu. This way, we are able to offer the full menu instead of constraining customers to what is essentially wedding food.”

From January 28 to February 10, Simple’s $35 dinner gives patrons three options from the restaurant’s regular menu and features everything from tiger shrimp and Nagano pork loin to braised beef tongue and sticky whiskey toffee pudding.

Il Fornello has been serving up its Winterdelicious menu for the past six years, after the city’s rules initially excluded chains. This year, it’s offering a $20 two-course dinner instead of the traditional three for the month of February at its six Toronto locations. “We were noticing that diners weren’t always interested in dessert,” said company president Ian Sorbie, “so we’re giving them the choice of just the appetizer and main in addition to the full menu.”

Winterlicious itself starts this Friday (check out our chief critic’s 12 best bets and our longer list of favourites), but here’s a roundup of some rebel menus:

• Cava is hosting the second annual Ground Hog Invitational challenge on February 2 for $85. Eight participants—including Ted Corrado (C5), Matt Demille (Parts and Labour) and Geoff O’Connor (Nota Bene)—will be putting their best hoof forward to dethrone defending champion Michael Steh (Reds) by creating the best pig-based dish.

• Grace is offering a $35 three-course Winter Fixe, which resurrects old favourites from its modern farmhouse menu starting January 28 (Tuesdays to Saturdays).

• Linda, Salad King’s upscale cousin, is running Lindalicious until February 28. The three-course menu starts at $24 and features modern Thai cuisine.

• Pizzeria Libretto is bringing back its $25 four-course prix fixe, which will run from February 1 until March 31.

• Scaramouche’s Lobsterlicious returns for $62. The popular three-course menu is available from Monday to Thursday until March 31 (with the wise exception of February 14).

• Starfish is hosting Oysterlicious until February 10. The two- or three-course prix fixe is $15 to $20 at lunch and $25 to $30 at dinner.

1. CONNECTING: TORONTO IS AN AWFUL CITY
As part of the ROM’s regular Connecting series, Toronto Star urban affairs columnist Christopher Hume expounds on gridlock, pollution and—shudder—transit. Counterintuitively, Hume also explains how the much-yearned-for “better future” is happening right now. Jan. 28. $50. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park, 416-586-8000, rom.on.ca.

2. WINTERLICIOUS
The most delicious part of winter is here! In addition to the prix fixe menus at some of the city’s best restaurants, there are 14 extra foodie events, including a maharaja-themed evening at the AGO, a Chinese New Year celebration at Spice Route and an Iron Chef–style competition at Fort York between C5′s Ted Corrado and Beast’s Scott Vivian. Jan. 28 to Feb. 10. toronto.ca/special_events/winterlicious.

3. COME UP TO MY ROOM 2011
All our artsy friends will be hanging out at the Gladstone this weekend—it’s time for the hotel’s annual alt-design event, in which 44 artists and designers create installations in 11 rooms and a host of other spaces. Kick things off with Saturday’s free Love Design Party, featuring jams by Toronto DJs Denise Bendon and Joe Blow in the Gladstone’s ballroom, the site of a gorgeous installation by LeuWebb Projects. To Jan. 30. $10. Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., 416-531-4635, comeuptomyroom.com.

4. ASPECTS OF OSCAR: OSCAR’S TRIOS
Jazz great Oscar Peterson knew how to assemble a great trio. The definitive Oscar Peterson Trio, composed of the man himself, Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, has been name checked as one of the most influential groups in jazz, while later groups covered Beatles songs and produced albums like 1973’s The Trio with guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, which netted a Grammy. This weekend’s concert is part of the Royal Conservatory’s concert series honouring the “Maharaja of the keyboard” and features performances by pianist Benny Green, bassist Peter Washington, drummer Willie Jones III and guitarist (and long-time Peterson collaborator) Ulf Wakenius. Jan. 29. $20–$65. Koerner Hall, The Royal Conservatory, 273 Bloor St. W., 416-408-0208, rcmusic.ca.

5. BARRYMORE
Forgive us this loss of composure, but Captain Von Trapp is back in the city! One Hollywood legend (Christopher Plummer) stars as another (John Barrymore) in a limited-run restaging of this Tony-winning play. Set in 1942, it takes on Barrymore’s career highs and personal lows (unsuccessful marriages, family drama and severe alcoholism). To March 9. $55–$150. Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge St., 416-872-5555, barrymoretheplay.com.

6. LIVE LOVE LARGE BENEFIT CONCERT
A good old rock ’n’ roll concert starring three local indie darlings—Hooded Fang, Gentleman Reg and Kat Burns of Forest City Lovers—and other acts, this is more than just a good live show. It’s also a fundraiser for the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation. The goal is to raise $15,000. Jan. 28. $25. The Metropolitan Community Church, 115 Simpson Ave., livelovelarge.org.

7. TV SPEC SCREENPLAY READING (FREE!)
The ongoing Wildsound Screenplay Festival features a program of selections from the U.K., Israel, the U.S. and Canada. This weekend’s big draw? A live reading of an original script for one of our favourite TV shows, How I Met Your Mother. RSVP required. Jan. 29. National Film Board Mediatheque, 150 John St., 416-973-3012, wildsound.ca/screenplayfestival.html.

8. STRIP SPELLING BEE
Grade school spelling bees are among our proudest childhood memories, but this sexed-up take on the competition is strictly adults only. The number of strip-spellers allowed is capped at 15, but the audience of “hooters, hollerers and hecklers” is decidedly not. Jan. 28. $10. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander St., stripspellingbee.blogspot.com.

(Images: Gladstone Hotel by monkeyseemonkeypoo, Hooded Fang press photo, Christopher Plummer by csztova)

A steak dinner at Noce (Image: Renée Suen)

Big-spending downtown Torontonians have taken in the past few years to whining about Winterlicious, but the two-week dining festival, running from January 28 through February 10, remains popular for a reason: it offers great value, particularly if you choose your reservations well. Here are a dozen of Toronto Life’s best bets. They’re older, more established places, generally, with kitchens that clearly care. And though we haven’t yet tasted the restaurants’ 2011 Winterlicious menus, they’re full of interesting, delicious-sounding picks.

Amaya The Indian Room
This Leaside favourite was the first restaurant in the city to combine excellent Indian cooking with western-style service, surroundings and sommellerie. Its Winterlicious dinner menu is bargain-basement: $25, with options including mango-curry-coconut prawns, Rajasthani lamb shank curry and roasted marshmallow ice cream (so much better than kulfi). When a hot restaurant like Amaya prices its special menu so low, it’s natural to wonder if it’ll live up to its usual standards. We’re betting yes.
Pro tip: If you can’t get in here, try Amaya’s more casual sibling, Amaya Bread Bar. The Winterlicious menu is the same, though the surroundings aren’t quite as polished or charming.

Ame
The Rubino brothers’ latest incarnation on Mercer Street is one of the most beautifully designed restaurants in the city. Though the regular menu is priced a bit high, the Winterlicious version, at $45 per person for dinner, offers decent value. The menu is meant to be shared between two diners, and includes miso-marinated striped bass, wagyu beef rice, sushi and sashimi, among other choices. Don’t expect the usual stuff; chef Guy Rubino lives to make food more interesting, more complex and better tasting than it sounds, and the sushi, though great, can be a little whack. The cocktails are weird and wonderful and will quickly run up your bill.

Auberge du Pommier
This is easily one of the most romantic restaurants in the city, all crystal and linen polish set in a 150-year-old woodcutter’s cabin. The kitchen is French and fancy, but with a good measure of Canadian-style worldliness for balance. We’re betting on the $45 dinner menu, which looks like excellent value. Choices include Wellington County beef au poivre over a butternut squash, pearl barley and sunchoke ragoût, coq au vin and warm spice cake with crème anglaise and armagnac-soaked prunes.

Biff’s Bistro
Oliver and Bonacini’s classic downtown bistro can be easy to forget, as it’s been open for nearly a decade, and its Front and Yonge location isn’t as trendy as Ossington or Harbord. Still, it’s one of the best bistros in the city: solid and welcoming, with excellent, always-from-scratch cooking (they make their own pickles, bread and mustards) and an Old World charm that manages to sidestep the usual bistro insidiousness all the same. The Winterlicious menus—$20 for lunch, $35 for dinner—look very good; dinner choices include rabbit rillettes with that house mustard and mulled prunes, gâteau de poisson, braised pork belly with choucroute and apple gastrique, and medjool date cake with toffee sauce and lemon chantilly. The steak frites from Biff’s regular menu is excellent; the Winterlicious version should be good if they don’t dumb it down for the cheaper price.

Sukhothai's amazing khao soi (Image: Sukhothaifood.com)

With so many new restaurants popping up on Ossington and in Parkdale, it’s refreshing to hear of new culinary destinations making their way to the pretty much passé entertainment district. This time, it’s an upscale Thai joint known as Khao San Road, named after Bangkok’s legendary backpackers’ ghetto. It’s set to open this January, and what’s especially exciting is that the new restaurant will be helmed by Sukhothai’s chef Nuit Regular, the mastermind behind the life-altering khao soi. 

We hear Khao San Road will forgo the traditional Thai decor of Buddha statues and gold inlays for a more modern vibe. Nuit also plans to create weekly specials that make use of seasonal, local produce. The menu will feature such Thai staples as pad kraphao gai (a minced chicken dish that Nuit infuses with rare, medicinal holy basil) and authentic, ketchup-free pad Thai, with glass noodles and a homemade tamarind sauce. Also on offer will be tropical fruit ice cream made exclusively for Khao San Road, a prix fixe lunch menu and a Thai brunch, which we’ll be sure to find out more about once the restaurant is closer to opening.

The time: 68 minutes.

The cost: $61 including tax, tip and a bottle of sparkling water ($7).

Didier, 1496 Yonge St. (at St. Clair Ave. W.), 416-925-8588, restaurantdidier.com.

Read the Toronto Life review of dinner at Didier »
See all Weekly Lunch Picks »

Basically, this is Priceline for food. But does it work?

Dineline’s organizers are hyperbolically optimistic, heralding their site as “the end of empty tables and empty stomachs.” In theory, probably not. And in practice, not so much, either. At least not yet. So far, Dineline is simply a food-oriented Twitter feed, and the latest entry is two days old. So much for real time.

A quick perusal of the deals offers nothing out of the ordinary. So far, it seems to be a bulletin board for various restaurants to post standard deals on chicken wings and buffets, or to showcase their prix fixe menus. There’s no immediate sign of saving 25 to 50 per cent on our favorite meals, as Dineline advertises, and we’re not sure how it reached that number anyway. Among the participating restaurants are Brass Taps, Izmi Sushi, Fred’s Not Here and Café Diplomatico.

Still, the intention is a noble one. Toronto does, after all, waste over 210 million kilograms of food per year, most of it edible, according to the Toronto Star. It would be nice if some of the restaurant industry’s contribution to that number could be reduced through the powers of the Internet. But isn’t over-ordering a sign of poor management? Aren’t desperately slow days something few restaurants would want to showcase?

It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out. Stay tuned.

Enoteca Sociale doesn’t look like much, and the cooking isn’t fancy. But this humble Dundas West spot is a revelation By Chris Nuttall-Smith

(Image: Lorne Bridgman)

We’re at the bar, waiting, when the anchovies arrive: five little slivers glinting like late sun off a rippled cove. They’re fresh, quick-cured with salt and lemon, laid out over buffalo mozzarella rounds and tomato that’s drizzled with deep green oil. The dish looks almost too simple to be restaurant food. The fish taste bright and bracing, perfectly balanced against the sweet tomato and delicate cheese. Our server made the anchovies, she tells us, blushing. She’s also a prep cook. Came in at nine this morning to do a vat of them herself.

Later, on a patio that feels like a piazza, we eat artichokes fried light and crisp like you get them in Rome, then unforgettable sweetbreads, and a vortex of perfect bucatini all’amatriciana, tossed with guanciale and slicked with just enough fiery tomato sauce to make it pink. I get my fork in twice before my tablemates finish it off.

Toronto has plenty of good Italian restaurants, and if you’re willing to pay a fortune for dinner, a couple that are great—Noce, Via Allegro on a good night. But Enoteca Sociale, which opened this summer in a humble room on Dundas West, is unlike any other Italian spot in the city. The Roman-inspired cooking is utterly simple—few of the dishes have more than four or five visible ingredients—and generally brilliant. It’s free of ego, built around fresh, seasonal, impeccable produce, rooted in solid technique. The place is ambitious but surprisingly cheap, a great Italian restaurant that costs less than most of the merely good ones. I find myself counting down the days between visits. Even amid a bona fide Italian boom, it’s hard to find cooking this accomplished at three times the price.

A new, casual Italian restaurant seems to open at least every few months these days: there is the excellent Buca on King West; Local Kitchen and Wine Bar in Parkdale; Pizzeria Libretto on Ossington; and Queen Margherita, Libretto’s arch-nemesis in the east, to cite a few of the best. Early this fall, Mark McEwan—who made his name cooking Cal-Italian at Pronto in the 1980s, during the city’s first great love affair with the peninsula’s cuisine—was nearing completion on Fabbrica, an enormous “rustic” and “authentic” room up in Don Mills. Mercatto, the not-quite-as-good-as-the-Terroni-chain chain, is renovating a new location in the Eaton Centre. But traditional Italian isn’t easy to pull off. It takes effort, and when the cooking is as unfussy and ingredient-driven as it is across much of Italy, there’s nowhere for a careless kitchen to hide.

La Bettola di Terroni opened in July on Victoria Street, next to the Terroni company’s Osteria Ciceri e Tria; as you walk in the entrance the two restaurants share, the hostess explains to confused diners that La Bettola is the place to go for “Terroni’s greatest hits.” The Terroni chain, with five locations in Toronto and one in L.A., launched in 1992, and it helped pave the way for the current boom. “Italian food” back then meant something entirely different in most diners’ minds than it does now. Centro, the city’s hottest Italian restaurant at the time, was beloved for its extra-tall caesar salads with bread sticks poking out like radio towers, and La Scala, the haughty grand Italian standard-bearer since 1962 (the management forbade patrons from having pasta as their main course), was well into its do-not-resuscitate years. With few exceptions, if you wanted affordable, you got Italian-Canadian cooking. Terroni’s first tiny shop on Queen West, lined with tins of tomatoes and jars of pickled peppers, almost instantly became known for its cheap, well-made pizzas and pastas prepared without the usual deference to North American tastes. Here, at last, was the glorious middle ground.

But some of Terroni’s subsequent locations, particularly the cavernous branch on Adelaide, can feel like they’re run by rote, as though the food were made on an assembly line and the servers would rather be washing their hair. The company’s latest spot is no exception.

La Bettola has the smendozzata pizzas and funghi assoluti that made the Terroni name famous, as well as market specials, but in its early days the cooking hadn’t entirely found its footing or its soul. The gnocchi were gummy and flavourless, cheese-stuffed zucchini blossoms were freighted under too much batter, the clams in a pasta dish hadn’t been rinsed of their sand, and the wine-soaked peaches accompanying panna cotta had been left in their chewy skins. A second visit was better, but not enough, particularly considering that you can get five vastly superior plates next door at Osteria for much less money (they do a $23, $28 and $35 prix fixe, all fantastic value).

On quality and service, at least, La Bettola is being left in the dust. It’s getting killed on feeling, too—the warmth, the excitement, the heartfelt welcome that so many people remember from the days before that little shop on Queen West became the seat of an empire.

Any list—formal or otherwise—of Toronto’s best Thai restaurants will inevitably include Mengrai Gourmet Thai. The ivy-covered building with an exposed-brick interior is an anomaly along this rough part of Richmond East but is known among local newspaper staffers and creative types as the ’hood’s go-to place for pad Thai, curries and stir-fries. The prix fixe lunch ($16) features chef Sasi Meechai-Lim’s delicate fresh salad roll accompanied by tiger shrimp, crispy deep-fried jumbo panko prawn, and a tiny shrimp triangle wrapper. But these are mere extras compared to the scene-stealing supporting player—a smooth, deservedly lauded golden pumpkin soup—and the undisputed star, a red curry chicken with pineapple and lychees. The pineapple-less presentation lacks the pizzazz of its dinnertime incarnation, but no matter: the dish finds the perfect balance between spicy and sweet. Dessert is the standard, but still appreciated, selection of lychee, mango, green tea and red bean ice cream.
The cost: $30, including tax, tip and a bottle of Tsingtao ($6).
The time: 50 minutes.
Mengrai Thai, 82 Ontario St. (at Richmond St. E.), 416-840-2754, mengraithai.com