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The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
We love what Toronto chefs are doing with corn this season. The sweet summer staple is showing up on menus not just boiled and buttered, but grilled, ground, pureéd, roasted, even nitro-zapped. Here, the best places to get your fix
(Image: My Yen Trung)
This legendary haute Chinese kitchen delivers a full—and fully delicious—dim sum experience in less than an hour
Seafood dumplings and cream tarts
The place: Perched on the second floor of the Metropolitan Hotel, Lai Wah Heen has long been Toronto’s go-to spot for haute contemporary Chinese dining. A maple-panelled room provides privacy for VIPs, but the main room has its own austere calm, despite the lunch rush.
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Have your cake—and bento box, too—at the city’s most charming tea house
The place: The vibrant cakes on display in the Red Tea Box’s Queen West storefront window only hint at the wonderful setting beyond: mismatched furniture set up in a hidden coach house and on the whimsical back patio. The latter, with its Asian decor and shady pear tree, makes a resplendent setting for a summer lunch.
The crowd: Most tables are full and occupied by women enjoying a break from work or Queen West shopping.
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Dig in, bargain foodies: lunch at Canoe
The annual prix fixe extravaganza is upon us once more. Reservations start today for American Express cardholders and on June 24 for everyone else. We’ve looked over the 150 participating restaurants to figure out the 64 best bets.
Here, the festival’s top menus, reviews and recommendations »
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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It’s the day every frugal foodie has been looking forward to since February: the Summerlicious restaurants have been announced. Reservations can be made starting June 24. One hundred and fifty restaurants are participating in the 2010 edition of the prix fixe extravaganza, which runs from July 9 to 25.
At first blush, Summerlicious 2010—the eighth edition—looks pretty similar to Winterlicious 2010. There have been no controversial price hikes. In fact, compared to last year’s Summerlicious, the cost of the most expensive lunch has come down by $5. This year, lunch is being served for $15, $20 or $25 and dinner for $25, $35 or $45.
See Toronto Life‘s picks for the 64 best bets at Summerlicious 2010 »
The restaurant at this downtown hotel goes all out for its weekly $27 prix fixe
Steak, poutine and slaw at Hemispheres
The place: The Metropolitan Hotel’s lobby-level restaurant offers classic hotel glitz and glamour. Surrounded by beech wall panels and large murals, diners may peer into the open kitchen for some culinary theatre or meditate on the white orchids that decorate every table.
The crowd: The kitchen acts quickly to cater to the strict schedules of busy lawyers, judges and city hall officials, including one ex–mayoral candidate. We’re told that plates generally take no longer than 15 minutes to arrive at tables, “unless it’s chicken.”
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In the evening, diners will wait for hours to eat at this Ossington pizza shop. At lunch, however, the food is just as spectacular but comes cheaper and faster
The place: Though the narrow front space opens into a surprisingly large wood-clad interior, lineups to (and out) the door are guaranteed most evenings. At lunch, however, Toronto’s oft-hyped “only certified Vera Pizza Napoletana” comes without the sound and fury.
The crowd: Full but not overflowing, Libretto is populated by young foodies on midday dates, family birthdays and wine-and-dining Bay Streeters hoping their clients think food acumen implies business savvy.
The deal: The daily prix fixe lunch ($15) is composed of three courses. On this weekday afternoon, options include beet caprese, folded pizza (“piadora”) and a vanilla affogato. We round the meal off with the day’s blood orange Campari aperitif.
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Industrial meets pizza on Queen Street East
Don’t even say the L word—“Libretto”—to John Chetti, co-owner of Queen Margherita Pizza, Toronto’s latest wood-oven pizza joint. “We’ve got nothing to do with them. Sure, one of my cooks worked there, but that’s it.”
“Anyway, we’ve got a better oven,” says chef Romolo Salvati, who has been spinning dough for 20 years, most recently at Back Alley Grill. It’s a 6,000-pound Neapolitan oven made of mortar and stone that had to be hauled into the restaurant by crane. Hovering at 845˚F, the oven scorches one pie after another in a mere 90 seconds. “Libretto’s is good, but ours is better,” he says.
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Despite the ascendancy of comfort food, some occasions still require more than a tricked-out sandwich. These four posh dishes are worth the splurge.
The chitarroni all'astaco from Mistura (Photo by Daniel Shipp)
The ultimate power lunch: the three-course prix fixe at the Royal York makes for refined, delicious multi-tasking
This time last year, the future looked awfully grim. We braced for restaurant closures and recessionary menus, but 2009 was surprising. Though we lost some good places (Perigee, Truffles, Alice’s and Gamelle, in particular), and mac-and-cheese quickly wore out its welcome, it was an exciting time to dine out. Anxious restaurateurs dropped corkage fees and slashed wine markups, while chefs cooked up imaginative prix fixe menus. It suited our mood as well as our wallets: these days, Torontonians want informality. We’re still hungry for local produce and nose-to-tail dining, chefs are once again finding inspiration in Italy and Japan, and the city is finally beginning to develop a serious cocktail culture. Most encouraging of all is the number of new restaurants opening. Here, the best of the vintage.
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After years of manning other people’s kitchens (the Manhattan Four Seasons), reinventing other people’s restaurants (Restaurant Makeover) and Pitchin’ In on other people’s farms, Lynn Crawford finally has a restaurant she can call her own. The venerable chef has opened Ruby Watchco in Riverdale, in the old Citizen space, with TV colleague (and Yabu Pushelberg designer) Cherie Stinson and her husband Joey Skeir as partners, and Four Seasons protégé Lora Kirk as the co–executive chef. The doors of the Queen East boîte opened last Tuesday, and it’s already booked solid.
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Whether you celebrate the slaves’ escape from Egypt, the resurrection of Christ or the annual arrival of Cadbury eggs, these seven restaurant events—with Passover- and Easter-themed menus—can help make next weekend memorable.
The AGO restaurant’s $35 prix fixe, $10 of which is donated to The Stop, is great food for a great cause
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