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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Every year, some restaurants decide to opt out of the prix fixe madness of Winterlicious and offer their own special menus and bargains outside the strictures of the official program. “We do it to give Winterlicious a bit of competition, to bring people in,” Elle M’a Dit’s Gregory Furstoss told The Dish. “But we don’t have to have the pressure of being under Winterlicious—we don’t have 200 people booked!” Meanwhile, Ross Bonfanti of midtown’s Il Sogno Ristorante launched his winter prix fixe back when it was tough to get into the official festival and now, several years later, feels no need to jump on board. “I have a good thing going,” he told us. After the jump, a roundup of winter prix fixe menus and deals. 
Eat well and feed the hungry along the way—that’s the concept behind the annual What’s on the Table benefit being held this year on November 2. Since 2005, the fundraiser has gathered $1.5 million for The Stop, the innovative community food centre whose goal is to increase everyone’s access to healthy food (check out our 
Opulence, I missed you. I missed high thread-count table linens and hand-blown water glasses and even edible gold leaf a little. I missed the dining rooms whose owners gave carte blanche to talented designers, insisting only on “something grand.” But mostly, I missed gasping when I walked into restaurants—having to stop to take a space in, to admire. Though restraint wasn’t all bad for dining culture these past few years, it wasn’t always easy on the eyes.
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, 
This past Sunday marked the 20th 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.
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