Restaurants › Continental
Splendido
- 88 Harbord St. (at Spadina) • View on map »
- 416-929-7788
- http://www.splendido.ca/
In a mid-range-happy city, the Harbord strip’s elegant eastern anchor remains a rare special-occasion restaurant. Entrée prices push $40, and the cocktail list tops out at $18, and for the most part, the refined and local-focused cooking justifies the tab. A fall squash soup, for instance, tastes slow-roasted and meltingly rich, with maple foam, plus a skiff of cayenne and toasted nutmeg for back-of-throat warmth. A composed autumn salad, set off with candied walnuts and a delicious gob of broccoli purée, looks like a Riopelle canvas. The suckling pig comes with clove-enriched house boudin noir, tender-firm du Puy lentils and the smoothest, most concentrated sunchoke purée ever made. The pan-roasted pickerel, however, arrives dry and brutalized from overcooking. A special $24 dessert for two tastes like a bad joke: the Northern Spy apple cobbler, served in a small cast-iron pot, is barely warm and disconcertingly herbal; and the house-made ice cream on top looks and tastes exactly like President’s Choice. The English Countryside, with gin, rosemary-lemon syrup, cucumber, tonic and soda, should be required drinking. Charming, professional service. Mains $29–$44.
88 Harbord St. (at Spadina) | This location is wheelchair accessible



Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS