Lucien
[?]
416-504-9990
w: http://www.lucienrestaurant.com/
Now that traditional fine dining teeters on the edge of extinction, owner Simon Bower looks amazingly prescient, opening Lucien four years ago with the focus on food rather than fancy linens and expensive flower arrangements. Chef Scot Woods employs less of his molecular pyrotechnics of yore, while still turning out inventive dishes with complex layers of flavour. He lightens up French onion soup with duck consommé poured tableside from a teapot into an artfully garnished bowl of succulent duck confit, fatty duck prosciutto, gouda foam and a tiny, slow-roasted shallot; the smoky-sweet broth is the very essence of duck and onion. Moist, beet-infused brownies are topped with satiny mounds of cherry and chocolate ice cream that could have come from the finest gelateria in Italy. The room could use a shakeup to get in step with the food. The California-heavy wine list seems dated in these grape-savvy times, catering more to American conventioneers than discerning oenophiles, and the service is surprisingly unpolished for a restaurant of this ambition: the manager appears to do all the heavy lifting while his staff are content to roll napkins and gossip. Mains $26–$32.
Description
Category Features
Bring your own bottle: Yes
Price Range: Dinner for $90 - $130
Editor's Star Rating: 2.5
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Continental, Japanese, Thai, Ethiopian, French,