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It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Chantecler, Marben and Bestellen.
All stories relating to Bestellen
Friday Night Bites: tables for two at Chantecler, Marben and Bestellen
Friday Night Bites: tables for two at Skin and Bones, Glas Wine Bar and Bestellen
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Skin and Bones, Glas Wine Bar and Bestellen.
Friday Night Bites: tables for two at Bestellen, Canoe and Origin Liberty Village
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Bestellen, Canoe and Origin Liberty Village.
Weekly Eater: Toronto food events for July 30 to August 5
On Tuesday, the Culinary Adventure Company leads a canoe picnic to the islands (Image: Mike in TO)
Monday, July 30
- Group of Seven Chefs—Fish and Beer Dinner: The seven chefs get together with Bellwoods Brewery for a five-course, seafood-heavy meal with beer pairings. Bellwoods Brewery, 124 Ossington Ave., 416-535-4586. Find out more »
- Monday’s Dinner chef series at Chantecler: This week, chefs Jonathan Poon (Chantecler) and Jeff Claudio (Yours Truly) will be cooking an 18-course tasting menu full of summer ingredients. Chantecler, 1320 Queen St. W., 416-628-3586. Find out more »
- 86’D With Ivy Knight: Judge the ultimate Blue Ribbon battle of the butter tart. Competitors from Bestellen, The Gabardine, The Flaky Tart and more. The Drake, 1150 Queen St. W., 416-531-5042. Find out more »
- Piola’s Monday Night Mixer: Piola’s weekly aperitivo italiano, with cocktail and beer specials and complimentary snacks. 1165 Queen St. W., 416-477-4652. Find out more »
Friday Night Bites: Ruby Watchco, The Grove and Bestellen
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Ruby Watchco, The Grove and Bestellen.
New reviews: Stock, Banh Mi Boys and Bestellen
A big-ticket steak house, banh mi to queue for and a scenester meat shrine
STOCK 
½
Trump Hotel, 325 Bay St., 416-637-5550
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Most hotel dining rooms are conventional and quiet—depressing, even—but the restaurant on the 31st floor of the Trump Tower hums with captains-of-industry energy. Wealthy travellers gawk at the view, stockbrokers knock back $50 glasses of Tignanello, and Harry Rosen suits abound, including, on the night we visited, one worn by Harry Rosen himself. A dollar sign replaces the S in Stock’s logo, and there’s truth in advertising. The wine list starts at $50, and a $20 manhattan would be easier to swallow if it weren’t bludgeoned with bitters. Chef Todd Clarmo comes from the Oliver and Bonacini franchise and dishes up hit-and-miss steak house fare. The thick New York strip is tender; the crispy frites alongside come with a fabulous truffle aïoli. The lobster chunks in a salad, however, range from sweet and tender to salty and soggy. Pastry chef David Chow makes an incredible lemon cake with pistachio crumble, yogurt sorbet and lavender pearls. You can do better for less elsewhere, but no one in the room seems to care. Mains $24–$120.
All-Beef Party: Toronto’s 25 best burgers ranked in order of heart-stopping, messy magnificence
Nine years ago, Mark McEwan scandalized Torontonians with his $35 truffled Bymark burger. That was before words like “grass-fed,” “heritage” and “dry-aged” entered into the burger lexicon. The city is now crammed with craft burgers, and carnivores no longer flinch at steep price tags. Competitive chefs bring in whole cows from nearby farms, bake their own buns, smoke their own bacon (twice), replace ketchup with tomato chutney and source the most pungent cheeses they can get their patty-flipping hands on. Thankfully, the mom-and-pop shops haven’t been artisinalled out of business—there are still plenty of sublime greasy-bag burgers around, as well as a few new-school diners ironically replicating them. Here, the very best of the city’s boundless burgerdom.
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The Month That Was: the Toronto restaurants and bars that opened and closed in March
The meat mural at Rob Rossi’s new European tavern, Bestellen (Image: Meaghan Binstock)
It can be hard to keep pace with all the new restaurants and bars that open and close in Toronto—which is why every month, we round them all up.
Openings:
• The Federal Reserve—Four friends, mostly with other jobs in the industry, opened this new Dundas West brunch spot, with a late-night menu and cocktails to follow. Read our Introducing post »
• Thirsty and Miserable—A new Kensington Market bar in a storied space, with a fine slate of craft beers (and a menu written on a piece of cardboard). Read our Introducing post »
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Introducing: Bestellen, the new College West meat den from Top Chef Canada’s Rob Rossi
Rob Rossi’s new restaurant is no place for carnophobes
The most recent in a slew of west-end spots run by young restaurateurs capitalizing on the affordable rent, Bestellen has finally opened on College West, right next door to Italian eatery Black Skirt (the name is German for “to order”). Chef and co-owner Rob Rossi, who took second place in last year’s season of Top Chef Canada, and business partner Ryan Sarfeld, a trained chef who transitioned to the front of house, modeled their first venture after the kind of place they’d like to hang out in: the music is loud, there are plenty of beers on tap and the menu, designed for sharing, is heavy on the meat.
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Rob Rossi’s Bestellen to open, finally, on Friday
It’s been a long road. Rob Rossi, the Top Chef Canada season one finalist, first announced he was leaving his gig as Mercatto’s executive chef back in June to pursue exciting new ventures. In time, we found out the venture is Bestellen, a College Street restaurant he’s opening with business partner Ryan Sarfeld. When we toured the construction site back in October, the place was slated for a mid-November opening, but as is common in the industry, the project was beset with delays. Now, after much anticipation, we know the opening date: according to a tweet from Rossi, the restaurant will be open to the public this Friday. We predict lineups.
Bestellen, 972 College St. W., 647-341-6769, bestellen.ca
We stopped by for a sneak peek of Bestellen, the College Street work-in-progress of Top Chef Canada runner-up Rob Rossi
Rob Rossi and Ryan Sarfeld outside the convenience store they’re turning into Bestellen
When Top Chef Canada contestant Rob Rossi quit his job as Mercatto’s head chef for “new and exciting adventures,” many assumed he’d won the competition. He hadn’t—Vancouver’s Dale MacKay beat him out in a close finale. Now, the runner-up and his business partner Ryan Sarfeld are in the throes of preparing their new College Street restaurant, Bestellen (German for “to order”), for a mid-November opening. We stopped by to check out their progress with the space, just a few blocks west of Rossi’s Top Chef Canada buddy Dustin Gallagher’s kitchen at Grace.
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