| rev:text
| - Patria was an indulgent meal for us while visiting Toronto. But we were celebrating our anniversary, and it was worth every penny.
The restaurant was packed on a Saturday night. I'd made reservations in advance of our trip for 9:00 p.m. We were seated immediately upon arrival, and our waiter was friendly and polite.
It is a little bit noisy inside Patria, but I liked that I could talk to and hear my husband without concern that someone else would be able to overhear. Not that we were discussing anything top-secret, but overlapping conversations are like nails on a chalkboard to me.
We started with a pitcher of the red sangria. The service at Patria is unique in that they tend to every little thing, which can be endearing or annoying. Our waiter was prompt in refilling our glasses, but because I was gulping down the sangria, my glass got refilled more often than my husband's, so I felt a bit guilty for drinking all of that sangria! They also serve the first plate of paella to each person at the table.
I recommend the paella, especially if you have never eaten paella before. I'm generally not a fan of chorizo, but I enjoyed this dish and especially this ingredient. Most of the chunks of lamb were tender were delicious as well. My only complaint about this dish, and Patria, is that there were some rubbery, chewy pieces of lamb that I had to spit into a napkin. It was disappointing that there was more than one piece of inedible lamb considering the price of the dish ($49).
If you order the paella, order it as soon as you can, since it takes approximately 45 minutes to prepare. Also, don't order a TON of tapas as well, since the paella is filling and like a meal in itself.
We opted for the Bacon Dates with Manchengo Cheese and the Ham Croquettes (a special that evening) in addition to the paella. For two moderately hungry adults, this was plenty of food.
We ended our meal with the Churros with Dulce de Leche sauce. YUM.
For an upscale restaurant, I was surprised at some of the younger crowd here. In the ladies room, a group of five or six young girls were crowding together to take selfies in the mirror. I don't know if I found this adorable or appalling, since it reminded me of myself ten years ago, taking photos in shady nightclubs in Chicago - the kind of places with bathroom attendants, clogged toilets, and cheap perfume. Patria may be upscale, but I guess you can't expect the patrons to reflect that.
Our meal at Patria was probably the longest ever, which we didn't realize until we returned to our hotel. The cook time of the paella probably had something to do with that. The atmosphere is just that comfortable. For a fancy spot with some seriously cosmopolitan, dinner-jacket wearing Yuppies, I felt comfortable lounging here and even ordering dessert when it became apparent that it was probably past closing time.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)