| rev:text
| - It has become a family tradition of ours to come to Trapper's during 'licious time - summer or winter. My family belongs to the "value for our money" category and do not care much about ambiance - all they care about is the food. Luckily - Trapper's now satisfies both criteria as they have renovated and it looks a lot less "old folks home" and more modern.
I was so happy to see that the same server we've had is still there and still dishing up in his quirky, hospitable manner. He is probably one of the best servers I've had in Toronto. Next time I will ask for his name. They had an addition to the menu tonight, a Lobster & Shrimp Bisque, as well as an alteration - that the Lemon Tart had been substituted tonight with a Lemon Cake. I was slightly disappointed as I was really looking forward to trying the Lemon Tart :(
We ordered a half liter of Merlot for the table. For starters we were brought a bread basket with hummus. It had French and pumpernickel bread and some crispy, sesame flatbread.
To start I ordered the Roasted Savory Tomato and Grilled Portobello Mushroom on a nest of wilted greens, feta cheese and balsamic-basil dressing. The tomato maintained its firmness through the roasting process and the grilled Portobello mushroom was tasty. The balsamic dressing was a nice balance to the otherwise salty feta cheese.
I also got to taste the bisque, which was not very good. All I could taste was the roux. There was no distinct bisque-like flavour that usually comes from sautee-ing the lobster/shrimp shells to give it that smokey flavour. Overall, not a flavourful soup.
My sister got the Jump Fried Black Tiger Shrimp and Escargot on grilled eggplant, panchetta, and brie cheese, with a Riesling tomato-basil sauce. The escargot was really tender.
For mains I ordered the Pork Loin and Baked Sweet Potato with a grain mustard and honey-roasted garlic. The pork could've been a bit more fatty to give it better flavour as it was relatively lean. However, it was quite tender and the vegetables were savoury as well. I particularly like the caramelized red cabbage. Mmm...
I got to sample the Charcoal Broiled Black Angus Striploin Steak with roasted new potatoes, shaved black truffles w/ shitake mushroom peppercorn sauce. This was a good steak. It had a great charred flavour to it and you could taste the natural juices of the beef sealed within the steak. If there were any black truffles in the dish, I didn't taste them.
Mom opted for the Char-Coal Broiled Beef Tenderloin Chops with scallion mashed potato finished in a Merlot-thyme reduction. This was a thinner cut of beef and although the inside was cooked to a perfect medium-rare, I found the outer edges a tad bit overcooked.
Once we had finished our meals, coffees, a cappuccino and an espresso were ordered. I can usually drink an espresso black, no sugar or milk as the sugar in the dessert is always sufficient. However, I found that I was unable to tolerate Trapper's espresso - virgin style. I ended up added a bit of cream and it made it more potable. Later in the evening when I found it hard to fall asleep - I knew that Trapper's made a mean espresso!
Last time when I dined at Trapper's they were sold out of their Chocolate Truffle Cake - so this time, since my beloved Lemon Tart was not making an appearance - I opted for the said cake. I was not disappointed. It was rich without being heavy, and make sure that you get a bit of the fruit syrup that is beautifully presented in latte-art-style as it makes every bite a taste of heaven! Yummy!
My dad opted for the Lemon Cake as he has the typical Asian palette which has lower tolerance for overly sweet desserts. I felt that the top cream cheese layer was too heavy and that the cake lacked any real lemon flavour. If they had put a lemon curd layer in the middle of the cake it would've been much better.
The birthday girl (mom), got a little something special done to her dish as I alerted our quirky server it was her birthday. They used a chocolate sauce to do up a Happy Birthday along the rim of the dish which was a nice touch for our special lady! The Carrot Cake was just the right amount of sweetness and bursting of carrot flavour. This would've been my second most favourite dessert of the 3.
Verdict:
If you asked me last year if Trapper's was a good restaurant I probably would've given it a maybe - just because it was so dated. But after their overhaul, I would say that Trapper's is now a restaurant I wouldn't feel ashamed about recommending. It is still not as trendy as some of the downtown hotspots you'd find; but not many restaurants have the Executive Chef doing his regal parade to each table to ask how the food was. At the end of the day, the bill came to $230 with tax and tip for 4. My family, who are even more critical than I am about spending a good penny on meals had no complaints. This place gets the Tsui seal of approval.
|
![[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)