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| - Having lived and traveled in the former Eastern Bloc countries and sampled their many cuisines, I was eager to see how The Van Gameren empire would translate this regional grub. Verdict: terrific!
The tables are wooden and immense and the place is spacious. Great for big and small groups. This is a place that encourages food sampling and lots of drinking. It has the feel of a Czech beer pub, an Estonian keller bar, a Hungarian or Polish family restaurant, and a cool Toronto eatery.
Lots of food variety, mostly for sharing - perogy, schnitzel, ?evapi, borscht, steak, goulash, wurst - and lots of nibbles - sausage, cheese, smoked fish, fried mushrooms, cucumber salad. One combo meal plate.
The perogys are the best I've tasted in forever. I love that there's no bother of choosing fillings and especially no fuss with wacky toppings. Tennessee gets the dough thickness and texture perfect and the filling (cheddar cheese potato) is excellently fluffy. Tossed in butter, some bacon crumbles and fried onion bits, a spoonful of smetana and you're good to go.
The pepperette cup was a nice surprise - so many types hiding in this glass of yum! The button mushrooms were hot, garlicky, buttery, and I loved the generous portion here because the joy of eating these is popping just one more. (Will be interesting to see if the mushrooms change with the seasons - as it might if this were a Russian resto.)
The only thing lacking an East European influence here are the drink sizes (beer pours are 12 oz, shots are 30 mL). I was a bit surprised to notice no Eastern European beers here except for Pilsner Urquell, though the beer list is enormous with lots of local craft pours and larger sharing bottles from near and far.
The shot glasses are darling and a pleasure to sip from. We had the classic, the Slivovitz (always on special at $4), and there are lots of vodkas and other boozes to choose from.
Looking forward to trying more of the menu here, especially the cabbage rolls!
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