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| - I finally visited Ici a few months ago with several friends who were excited about this new addition to Harbord St. After hearing rave reviews, especially from Joanne K in the Globe and Mail and down the blogosphere grapevine, we finally had a chance to see what this place was all about. Unfortunately it fell flat.
The deconstructed cassoulet, that night's special, resembled nothing of the traditional heavy meaty beany French affair. Instead pieces of white sausages, duck confit were ladled over underdone beans so hard and gritty that we didn't bother finishing it. A steak also came out with a powerful sauce that it was unfortunately either burned or over caramelized. And a Marget duck with an orange sauce whose flavors stung of fennel and orange that it blew away its meat. It was accompanied by a sweet pudding that really deserved to be with the desserts.
The highlight really were in the appetizers, in the charcouterie, the terrine and the croquettes that we easily gobbled up. However the mains were such a let down, that we forgot about the starters at the end of the night.
Given that this place is small (like super small with only 20 seats!) it is a given that they do make reservation for only two seatings. However with 2 hours to eat one would expect service to be prompt and time efficient. It was not. Our two hours were consumed waiting for our mains which took unusually long. So long in fact that when we were finished we were asked to make way for the second seating. No dessert, no apologies.
Unsatisfied by our experience and wanting something to cap off our night we walked to Splendido to make things right. Dessert, coffee and a charcouterie board topped our stomach for the evening there. Too bad it couldn't happen where we started off.
However given that it just opened, perhaps there has been some kinks already worked out. Perhaps next time will be better.
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