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| - I received a gift certificate for the Oliver & Bonacini sister restaurants and thought that it was a good excuse to try Canoe. We went here with my friend for her birthday on a weeknight and not during a 'licious event. We came early and chilled at the bar as we waited for our tables. I mentioned that it was her birthday when I made the reservations and they made a good effort to say 'happy birthday' several times during our visit.
We enjoyed the blood orange and passion fruit & lychee fruit juices, because for some reason we were avoiding alcohol that night. The bar was impressive and fully stocked. The view was stunning, I would say arguably on par with CN Tower 360 since you get to actually see the CN Tower, which is the most beautiful building in the Toronto skyline IMO.
The restaurant is small, and full on a weekday surprisingly. We opt for the tasting menu and were not impressed with the food. I was expecting mediocre food based on prior reviews, but I would say that it doesn't even meet the mediocre standards. We started with a small butternut squash, maple cream soup. Then it went downhill. We had a pork, foraged pickles and bacon jam. It was disappointing, even the bacon jam couldn't save the dish. I like how the restaurant tries to offer local options, but was not impressed with the spock or the elk dish that we ordered. It just didn't come together very well. Also, all of the dishes were served very slowly - apps and dinner felt like it took 2 hours. I did not like the spacing of the meal. We started to get really tired and eventually decided to pack the dessert to-go.
If I get another gift certificate, I'd go to Oliver & Bonacini or Bannock.
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