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| - I have long been a fan of Trevor Kitchen + Bar on Wellington Street. From the first time I had their Asiago Mac 'n Cheese to my varoius 'Licious experiences there, to indulging in all my foie gras laden desires as one of Toronto's restaurants that will pretty much put foie gras on anything for you at your request. So when I heard about their new sister restaurant Tavern by Trevor - I was ecstatic (especially since it was down the street from where I work).
While Trevor Kitchen + Bar is a cavernous, intimate, dimly-lit, white table cloths kind of place; the Tavern is what I'd call a watering hole that happens to have food.
My girlfriend took me to Tavern for my birthday dinner and I had high hopes considering how much I love its Wellington Street sister. Unfortunately, you just can't compare Britney Spears to Audrey Hepburn and all the things I love about Trevor Kitchen + Bar are absent at Tavern.
First, the cocktails are awful. I sent the first one back and got a second one which I also couldn't finish. The art of creating a well-balanced cocktail isn't a feat that everyone can accomplish. To be fair they're not called Speakeasy; so maybe I should've stuck with the beer instead?
Second, our server was one of the most aloof ones I've ever encountered in all my years as a diner. She's exemplary as the reason why Toronto, despite all it's culinary talent is light years away from being known as a true culinary destination such as New York and Paris. That's what happens when you have aspiring artists and university students working the service industry to support their aspirations. They are like hobos who hop from train to train, but serving is not their final destination and it shows.
So last but not least, we arrive at the food.
We order a bunch of things to share. More misses here than hits.
Foie gras is to me as a moth is to a flame. If it's on the menu, I'm getting it. We ordered the fried foie gras with Concord grape jelly. More batter than foie here, and a thick thick batter at that. I see it's been taken off the menu now. Good riddance to that. If they ever decide to put it back on the menu, I would refer them to Martin Picard's foie gras cromesquis as a reference guide.
Having not fulfilled my hankering for something deep fried, we also opt for the pickerel goujons with lobster tartare sauce. An improvement from the first dish, but I find the tartare sauce to be lacking in any discernible lobster flavoring. If I closed my eyes, I quite possibly could've been eating dollops of McDonald's tartare sauce.
My eating spree thus far, having been all things deep fried guilts me into grabbing a side of kale salad. Perhaps simplicity is the saving grace here; tossed in a zingy horsereadish dressing with jicama and parmesan - it was yummy.
In a desperate attempt to salvage my adoration for Trevor, we also order the bison & pork tourtière with pickled beets & apple chipotle sauce. The pastry is neither buttery enough nor flaky enough and the filling errs on the side of lean. One of my favorite Quèbec specialties fails to perk me up.
My girlfriend orders the kobe beef burger to satisfy her inner carnivore and finally we have a glimmer of hope that our entire evening isn't going to hell in a handbasket. She's a devout Catholic so I guess the Lord heard her prayers. The burger was meaty, juicy (to the point of dripping) but it is everything you would want in a burger. No extra condiments needed.
We probably should've stopped at the burger, but we also order the beef cheek & bacon, an open-faced sandwich served atop a slab of potato bread and garnished with coriander, kimchi, and ginger mayo. At this point I think we were full from disappointment.
My partner in dine then chides that it's not a birthday dinner unless I have dessert so we opt for the deep fried Snickers bar à la CNE with bourbon caramel & vanilla ice cream. If this night has taught me anything, it's that clearly my girlfriend should start her own food blog. Of all the things we eat, the kobe burger and this dessert were of her choosing and end up being my favorites of the night.
As heavy and decadent as the dessert sounded, it was surprisingly light. Wrapped in sheets of phyllo, the Snickers bar was not just a fork full of stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth messiness. The berries were also a nice addition to cut through the chocolate. And with my final fork full of dessert; all was right in the world again.
At the end of the day I am still a fan of Trevor Kitchen + Bar; to be fair the food at Tavern is not cooked by Trevor Wilkinson and it is a totally different concept than it's original location. I still remain a fan of its Wellington Street operation, but the Tavern fails me as both a watering hole and a place to grab food.
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