Over the years I've grown very cynical of Winterlicious. It seems that a lot of restaurants don't really treat this event well, and sub the regular menu with much cheaper and more generic food that is easier to produce en masse. However, this year, I decided to give a few a try, with Lucient on the top of my list of restaurants that I had heard about but did not try yet. It looked promising for Winterlicious since it looked like their Winterlicious menu actually had items from their regular menu.
We started off our early Friday night dinner with Braised Berkshire Pork and Cauliflower Soup as appetizers. The pork was deliciously fatty and the soup was light as air. Delicious! Next came the Top Meadow Farms Beef Bourguignon - nicely braised and tasty, but nothing special. For dessert I had the Ontario Apple Cobbler while my boyfriend got the Lemon Meringue. Both were inventive and good. I was impressed with my Winterlicious experience here and would return here again for the regular menu - which is what Winterlicious is all about - attracting new customers.
Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at Lucien. The service was good, the decor was intimate and cozy, and the food was tasty and original.