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| - I've really wanted to try Cava a while back, but a few failed attempts at making reservations later, it's been on my back burner ever since. Recently, my friend told me that it was one of his favourites and took me there.
I like how the location of the restaurant is tucked away inside a building a Yonge street -- convenient yet away from the hustle and bustle of the main road. Seeing it was my first time there, the waiter explained that their dishes were tapas style meant for sharing and that 6 - 8 were good for a party of two. So here is what we ordered: jamon croquetas, scallops, jamon iberico, 48 hour braised brisket, beef tripe, "supergilda", pincho of foie gras, and the baked alaska. The jamon croquetas was a dish like no other I've tried before; it has crispy croquetas on top of a bed of vegetable with snails and there were four massive mushrooms around the plate. It tasted great but a little puzzling to someone with my limited culinary exposure to spanish cuisine. I was very impressed by the scallops -- they were the size of babys' fists and perfectly cooked. If this were a restaurant were located on King West, just one of those suckers would probably cost $20. Do I really need to say anything about the jamon iberico? Maybe just one word -- it was beyond! The brisket was good but I don't think I enjoyed it as much as my friend. Make no wrong it was as good as a braised brisket can get, but I like my brisket salty, briny, and hopefully between two pieces of white rye. The standout of that dish for me was the white puree; oh my god, it was so smooth like a baby's bottom (hmm... two baby body part references in one review -- getting a little creepy). I wanted to try the beef tripes because I've never had any non-Asian preparation of the dish. The tripes were perfectly tender without being mushy and retained the innards' unique flavour; suffice to say, it did not taste like wet dog at all but was still "tripy". The pinchos were great, so much flavour in one bite. I'm glad we got the foie and "supergilda" (which is a pincho of sardine, olive, and pepper) because they were very different in flavour; they really opened our palates for the rest of the meal. For dessert, we had baked Alaska; the pistachio thing in the middle had a really rich nutty flavour which was balanced by the fluffy cream and poached pear. We were both stuffed after these dishes -- even though portions were small they were all quite decadent.
I really enjoyed this meal at Cava because I was truly eating with my mouth and not with my eyes. All the dishes were very hearty and satisfying. There wasn't even one piece of microgreen in the entire meal; can u believe that? ( Not that I don't love microgreens, they do make everything looking more fresh.) Even though our dinner was not cheap, it was worth it merely for the quality of the level of preparation of the ingredients. Cava is a great place to go if you love to try a wide variety of dishes in on mean and are someone who regards dining as a social event rather than a necessary function.
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