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| - We haven't dined at Canoe in 3 years and felt we were overdue for a revisit, to see if one of Toronto's "old guard", the flagship of the Oliver-Bonacini empire, is still shining in this new era of dining. No surprise, they did not disappoint, and are not resting on previous laurels, they have kept up and will be around for decades.
Canoe's specialty has always been French/Continental cuisine featuring Canadian ingredients, and they always show excellence in its execution. How do you top what was already a memorable experience last time? Get the tasting menu! (which wasn't available last time). For about what it would cost to order 3 courses (starter, main, dessert) we got a 7 course procession of food with a common theme and came with a nice lesson in Canadian history.
The theme of the winter 2017 tasting menu is "Great Lakes - a culinary voyage through the history of Canada's iconic fresh waters". Rather than relying so much on exotic foreign ingredients, this was a nice way to experience locally sourced product at its best. We started off with surf clams from the St. Lawrence River, then Georgian Bay smoked whitefish and roe, ramps, and cattail crackers, then a soup consisting of squash bouillon over wild rice, corn dumplings, and heirloom beans. An amuse-bouche of sweet wintergreen granita was an excellent, refreshing palate cleanser to set things up for the homestretch. For the main course, the venison was cooked perfectly -- rare, with highbush cranberries, beets, swiss chard, and rabbit pot pie (bite size like a potsticker!). Dessert was in 2 stages, first a pear poached in mulled wine accompanied by buttermilk sherbet (which can be described as the best soft-serve ice cream ever), then the finale, a block of maple fudge wrapped in cotton candy! Wow.
Word of advice - don't expect the website menu to describe every course, as at least 2 of these courses were not printed. Just order the tasting menu, sit back and enjoy the experience, carefully curated and mapped out by the talented Oliver-Bonacini team of chefs. As I said before, definitely avoid Licious. See all those 3-star reviews here? They're all Winterlicious and Summerlicious cheapskates. You want the real 5-star meal deal, save up your money until you can get the tasting menu. Don't waste the trip, Canoe is a destination to be cherished. Why set yourself up for disappointment. Come after dark and enjoy the city lights from 54 storeys up, or for a special treat, make a reservation at dusk and watch the sun set. It's nice to see a restaurant that opened in the 1990's still going strong today and not losing any ground (or have to resort to Groupon). Food trends come and go but classics never get old and Canoe is proof of that.
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