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| - Mel C. and I decided to meet up at this trendy King west resto to catch up on the going ons of our lives since we hadn't seen each other for some time. We decided to go for the Winterlicious menu since it offered a variety of choices.
The restaurant is very trendy, dimly lit with a table gas light, and very hip music playing in the background. It was reminiscent of the night that I spent at Blowfish. I've passed by this restaurant so many times on my way home walking on King Street. It seems to attract the 25-30 something young professional crowds post work social or work dinners. Most men were dressed in a collard shirt and a v-neck sweater, while the ladies sported casual but stylish wear. The interior made you feel as though you were transported to a different world or time with very modern yet simple decor. The seating is very cosy and close together, and the small space was designed to make the space feel bigger than it actually is.
The waiter promptly came to take our drink order. We ordered tea with a hint of mint in it. The wait staff is very courteous, overly cheerful and friendly, it made you wonder if they always like to sing for their supper in this manner. Our waiter explained that usually, without Winterlicious, it is a "sharing" type menu and "encouraged" us to order different things from the regular menu. We had several waiters come up to us to ask us if we needed any explanation on the menu. I got confused after awhile who exactly was our waiter. They all sounded and looked the same...very young, very friendly, overly helpful in their enthusiam to explain the menu. So I asked one of them to explain the various winterlicious items. He obliged. I inquired on the portions since i was curious to know the size of each menu item however given that this is a fine dining type place, the standard is a moderate portion, but usually of good quality.
So we proceeded to order the hot and sour soup as apetizers. The -20 degree temperature outside called for it. Also, being asian, we wanted to sample the soup to see how it compared to the authentic stuff that you can get at the high end chinese restaurants. The soup did not disappoint. It was very tasty, full of flavour, and adequate high quality ingredients. For the main course, we ordered curry chicken (Fresh Ground green curry chicken, Sweet pea polenta, butter almondine, sundried tomato jam oven dried pineapple, chili mint chutney). There was nothing very curry like about this chicken although it tasted pretty good. It looked like it was deep fried in batter. I could not taste much of the other ingredients nor the curry. We also ordered the Spiced Slow Braised Beef with Romano bean puree & daikon puree. This dish was very succulent and rich. The beef melts in your mouth and the fat that it was probably cooked in, made it very flavorful. Probably not what you should be eating if you are looking to lose weight. Although the portion is small enough that those on a diet need not worry. For dessert, we ordered the creme caramel and the Panna Cotta. Both were very delicious. The creme caramel was very creamy and had a good consistency and flavor. The Panna Cotta was topped with some exotic fruit that tasted very tangy and rasberry sauce. Both contrasted each other well, although we both agreed that the Creme Caramel would win hands down if there were a show down.
Overall the ambiance, the decor, the service, and the food was very good. Our bill including tax and tip came to about $100 since we did the Winterlicious menu. Its pretty pricey considering you may still be a bit hungry afterwards but it was probably a bargain considering the average price for a meal these days at trendy restaurants on King West. We also did not have any alcohol, which kept our bill on the lower end.
I would recommend this restaurant if you are into trendy decor, ambiance, overly attentive wait staff, and fine dining style type of food. I had a good experience and would definitely consider going back. I am not usually into asian fusion given that I am asian and into authentic asian food, but if i had to choose a fusion trendy resto, this would be on my top 5 list.
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