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| - A little bit of background: yes, this is still Susur Lee's restaurant. Although he's moved to New York to concentrate on his new restaurant Shang (http://www.yelp.com/biz/shang-new-york-2), Madeline's is still affiliated with Susur Lee (it's named after his mom!). From what I was told by our incredibly polite & knowledgeable server Scott, the restaurant rebranded/reopened about a year ago under the name Madeline's with a new menu and fresh look.
The decor used to be a stark white, but it's now dark and brooding, with lots of purples and blacks and backlit wall screens. There is heaps of velvet, too, and my plush chair was among the more comfortable seats I've sat in. It was roomy enough for two people to sit on, which was handy since we were a large group and there was a lot of mingling. The noise level in Madeline's is not unlike Sneaky Dee's (yes, strange comparison, I know) - you absolutely can't hear what the person next to you is saying. You have to strain your voice so drink some Throat Coat before your visit or you'll be hoarse by night's end.
There were fifteen of us and most people ordered the tasting menu ($60), but I didn't see much on it for my palate (I'm vegetarian) so I ordered a la carte: "butter roasted sweet potato with maple syrup, garlic and rosemary" ($9) and "hand rolled spinach ricotta gnocchi with garlic, chili, basil, pine nuts, portobello mushrooms, lemon juice, aged reggiano & olive oil" ($18). The sweet potato side was incredible and the portion was surprisingly large (enough for 2-3 people to share!). The sweet potatoes were melt-in-your-mouth velvety and perfectly seasoned.
The gnocchi was otherworldly. The flavour combination rendered me absolutely speechless. It was more than your usual "gnocchi swimming in tomato sauce" - it was a substantial meal with lots of garnishes and contents to it. Pine nuts! Lemon! Spinach! SO GOOD!
When the server brings out your food, they present it to you like you're some sort of tsar - they point to it and run down the endless list of ingredients and components in case you forgot what you ordered or were so in awe of the presentation that you couldn't tell what you were looking at.
The prices are absurdly out of my usual range but you know what you're getting into when you make a reservation, and I have nothing but praise for the food. Watch out for drinks because it can quickly get expensive. Make sure you ask for a drink menu so you know how much you're spending because they have wine bottles priced up to $2000 (my friend thought the YEAR was 2000, but alas, it was the price).
A few times throughout the evening we saw a familiar character, chef Susur Lee himself lurking around the dining room and inspecting people's plates, making his presence known. Scott informed us that he randomly comes back to Toronto to work at Madeline's and that people call all the time asking if tonight will be the night that he's there, but that they never know in advance. It's just random.
The only thing that disappointed me was what I will refer to as the Great Cake Debacle Of 2009. My friend baked and brought a cake for the birthday and Madeline's charged us a $5 PER PERSON plating fee. I can understand charging $20 or something for cutlery and plates, but almost everyone had ordered the tasting menu, which includes dessert anyway, which we weren't going to eat. So that would cancel out the complaint about having to sully plates and cutlery. $5 per person at 15 people is $75. A bit absurd.
Had it been my birthday I would have gone across the street to Second Cup and busted out the paper plates and plastic cutlery and jammed on the cake right then and there!
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