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| - We tried "The Experience" (their $60 tasting menu), and even without the food, the venue delivers that. The space is beautiful (intimate, not pretentious at all), the waiters are courteous without hovering over your table every couple of minutes, and your water glass is always full. The cocktail list is reasonably priced (~$13) and beautifully executed, based on the ones we tried. We sat inside, but there is a patio option as well. On the Thursday night we were here, the crowd was an interesting mix of students (given the proximity to University of Toronto) and upscale local couples / families.
Regarding the tasting menu, do note that almost all of the dishes were served family style, so get comfortable sharing! At first, it admittedly took a while to get our opening courses, which included a little pastry puff amuse bouche, the Chopped Salad and the Pastrami fish board. All of the food was absolutely delicious (seriously), but at this point, we were scraping the kale off the bottom of the salad bowl from hunger.
Shortly after, the kitchen seemed to have picked up momentum, and we were getting dish after dish. In no particular order: Spiducci (delicious lamb skewer), the Mushroom Gundi (very rich, with truffle oil), the Brussel Sprouts (nice kick of heat), the Burger (apparently rated as the third best in the city by Toronto Life, according to the waiters) and the Bangkok Bowl (tuna and calamari on a mango slaw). The desert was the soft serve cereal dish.
Across all of these dishes, the only ones which were underwhelming were the Burger and the dessert. Everything else, I would have happily ordered again. Thankfully, we turned out to be overwhelmed by the amount of food, and dinner no longer felt like The Hunger Games a couple dishes in. The waiter actually offered to pack up the last savoury course for us. On an aside, this is around the same time the couple beside us grabbed their bill... And Rasa gave them a $50 gift card to commemorate their anniversary, which they were celebrating there!
Lovely food, lovely people, lovely space, would definitely book again, especially for any anniversaries... ;)
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