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| - I dropped in for lunch, and sadly I wasn't super-impressed.
If I were rating the Beverley solely on the food, this would probably be a 2-star review. That might be a little harsh, passing judgment like that after just one lunch played solo, but I can only go off what I've had, and since I probably won't be back I don't see much reason to hold off in hopes of sampling more of the menu. This is a 3-star review because the service was excellent. The front of house was pleasantly casual and welcoming, while my server was perfectly attentive and wonderfully friendly, without hovering over me to the point of being uncomfortable. The service was great.
When I walked into the Beverley at 1 PM on a weekday, there were only a handful of diners and we'd all come for the same thing - the 4Play. It was the only thing anyone was eating. The idea of a light, four-course tasting lunch at sixteen bucks is a winning concept, and it's clearly getting people in the door. The presentation - four clean white plates on a large matching platter, allowing the plates to be shuffled around to give you access to whichever dishes you want to go at first - is lovely. But the food itself was weak, and elements of the concept need to be tweaked.
Unfortunately I caught my server off-guard by placing my order immediately, so I actually received no explanation of what I was eating when it arrived. When I inquired a couple minutes later, the server wasn't properly equipped to describe all four dishes, so bear with me if I'm a bit vague. This was the only flaw in the service - when you plunk four mystery dishes in front of a guest, please be able to tell me what I'm eating. My 4Play consisted of:
-Nappa Cabbage Slaw In Vinaigrette - This was delightful. I was craving something light for lunch, and the slaw was crispy, fresh, and flavorful with flecks of red bell pepper, green onion, and a sprinkling of nuts. I'm a sucker for a good salad and I really enjoyed this.
-Mushrooms and Sweet Potato - Served over a splash of unfortunate tomato sauce, the mushrooms were flavorful and the sweet potatoes were a standout, grilled to a pleasant black crisp. This was a weird little dish because none of it worked together, though none of it was outrightly unpleasant. I could definitely come to love those sweet potatoes in a different dish entirely.
-Duck Confit Taco - Topped with a bit of nappa cabbage, cucumber, and red bell pepper, the duck was flavorless and the unnecessary wad of sour cream melted through the tortilla like thermite. This was mucky, cold, and not very good.
-Pear and Caramel Cake Thing - A small piece of cake accompanied by a couple pieces of poached pear and a whole whack of caramel sauce, this was nothing special, but doused in so much caramel it was passable. Throw enough caramel on anything and it can pass. This isn't something I'd want to eat again, but that's due in part to the fact that I ate it with the same cutlery that had just passed through tomato sauce and vinaigrette slaw. This was my main quibble with the 4Play execution - you really need a dessert fork here, guys.
In addition to the 4Play I just had to try the duck fat kettle corn, which was sadly super-underwhelming. There wasn't alot of flavor going on with a definite lack of coating to each piece of popcorn, and while the portion was huge, the brown-paper-bag presentation was kind of difficult to approach gracefully once I'd gotten about halfway through it. Was I supposed to tear the upper half of the bag away, Chipotle-style? It seemed uncouth. I opted to tip the bag over and reach in sideways instead of plunging myself in to the elbow from the top. Hysterically, there was so much kettle corn that it outlasted the rest of my lunch, so by the time the elegantly presented 4Play was removed, I was left snacking out of a greasy paper bag wondering not if, but precisely to what degree, I looked like a homeless person.
Restaurants of Toronto, please stop plying ironic low-class presentation for whimsy. It's been done to death and now it's officially just awkward.
I want to love this place. The service is wonderful, and the space is nice. But the food needs to improve drastically, or they're going to have some problems moving forward.
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