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| - For the price, my overall experience at TOCA was not what I expected. I ordered my $69 dry-aged bone-in tenderloin steak to be cooked medium. It came out medium well to well. My husband advised that I send it back. I didn't bother because I was sharing it with my nine-year-old son, who was quite hungry and seemed to enjoy it as is, and I didn't want to make a fuss. I did inform the server toward the end of the meal so that she could let the folks in the kitchen know. Honestly though, when I go to a high end restaurant, I expect that they know what they are doing in the back and that I don't have to send anything back. The flavor of the steak was good.
Their version of fish and chips, which was made with lobster, was a yummy starter.
Their heirloom tomato salad was pretty good. I did find a few of the tomatoes to be a bit mushy, and this was a little disappointing. A number of items that were on the menu, e.g. the raw bar, were not actually available. Our server explained that this was because the restaurant was not busy enough to maintain the high turnover rate needed to keep those items fresh. The lower than expected volume of customers could explain why some of the tomatoes were a bit past their prime.
I personally did not care too much for the sauteed mushrooms as some of them were a bit tough.
I did enjoy the squash side dish that was the Chef's Spring Harvest at this time.
The service was good and helped to make up for where the food fell short. The kids' menu comes on an ipod touch that was loaded with five games. This was a very nice touch.
Thinking back on the steak, maybe there's a difference between how Americans and Canadians define the degrees to which a steak is cooked. My husband the cynic asked for his steak to be cooked rare although he enjoys it medium rare, and his steak ended up being medium rare. I wish I had asked for my steak to be medium rare. From now on, I'll just have to explain that I want my steak to be hot and pink inside and let the staff call it what they wish.
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