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| - A wonderful 4.5 star experience ... service is very good and elevated this from a 4 to a 4.5
Chabrol is a small dining gem in Toronto. It's menu, like its space, is small but extremely well thought out & curated and very well executed. Service here has the perfect balance of being friendly and refined.
Chabrol is not an easy reservation to get ... it is popular but also there's only 5 tables of 2 and a few seats at the bar. It is a tiny spot in Yorkville where you'll be amazed at the chef's "kitchen". It is the size of a closet and yet some of the most wonderful big flavours come from it.
We arrived and walked through their patio courtyard area which houses some 4 person tables. It had been raining hard that day and though it was covered, watch for the little puddles! We were warmly greeted by what seemed to be the sous chef who is outside the restaurant in a temporary bar area. Quickly we were shown to our seat and possibly the most cheerful wait staff attended to our table. I can understand previous comments about how it is possibly too intimate. You are within inches of your neighbouring table and your table is very small. It can barely hold two dinner plates, a side dish, and an entree plate. Much negotiating with the dinner ware was needed.
We decided to split all the items to enjoy the various flavours and in some ways, I shouldn't have! I really did want to keep the Ttoro to myself! We did order the Ttoro (Basque seafood stew), Braised Lamb, Escarole Gratin, and finished with wonderful Apple tarte.
Ttoro - This Basque stew was quite amazing on flavour. It is a stew based on fish, tomato, shellfish, and normally a paprika of some sort. Perhaps my mind was slipping but I thought I heard the staff describe saffron being added and no mention of paprika. The fish and shellfish is added last minute to poach just before serving. The broth is delicious... they give you in house made crust bread (pain de campagne?) to scoop every last drip of the wonderful soup and trust me, you'd want to lick the plate. It is a vibrant bold spiced flavour. It wasnt overwhelming on the shellfish but I was surprised how the white fish, mussel, and shrimp took little of the broth flavour. I wouldn't call them tasteless but they just didnt any noted flavour. The mussels were quite small... about a half the size of the ones we had at Kiin. The shrimp was a touch bordering towards rubbery. The fish was a touch too dry/firm instead of moist and delicate. The broth is a 5+/5 but the seafood was ok. So overall 4/5
Braised Lamb - Another solid dish ... the lamb didn't need any knife to cut through it. It was incredibly tender. An interesting thing about the lamb, it wasn't remotely gamey or had the typical strong 'lamb' flavour. It was well complimented by the fennel and asparagus. The fennel had that licorice note but instead of making everything taste like black licorice ... it added a nice earthy herbal note. The overall flavour was muted and comforting... this is a dish I would welcome on a cold day. Well done but comparing to the Ttoro, it just haven't the same 'wow' flavour profile. 4/5
Escarole gratin - This eclipsed the braised lamb completely when they were served together. Thinly sliced celeriac is treated like a potato and layered with escarole, savoury, cheese, and bread crumbs to top. This was soo good. Crunchy flavourful breadcrumbs covered the creamy cheese and tender pieces of celeriac to create a better and more flavourful version of potato dauphinoise. It is quite a generous plating of this side dish. 5/5
Apple Tarte - It is rare for me to say the must order dish is dessert but in this case, this apple tarte deserves that recognition. Buttery flakey pastry that puffs around a tower of thinly slice and tender apples then enveloped and drowned in an amazing sabayon that is perfectly sweet and notes of cider popping out. This is one of the better desserts I've had all year and I've possibly had too much. You can see the chef use a double bain marie and put some serious work in whipping the yolks, cider, and sugar to get that incredible creamy texture that can easily fool you to thinking its cream. 5/5
Overall, this is a wonderful fine dining experience with the service possibly overshadowing some of the food. It's not often you find a good balance between refined & thoughtful service and kicking out the pretentious attitude of some finer dining places. The Apple Tarte is truly amazing though!
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