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| - I hope to return to try other items on the menu. Very good food, nice atmosphere, very good service, and a reasonable price for the quality (mind you my reference is New York City). It came to about $50 a head, without alcohol. Certain dishes seemed overpriced, but others provided great value.
FOOD:
I highly recommend this place for the food. I'm not sure this is really a straightforward 'tapas bar'; there are a few bite-sized pieces, but the majority of the dishes are larger, all intended to be shared. Our favorites were the eggplant, the duck breast and the sweetbreads. Also the foie gras pincho. Dessert was killer (quince frangipane tart, totally awesome).
The cheaper of the two 'jamons' was the only disappointing item -- just cold chewy mouthfuls of fairly good ham with no accompaniment. Also there weren't quite enough greens on the menu, IMHO -- it's a little crowded with fried fat hipster dishes -- so we asked for a side of greens off-menu, which was excellent.
SERVICE:
The servers gave us a lot of room, but provided detailed descriptions when asked, to the point of overkill in some cases. Timing and staging of the dishes was near-perfect. This really added to the pleasure of the meal, though we did sit waiting for ten minutes between one pair of dishes (might have been an intentional delay between 'appetizers' and 'mains'), and we waited for a while on the check. Also I heard the waiters bicker with each other once, which is always a little unsettling. All in all the service was very good, and I was pleased that the side of greens we requested (not technically on the menu) was priced very reasonably.
AMBIANCE:
Music is a little too loud, but since there are some soft surfaces in there the general level of noise is manageable. Good spacing of tables (probably considered tight for Toronto?) and lots of conversation, a good warm vibe overall. Sure beats 95% of noisy NYC restaurants.
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