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| - At the midpoint of my own personal weeklong tour of Toronto's "Top New Restaurants"
Step One- Making a reservation. They don't answer the phone all that well and when we left a message, we never got a call back. So, we finally made a reservation for a Sunday night. It appears they have more than just the designated two seatings, as people kept coming in all night.
Arrival- the space formerly occupied by Bar One (best brunch ever!) has been transformed into a more industrial space. I felt it was a bit too raw- grey, cinder block walls and bare lightbulbs dangling from cords tied all over the ceiling. The tables were nice, but my seat had a hard spring that made it odd to sit on (with a short skirt).
Bar/Drinks- Good wine list. Cocktails are decent, but we all had the feeling that something was missing. I was missing the candied ginger in the Ginger indie, and the Green Tea Gin needed a bit more acid.
Food- Interesting presentation of the salad, which others have raved about. The menu will change, but the root vegetables were raw? The pickled ginger (homemade) was awesome. The fish had that blood line that makes this pescatarian a little quesy. The mains were quite good. Interesting accessories- a crispy kale leaf, puree of sunchokes, quinoa- yum!
Service- the waitstaff are total hipsters, tight jeans and plaid shirts abound. These are not professional waiters that I have seen at other places this week. We had a huge mishap at our table when two waitstaff ran into each othere. Our main waiter just didn't know how to respond, and kind of ran away. But one of the other guys came through with a Tide stick and comped our original bottle of wine and the replacement (too bad we ordered a bottle of RED wine).
Is this enough to make up for making our dinner high anxiety/stressful? I think I have justified my rating, and barring everyone else getting splashed with food and wine, I think 3 stars is fair.
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