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| - The first thing you'll notice about this little comfy hole in the wall in the Corso Italia is the delicious smells upon entering. I went with an actual Italian, a visiting friend who had asked me to show him Toronto's version of "authentic" Italian (the way he said it, you could actually hear the quotation marks around the word authentic, like he was not expecting to be impressed). Based on the other Yelp reviews and our proximity to the location, I decided to give Agio a go. I wasn't disappointed, and my Italian friend was actually very impressed.
I had the gnocchi with sausage which was perfect and utterly delicious, and my friend went with the pumpkin ravioli, apparently a speciality of the area of Italy that he's from, and from the look of joy and nods of grudging respect that I saw on his face, it was quite up to snuff.
He was especially impressed, when the chef came out speaking the same Italian dialect of the part of the country where my friend was from, and the chef turned out to be a Korean man! Since it wasn't busy (we were early, before the dinner rush), chef Marino spent some time telling us about how he had gone from his home in Korea as a young man, to Italy to study to be a chef, and had decided he loved it there too much to leave, at least for the next 10 years, during which time he apprenticed at a prestigious restaurant that my visiting friend knew well. We had a hilarious and lively chat, topped of with a shared shot of some amazing fruity cognac from the region, compliments of the house.
This place is seriously wonderful. Great food. Wonderful warm and welcoming staff, and a truly inspiring story behind it all. Five stars aren't enough.
P.S.: in the couple of months since the visit described above, I've taken other colleagues and friends to Agio and everything has been perfect, every time. Dangerously, I also discovered they will do take-out, so now I'm picking up dinner from there with alarming regularity!
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