| rev:text
| - From the get go at Splendido you can tell they're trying their damndest to adhere to a higher echelon of service and quality. The maitre d' and wait staff look genuinely pleased to serve you and make your meal as special as can be.
The dining room is a nice open concept with a partial view of the kitchen. Decor being smart and sophisticated without being stuffy. My only knock is the horrid photo displays they have hanging on the walls. They don't fit and look like they belong in a washroom hallway of the AGO.
For apps we ordered the Frois Gras parfait, Venison Tartare, Ramps, White Asparagus, Rabbit Parpadelle, and were comp'd 2 Charcuterie boards with a variety of cured meats. The Frois was melt in your mouth ridiculousness... it's wrapped in a thin layer of butter to enhance the richness of the Frois. White Asparagus was well prepared with a well balanced flavour and crunch while still pleasantly soft. For me the Tartare was disappointing. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it didn't have that punch of flavour I was hoping for. The Parpadelle was EXCELLENT. I kind've wish I ordered it again as my main, but I'll get to that later. The noodles had an amazing texture and were perfectly cooked accompanying the delicious rabbit and buttery cream sauce. As for the rest of the board - wow - a great variety of cuts and flavours to round out the prologue of our meal.
For my main I had difficulty deciding and eventually settled on the Free Range Chicken based on the waiter's recommendations. I've always been curious as to how good chicken could really taste at a first class restaurant with classical training mixed with new age cooking techniques.. but is it better than my spicy big crunch at kfc?
To avoid being too wordy I'll just breakdown what the table ordered point form:
- Butter Poached Lobster w/ B.C. Wild Mushrooms & Mascarpone Risotto
* Very fresh lobster, tasted good, but nothing special
- 24oz Boneless Black Angus Rib Steak, Roasted King Oyster Mushrooms,
Ontario Green Asparagus Cognac & Peppercorn Sauce
* Cooked to perfection, great flavour, thick cut, very juicy, accompanied the mushrooms and sauce very well.
- Steel Head Trout
* By far the BEST thing of the night. This trout is cured then cooked sous vide and then seared for a crispy texture. This thing just packs a ton of hearty flavour and easily forced it's way into my list of favourite entrees.
- Lamb Shoulder
* Very tender and robust flavours, didn't try very much of this, but what I did have, I was happy with.
- My Free Ranged Chicken
* This was easily very disappointing for me. The chicken was moist but not juicy enough, and well.. it just tasted like chicken. The part that was confit'd was nice, but for everyone to be raving about it? I'm convinced there's only a level of deliciousness chicken can attain and even then it's more or less the same. You don't need to pay $24/per person for this.. but try for yourself.
Afterwards we ordered 4 cheeses, Chateau De Bourgogne, Cape Vessey, Stilton and I'd like to say.. Gouda? I can't remember the last but they were all pretty good but completely unnecessary seeing as I was getting pretty full. Isn't cheese more or less standard everywhere? My favourite of the 4 being the triple creme Chatueau.
For dessert we ordered Brioche Ice Cream sandwiches, Sorbet and Chocolate tarts. My sandwich was cutesy and flavourful. Good biscuit to icecream ratio and not too heavy. The sorbet was light, playful and refreshing while the chocolate tart was heavy, creamy and dangerous. All pretty decent quality and a good way to end your meal.
All in all a pretty positive experience dining at Splendido. Had the waiter not hyped the chicken so much I probably would've enjoyed it more.
A very hot spot to go in Toronto right now for fine dining, even more so since they got that great review in Toronto Life. The meal was $800+ for 7 people, and would've been way more if we didn't get comp'd on a lot of the apps. You get what you pay for though - simple food prepared and cooked really really well.
I would definitely recommend it for a that special occasion where you want to get dressed up and have a fancy meal downtown. Get the trout, it's that good.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)