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| - Review #50! My first milestone :) And my first as an Elite! So it makes sense to review such a staple of the Toronto food scene as Bistro 990. Took my guy here as a treat for his birthday, which fell pre-TIFF - so no celeb sightings.
I had made an online reservation, and we were taken in right away when we arrived at 7:30. We were sat at a cute table that felt fairly private since we were against a divider wall that separated the front section and the back section of the restaurant. I liked the rustic decor, and even though it's French it reminded me of a little restaurant you'd find in Tuscany.
Nice fresh bread was brought to the table along with butter, which I always appreciate. The bread was fabulous. I don't know whether it was the bread itself, or the butter - but I found that it was a little too salty. To start, we ordered the trio of pâtés. The rabbit rillettes and the chicken liver were both delicious, but the third one wasn't to our tastes. I believe the server said it was salmon? I really couldn't tell, but it was kind of sweet with raisins and an odd yellow colour.
For my main, I ordered the lobster risotto with asparagus and wild mushrooms. Can I just say...WOW. I've never had a risotto before, and I think it will be difficult after this one because it was so amazing. So flavourful, so creamy, so generous with the lobster. Usually when you order something with lobster, you can barely find it. Not so here. There were tons of big chunks. It was buttery and perfectly cooked and just absolutely delish. I don't think I've ever enjoyed lobster more! His filet mignon melted in your mouth.
For dessert, I tried the strawberry pavlova. I've never had a pavlova before, and I'm usually a sucker for crème brûlée whenever it's on a menu, but I decided to do something different. I was recently convinced (by Food Network) to try a pavlova because I learned that it was only cooked on the outside, and inside was yummy gooey meringue. I had always assumed it was a fully baked meringue, which wouldn't have been my thing. I wished I'd ordered the brûlée. It wasn't bad...but it wasn't great either. I don't think the strawberry filling was meringue, or at least it was like no meringue I've ever had. It didn't work for me. The trio of house-made sorbets that my date ordered was quite nice though, very flavourful.
Now the reasons for 4 stars, besides the disappointing pavlova. The server was a character and I really enjoyed him, but sometimes the service was a little slow. When our mains were delivered, we were offered fresh pepper (not by our server). About 5 minutes later our server came by with the peppermill. When you have a plate of delicious looking and smelling food in front of you, you don't want to sit there staring at it for 5 minutes while you wait for the fresh pepper! Also, I had told them in my online reservation that we were celebrating my boyfriend's birthday, and although the table beside us received birthday wishes, apparently the info wasn't passed along for us. The other thing that put a bit of a damper on the evening for us was the temperature - it was quite warm! I don't know if they don't have air conditioning, or if it just wasn't on high enough, but I was sweating and that's not the atmosphere I would expect when I'm paying this much for a meal.
All in all, fantabulous risotto, amusing but somewhat slow service, pretty but warm atmosphere. The food really is good enough to bump this up to a 4*.
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