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| - Saturday 12:15pm lunch time we dined as a group of 4 adults, 1 toddler, and 1 child. No longer a Scarborough native, I had only ever shopped at the seafood market years ago and didn't realize Diana's had opened a restaurant next door. (Everybody in my lunch party had been to the restaurant except me). The restaurant was not understaffed which is a plus because that means you don't have trouble getting service attention, and they were incredibly patient with the fact that we had a toddler with us, and one who was nearing his terrible 2s. I don't recommend this seafood restaurant as being child-friendly becuase 1)acoustics are loud if a child screams [we tested this] 2)no kids menu, and 3)most children don't like seafood until they are a little older.
The waitress was familiar with our party so the service and conversation were very natural and sincere. I was delighted to read that the menu wasn't overly ambitious, ensuring I wasn't about to experience a Franken-seafood restaurant: There were calamari, octopus, oysters in appetizers, bouillabaise, lobster, and fish in mains, pastas had 1 chicken option for the non-seafood customer, and desserts had an interesting "cardomom creme caramel" which I did not take the opportunity to try this visit. Just reading the combinations of food gave me the impression the chef here is very lucky to be entrusted with more creative liberty than other restaurants given the mediocre menus I've seen across town this past winter and spring (if I see another "pickled beet salad"...I think I will have a meltdown).
We asked for our starters and mains to come out simultaneously to skip on formalities so we can immediately tuck in. There is a long wine and beer list for pairing with your food. We ordered a variety of oysters on ice, 1/2 dozen each. Oyster tastes are a personal preference, but they were freshly shucked and came with generous wedges of fresh lemon slices and freshly grated horseradish. I enjoyed their Kumamoto, French Kiss, and LARGE cherrystone clams. These were also served with baskets of ovenfresh hot bread, butter, oil&vinegar.
The grilled octopus was served on a bed of warm arugula salad with couscous and hummus. The hummus was more like a sauce for plating and that was very novel in comparison to ho-hum hummus. The fact that I found pomegranate seeds in the arugula continued to verify my guess that their kitchen is allowed to be creative, or at least, to invest in a spectrum of produce.
The bouillabaise was a generous seafood stew. It contained clams, mussels, fish, scallop, shrimp (I think?) and a lobster tail. The star of the dish was definitely the soup because it was a thick and flavourful fennel and tomato base. I am not even a tomato soup lover, but I like this one! I personally like the slight licorice taste of fennel, but I didn't notice it in this stew. The lobster tail wasn't particularly special--just frozen lobster. The mussels tasted off, and it was consistently ALL the mussels, so I was surprised and disappointed. The clams were incredibly large, and the fish was meaty and not flaky, something I really enjoy. I think the menu said the bouillabaisse came with rouille, but I don't recall if I had it or noticed it in the bouillabaisse. (Perhaps it's that mayo-Thousand-Island-looking spread on the garlic bread in the photo I attached). I didn't seek out the rouille, so I guess I can't recollect it!
Overall, I enjoyed the bold creativity of their dishes, the waitstaff service, the freshness and variety of available raw shellfish, and the plating and presentation of everything we ordered.
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