| rev:text
| - So happy I chose this for my boyfriends birthday dinner as we had such a delicious and memorable meal here!
We sat at the chefs table and had the 7 course meal. $130pp (came to $400 for two ppl plus two drinks,tax and tip) and the meal lasted almost 4 hours. At first we thought we would go get poutine or street meat after if we were still hungry (tasting portions can be so small) but we were beyond stuffed (it may have even been a tad too much food) and we practically crawled out the there and tko'd as soon as we got home. We skipped the wine pairing (thank god or we would have burst) but each settled for an a la carte drink: he had the old fashioned, I had a glass of white - both good. Had to book 2 months in advance for a Saturday night seating.
Pros: the good dishes were AMAZING. the wagyu was incredible, soft scrambled eggs with truffle puree was one of the most intense things I have even eaten, grits with shave truffle was so unique and special (and i usually dislike grits) and the poke was perfect. The house made bread with soft warm butter omg....please start selling this! Lovely dinnerware was quickly replaced after each dish and the plating of each course was beautiful. Washrooms were so clean and pretty (weird adjective to describe a washroom, I know), and as soon as I returned to my seat there was someone instantly behind me to pull out my chair and the napkin had been refolded. They even had our coats out and ready when we left and the bill comes with a keepsake menu of the night, sealed in a small envelope. Nice little touches :) Definitely a great place for a special occasion.
Some cons, which is why I didn't give 5 stars as I think for the price point and reputation these things should be improved: not all the dishes were great. some were underwhelming and really not good at all (ie the scallop, sashimi, canapes, all the desserts, weird cornbread bites that were part of the petit fours..). We had one lightly grilled fish dish (makarel?) and my boyfirends piece was incredible but mine had no flesh and was chewy and grizzly and not edible. Plus when they took the plate away they should have seen it and resolved it, as that one bite was all that I got due to the tasting size. The service was great in some ways but not overly friendly - maybe the norm in poshy places, but I think our server could have been a bit more personable. Furthermore, we sat there about 20 minutes when we arrived before anyone even approached us or took a drink order. He also did not really welcome us (or even introduce himself) and explain the menu/how many courses/confirmed our preferences etc. The biggest annoyance was the atmosphere of the chefs table seating. I have sat at other chefs tables and loved it - it felt worth the premium fee - but here, it really felt like they ran out of room and just plunked us at the metal counter where they places the ready dishes for servers to deliver to tables :/ It was not cozy/comfortable/premium/classy and since it was a surprise dinner for my bf he looked at me bewildered when we were seated and asked "why are they seating us at this counter???" as he longingly looked towards the cozy restaurant tables. Also the pathway from the kitchen to the dining area, and bathroom to dining area is right behind the "chefs table' so there is a constant flow of noisy traffic behind you. We even had people waiting or people on phone calls loitering behind us for the whole meal. Not a great setting for a special birthday dinner. Aside from that it was neat to watch the hustle and bustle of the kitchen and see the effort put into each dish (minus the part where the dessert chef licked the spoon he used to scoop some chocolate and then put it back in the holder before the next use....errrrrrr).
Despite these shortcomings, we had a really good time here and would definitely recommend for a special event....but I would go for the 5 course tasting menu instead and avoid chefs table seating~
Would I return? - For special occasion only
Parking? - Street parking on Queen, green Ps nearby
Value for $? - Good
Space? - Small/mid size dining area, small bar area
Ventilation? - Good
Service? - 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)