Listed as one of the top 5 new dessert places on BlogTO and living in close proximity to the Grand Café, I invited my beautiful man friend David and his GF to join us for Sunday lunch. I've driven past the café many times without knowing of its existence, its nestled just south of Victoria Park and Sheppard with a huge parking lot, more than half of which are reserved for Beiruti customers. The Café itself is enormous, half of which is unused space that would be great for dancing on. Glass display cases show off a variety of sandwiches, pitas, and entrees on one side and their homemade gelato on the other separated by their POS. There's also a 2nd separate counter for desserts and pastries in front of their kitchen. There is plenty of seating with a mix of bar counters, tables, long-ass communal tables and comfy couches with coffee tables.
Similar to Panera, you order your food at the counter and then you're given a number to place at your table where the wait staff will deliver your food. The sandwiches and pitas, even before they're heated look amazing, you can tell they put a lot of effort in to presentation which in no way compromises the taste. I ordered the Croque Monsieur ($6) and my GF had the Beiruti Chicken Pita ($10) which comes with a side of salad or soup. Being the fatty that I am, I decided to try a couple meat pies ($1.25 each), about a third the size of a frozen mini pizza. We also ordered a hazelnut latte ($4.50) and a Persian Tea. The sandwich was incredible although very heavy, I only ate half of it and took the rest to go. The pita was also very good, you can tell the dough was baked fresh and the filling was flavourful. They offered 3 different meat pies but I only had the one with a dollop of cheese and one with straight meat which did not match the level of the sandwiches, the meat pie had a cinnamon flavor which threw me off while the cheese one was a little too herbaceous for my tastes. The latte was beautifully crafted but lacked the hazelnut flavor, also a little pricey for a small. Near the end of our meal as they were clearing our table, the café owner/manager came to our table to ask about our experience, a simple interaction that boosted our impression of the place.
As much as I wanted to try the pastries and macarons at the dessert counter, our eyes were on the gelato from when we first walked in. They had an offering of 16 flavours and like most gelato places, let you sample them. We decided on a scoop each of Irish cream, pistachio and raspberry sorbet ($6), topped with caramel or fruit drizzle and a pirouette on the side. Very well made and tasty but the scoops were on the small side compared to G for Gelato downtown.
PROS:
-Nice ambience, lots of natural light in the daytime, classy décor, huge space
-Great value on the sandwiches which come with soup or salad
-Most items including desserts are made in house
-Friendly and attentive staff and owner
-Plenty of parking and seating
CONS:
-Nothing negative to say, if I'm going to be really picky, the small meat pies were not spectacular and they use cinnamon in many of their dishes which I don't care for but that's a personal preference
I could see myself becoming a regular here for gelato and lunches, especially in the summer as it's within walking distance for me. I look forward to trying the other desserts and sandwiches!