The room is gothic/medieval in style, with extra high vaulted ceilings in the main dining room. There are some smaller rooms, with lower ceilings but its basically got a castle/manor house feel to it. Since its a university crowd, expect a lot of old people and it to be light on the chicks. I had two ladies with me who are easily the hottest ones in the place (they're good looking and slim, so its not like they would not have been contenders if the crowd was different). There might be some seasonality to this, I would expect that some of hot chicks starting to work at the UofT might be on display during the christmas lunch season. These visits are in January, new faculty recruitment season. I made two trips.
I was really surprised that they had real silverware. Not all of it matches, I guess some faculty/staff have been adding to their personal collections over the years.
There were seasonal soups of the days, the girls liked them. They had them on both visits.
On the first visit, I skipped on the starter because I had to go dinner that night as well. On the second visit I had the duck prosciutto. It was really yummy. I guess they cure the duck breast as is, because the slices were not overly big. It had a nice balance between the lean dark meat and the fat. I would have this again.
The first time I went for lunch I had the cassoulet. My benchmarks on the upper end of the quality scale for this dish in Toronto are Pastis and Le Select Bistro (when it was on Queen). The cassoulet at Pastis is, at least when i tried it a few years ago, on the heavier and richer side. You can also feel your arteries clogging up as you eat, and i mean that as a compliment. At the other extreme, the cassoulet at le select when it was on queen was not as rich, but just as hearty. As a digression, the cassoulet at le select in its new location on wellington is clearly inferior to what they used to serve on queen street. In any event, I think that both of them (pastis and the old school select) had very good cassoulets and both were hearty (i.e., they filled you up) -- so they have reasonable amounts of duck confit, sausage and pork.
The cassoulet at the gallery is somewhere in between these two, but probably leans toward something on the lighter side. While you get a duck leg, you get a pretty small piece of sausage and not nearly enough beans. I think they took something like $16 for it, but from my perspective it was priced like a main but served in an appetizer size. I think the whole point of the cassoulet is that is should be hearty . The other point of the cassoulet is that it has its roots in peasant cooking, which the select bistro seems to have forgotten when they moved locations. I would rate the gallery grill's cassoulet below the ones I had a pastis and le select when it was on queen, but well above that served by le select bistro in its new location on wellington.
The second time I went I tried the salmon rillette. I wasn't too crazy about it. I was expecting to see a salmon fillet or something along those lines, maybe i should learn how to read french so i can actually understand what i'm ordering. i wouldn't recommend it, but the wild salmon looked a lot better. One of the girls had it on the earlier visit and she liked it.
The girls both had steak (spice grilled flat iron) on their second visit -- they both like them. I think they were flank steaks, but i can't say for sure. I probably should have ordered this instead of the salmon. But I've been trying to lay off the read meat to a certain degree with all this eating out over the last few weeks.
I skipped on the desert the first time I went, but i did try someone's upside down apple cake. It was good ; they served it hot with some maple syrup flavored ice cream. Nice touch. The second time I went I ordered the upside apple cake and traded part of it for the lemon tart. It was pretty good, but I preferred the upside apple cake.
One thing I've always liked about the gallery grill is their loose leaf teas. They have both green and black teas, they come in like a french press (french coffee thing). I had one of the black teas, it was like caramel flavoured black tea that has the label russian caravan. I would definitely have it again. On my second trip there I had the black tea they called the whispering heaven, it was even better than the russian caravan. It had a bit of citrus smell and taste to it, i think it was orange. It was really good. This would be like a must try.
The service is pretty good. The guy at the door checks your coats and takes you to your table. The waitress we had was really friendly and she had a nice smile. She remembered the girls from the first time and acknowledged them. She was alright looking, but she extra points for having a nice fat ass with a good shape to it. Definitely tag-able.
This is decent value for the money. I'm not sure how the brunch menu rates, but lunch is fine. The food is pretty good and the service is fine. It might be a little stuffy, so its not for everyone. It's worth a visit.
Rating: 1 Bunny
Notes on the Bunny Rating System:
- 0 or no Bunnies, it's a waste of time; don't go.
- 1 Bunny, the place is worth checking out.
- 2 Bunnies, you should go out of your way to check out the place; the food is really good and the place is cool.
- 3 Bunnies, you absolutely have to go there; the food is exceptional and the place is really cool
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