Second Visit to Colborne Lane

I made a second trip. I have enough info for a definitive rating.

This is the post that has the details on my first visit
http://big-bunny-bigbunny.blogspot.com/2007/05/drinks-at-colbourn-lane.html

I went on a Friday and sat in the main dining room. The place was pretty busy, we got there at about 10:00 or so.

They had a guy working the front. Either they got rid of the blond hostess that bugged me from the first visit or she wasn't working. I hope its the former.

There were quite a few people at the bar and the table separated from the main dining room. The main dining was still pretty full, when we got there. The crowd was pretty diverse. Some older people, some cougars and some people in their 20's and 30's. Overall, the crowd consists of more of the younger demographics than the older ones. What I like about the place is that chicks go there on there own, they aren't arm candy like in some other places. We had a table of 4 asian chicks next to us, they were all pretty decent looking.

The main dining room has a real industrial feel to it. The ceilings are really high -- they have to more than 15 feet. The left wall has a banquette that runs down the length of the dining room and the back wall. There's a communal table that runs almost the length of the dining room just a little off centre. The tables are really nice: they're real hardword. You often don't see stuff like this around. The banquettes are comfortable. But there something a little off about them. I think they don't have enough stuffing in them, so while they might be OK right now they might not so when they get worked in a bit. They have a really dope wall treatment next to the stair case that goes down to the kitchen. Its got a red background and there are these coils that snake across it, with some back lighting. You don't see stuff like that in Toronto. The back of the dining room has these really big windows and they have this lighting in the lane way so you can see the wrought iron fire escape through the back. Really dramatic. I've mentioned this partition that separates the dining room from the bar area. I'm not sure how I feel about it. The positive is that it creates a sense of exclusivity to the dining. The negative is that isolates the bar area from the rest of the bar.

The place doesn't have a DJ, but I guess they have some programmed music. The selections are pretty eclectic mix of things. So you don't have to worry about listening to that Top 40 crap or cheesy jazz when you go there.

In terms of the service. The waiters are professional and polite. They have a sommelier, which is good because the red wines on the wine list are a little tough to work with. I'd recommend getting the sommelier's help to finalize any pick. The chef/owner also dropped by our table to say hi. He asked about the service and was ready to go ream out his staff, until we told him we weren't really waiting all that long. The chef has a real dedication to quality, so the place gets bonus points for that. One thing that I like about the place is if you don't order a course, they bring you a more full-size plate. This makes it easy to share things, because the the little bread plate is probably not suitable for taking food from other people. The true marker of a high-end restaurant service is also present here: the waiter folds your napkin when you leave the table.

The wine. The wine list is a lot bigger than I thought. It folds out into two narrow sheets. They set aside the higher priced bottles in the first sheet, where you'll be looking at $200 or more. They keep the more reasonably priced stuff on the second sheet. There is a good balance of stuff from Canada, California, Australia and Europe. I think the best values in terms of quality for dollars spent are in the whites. They have some really nice Canadian whites at a decent price. The reds are a little tougher. I kind of struggled with the wine list. A lot of the stuff is more recent vintages from vineyards I wasn't really familiar with. I would have preferred to go with a white, but the majority voted for a red. It was between a Beaujolais from Moulin-a-Vente and a few pinot noirs. I settled on '05 Pinot Noir from California, it was about $95. It was OK. I think at that price point the wine should be better than OK. At $50-60 I could probably tolerate something like this. Either they drop the price or improve the quality of the wines. Overall, this seems like a place where the markups on the wine are pretty steep. So you might catch a bit of break on the food, but your going to pay a lot for some wines that are not that not really worth it.

I wasn't overly hungry. I just had the octopus. It had an asian fusion thing going on. It was a little on sweet side, with some subtle flavours mixed in. It was really tasty. I also tried a bit of the ocean trout. It comes with this lemony tasting cream that you use to cleanse your palate. I tried the trout with a bit of this vanilla jelly. This is another winning combination of flavours. Everything was plated well. The chef is really good at coming with these subtle combinations of flavours. Nothing is overwhelming in terms of the flavours. This is food made for savouring, so you can get all the subtleties and nuances.

The deserts are really good here. I ordered one and sample parts of three others.

• apple strudel, cinnamon foam, vanilla ice cream; this is the one I ordered. It was pretty good, but the others are a lot better.
  
• spiced chocolate fondue; i sampled this one. like everything else, the spice in chocolate is really subtle. i guess spicing chocolate is a Mexican thing. every time i've had the Mexican version I think why do they do this -- it never really tastes right. After trying this one, I understand why -- the Mexicans should take note.
  
• frozen lavender and honey parfait, olive oil cake; i also sampled this one. this was really good. it was a real parfair too, not like one of the fake ones that are often served in this city. it would be tough to pick between this one and the chocolate one-- they were the best ones.
• lemon tart; i also sampled this one. this was also really good. the lemon flavour really comes out well.

There were 5 of us, the bill came out to $440 with the tip in. I would guess that this is a place where you would get a dinner with a bottle of wine for $110-$120. This is comparable to what you'd pay at Jamie Kennedy restaurant, but a lot less than what you'd have to pay at Splendido.


Overall, this place is place is a must eat. The design of the place is really cool, this is not your typical boring Toronto restaurant. The food and service is really top notch. The only shortcoming in the place is the wine list. You can spend a lot on a wine and probably just get something that is OK. This is a 2 bunny establishment.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

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