Il Gatto Nero

Or in English The Black Cat a cafe on college street.

The place probably has one of the best locations around. It's on the corner on the east side of a side street with some big trees providing shade over the patio on the side. You can sit near the front or on the front patio and look at the hipster girls in their American apparel outfits and the street cars roll along College street. Prefect spot for the summer.

The place building itself is really great too. It's got really high ceilings -- although the colour scheme wasn't so great. There's a banquette on the wall and the bar is also against the bar. Tables fill in the rest of the space. The place would look fabulous if a professional with some taste redid it.

The staff seems like a bit of a mix. There was a nice, polite and perky girl working the tables. But then there were some monosyllable guys who sound like they were from Brooklyn in the place as well.

The menu has a mix of salads, panini, pasta and pizza. To me the menu looks kind of similar to what you might get at most Italian spots around the city -- although a few of the salads look like they got ripped off from Terroni's menu.

I ordered a grilled chicken breast panino. I was appalled by what I was served. The menu said chicken breast and they brought me processed chicken. If I had wanted processed chicken I would've gone to the deli counter at the Dominion across the street, but I suppose some establishments need to lie to diners. The menu also said it was grilled, but I don't think these guys have a real grill -- the grill marks looked kind of fake (maybe they use a George Foreman grill). The bun was too doughy and thick -- so the balance in the sandwich is off. The "chicken" is really thin so you end up having to chew really hard because the bread is too thick and the sandwich starts to come apart after a few bites. I asked the waitress whether the sandwich came with anything. She politely replied that it came with some mixed greens. What she didn't say was that the mixed greens didn't come with any dressing, so even though it looks like a salad and it's more like something you would feed to a grazing animal.

Also I'm not sure if cleanliness is high on the priority list here, the washroom has a really strong urine smell to it.

I generally like to check a place out a few times before I deliver a review, but in this case I'm going to pass a summary judgement because if you can't do something simple liked a grilled chicken breast you can't be expected to deliver on something more complicated. It's a shame someone who could actually make food can't invade the place and take it over -- but I guess these sorts of things happen when you have a legal system that enforces property rights.

Rating: 0 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

The Fish Store

A little spot on college street. Almost like of like a stand, but it has some seating out front.

You order inside, so its either take out or sit on the patio to eat in the summer. The patio is nice, its got some umbrellas over the tables and there's a bit of a counter facing the street with stools. So you can sit in the shade. They bring you the food. The servers/staff are friendly and polite.

The menu is pretty simple. You order some sort of grilled fish, which you can get as a sandwich, burrito or a salad. You can pick from, among others, catfish, grouper, salmon, black cod. They also have some soups -- a clam chowder and a butternut squash.

I tried the clam chowder, its fine. It's not the best thing to order in the summer because its kind of rich. It's a better pick in the winter or when its colder. Also its a lot richer than the fish, so its kind of awkward to have it before the fish.

They also make a lemonade that I like quite a bit -- it comes with half a lemon in it.

I've had the fish sandwiches; I'm not into burritos. They come on a bun that is really light. It kind of reminds me of a croissant, but's it even lighter. So basically it just wraps the fish, so its not like you have all this doughy bread to chew through. Nice way to package grilled fish. The fish comes with some sort of lettuce and tomato as well. These are nice light sandwiches and they're prefect for the summer, filling but not too heavy. They run a daily special, which is like $5.99. It's usually the lower priced fish on the menu (e.g., the grouper, catfish) that are used in the special. You can go for the more pricey fish as well like the halibut, wild salmon or black cod, which will run you like $9 or $10 for a sandwich. Still pretty decent return for the price. The rest of the menu is in the $7 to $8 range. The soups are $4.

Overall, this place is alright. It's not going to be overwhelming in terms of what they provide, but they have a simple menu and they do it well. I feel so much more civilized after having lunch here and walking past the people having lunch at the hot dog cart.

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

Lunch at the Gallery Grill

The Gallery Grill is in Hart House on the St. George Campus of the University of Toronto. The crowd is mainly faculty and staff from the UofT, perhaps with some people with the Ontario government mixed in.

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