Black Tuesday

A few changes to some past ratings.

Bar Italia:

This used to be a 1 Bunny place. Why does it lose its bunny? First, what they serve and call a risotto should probably be called a soup. If it was a little clumpy it would be a bad risotto, but what they serve is horrible. Second, when they say they use buffalo mozzarella in their caprese they are only using the term and not the real thing. Third, some of the staff have no idea what campari is. The difference between something like Bar Italia and Terroni, is like the difference between Listerine and a good single malt scotch (like a Glenlivet or Highland Park 10 or 12 year old). They might want to think about getting rid of the kitchen and putting in some extra seating and just be a bar.

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

Manic Coffee:

This used to a 2 Bunny place. it used to be that you could walk into the place and not worry who the Barrista was. Not so anymore. They've got a new crew working the place. I suppose you might expect a certain amount of turnover, but the replacements right now, except for a slim girl with tattoos, aren't that great. The go-to-guy is still Steve. He's got one of those thin mustaches and is pretty mellow. I think he works mornings and early afternoon (1:00 or so).

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

Terroni @ the Courthouse

The place is pretty impressive -- high ceilings, nice floors, marble, nice wood (reclaimed douglas fir) and ornate plaster work. This is a big place, but its broken up into distinct rooms. There's a bar area with a banquette when you come, the hostess is in a corridor and you tell her how many. She then basically figures out where you'll sit or have to wait -- no reservations. You can get seated in one of two rooms, a smaller one of two the side and a large one in the middle with a big fireplace. The smaller room has like a gallery or balcony on top so the ceilings have a lot of height. They also have a few private rooms: the one upstairs has a more contemporary look to it, but the basement one makes you think of those movie scenes where you get these little Italian cantina around the time of WWII. My favourite thing about the place is the giant case where they keep the prosciutto's at the front -- makes my mouth water.

The patio is nice. It's pretty understated. It backs onto to a square or green area for some condos or something. It kind of reminds me of this side street just off of St Denis in Montreal where the patios for the restaurants and cafes spill out onto the street.

The crowd tends to lean towards the younger end of the age spectrum, but the you get all sorts here. Pretty casual and relaxed.

The service is decent. I mean this is not the sort of place where you're going to get a personalized meal planner and spectacle when they serve you, but they answer your questions and are friendly and polite.

In terms of drinks and wine, they keep it real. If you're looking for a place to go get fruit martinis and shit like that this is not the place for you. So you can get cocktails and drinks that Italians drink. I like that, no pandering to local tastes. So if you order a Campari, you're not going to have your server say things like "Excuse me, can you say that again" or "I'll have to check whether we have that", or even worse bring you a cranberry juice.

The wine list is pretty extensive. I have to admit I've had some trouble sorting through it because its so extensive. To really work through it well you have to have a pretty good knowledge of Italian wines or perhaps a good knowledge of the wines from some region. I'm not sure the staff would be too much of a help. The last time I order wine there I asked for some help and got a glowing recommendation, but the wine turned out to be really pedestrian. Of course, if you've got some money to spend you're going to be able to find something decent -- you can probably sort most of these wines by price. But if you're on a budget its tougher to work the list. There's no house wine to fall back on.

The menu is basically simple southern Italian food -- although I'm not sure how the smoked salmon pannino made it on to the menu. So stuff is done in a homey kind of way. For example, if your secondi dish comes with broccoli then the broccoli is prepared the way an Italian mother might prepare it -- boiled, garnished with some olive oil and sprinkled with chili peppers.

The salads are nice and you can tell that they don't go cheap on the ingredients. For example, if you get the buffalo mozzarella caprese you really get fresh buffalo mozzarella that tastes different from what is described as buffalo mozzarella at most. The salads are all relatively light so you can get two or maybe three for two persons and sample the menu. The fried calamari come super-sized. They only come with some slices of lemon and they're done well -- not soggy, not burnt, just right.

The pastas there, broadly speaking, come in a tomato sauce or without (cream or oil based). Personally, I'm not a fan of the tomato sauce ones because the tomatoes aren't cooked before making the sauce, so you get a little more of the acidic taste of tomatoes. But this would be true for almost all Italian spots. So they would be fine for people with less refined palettes who can't tell the difference. Of the ones without the tomato sauce, I tend to prefer the aoili e olio ones (oil and garlic). For example, the pappardelle (thick fettuccine) with sausage, peas and mushrooms is kind of like a bolognese, but without the sauce. The serving sizes are relatively big.

They do thin crust pizza's well here too. Big variety to pick from.

Surprisingly, coffee is not really a strength here -- but then the places that can serve well made coffee are few and far between. On the other hand, the deserts are well done. They have a flour less chocolate cake on the menu right now that's really good. The tiramisu is also a nice fall back pick.

A dinner for 2 (2 starters, 2 mains and a shared desert) with a few drinks will be about $80-$100. So this is in the medium price range.

Overall, you can't go wrong with this place. Good food and great vibe. I'd say they set the pace for simple Italian food in the city. As much as I like the place, I can't give it two bunnies though, its a real close call. There's just something missing -- maybe they need some real Italian guys roaming around the place or a sommelier to help out with wines -- but its really close. But this place gets a bunny without any reservations.

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

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

Dinner at Sotto Sotto

Checked it out on a Friday (Good Friday actually). It was really busy, we got there at about 7:30 and all the tables were full. The first sitting gets turned over pretty quickly, but the second sitting people can pretty much linger around. We left at like 10:00 or 10:30 and it was still pretty busy. We had a reservation. I've heard that this place is kind of popular with celebrities and you could get bumped if they want to have a celebrity show up without a reservation.

I've heard this place described as pretty romantic. I don't know if I'd use those words to describe the place. Its really really dark. It's also really loud -- there's no background music or anything -- wouldn't be the place to go if you were looking to have a quiet dinner. The place is in a basement, but its kind of like at street level so its not like your in a dungeon or something. The place is set up with two rooms. There's like a food preparation area in the first room and some tables there as well -- i think this is like the VIP section; the other room has a bunch of tables. I think they were going for a grotto/cantina look to the place. Given the dimly limit rooms I'd say they nailed the look they were going after.

The crowd looks to differ by sitting. The early sitting was more like 40-50-ish, but the second sitting tended to be younger (30s, but not much younger than that). A lot of couples, but there were some women in groups of 2's and 3' s in the place as well.

We had a waiter. He looked like he was a professional. He had good answers to questions and made some good suggestions. They also had this old Italian cougar walking around the place in a low cut lime green top. I don't know what her job was.

They have a good wine list, but this place is not going to be cheap. They do have some house wine which is priced really well and is quite good. We had the house chardonnay ($55 a litre) and it was quite good. If you're on a budget I'd say you can't go wrong with the house wines.

The menu is kind of extensive. They have a lot salads and grilled stuff to start and a lot of the pasta dishes come in starter and main size. For the mains you can pick from the pasta, meat (primarily veal), chicken, fish and risotto sections. The risottos here are for two people and take like 45 minutes to prepare. I've heard that these guys are hardcore when it comes to risotto -- it's probably their signature dish.

I had the grilled mushrooms to start. They were quite tasty. It came with a giant porto bello at the bottom and a few other varieties on top. The guy across from me had this smoked salmon penne, which came in rosey sauce that also had a smokey taste to it. There were also some good comments made about the buffalo milk mozzarella caprese. For my main I had the misto di mare, which was some scallops, calamari and salmon fillet. It comes on a bed of argula with assorted other greens. The calamari was grilled with a little charring, which actually complemented the balsamic vinegar in the accompaniment. The scallops and the salmon was cocked just right -- so it wasn't charred. This dish was great. With a little lemon juice it was light and refreshing. The only complaint I would have is that there is too much balsamic vinegar -- so it makes it hard to enjoy the wine after a while because all you can taste is vinegar.

They have a good selection of deserts. I tried a bit of the pecan pie and it was pretty good. There were some favourable comments made about the chocolate mousse and the molten chocolate cake. I had a cappuccino and it was prepared quite well. This is an Illy coffee shop.

In terms of price point, this place is not cheap. Two litres of house wine, 3 starters, 4 mains, 3 deserts and 3 coffees came out to like $380 or so.

Overall, this is place is pretty good. The food is not like going to a culinary experience, but its pretty simple food that's prepared well and they don't use cheap ingredients. They also do the little things right -- like make good coffee and offer you a selection of good table wines.

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

Dinner at Tati

This place is at site formerly occupied by Kensington Kitchen, which shut down at the end of the summer. Its a French Bistro.

I went on Thursday night. The place is kind of dead up until about 8:00 when it really picks up and get a lot more bodies in there. I've walked by the place on a Saturday night and its pretty busy. The crowd is a bit of mix -- some couples, women out for dinner, some old people. I'd say its probably a 30-40 crowd for the most part. The weekends seem to lean heavily to a woman clientele. I'm not sure if its local crowd or people from uptown.

The choice of music in the background is a little odd. Before 8:00 they were playing this techno/electro lounge music that was somewhat annoying. After 8:00 they started playing some kind of indie rock stuff, which was a lot better. Why there was such a difference in the selections is like really hard to understand.

The service is kind of casual, but they'll do things like change the cutlery after the starters as well as clean the table.

They cleaned up the place a bit. On the main floor they've repainted the walls and they put this colour accents on walls where they hung prints -- really HGTV. They also put in a bar, with some stools. Gives the place a really different look than its previous incarnation. The floors look nice, but when I was checking them out I noticed that the baseboards are kind of crappy. Some of the walls have these little 2 inch baseboards that you see in basement apartments, while other places have something like 4 inch baseboard. They put in a banquette on the left wall and a mirror above it, although looks kind of cheap (there's no frame and if you sit at the end of the banquette you can see that the mirror sits on top of some particle board). The lighting is kind of dim though, and that helps a little. I didn't see the second floor. I remember there being a bar and a two smaller dining rooms as well as the walk out to the patio.

I ordered a campari and soda to start. The bar guy/waiter butchered it -- too much soda water. I suppose he's spent a lot of time watching Cocktail and he believes he's the master of the free pour.

I shared the escargot with mushrooms to start. This was really tasty. The sauce/gravy it came with really good. I kept dipping my bread in it. The waiter/bar guy brought an extra basket of bread for the dipping. I had the lamb shank as my main. It came with some grilled vegetables in a sauce that was was kind of liquidy. I found my lamb shank to be a little disappointing. It was not adequately cooked because the meat wasn't falling off the bone. You had to tear it a bit to get the meat off the bone. You could also tell that lamb shank is not a choice cut of meat. I guess that's why you cook it until the meat falls off the bone -- so you won't notice its not a great cut of meat. I sampled a bit of the gnocchi, which came in a bit of a butter sauce. They were OK.

I ordered an americano and shared a creme brulee for desert. The americano was typical of what people pass off as coffee in this city -- so it was bad in other words. The creme brulee was kind of good. It didn't have a really thick crust so its not like you would have to really pick to get threw the crust on top.

In terms of the price point, its in the middle range of the mid-range restaurants. So dinner for two will probably run into the $120-140 range if you order wine. If you just have a few drinks with dinner you can get out of there for $90-$100.

Overall, the place isn't that bad, but its not that great either. In terms of its comparators. while Messis, just across the street, might be a little too much to stomach because of the over 50 set, they do the little things right -- e.g., they can make a good campari and soda and know how to cook a lamb shank. In terms of other bistro's I've checked out I would say that both Pastis and
Le Select Bistro are better choices in terms of the food. So while the place isn't a total disaster I don't think I can give it a bunny right now.

Rating: No 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

Changing the Rating at Colborne Lane

I was chatting with one of my loyal readers the other day about my review of Colborne Lane. He raised some concerns that maybe I cut them a bit of break. After having dinner at Pastis I think he was right.

Basically the issue with Colborne Lane is the wine list. I think the markups are on the wine are pretty steep and you really don't get much in return. For example, on the high end of the list to pay something like $200-$300 for a Barolo that is only about 5 years old and will probably not get to its peak for another 10-15 years is pretty stiff. If you really want to spend a lot on wine, you're better off going somewhere else (like Splendido or Le Select Bistro) because here there doesn't seem to be a really deep set of selections on the list. Worse, spending $90 for wine that is just OK and is not noticeable better than Pastis's house wine ($20 per half-litre) is not OK. There should be more options that deliver more value for the dollar and better quality.

By comparison, Splendido (2 Bunnies) has many options that can give you an OK wine for the $45-$60 range. Jamie Kennedy restaurant (3 Bunnies) and wine bar (2 Bunnies) also has a great selection and they a much lower markup than either place and have some really good wines available at the $90 or less range.

I'm re-rating them as a 2 Bunny spot, which is still really good. It just doesn't meet the bar for 3 Bunnies. Here are the edited links to the previous two posts on the place:

http://big-bunny-bigbunny.blogspot.com/2007/05/second-visit-to-colborne-lane.html

http://big-bunny-bigbunny.blogspot.com/2007/05/drinks-at-colbourn-lane.html

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

Dinner at Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar

I went on a Monday night. It was pretty busy. They don't take reservations there, so you have to wait for a spot in the main room. We got there just after 7:00, it was like a 30-minute wait for something at the bar or one of the tables in the main room. Although we took a spot in the other room, I would think that it would've have been worthwhile to wait -- there's just so much going on in the main room.

The place is kind of set up with three areas. The main room with the bar and a few tables, a second area with a banquette/couch and a upholstered chairs along one wall and a large communal table along the wall opposite the couch and chairs. The third area is a formal dinning room, that borders the second area and faces the street (so it has windows). The area is separated from the space with the communal table by a wall. The dining room is technically the Jamie Kennedy Restaurant, while the first two areas form the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar. Although they're all located in the same spot, the menu differs between the two. The wine bar is tapas, while the restaurant is more like a traditional restaurant (starters and mains). The

We got a spot at the communal table in the second area. The loungy part opposite the communal table is where you can sit and wait for a table in the main room. They don't serve food if you there, but they do bring drinks. All the main room is where you want to be, the second area is still fairly crowed. There were like groups of people waiting there, and the communal table was almost at capacity. The table has a rustic look to it. It actual looks like its two tables pushed together so its pretty wide. It has enough spots to seat 14 and not worry about bumping elbows with someone sitting next to you. There were at least 9 people sitting there when we were there.

The place has got a nice look to it. I didn't have a close look at the main room. But the second area has a big wall treatment that's like a country road or something like that. It pairs well with the table. They have nice floors all the way throughout. They look like oak planks with a darkish stain, but not too dark.

The crowd is relatively young. I would say that most of it people in their 20's and 30's. I spotted a few cougars in the place, but they aren't like the haggardly old saber-tooth ones (like the ones you see at Coco Lezzone). They look good and dress well. Some suits from Bay Street and more casually dressed people as well. The music is pretty decent, it's not annoying or anything like that. With the big communal table, it was like you could hear everyone's conversation -- one of the guys sitting next to us laughed a few times after hearing what we were talking about. I didn't mind, it just reinforces the relaxed vibe that the place projects. If you want to have a private conversation this is not the place for you. I would guess that there would be the same sort of issues if you sit at the bar, but the tables seem to be a little more removed from each other (relatively speaking).

The waiters and servers are fine. I would say that the people that we interacted with were fine. I've been to the restaurant (see the review on Jan 31), where the service is substantially more formal. But the waiter we had answered questions and stuff, so I had no complaints.

The menu is tapas style. Small dishes, made for sharing. They also have smaller things to get you started that aren't the menu. From the bar tapas we had the spiced almonds, the marinated artichokes, the Yukon Gold frites and the chorizo. Of these I would probably take a pass on the spiced almonds. They're fine in terms of taste, but the problem with them is that they could clash with the wine because they have a really tangy after taste. I had to wash them taste out with the water. The best of the bunch is the Yukon gold frites. These are like the ones they have at Jamie Kennedy Gardiner, that everyone talks about. They give you a lot and they come with a mayonnaise dipping sauce. The chorizo is basically chunks of meat. The sausage they served has a subtle smoked flavour to it, so its not overpowering. The only negative thing that I would say about the sausage is that you don't get any bread with it and you have to by bread by the basket if you want it. The basket is tapas sized too, so you pay something $3.00 for like 4 pieces, which are halved slices. The reason I'm making a point about this in Mediterranean cultures that speak romance languages, bread with sausage is a big thing. You're supposed to eat more bread than sausage. If the sausage is really spicy, like Italian sausage which often includes paprika, black pepper, chili peppers and fennel, then bread is essential. You can get away with less bread with the chorizo because its not nearly as spicy. I guess a lot of people might notice this (no bread with the meat) because they don't come from a background like that.


Of the main tapas menu we had yukon gold frites as a beef brisket poutine and Hokkaido scallops. The beef poutine I've had before in the Jamie Kennedy Restaurant, where it was a combo of three starters. This is like so good. I think that I would have it every time I go there. The scallops are really really good. They are so soft and tender. They serve them with bacon, so you get a really contrast in the two tastes. This is also a top-rate dish. We didn't leave anything in the plate because it was so good. Both the dishes are the kind that you would dip bread in to get every last bit.

The wine. I went light that night. I only had one glass of an Austrian Sauvignon Blanc. It was well paired with the things we had. It's taste didn't change after eating the almonds or the chorizo, which is good. I think they try different things with the wine, so it rotates. They had a few other Austrian wines on the menu (I originally ordered an Austrian Riesling, but it was sold out). Also the sommelier, gets bonus points for emphasizing things like the Sauvignon Blanc's and Riesling's, because they are good wines to match with food. So I think a lot of wine bars in this city would be heavy into in chardonnay's and pinot gris or grigo or stuff like that. Not that they necessarily bad wines, but they might not be versatile food wines.

After we finished with the tapas we went french style and had the cheese plate before desert. The cheese plate came with five cheeses ordered from the mildest to the sharpest. They paired the cheeses with a few "crackers" (long thin whole wheat triangles), a sliced apple and some walnuts. Unlike a lot of places, where you don't get enough stuff to spread or eat the cheese with, there was a really good balance here. The crackers worked best with the soft cheeses, while the harder cheeses were best paired with the apples and the walnuts. The combination of flavours between the cheeses and the apples and the walnuts was exceptional. The walnuts really brought out some of the flavours in the sharper cheeses.

For desert I had the creme brullee and a coffee. The coffee was really good. The creme brullee comes with a biscotti, it wasn't a real biscotti because it was short bread but it was a nice pairing with creme brullee. Of course the creme brullee was very good. The other person ordered the rhubarb trifle and was generally favourable to it, although it wasn't what he was expecting.

The bill came up to almost a $100 without the tip, and I was really full at the end of the night.

Overall, this place is first rate. The food and the vibe of the place make it more than worth checking out.

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

The Jamie Kennedy Experience: Lunch @ Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner, Dinner @ Jamie Kennedy Restaurant

I did both them in a single day.

1. Lunch

Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner is on the 3rd floor of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. Its a really nice room, there's lots of light. The dining area is set up like a T. So there is the main room that you see when you walk in and then a dining area that crosses the T that cuts across. The furniture is nice, really modern and clean looking. None of it looks tired, and i guess it shouldn't because it's only recently opened. The servers are dressed in a minimalist kind of way, black shirts and parts. So no stupid looking uniforms or outfits. The floors are really nice too. They have a darker stain to them and a really nice grain to them. They could be oak, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable (like those experts at Commute Home) could you give you a more definitive diagnosis. They look like planks, but it could some sort of cork flooring. In any event it doesn't look like cheap laminate flooring.

The first time I scouted the room I saw a large number of good-looking women, the kind of the high heels with pointy toes, having lunch here. I kind of got my hopes up, so i was a little let down when i saw the old people. But at least they keep them in a back corner. I think it would hard to get rid of the old people, particularly since this is a museum. (By the way I will say the women working at this museum are a lot better looking than the ones at the AGO). There were still quite a few women there, and most of them are good-looking if not a bit on the older side 30-35 and older. A few suits, but mostly chicks who lunch.

I split the Yukon Gold frites to start. I've read that these are the signature thing here. They did not disappoint. They are addictively good. What makes them even better is the mayonnaise that that they serve them with. They might as well as put a crack pipe in your hand, because you'll be so hooked. I was almost tempted to ask for another order, but i had to go for dinner so i opted for the moderation approach. I had the John Dory as my main. It came in a sauce with a few stuffed peppers. This was really tasty.

I was with two people, one of them rated the soup they had as exceptional (I can't remember what the special was that day, something vegetarian, --- i should bring a notebook along). They both thought that the salads they ordered were pedestrian.

I had a cappuccino, it was well executed. I also split a chocolate pot de creme. It was a really rich chocolate pudding. It was good, but i didn't finish it. I was looking ahead to dinner.

Overall, this is a nice place. I've heard some reviews comment that its a touch on the noisy side, but i didn't feel that. Its a nice room where you can get good food.
This is a solid place and I really want to explore the menu here.

The bill for 3 was $97, i left $15 as a tip. So it won't break the bank.

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

2. Dinner

Jamie Kennedy restaurant is located at church and front. It has the same entrance as the wine bar. I think the restaurant is just the main dining room for wine bar, but i don't know the history of the place that well (except the wine bar was there first).

We were there on a monday night.

It's a kind dim in terms of the lighting, but in a good way. They take you to the dining room off the main entrance. The tables in the room are spaced out a good distance, so you're not packed in together. They have this light fixtures that are like clear glass spheres, but have this little globes inside. The floors are really nice too. Again, i'm no expert but it had a really nice grain to it with a fairly dark stain (it looked a lot like what they had at Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner, but maybe a little darker), so it could be oak. The dining room we were in was kind of half full. Mostly a younger crowd, although there was a table of old people. The wine bar is pretty much a young scene, lots of good looking chicks in that 27-30 years old sweet spot.

The sommelier/bar guy came by to ask for cocktails and bring the wine list. I ordered a campari and soda and he asked how much soda i wanted with it. This is what i call thoughtful service, he must have been a campari drinker. The wine list had a relatively deep selection and the mark-up was quite reasonable. We ordered a bottle of the Niagara Teaching College, Warren Classic Chardonnay (i believe this is the one that won the awards) to start. I had a glass of Domaine d'Andezon Grenache with my main. The chardonnay was really good, the grenache was fine when i was eating my main, but i was enjoying it as much after i finished eating. I would have prefer to get some sort of cabernet sauvignon (i had the venison osso bucco) but they didn't have a great selection of things by the glass.

The server we had was polite and she smiled. She explained everything on the menu because some of the names weren't transparent and she answered questions. She was also good looking, dark and exotic in a middle eastern or perhaps eastern Mediterranean sort of way.

I started with what they call the "streets of toronto", which consists of three dishes which is supposed to represent the diversity of the city. It had a cabbage roll, a putin (spelling??) and something else i forgot (i should take notes). The best of the was the putin, the other two were fine -- nothing incredible, but the putin just makes the combo. This was like the food equivalent of crack, you just needed to have more. I ended up dipping my bread in the gravy that was left over. I traded part of each of the three dishes for what they call the white and black, which was a terrine that had a layer of beef carpaccio, truffles and some cheese served in a bone marrow consomme. This was very good as well, i ended up tipping the plate to get all of the consomme. I would recommend either starter.

My main course was the venison osso buso. this was really good as well. I had to play with my knife and fork before i could get to the marrow, but i ended getting all of it. It served on these mash potatoes of some sort, with a sauce. It was a really nice complement to the venison. I also had a scallop or two from someone else at the table. The scallops were really good, they had a Japanese name (which i forgot because i didn't take notes). They tasted so fresh. These were really good. I would definitely consider having this if they are the menu on my next visit. I didn't try the vegetarian dish, it was a sampler with three or things on it. The person who had was really impressed (she was a vegetarian).

The desserts are first rate here. I had the fig and walnut tart. It comes warmed up with a scope of ice cream. This just had so much going for it. It was really full of flavours that complemented each other. The toughest thing about ordering it was trading it for another dessert. In the end, i swapped part of it for hazelnut millefeulie. This was also very good. It's a much lighter desert than the fig and walnut tart. In a way, it has a refreshing quality to it. If you're looking for a desert that's on the light side then this it. The third desert i sampled was the hot chocolate cake. Its like a white chocolate cake and a bowl of hot chocolate. I didn't have any of cake, but the bowl of hot chocolate was like some chocolate melted into some milk. It was really rich.

Overall, I have no complaints about this restaurant. The service was excellent, the food is great, its a nice looking room and there aren't many old people hanging around. This is a must eat place in Toront0.

Rating: 3 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

Dinner at Pangaea

There were two visits. The first was on a Monday night, it was an early reservation but we were there for quite a while. The crowd was kind of mixed, some suits, not many old people, a young couple with the chick in jeans the guy dressed kind of business casual. The second visit was on thursday night, it was also an early reservation but it was during the Winterlicious promotion. Being winterlicious, the crowd can differ from what you might see when winterlicious is not running. One thing i liked second time, in fact the only thing, is that there were a lot of good looking asian chicks in the place. However, we were sitting the back room, so as we walked to the front of the restaurant to leave, there were are incredible number of old people sitting near the front entrance.

The room is big with very high ceilings. Over the heart of the main dining room its metal (steel or zinc) with a sky light. I kind of like the mission chairs, although they might not be to everyone's taste. They kind of dimmed the lights after a while. It might have been for the guy with the chick in the jeans. Didn't have a big impact on me. They might want to invest in some cork flooring the next time they update the place. I don't think the pale laminate flooring really provides the right backdrop to the vibe they want to give off. Something with a darker stain would frame the chairs and rest of the room better.

The first time I went they had a selection of breads to pick from. I took a little whole wheat and baguette. You have the option of spreading butter or some pumpkin butter. I chose the pumpkin better. It tastes like pumpkin. The second time, during Winterlicious, they just brought the bread and a roasted red pepper spread. The spread was ok.

The food.

The first time I went I had the calamari to start and the venison as my main. The calamari there is excellent. I love it. I have it every time I go there. I could eat all night. Even better is dipping bread in the oil that remains at the bottom of the dish. I think that they did cut down on the size of the portion though. I always remember it being a bit on the supersize serving. I can remember some one saying it is was main sized in some review I saw of the place, but this is definitely starter sized now. The venison was done competently and I dipping the venison it the gravy/juice in the dish made it taste even better. I originally wanted the caribou, but this was the substitute. It was fine. I was tempted by bouillabaisse, several people had it. It looked good, no one complained. I remember it coming in a bigger portion, but it still looks like a good choice.

The second time I went I started with with pappardelle and sweetbreads and I had the tuna.
The pappardelle and the sweatbreads was excellent. Sweetbreads is one of my favourite foods. They are so delicious. The tuna was uninspiring. It was supposed to line-caught, they must have gotten a small one. I got a couple of chunks of raw tuna that was seared. It came on a bed of arugula, with a few potatoes. Borrrinnnng. My dad grows arugula in his garden, so i'm used to the taste of the fresh and organic arugula, which has a bit of a spiciness to it (but not in a hot way). The arugula they served was tasteless. I've been to Kultura and they have a arugula and shaved parmesan salad that's quite good, the arugula they use tastes like the stuff my dad grows. I talked to one of the owners (Hanif) about the arugula and he told me they use organic arugula. The confit of potato, I think this means that the potatoes are supposed to be cooked in duck fat. If they were, they must have been running out of duck fat because I didn't think they were rich in the way a duck confit is. This dish was a major disappointment. It was in many ways appalling.


The wines.

The first time we started with a US McManus chardonnay, it was oaky and full-bodied. Quite good. We also had a Zin from Cali. Noone can remember what it was. But it was definitely memorable, you could smell the berries -- so there was no doubt it was a true zinfandel.

The second time we went we started with the McManus . The red was a zinfandel, it was either the '03 Cline Sonoma or the '02 Pedroncelli. I'm 95% sure it was the cline sonoma. This may have been the wine we had the first time there, but again i don't have detailed notes or the bill to check. The McManus was also fine the second time around. I had a problem with the zinfandel. I couldn't smell it, so I think the bottle we got was off. I didn't sample it, so i don't for sure. Part of the problem is that the served the red wine in a white glass (again .. more on this below).

The first time I went I didn't have desert. I was out for lunch. I did try a bit of someone's mocha dacquoise. I was not impressed. The following comment was made about it "its not a dacquoise". I had their chai tea. I've had this before on previous visits and I would recommend trying it, I quite like and I wasn't disappointed this time around. However, on the second time around the bonehead waiter didn't bring me a sieve for the tea (its loose leaf), so it wasn't as good. I didn't have any desert the second time and I didn't bother sampling anyone's.

What I did find to be extremely disappointing here is the service.

The first time I went the waiter was some guy with a french accent, he may not have even been french (more on this in a bit). One person indicated they only wanted a little bit of wine, but he still filled up the glass of wine. What a waste of wine. No real french man would do something like that. When they brough out the food mine did not come with them. The waiter had to come by and check and then send it from the kitchen. Finally, the waiter (the alleged frenchman) brought us white wine glasses for the zin. I was absolutely appalled. They have red wine glasses for a reason, to drink red wine. White wine is for white wine. The other diners were drinking their red wine in red wine glasses. This is inexcusable. The zin was good, but with the right wine glasses it would have been even better. For the price point that this restaurant is charging these things should not be observed.

The second time the service was even worse. This can probably be attributed to the winterlicious promotion making the place a lot busy than normal. Our waiter was some small tall dickhead. If you're running a business you should plan for these things. If you claim to be a high end restaurant then you can't skimp on the service, you have to treat the diner with respect and make his/her dinner experience the centerpiece of the evening.

The food is ok, but the service was real disappointing. In fact, the service is just bad. For this kind of price range you have to invest in the service. This is supposed to be a high-end restaurant.

Total cost for 5 (3 of the cheaper appetizers, 5 mains, 3 deserts, 4 coffees and my chai tea), $540 with the tip for the first visit.

The second visit was in the same price range, but there were 4 orders off the winterlicious menu and three bottles of wine.

You're better off saving your money. If you want to go then go during winterlicious or summerlicious. Their winterlicious and summerlicious menus are quite good (eg., they have sweetbreads on the winterlicious menu) given the price range. The service will be bad, but there will be some hot chicks there for the special menus.

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

Dinner at Splendido

The dining room on the main floor is quite large. Its somewhat dark, with really high ceilings. There are a lot of mirrors on the walls, they're bevelled on the edges with no frames. I guess the mirrors would look better with some frames, especially since the room is so dark. You definitely take a girl here and she would be really impressed, but it would be like using the nuclear option. Probably best suited for anniversary's and things along those lines.

We went on thursday night the crowd was a little mixed. Some guys in suits. A guy came in sneakers and jeans with a couple of chicks. A guy brought his chick; she was looking hot in a business casual outfit (pointy toed high heels etc). I didn't really spot a big contingent of old people, not sure if its beyond their price point. I have seen some really hot chicks going into this place, so i think a lot of guys with trophy wives and girlfriends go there.

I started with a campari and soda. They filled a tumbler with a generous amount of campari and brought the soda water on the side. I like that approach. I would have been appalled if they had free poured the soda water, like they do in so many other restaurants that do not understand the nature of campari and how it is drunk and what its role is prior to eating. The staff at this restaurant obviously know the score.



We were there for the three course dinner. Its like a fixed price, you have some options in each course.

They gave us some canapes after we order. These were tasty. I can't remember everything. But there was a foamy thing, something with leeks and a third thing. I would've eaten all the ones that were left over if anyone wasn't on their toes.

These were my selections for dinner:

first course: Confit of Nova Scotia Lobster, Niagara Pancetta
Cauliflower Couscous, Truffle Vinaigrette

second course: Duck Confit Stuffed Savoy Cabbage
Poached Bone Marrow, Beef Consommé

main course: Hard Shell Nova Scotia Lobster, Brier Island Sea Scallops
Butter Poached Gnocchi, Lobster Vanilla Bean Foam

They have a selection of three breads: 7-grain, french baguette and rosemary and potato. I had the rosemary and potato, it was a bun. I really like it.

The food was first rate. The lobster was out of its shell so i was easy to eat, no issues with getting to food. There are really unexpected twists with the food, in the sense that they mix stuff that you might not necessarily think of hand, but it all works. But i guess you can do that with lobster, i think people generally dip it in butter and stuff when they eat it (at least that's what it looks like what they do in the red lobster commercials). But i guess when you use duck fat to make a confit of lobster, its a more extreme, richer and much tastier take on that approach. I really like duck, so i was into the second course. The broth it was served in was really tasty. I tipped my plate to get all of it. The main course was delicious. For me there three textures of the food, firm, somewhat firm and soft. So you could mix and match on that. All three courses were beautifully plated. Of course, the portions were somewhat on the small size, but that means that its easier to get desert to fit. I had the grand marnier souffle, with chocolate sauce. I can just say yummy here. Again, the chocolate sauce came on the side so you have the option as a dinner to use as much as you want.

We had two wines that night. We started with a Canadian chardonnay. It was quite good. I have found that Canadian chardonnay rarely disappoint, and they are at a very affordable price point, given the quality we get. We kind of conflicted on the second choice. We initially picked a primitivo from puglia (italy), but after every one was going for fish we decided to switch to a white. But the sommelier suggested that we could stay with a red because even though we were eating fish, there were enough flavors infused in the food that a red wine wouldn't be out of the question. He made a number of suggestions, a barbera d'asti, a california cab (i forget the vineyard) and california pinot noir (i forget the vineyard). With hindsight we should have gone with the barbera d'asti, but i pushed for the pinot noir. I love the taste of the pinot noir, but then i've drank some good burgundies that are responsible for me developing that taste. This pinot noir was ok, but nothing spectacular. It did match the food well. But the sommelier gave us the heads up on that, he pretty much said its pedestrian but it would work with the food.

The service was unbelievable. They tuck in the chair each time you get up, not only when you get there. I got up to go the washroom after the main course, when i came back to the table my napkin was folded and one of the staff tucked in my chair when i sat down. Now that's class. The waiter we had was very knowledgeable. He answered all the questions that were put to him on the food. When there was a question about the wine, he suggested an up-market bottle. When we pushed back and revealed our budget he went for the sommelier immediately. The sommelier was professional, knowledge and efficient. Once he knew what the budget was he didn't fuck around. He went right for the things that were in the price range. I was really impressed. I haven't really dealt with many sommelier's (besides the one at Kultura, who's picked a really good collection of wines), but this guy was impressive. He knew the wine list and the food so he knew what would work. Once you reveal the budget, he's really discrete and makes the appropriate suggestions in a way that if you were there with a chick or something, no one would catch on that there was a budget. When one of us was looking at the wine list he even came and shined a flashlight on the list (which was very impressive), because we were in a corner the light wasn't great. I remember stuff like that because you don't see service like that in this city.

This is upscale and fine dining in Toronto. The bill came out to almost $900 for 5 people, and we did go cheap on the wine (we had two bottles in the $55 to $60 range). The price is really at the upper end. I think this is most expensive dinner I have ever been too. I would have been disappointed if it was for the first-class service. If you charge prices like that, you have to treat the diner very well, which they did. The only negative thing i would say about the place is that some of the chairs looked like they could be replaced. But other than that, nothing disappointed me that night. I would have given this place a higher rating, but after I went to Jamie Kennedy restaurant my expectations for the price point changed.

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