Toronto Eats Roundup #1

I’m not big on doing restaurant review posts despite the fact that I eat out regularly.  There are so many outlets that do a good job at reviewing restaurants that I kind of don’t see a point.  With that said I always want to share with others when I’ve had good experiences at restaurants.  I’m going to try to do mini-roundups of what I’m loving these days a bit more often.

Enjoy!

LUMA
330 King Street West, Toronto, ON

I generally avoid the ‘Licious (Winterlicious and Summerlicious) because the experiences tend to be mediocre at best. This past Summerlicious I decided to check out Luma with a few ladies because the menu sounded delicious and like a good value. It definitely was. After my ‘Licious dinner I couldn’t stop thinking about the Seared Tuna dish with chickpeas and other goodness. So I went back a few weeks later just to have that. I also had the gnudi (fabulous), a bite of the steak frites (delicious) and my current fave cocktail, the Stompin’ Tom Collins (gin, ginger lemonade, candied ginger). Rarely does service make an impression on me but both times that I dined at Luma everyone was super nice and efficient. I need to return to give their brunch a try.

Acadia
50C Clinton St, Toronto, ON

There has been a lot of hype around Acadia since it opened a few months back. Sometimes hype makes me stay far away from places but in this case enough people whose opinions I respected gave it enthusiastic thumbs up so I had to check it out. The space is small so definitely make reservations. This place had me at hello. The cocktail list is long and inventive. I had a great ginger-based drink in a tiki glass. Fun! While waiting for our food we were presented with a board of various pickled goodness including okra, garlic scapes and other goodness. We also were give cornbread. This was a problem… a very good problem. To start I split halibut cheeks and shrimp and grits. I didn’t know what to expect with the halibut cheeks but they were fantastic. Really meaty, breaded and deep fried and served with a sugarcane chowchow. What really had my heart were the fish and grits. I put a bit into my mouth and was in heaven. This was soupier than I was used to as the shrimp and grits were served in a pool of ham hock consomme. Everything about this was creamy, smooth and filled with so much flavour. For my main I had snapper with bacon, chantrelles, sea island red peas and savoury. Amazing. What I loved about this plate is that you didn’t need to have meat to have a good time. They rock their fish dishes.

Khao San Road
326 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, ON

People are pretty ride or die for Khao San Road. I feel like very few people are ever “meh” about it. I checked it out a few months ago at lunchtime and had the Pad Thai. No lie, it was probably the best pad thai I’ve ever had. When it came time to choose a birthday restaurant I decided on dinner at KSR. To start I had the garlic shrimp that were really garlicky and had this really great sweet, tangy sauce. I kind of wanted to lick my plate. For the mains we split the Sam Roas Pad Thai (again) and the Massaman Curry with Beef. The Massaman curry was spot on. Perfectly spiced and great layers of flavours. The beef was perfectly cooked and I loved the variety of textures from the potatoes and crispy shallots. I had a thai iced tea and it was a perfect accompaniment.

Beast
96 Tecumseth St., Toronto, ON

Beast is currently one of my fave picks for brunch. They do a lot of your fave brunch items but with a twist and constantly change things up. I can attest to the fact that their maple bacon doughnuts are great, they do a great grits special and if they have pancakes on the menu, you should probably get them. Oh, and get the tater tots. Just do.

Marben
488 Wellington Street West, Toronto, ON

Marben is fantastic. I checked it out for the first time with my friend Jess who was visiting from NYC and we did shared plates and had a great meal. It was one of those meals that wasn’t fussy at all but really stuck with me. We had fiddleheads, a salad with a poached egg on top, some really good gnocchi and their famous burger. The burger is about as good as you’ve heard. Marben is all about local, seasonal and all that jazz so the menu changes frequently which kind of makes it a new experience every time. The burger is a constant though. As is the ice cream sandwich… which is huge and worth splitting for dessert.

La Société
131 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON

I’ll have to preface my endorsement of La Société by saying it’s kind of obnoxious. It has two huge patios, one located on prime Yorkville “see and be seen” territory. It’s big, it’s loud and is designed for people to be seen. Not really my scene at all. With that said it’s definitely one of the better (and more accessible) dining options in Yorkville and is a really nice space. For brunch they make a really great French Toast and for dinner they have a pretty good prix fixe option if you’re feeling price conscious. I really want to try their Grand Plateau seafood platter but at $145 we might have to wait a bit.