blogTO | Posts by Frank

The Best New Restaurants in Toronto, 2009

Frank — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:45:26 PST

The best new restaurants in Toronto all have a few things in common. Kitchens for one. These restaurants also apparently share a common thread of lunacy in their restaurateurs. I mean you'd have to be madder than a March hare to open a restaurant at the very bottom of the current economic trough, in a year more notable for restaurant closures and downsizing operations than for new places to nosh.

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The Finest Fish North York Has to Offer

Frank — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:33:47 PST

Located at Sheppard and Leslie, Taro's offers some of the freshest fish available for retail in the city, something that a growing number of restaurants in the downtown core have picked up on. But beyond supplying commercial establishments, this store is a veritable culinary wonderland, filled with treats to eat on site or to prepare at home. Those who crave a little authentic Japanese flavour and who take their fish seriously will not be disappointed.

Read my profile of Taro's Fish in the Grocery Stores section.

Nose-to-Tail Brunch on Dundas West

Frank — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:55:53 PST

The following pixels are a fragment. They may, like Kafka's castle, or Sein und Zeit, remain unfinished indefinitely since brunch is not the only reason to shade the threshold of Hoof Cafe and sadly, an evening visit just isn't in the cards at the mo'. But if you need a new brunch hangout I can't think of many better ones than Grant Van Gameren & Jen Agg's take on booze 'n' fast breaking.

Read my full review of The Hoof Cafe in our restaurants section.

The Breakfast Club at School Bakery and Cafe

Frank — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:14:05 PDT

School? More like a zoo. Sunday noontime means throngs of famished folk loosely queued and snaking back out the entrance waiting to get a seat at School Bakery and Cafe - a bright, lofty, Liberty Village cafe.

Fortunately, mere moments before tempers get unmanageable and threaten to get our contingent thrown into detention, a tray of hot, deliciously crumbly cranberry scones pulled fresh from the oven makes its way through the buzzing crowd taking the edge off. Suddenly the nearly 20-minute wait for a seat seems a little more bearable and the quickly devoured pastry is hopefully a sign of good things to come.

Read the full review of School Bakery and Cafe in the restaurant section.

Caplansky's Curtain Call at the Monarch

Frank — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:18:57 PDT

Zane Caplansky's been on a bit of a roll this week. His humble Monarch Tavern deli digs were graced Monday by two high-ranking members of the fooderati: Bonnie Stern, and Ruth Reichl.

Bonnie's a cooking school guru and all around food media type who's done a lot for raising the level of cuisine in the city, and Ruth's the editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine who stopped in Toronto as part of a national book tour.

Ruth apparently knows her smoked meat being an inveterate New York deli fiend; she also spent a good chunk of her formative years studying in Montreal. After chowing down at Caplansky's she effused in a review (okay, it was more a tweet than a review):

"Caplansky's smoked meat awesome. Along with the single most decadent knish ever made, involving smoked meat, puff pastry, schmaltz..."

I mean we could've told her that if she'd just asked.

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High Thai'd at Sukhothai

Frank — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:07:35 PDT

I want to lie to you. I want to keep you as far away from the foot of Sukhothai's smiling elephant awning as possible. Sorry Jeff, Nuit, this may not be good for business but I'm a selfish bastard and don't want to share your food with anyone else. If people knew how good your tiny little outpost of Northern Thai nosh was, they'd gather every friend and march them fife and standard straight down Parliament en masse-- a crazed culinary Drumcree ready to usurp the rightful place of hungry regulars in the snaking take out line while leaving behind a grand guignol of blood and noodles staining the streets crimson with hot sauce-- like a brothers Chapman diorama... well.. minus the Nazis...

Okay, so the only riots you're likely to experience here are the flavours running riot in your mouth as you eat some of the best, tastiest, most authentic Thai this city has to offer.

Read the full review of Sukhothai Restaurant in our restaurant section.

Where There's Smoke: Caplansky's Deli

Frank — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:43:07 PST

While there was ultimately no truth to the rumour that Zane Caplansky had sold the recipe for his Toronto-style smoked meat to Sysco Foods who planned negotiations with Porter Airlines to offer this noble sandwich on their Toronto-Montreal service in order to foment some kind of misguided cross-border brisket rivalry, it is true no single sandwich has stirred as much collective controversy as the humble smoked meat on rye at Caplansky's.

Read the whole just-in-time-for-Passover (but not open today!) profile of Caplansky's Deli in our restaurant section.

Recession-Proof Dining at Gale's Snack Bar

Frank — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:03:37 PST

Are you as depressed as the markets are because there doesn't seem to be any affordable nosh left in the city? Well check your expectations and your irony at the door and get ready to eat some honest to goodness diner fare at this ghost of Leslieville's past - Gale's Snack Bar.

In an attempt to demonstrate that you can still occasionally get value for money, I arrive this winter afternoon with several hungry friends and a solitary $20 bill to see exactly how much chow we can get.

Read the results in our profile of Gale's Snack Bar in the restaurants section.

Locavore: Charles Yu

Frank — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:59:27 PST

The internet definitely makes for interesting dining companions. Thanks to cyberspace, I recently enjoyed the opportunity to share a meal at an amazing suburban restaurant with a complete stranger.

I've never met Charles Yu before this particular snowy pre-Chinese New Year evening but he's already been one of my food heroes for quite some time. Anonymous and insightful, this local foodie is at the vanguard of the new DIY school of culinary crit (he doesn't have a blog but he definitely has a posse - check Chowhound for the ever-growing list of people who follow his posts), and he's had a more than passing influence on how I eat this town.

Still, kinda like online dating, y'never know how someone'll represent in real life. Is this meal gonna be an ordeal? Will the minutes drag on until the only chomping I'll be doing'll be at the bit to get out?

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Food Highs and Gweilos: Tanchikee Restaurant

Frank — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:27:27 PST

My fears that the drive all the way to Tanchikee Restaurant, in the belly of the suburbs, might be met with with a dumbed down version of Cantonese for Canadian palates were squashed by friends in-the-know. After feasting on lobster, pigeon, oysters and beef, I can honestly say that it was definitely worth the drive to Richmond Hill for an exceptional meal.

Read the full review of Tanchikee Restaurant in the restaurants section.

Chinese New Year's Resolution: Eat Well

Frank — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:03:57 PST

The year of the Ox quickly bears down upon us, promising us 365 days of prosperity through fortitude and hard work, though from all indications this year'll more likely leave our fortunes bull-trampled like so much china shop debris.

While I'm not sure it'll help your cosmic standing or your bottom line, I do know that one thing Chinese New Year always offers is a ready made excuse to eat really well and shamelessly nurse at the glorious gilded bosom of one of the world's mother cuisines.

Grabbing dim sum is de rigeur and sure there's plenty of great places to eat downtown (this is my personal fave) but if you're feeling especially adventurous, Chinese New Year is a great reason to gather some friends, pile into a car and head off to the burbs for some serious noshing.

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Getting The Beets at the Gourmet Burger Company

Frank — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:45:23 PST

Admittedly, until I came across a post describing one in a food blog awhile back I had no idea that the Aussies even had a burger let alone that it included thick slices of pinapple and the utterly bizarre addition of braised beet. What I discovered is that it may just be the best, strangest, most sublime thing since Aussies crossed a duck, a wolverine and a scorpion and called it a 'Platypus'. And look no further than the recently opened scene stealing Cabbagetown starlet, The Gourmet Burger Company for one of finest specimens of this chimeric concoction on this or any other continent.

Read my full review of The Gourmet Burger Company in the Restaurants section.

Fries With All That: Smoke's Poutinerie

Frank — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:13:19 PST

Smoke's Poutinerie seems to have filled a void in our need for French fries smothered in all things that smother.

I headed down to the first location of the budding spuds 'n' curds franchise, to see if there was indeed any fire behind the rumours of first rate poutine in Hogtown. What I got was a lesson in yummy, greasy, salty, meaty, artery-clogging, deliciously gluttonous gut-raping excess.

Read my review of Smoke's Poutinerie in our restaurants section.

Dining with the Dead: Last Meals Delivery Service

Frank — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:41:29 PDT

It's Friday night and you're feelin' a bit peckish. Y'wanna order something but you don't know what. Thai? Pizza? Chinese? Nah, all of those have been done to death.

How 'bout a little schadenfreude?

Is a morbid appetite piqued somewhere deep in that reptilian part of your brain at the chance to dine at the same table (in a metaphysical sense, natch) with Ted Bundy or Aileen Wuornos? Well for a paltry $20--the state allotted maximum for an inmate's last meal you can nosh death row and eat a replica of the final meal consumed by a death row prisoner courtesy Last Meals Delivery Service.

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Love at First Bite: Pizzeria Libretto

Frank — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:03:18 PDT

Eating pizza is a lot like having sex: great anytime of the day including first thing in the morning, even if it's bad it's still pretty good, and if it's great you want more immediately.

Anyone who's lived in this city for long enough has probably had more pizza partners than is usually healthy and has probably fallen for the odd one. I know I've had my share. Whether it was the local fave in undergrad or the trendy fling that comes with more discerning tastes, I've eaten my share of pie but never really found one I could commit to, never one that captured my heart--until now.

Read the full profile of Pizzeria Libretto in our Restaurants Section.