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Introducing Ask Torontoist
Winterlicious is back with 130 restaurants participating. For $15 or $20 for lunch and $25 or $35 for dinner, foodies get a three-course meal including appetizer, main, and dessert. Too bad most restaurants play it safe by offering the standard soup or salad, chicken or beef, and cake or ice cream. Although the food is rarely bad, boring food at nearly $50 a head (after taxes and gratuity) is pretty hard to swallow. Luckily, some chefs are treating Winterlicious like a couture show at Fashion Week and presenting innovative and clever fare.
Highlights after the jump!
First Courses:
5th Elementt: Blackened shrimp & scallops, served with avocado chaat and spicy jack fruit coulis.
Café Maroc: Maftoul (hand rolled "Moroccan Cigars")—hot crispy pastry stuffed with a mixture of mildly spiced beef, cashews, and raisins—topped with chipotle aioli.
Old Mill Inn: Almond crusted Canadian Brie, served with dried fruit chutney, apple salad, and a maple-shallot vinaigrette.
Main Courses:
Edward Levesque's Kitchen: Seared scallops with parsnip puree, grilled leeks, and sweet & sour golden beet compote.
Rosedale Diner: Pulled pork poutine spice-rubbed, braised in an Ontario maple & tomato jus, with in-house smoked chipotle sauce, Québécois cheese curds, and demi-glace gravy.
Victoria's: Seared organic salmon on a spicy shrimp Cajun-Creole nage with tomatoes fondue, sweet corn, yams, okra, and peppers.
Desserts:
Canoe: Quince bread pudding, pumpkin seed crumble, and nice spice ice cream.
Pan: Strawberry milfe—home made sweet layers of phyllo pastry filled with fresh custard and strawberries—sprinkled with icing sugar.
Pangaea: Maple roasted apples with katifi (shredded phyllo dough), crème fraiche, maple pecans, and snap cookie.
Winterlicious runs from January 25 to February 7. Reservations can be made starting on January 11.
Photo of scallops on lentils by jhritz.
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What about any veggie-friendly places...most of these winterliscious places are meat-a-dellic!
Hmm... here are some suggestions:
Celestin: "Orzo pasta ‘risotto style’ with butternut squash, creamy spinach with morel mushroom ragout"
Globe Bistro: "Truffled ricotta gnocchi, roasted butternut squash, burnt butter broth, crisp sage"
Sequel: "Roasted heirloom beet risotto with pecorino romano and chervil oil"
Check out the official list, where restaurants offering veggies choices are indicated with a carrot: http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/se/restaurants.nsf/winterlicious?openform
It's not completely accurate -- some indicated as being veg-friendly have only meat-based mains -- but is better than nothing. I've booked at Canoe and The Rosebud, both of which offer veg options for all courses.
I thought a Winterlicious table at Canoe was MYTH!
My friend once got a table at Canoe by speed-dialing them all morning on the first day RSVPs were taken. It was worth it though. The food was amazing!
Yeah, I did that for a couple of hours once on the first day and got through before lunch, but they were already completely booked up. Le sigh.
Even if it's "veggie friendly", I don't think these Winterlicious and Summerlicious festivals are worth it for vegetarians. It's a good deal if you have meat, but paying $25 for having "beet salad" and "vegetable tower" (at Bodega) for dinner is a bit expensive.
I could probably make an amazing salad and tower for the same price and would feed 4 people. Agh, I guess that's what happens when you have dietary restrictions and know how to cook a good meal. Sigh.
I think I'm going to skip Winterlicious this year. All the hassle of organizing people to go, just to spend $25 (plus drinks, plus tax, plus tip) on a small plate of "gourmet" food, while the waiters merely tolerate you because they know you only came for the prix fixe and aren't a regular customer... just not worth it.