Michael's on Simcoe

100 Simcoe St C111,
Toronto, ON M5H 3G2

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About the Restaurant

It took a year for Michaelโ€™s on Simcoe, a new Italian steakhouse at the corner of Adelaide and Simcoe, to be up and ready for business. But now that itโ€™s open, owner Michael Dabic, the former general manager at Harbour Sixty Steakhouse, says his restaurant is mostly getting its business from word of mouth.

โ€œWe have a focus on food,โ€ he says, โ€œand everything, including the pastas, is made from scratch.โ€

Dabic did much of his own contracting, completely gutting the interior, which was previously home to Monsoon Restaurant. And after renovations began, he had to start over again after changing the dรฉcorโ€™s theme.

Notable features include a glittering, 600-piece Murano glass curtain, which divides the dining room, along with โ€™20s-style booths and custom-made Baccarat crystal decanters.

 

 

Thereโ€™s also a massive, custom-made meat aging unit located at the kitchenโ€™s entrance.

โ€œIt took probably six months to get this in,โ€ Dabic says. โ€œWe offer conventional wet-aged and dry-aged beef. The porterhouse in there now โ€” weโ€™re approaching 40 days.โ€

Dabic explains that dry-aging allows the water in the meat to evaporate, which concentrates the flavour, while natural enzymes break down ligaments in the meat. The result is more flavourful, tender steak.

โ€œItโ€™s also tastes a little different because the concentrated flavour brings out more of the nutty, buttery, livery notes,โ€ Dabic says.

The restaurant uses corn-fed USDA prime beef along with organic beef from Paradise Farms (steaks range from $28-$64). Other local suppliers include Cookstown Greens.

 

 

โ€œWeโ€™ll portion out the best cuts for our steaks and weโ€™ll dry age them in-house. The other portions that we donโ€™t use for cuts, we create pastas, burgers.โ€

Sous-chef Steve Morsi, who recently at spent time cooking at Sorento, handles the Italian side of the menu, while the other sous-chef, Adam Hijazi (George, Buca), takes care of cold dishes and food presentation. Head chef Boris Babic, the former opening chef at A1 Autostrada, handles the grilling.

 

Seared yellowfin tuna with organic salad, marinated honey mushrooms and a soft-boiled quail egg ($23)

A popular dish, Morsi says, is the lobster ravioli ($29): five pieces of ravioli in a lobster broth, served with saffron sauce and garnished with a butter-poached lobster tail.

The venison ($39) is a fusion of European cuisines. The meat is wrapped in caul fat, like a crรฉpinette, and seared to order. It comes with German spรคtzle and an apple chutney thatโ€™s infused with grain mustard and wine.

Despite the glamour at Michaelโ€™s on Simcoe, thereโ€™s also a cozy, down-home quality in the fine touches Dabic has put in. Heโ€™s quick to point out the artwork made by his event and marketing coordinator, Misha Masek, thatโ€™s hanging on the walls. And his wife, Kym Boyle, arranges fresh-cut orchids for the restaurant each week.

โ€œItโ€™s very organic,โ€ Dabic says. โ€œWe do things from within.โ€

 

Published: Oct 12, 2012