The Good Son’s new location at the Shops at Don Mills is just as inviting as the original spot on Queen Street West. Its menu is largely the same, with a few additions, such as a chicken caesar salad and a cubano sandwich. “We always wanted to expand our brand and bring the Good Son to different parts of the city,” says partner Oleg Dreistar. “It felt like this was a great neighbourhood to be a part of and we had an opportunity to come here, so we did.”
The new space has many of the same features that make the downtown location special. The decor includes a wall of antique clocks, handpicked by the Murray Duncan design team, and one of the room features walls covered in mismatched antique plates. This new space also has three cozy semi-private dining nooks for small groups.
Fortunately, one of the things that remains the same between the two locations is the pizza made in a the wood-fired oven. To create that perfectly chewy-crispy pizza crust, the dough is cold fermented for 72 hours. They follow a very traditional method, using a sourdough starter and double zero flour. “It’s kind of a cross between Neapolitan and Roman-style pizza,” explains executive chef Vittorio Colacitti.
The Good Son’s new menu includes many popular faves, such as their other go-to — the cheeseburger. The meat for the patty is a combination of chuck and brisket, and is ground fresh every day, in-house. It’s surrounded by a homemade bun and topped with pickles, tomato and a Russian dressing. The fries come with an addictive malt vinegar aioli.
The juicy shrimp are wrapped in potato and tossed with jerk salt, for salty, just-spicy-enough, crunchy bites. It’s paired with a crisp green mango salad (green mango, palm sugar, lime dressing, topped with jerk mayo and peanuts), something that chef learned to make while living in Thailand.
The steak tartare has been on the menu since the Good Son on Queen Street opened almost five years ago. The hand-cut beef tenderloin is made with a Parisian-style dressing. The miniature soft-boiled quail egg on top is perfectly cooked and the yolk oozes out when cut in half. The house sourdough is lightly grilled and served on the side
The traditional chicken caesar is tossed in a homemade anchovy dressing, and is available on the lunch menu. It’s studded with smoky bacon, tender strips of grilled chicken, and crunchy garlic croutons.
These lucky sprouts are covered in a sweet-spicy-salty-sour glaze of tamari, maple syrup, and sambal oelek (chili paste). They’re topped with crispy shallots and scallions.
The cocktail menu is pared down compared to the downtown location, with only six cocktails on offer, but each one packs a flavour punch. There’s also a curated selection of wine, craft beer, and cider.
The Little Priest features Cocchi Vermouth Amaro, Rinquinquin peach liqueur, and lemon Earl Grey tea–all garnished with a sprig of rosemary. The aptly-named Fourteen Bones cocktail is made with tequila, amaro, molé bitters and a house-made Guinness-reduction with molasses.
By Karen Stevens
Published: March 21, 2019
