I am gobsmacked. Utterly confused. Freaked out even. When Bruce Woods was chef at Modus Ristorante (2011–2012), he produced some of the best traditional Italian food in Toronto. There were ethereal gnocchi, deep rich sauces, great hunks of fabulous meat and wonderful pastas. It’s not as if chef Woods arrived on the scene fresh from nowhere in 2011. He cooked at Il Posto in the late ’90s, when it was really good, and then at Centro from 2002 till 2009. Toronto gourmands will remember that, before chef Woods got tired (or bored? or unhappy?), his early work at Centro was terrific.
Finally this year he gets his own restaurant and gets to call it Woods. Wouldn’t you put your best work into a place with your name over the door? Wouldn’t you want to show the world just how great you can be? Maybe you’d be overwhelmed by the pressures of ownership and the fear of failing when you’ve bet everything you have — which one assumes he had to do in order to get his name up there in lights. Or maybe as the owner you’d be more in the office than in the kitchen?
There’s not much other explanation for the appalling mediocrity of the food at Woods. It’s not bad. But we expect great from Bruce Woods, and this isn’t it.
There’s a salmon tartare starter that tastes nicely of raw salmon and not much else. Ho hum. Same deal for the scallop starter. They’re nicely seared, but the fixings are blah. Corn soup with bacon is creamy, rich, and in no way extraordinary. Organic heirloom tomato salad is better, a pile of very good tomatoes enriched with great sheep feta and roasted walnuts. The main course list is surprisingly conservative, as if to cater to a less than adventuresome clientele. But does Toronto really need a not-quite-tender flatiron steak atop Roman gnocchi (slightly tough) with braised short ribs (not very interesting tasting) and smoked tomato compote? I do not personally believe that smoking does anything for tomatoes.
Then there’s the cod and crab, a huge hunk of cod with what we think is crab although it’s hard to find the crab, with polenta, mushrooms and spinach in a kind of sloppy mass. Similar issue with the duck breast. It’s pleasant, but the garnishes are hard to find, identify and keep separate. And the pickerel.
This may be on account of the extreme darkness of the room. It’s a breathtakingly gorgeous space (ex– Colborne Lane), with high ceilings, huge old wooden pillars and fabulous big wooden tables with very generous spacing. But dark. So dark that several tables are reduced to using their Flashlight apps to read the menu. Which could explain why the garnishes are impossible to parse.
With desserts chef Woods cuts loose with iconoclasm that seems out of character from the savouries. Buckthorn pavlova is buckthorn berries (how’s that for unusual?) made into purée atop soft meringue with milk chocolate ganache for a heart, and black sesame ice cream on the side. Which is like tahini with sugar. Raspberry macarannade is mascarpone mousse with raspberry purée threaded through it and basil ice cream (??) on the side. Tastes good except for the weird ice cream.
My recipe for success at Woods? Lose the entire menu ASAP. Start cooking the exact same food chef Woods produced at Modus. Pasta. Gnocchi. Rich simple sauces. Trad Italian is something Toronto understands and adores. Do that, and turn on the lights. Put pasta perfection under that fabulous ceiling, and the people will come. He’ll be going to the bank with a wheelbarrow.
Woods, 45 Colborne St., 416-214-9918
Joanne Kates trained at the Ecole Cordon Bleu de Cuisine in Paris. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Maclean’s and Chatelaine, and she was the Globe and Mail’s restaurant critic for 38 years.