Had one too many fusilli with vodka sauces? Tired of pedestrian pasta primavera? There is no reason to accept run-of-the-mill restaurants serving average fare when there is Italian cuisine in the city that tastes like it came straight out of Sicily. Buon Appetito!
Italian cuisine becomes fine art with ace team
Chef Andrew Milne-Allan of Zucca is a master of deeply authentic Italiana, which is why you see all kinds of downtown types making the unlikely pilgrimage to a desperately boring stretch of Yonge between Eglinton and Davisville.
Dinner chez Zucca starts with the best panisse (fried chickpea-flour cake) I’ve ever had, with toasted rosemary on top. Since Zucca scooped Madeline’s exec chef Dominic Amaral, when Madeline’s closed in spring ’10, it’s only gotten better. In southern Italy you see chiles everywhere, hanging to dry from roadside poles. Chiles bring zip and zing to Milne-Allan’s cooking, turning house-made noodles divine, with deep rich sausage ragu, innocent of the cliché of tomatoes, deepened with pecorino and good ricotta.He roasts fat scallops with fab guanciale, onion and grape tomatoes. Even a lowly pork sirloin gets its groove at Zucca, stuffed with snazzy mozzarella and greens. For dessert, his lacy chocolate cannoli are delicacy incarnate.
Zucca is located at 2150 Yonge St, 416-488-5774.
Food made with passion comes through on the plate
A great date restaurant, thanks to the dark candlelit room and sexy Italian food. For total privacy, reserve one of the two front tables beside the bar.
Also a very sexy place to dine thanks to big flavours. My favourite app is rich chicken and veal broth afloat with little pasta pockets of parmigiano reggiano–spiked veal stew. Mistura is a master builder of robust flavours. Under the divine decadence of pink fork-tender Kobe flatiron steak is a pile of mashed potatoes fragrant with sliced black truffles. Alongside impeccable veal loins is cream sauce loaded with porcini flavour and roasted chestnuts. You’ll want to lick the plate.
Mistura is located at 265 Davenport Rd., 416-515-0009.
New team keeps landmark restaurant humming along
New owners took it down a notch, so instead of foie gras, we have foie gras parfait — like velvet, like silk, but less ambitious, less complex, less expensive.
Chef/owner Victor Barry, who worked under chef David Lee (now of Nota Bene) when he owned Splendido, learned well. By enchanted alchemy he makes blood sausage resemble a soufflé. His gnocchi are gossamer and truffle-scented. His house-made pasta comes with soft-fleshed rabbit and tiny young artichokes.
Other than when he uses the wood-fire grill, which is sometimes too hot and causes meats to feel too charred, the chef does great justice to meat. He braises local lamb shoulder and suckling pig with finesse, assuring moist tenderness. Sometimes his mind is a culinary surprise package, as when he partners barely cooked scallops with homespun oxtail ravioli and sauces that happily marry with silky cauliflower puree and barely butter-braised Savoy cabbage. Desserts keep to the same high standards, and nobody told the waitstaff that Splendido has downscaled: they are attentive, knowledgeable and charming.
Splendido is located at 88 Harbord St., 416-929-7788.
Pasta Bar one of the best kept secrets in town
Now that the Pasta Bar takes reservations, it’s the anti-big night- out go-to resto for people of a certain class. Some tables enjoy a fab view over downtown. Let the valet take the car, and make an entrance down the grand staircase, all blonde wood and brushed stainless steel.
The service is flawlessly professional, the menu an interesting compendium of grills ’n’ pastas. We love the saffron-kissed scallops, the fish soup with subtle broth and perfectly cooked fish, the housemade filled pastas and of course pastry chef Joanne Yolles’ divine desserts.
Scaramouche is located at 1 Benvenuto Pl., 416-961-8011.
The hottest new Italian restaurant in town
If an out-of-towner asked me for a typical Toronto restaurant, I’d say Buca, for it signifies a hat trick of edible Toronto: First, our ethnic background in general and specifically our strong Italian immigrant presence. Second, how cool we’ve become.
Who needs the Big Apple when we have restaurants like this, in a reclaimed warehouse with soaring ceilings, washed brick, industrial fixtures and a multiplicity of clever little spaces, all grace and no attitude. And third, Buca is one of the reasons why Toronto is one of the great food cities of the world, for pure food quality.
That chef Rob Gentile trained under Mark McEwan shows in his impeccable technique. I love his thin-crust pizzas with clever toppings and his pasta, especially when he fills them with the likes of veal, grana padano and mortadella and makes matters even richer with a deep strong veal sauce. His charcuterie is superb, and even the desserts, not usually an Italian strong suit, are worth every calorie.
Buca is located at 604 King St. W., 416-865-1600.
