Sitting at #2 on Canada's Best 100 restaurants for 2024, Edulis is also the recipient of a Michelin Star. It is truly a destination restaurant tucked within a cozy bistro on Niagara in Toronto. The Manager, Philip Shaw, welcomes and warmly guides you throughout the tasting menu that takes a journey though in-season seafood, vegetables and mushrooms. Viv and I were fortunate enough to snag a reservation for this exquisite experience.
You must be quick when the resos are available and also need to prepay. We had a 7:00pm reservation and began with the Snacks consisting of Edulis "Gilda Matrimonio" with Cantabrian anchovy, Valentine Radish with Liptauer cheese, Profiterole of Winter Parsnip & Black Truffle and Coppa di Testa of Mangalista Pork with Eggplant Sott'Olio. A very nice introduction to the menu where we literally whet our appetites on the tangy and briny skewers with stuffed olives and anchovy. Our favourite of the bunch was the profiteroles as the choux pastry was perfectly crispy with an airy centre. The sweet parsnips were creamy and gave off foie mousse vibes.
As a supplement added at the table and not part of the original tasting menu, we had the Jamón Joselito for an extra $50.00. This was well worth it though as each slice of ham was super buttery and richly salty, yet still a bit sweet as well. On top, we found some Picos (Spanish bread sticks) that were a bit dense. This is the best ham in the world coming from a small company founded in 1868 and based in Guijuelo. I would agree that this is one of the best I've had and would gladly have more!
Seemingly simple but complex in flavour, the Roscoff Onion Pannacotta was delightful with a rich creamy texture. Mildly milky, the pannacotta served as a canvas for the sweet & earthy onions. Although there was no curry to be found in this dish, there was a faint curry finish. I loved the addition of crunch to the mix that added textural contrast. Of course we couldn't forget about the generous dollop of Oscietra "Prestige" caviar. That provides pops of salty brininess.
In between courses, we were served the Red Fife Bread with 84% fat cultured butter. We went for the black truffle supplement and they went nuts with it on top of the butter. The bread itself had a nice crunch with the crust while the inside had a heavy fermented flavour. It was densely fluffy (if that makes sense). We didn't go easy with the butter and that made all the difference in the world. It was creamy and a bit gamy with lots of truffle woodsiness.
One of our favourite courses was the Wild Red Sea Bream that was lightly cured and sandwiched in between sheets of kombu. The slices of fish were supremely bright and naturally sweet with a kiss from the sea. With Buddha hand citrus, we had all the acidity and fragrance the fish needed. We had a bit of licorice finish from the fennel seed but also some slight brightness and bitterness from the cardoon.
Keeping the hits going, the Dungeness Crab was a beautiful dish where the main ingredient was allowed to shine. Fluffy, briny and sweet, the crab sat in a sweet macadamia cream that featured crab butter. It was full of umami and of course, crab flavour. This made the flavour profile extremely crab-forward (which would've been the point). We found some wild bears garlic finishing off the dish with delicate aromatics.
If crab and sea Bream wasn't a seafood treat already, we had the Just Shucked Mahone Bay Scallops next. These were lightly poached in dashi that firmed them up but left the scallop raw. They were buttery and naturally sweet. This sat atop fermented aji verde which was bright, herbaceous and slightly spicy. We had some Ontario ginger and pickled ramps which added bite and tang.
Moving onto something a bit different and more robust, we had the Smoked Eel "Schnitzel". We found a piece of eel that was coated in breading and fried until golden brown. It was crispy and aromatic while the short-finned eel itself was firm (like it should be) and lightly sweet. Underneath, we found some white asparagus sitting in a stinging nettle vichyssoise with mustard seed mignonette and red wine reduction. This was a fairly mild dish overall.
The next course featured diced BC Spot Prawn Crudo in saucy bomba rice with Mangalista sobrassada spread. I thought the saucy rice was the best part of this dish as it sported concentrated flavours of prawn shells. It was super briny, aromatic and pleasingly salty. There was some meaty spiciness from the sobrasada that provided depth. However, the delicate spot prawn was lost in all of this. The good news was that the texture was as still there.
Our last course was the Dry-Aged Mangalista Pork with hedgehog mushrooms, cabbage sausage, roasted apple, celeriac & mushroom puree and cider sauce. The pork was absolutely delicious where it was barely cooked through. Each piece was juicy and succulent with natural sweetness. The mushrooms help add some woodiness and the apple and cider sauce provided sweetness and slight tang. really enjoyed the roasted pork rib on the side. Such succulent and well-seasoned meat!
Onto dessert, we ordered 2 of them including Niagara Baby Gold Peaches sitting in vanilla crè
me Anglais and raspberry sauce. This was a simple dish, but was truly a refreshing way to cleanse the palate after all those fabulous courses. But the real dessert was the Dark Chocolate Layer Cake with Soma kokoa kamili chocolate, Niagara apricot preserves and hazelnut praline. Oh this cake was so rich and chocolatey while being only purposefully sweet. This was lighter than it appeared and was super fluffy. Loved the crunch from the pralines on top. As you can see, this tasting menu was a lot of thoughtful and well-prepared dishes. Really great experience, especially with the personable service we received from Philip. We can see why it is ranked so high on Canada's Top 100 Restaurants.
The Good:
- Outstanding service
- Good use of fresh Canadian ingredients
- Delicious
The Bad:
- Super hard to get a reservation
- With all the supplements and wine, it can get pretty expensive
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