Alo

In March, when we were in Toronto, we had enjoyed a delicious meal at Aloette on Spadina.  Its approachable menu with well-crafted eats made us curious about their bigger and older sibling upstairs.  Alo, which is headed by Executive Chef Patrick Kriss, dishes up modern French fare that is globally-inspired.  So this time around, we made resos.  The dining room is simple, yet elegant, leaving the emphasis on the intricate dishes.  Service is focused while at the same time, not intrusive.  Even before we got to the food, the whole outfit exuded Michelin-Star quality.

Now, we do need to get to the food and they offer a blind tasting menu for $225.00 per person.  Reservations are a must as I was barely able to get one where we dined at 8:45pm. We started with a trio of canapés including the Spot Prawn Tartare topped with prawn shell mayo, Thai lime and pomelo.  This was a bright little bite with sweet spot prawn that was amped further by the briny mayo.  Hits of acidity was provided by the lime and pops of sweetness from the pomelo.  Great way to whet our appetites!

The next was the A5 Waygu Tart with masutake shoyu while topped with Osetra caviar and purple shiso.  Loved the textural contrast of the crispy shell with the buttery wagyu (surprisingly not chewy despite the uncooked fat).  The use of shoyu was percise as the beef flavour still came through and was complemented by its umaminess.  Of course the caviar added pops of salty brininess while the purple shiso provided earthiness.  The last bite was a Foie Gras Parfait done with apples 3 different ways.  First method was the puree with apple calvados, second was the apple gastrique done with brandy and last was a disk of granny smith with an upper leaf cress.  This was a study of contrasting textures with the crispy exterior giving way to a creamy and rich silkiness inside.  There was a certain sweetness complimented by butteriness and only slight liver taste.

Our next set of dishes consisted of a Bluefin Tuna Tasting with all 3 cuts including Akami, Chutoro and Otoro.  With the leaner Akami, we found it wrapped around cucumber and radish sitting on yuzu relish and black vinaigrette.  Due to the lack of fat in the akami, the impactful vinaigrette did the heavy lifting in terms of earthiness, tang and umami.  Loved the crunch from the veggies.  The Chutoro sat on a piece of crispy nori, tapioca and miso barley.  Since Chutoro is buttery and sweet by itself, it didn't need much to be good.  Hence, the simplicity of the compliments allowed the fish to shine.  Only a bit of sweet and tangy notes came through as well as some earthiness.

Being the fattiest cut, the Otoro was wrapped around uni with some hot sauce and a marigold leaf on top.  Since it was so fatty, it melted in my mouth and had the taste of the sea combined with the sweetness of the fish.  With Hokkaido uni in the middle, it doubled-down on the brightness of the sea as well as the intense inherent sweetness.  Loved how they dialed down on the compliments to this dish as the otoro could totally stand on its own.

Sporting a lovely shade of orange red, the piece of Kinmedai was hard-seared skin side with the scales.  Inside, it was medium-rare and served with a champagne sauce and foam on top.  Some snow pea leaves dressed in wasabi, salt and wasabi oil finished off the dish.  Loved the crispy skin but the scales were a bit hard to eat.  The champagne foam was buttery and bright while the salt level of the dish was precise.  The fish itself was buttery soft.

Staying with the seafood theme, we had the Dungeness Crab with poached egg yolk, pureed buttered spinach, black truffle, smoked butter and shaved cured quail's egg yolk.  It was finished off with a scrambled egg emulsion.  As much as there was a lot of components in this dish, the delicate crab was not lost amongst them.  Fluffy, slightly briny and sweet, the crab was at the forefront while the silkiness of the egg provided texture.  Only a background bit of truffle and smokiness came through.

My favourite dish of the night had to be the Nova Scotia Lobster with shiitake mushrooms, 3 different types of seaweed, dashi broth and finished off with the Koshihikari rice.  The sliced lobster was barely cooked through.  Hence, it didn't even have a chance to become rubbery.  In fact, it was buttery soft with the unmistakable essence of lobster.  There was a lot of umaminess due to the mushrooms, seaweed and dashi where flavours were bordering on salty.  We also found a bit of nutty smokiness.

Moving away from seafood, we had the Hudson Valley Duck with morels stuffed with duck mousse, grilled white asparagus, ramps and basil ramp pistou finished with mustard cream.  Cooked to medium, the duck was tender while maintaining a pleasant meatiness.  Once again, we found umaminess with earthy notes and brightness from the herbs.  The morels were at their woodsy best with a springy texture.  Inside, the duck mousse was a bit meaty and totally duck-forward.

For our second meat course, we had 2 different versions since I'm the only one that wanted lamb.  So for mine, I had the New Zealand Lamb with an Ontario lamb roulade with pistachios.  The lamb sat atop a salsa verde consisting of cilantro, tarragon and parsley.  It was finished off with a lamb jus seasoned with the salsa verde.  Accompanying this was asparagus, fava beans, goat's milk yogurt and citrus jelly.  As you can see, the lamb was perfectly medium-rare and succulent.  Perfect seasoning on the meat.  The roulade was nutty and had a beautiful muted gaminess.  Due to the heaviness of the meat, the salsa verde was exactly what it needed to brighten things up.  

The other dish was the A5 Wagyu Ribeye and Rib Cap.  This came with grilled maitake mushroom, pan-seared ginger, beef jus seasoned with wasabi.  On the side, we found pickled mustard seed, freshly grated wasabi and hot Japanese mustard.  Yah, this A5 was legit as it melted in our mouths.  Lots of beefiness and we could adjust the sharpness of the dish with the mustard and wasabi.  The rib cap was a bit meatier, but due to the fat, it was so flavourful and beefy. Both dishes came with bread and cultured butter from Normandy.  The bread was light and airy, yet with some structure.  However, the star of the show was the creamy and totally beefy-tasting butter.

From these heavy dishes, we moved onto dessert with the Loquat & Matcha.  We found some creamy matcha ice cream that was balanced in terms of bitterness and sweetness.  The tang and stone fruit vibes from the loquat compote was a nice compliment.  More brightness was thanks to the Meyer lemon as well as the sparkling sake and elderflower foam.  Next, we had the Rhubarb prepared 6 different ways with a Greek yogurt parfait   So this was less of a sweet dessert, which was fine by me.  Lots of tang and acidity from all the elements.  I couldn't even keep track of all the forms of rhubarb, but some did stand out.  One was the vanilla rhubarb salsa and the rhubarb pieces poached in simple syrup.  Aromatic with tangy sweetness and some crunch. Finally, some ginger and lime gelée afforded some contrast to the predominantly rhubarb forward dish.

Finally, we were served Petite Fours including a Canelé, Macaron, Chocolate Bonbon, Peanut Butter Cup and a Pavlova.  It wasn't as if we were hungry anymore, but we couldn't pass these up.  The canelé was textbook with a crispy smoky caramel crust and a tender custardy centre.  With a delicate, but crisp shell, the mini-macaron was soft and chewy.  It was floral due to the orange blossom and apricots.  Filled with a coffee ganache filling and tiramisu flavoured, the bonbon was sweet and aromatic.  We also had a peanut butter cup filled with spicy mango and passionfruit curd.  These were so up my alley with tangy sweetness with a kick as well as a crunch from the peanut brittle.  On top, we found a vanilla chocolate cremeaux.  Lastly, we had a coconut pavlova with coconut cream that was sweet and tropical-tasting.  Some shishito added another flavour element to the dish but it was subtle.  Wow, I have to say this tasting menu at Alo exceeded my expectations.  For the #3 restaurant on Canada's Best 100 Restaurants, it certainly did not disappoint.  Not only was the food expertly prepared and utterly delicious, there was a lot of it and we went away happy and full.

The Good:
- Precision in execution
- Professional service that is not pretentious
- More than enough food

The Bad:
- It is pretty dark and if you don't have the right table, you won't be able to see your food clearly 

Edulis

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 crème 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 

Elem

Here is another double-post on Elem, where it was my 4th and 5th visits respectively.  I bet you can tell I really enjoy the place and am willing to spend my hard-earned money on their delicious and carefully-crafted eats.  I truly believe the team of Vish, Winnie, Hasib and all the great people in the kitchen and front-of-the-house are doing all the right things to put Elem in the running for both a Michelin-Star and to be included in Canada's Top 100 restaurants.  So without further ado, I will talk about all the plates I had in both meals!

Of course I start off every meal at Elem with their wonderful Bread & Butter featuring their rye Parker rolls.  For the first meal, the butter was citrus fennel pollen.  The second was a koji butter with chives.  As usual, the warm rolls were slightly crispy on the outside while soft and fluffy on the inside.  They were lightly sweet while the butter added an aromatic creaminess.  If I had to choose, the koji butter really did it for me since it was lightly tangy and plenty bright from the chives.

Winnie and I had a convo last time I was here where we expressed our common love for corn.  Hence, she surprised me with a Elote cocktail.  It consisted of grilled corn tequila reposado, corn-honey-cilantro-cumin syrup, chipotle chili, lactose-free cream, fresh lime and shaved cojita cheese.  This was rather creamy and sweet with a hint of spice and earthiness.  The cheese on top really added depth and an extra layer of savouriness.  I want this again!  Staying with the classics, we also had the Jakarta, which is the most fruity and lightest of all the cocktails on the menu.

Onto what I consider their signature dish - the Dungeness Crab Toast.  This house made milk bread was toasted and then set in a lemongrass ginger crab foam.  As you can see, they also are not shy about laying on the fluffy dungeness crab on top of the toast.  Every component in this dish served a purpose and they worked harmoniously together.  Aromatic and full of sweet brininess, the foam helped bring out even more of the natural crab flavour.  The toast had a nice sturdiness to it, so it did not get soggy from the foam.  The crispiness was a nice textural contrast.

It all started with the duck fried rice, then transitioned to the Shrimp Fried Rice and finally to the BBQ Chicken Fried Rice.  They all shared similar traits such as the chewy and nutty rice that was the beneficiary of high heat and aromatic oils.  They all came with the addictive chili crunch that added both texture and spice to the dish.  With the herbs, it helped the rice gain some brightness and balance out the heaviness of the oil.  With the shrimp, they were meaty with a sweet snap while the chicken was nicely seared from the stir-fry.  On top of the chicken fried rice, we found a fried egg that added a custardy texture to the rice.

So for our most recent visit, we had two cocktails to start including the Salsa Verde and the Mexican Coca-Cola.  With a beautiful spiciness balanced off by sweetness, the Salsa Verde benefits from the pear cordial and lime.  These offer up brightness to counter the strength of the mezcal and tequila.  As for the Mexican Coca-Cola, don't let the name fool you into thinking this was so weak drink.  Rather, it had some real bite from the mezcal and tequila.  Some Coca Cola syrup provided the background essence of the drink.

A dish that is not currently offered, but has stuck in my mind was the Mackeral with pickled ramps cream sauce.  This was ever-so-simple with super-fresh mackeral (like flown in the day of) that was salted and seared until the skin was super crispy.  It remained rare and was perfectly deboned.  Each piece had the freshness of the sea with natural sweetness accented by sake. The sauce was mild and added some tanginess.

Still on the menu, the Buckwheat Spaghetti was a robust and hearty dish.  I felt the texture of the spaghetti was perfectly al dente while being firmer than its wheat flour version.  The generous amount of duck ragu was meaty with equal parts umami and sweetness.  This was accented by the kombu, pickled ramps and sake where there was acidity and added sweetness from the sake.  As mentioned, this was pretty hearty, which would be paired well with a refreshing beverage.

On that note, two of the more refreshing cocktails are the Seoul and Tokyo.  Both from the Lightness part of the cocktail menu, they helped cut the heaviness of the pasta.  For the Seoul, it had some kick due to the gochujang, but also sweetness from the grapefruit soda.  In typical Korean fashion, we found some sesame oil for that unmistakable aroma.  As for the Tokyo, it had all the colour from the matcha, but in reality, the banana came through with sweet aroma.  But then some curious saltiness comes through too.  A soft ice cream mochi on the side was great too.

We had two off-menu items that were similar, yet remarkable different as well.  The first was the Argentinian Prawn Risotto with mushroom XO sauce and scallion oil.  Absolutely adored this dish as the rice itself was al dente, bordering on hard, but wasn't.  This was a flavour bomb with sweet and briny hits of Argentinian prawn shells cooked down into the broth.  The XO sauce provided an umami tang that helped bring the dish alive.  As for the other risotto, it was a Snow Crab Risotto with New Brunswick Acadian Caviar and scallion oil.  This was much more subtle with the sweet saltiness of crab.  The caviar wasn't just there for decadence's sake.  Rather, the pops of briny saltiness only provided another layer of flavour.  The generous amount of snow crab leg meat was buttery and soft while naturally sweet.

At first, I was thinking that the Octopus was a bit too chewy for my liking.  But as I ate more of the dish, I started to understand it more.  Sure, it was not exactly super soft, but that wasn't the point of the dish.  Instead, the extra chewing involved allowed the flavours to be more pronounced.  The red zhoug afforded heat, sweetness and some smokiness to the dish.  The topping of tomato chili salsa added brightness and freshness.  The side of cuttlefish ink aioli helped cool things down nicely.

We ended up with a few vegetable dishes off the menu including the Roasted Brussels Sprouts and the Cauliflower.  Really enjoyed the sprouts as they were cooked just enough so that they retained some crunch.  There was also some lightly blanched leaves on top for colour and a different texture.  What really made this dish was the sultana raisins as they added an intense sweetness.  That was further aided by the pear agrodolce with more sweetness and balanced off with tanginess.  As for the cauliflower, it was beautifully plated with fasoulia, crispy chickpeas and saffron tahini.  Nutty and seasoned, the cauliflower was still firm while cooked through.  It sat atop a bean stew that had some slight sweetness while the saffron tahini was aromatic and nutty.  The crunch from the chickpeas was an appealing addition.

Onto some heavier meat dishes, we had the Korean Braised Shortrib with gochujang glaze, bak choy condiment and shaved pear.  The large pieces of deboned shortrib were fall apart tender and moist.  I felt that the gochujang was evident with mild spice and tanginess but the dish could've used a bit more salt.  Loved the subtle addition of shaved Asian pear as it provided freshness and the classic mild floral sweetness.

We ended off the savoury dishes with the AAA Bone-in Striploin with some side condiments.  The steak itself was prepared a perfect medium-rare where it was well-rested.  Hence, the meat was juicy while not exhibiting any moisture on the plate.  The steak itself was well-charred and salted.  However, we found some tangy and salty castelvetrano salsa verde, a silky and earthy rosemary jus and pickled mushrooms.  The mushrooms acted as a palate cleanser in between bites of the steak.

 

Onto the sweets, we had a playful creation in the Popcorn consisting of cheddar cake, caramel sauce, corn mousse & foam and aged cheddar.  So yes, this was savoury and sweet as well as cheesy.  The popcorn aroma did come through while the cheese made this dessert in my opinion.  The added salt and nuttiness created loads of umami.  Something familiar to me, the Sticky Toffee Pudding was like a warm hug with rich winter spices., this was not super sweet like the classic rendition, rather it offered depth and smokiness.  The peppercorn and white chocolate crema provided the necessary moisture to soften up the slightly firm pudding.

 

One of the best desserts I've had at Elem was the Koji Banana Bread with toasted meringue, pear sorbet and toasted hazelnuts.  Completely caramelized and crispy, the outside of the banana bread was smoky and sweet.  Beyond that, the bread was soft and moist with the sweet aroma of ripe bananas.  Good choice of the pear sorbet as it complimented the dish without taking over.  We also had the Nemesis Cake with miso vanilla ice cream, tarragon wafer and pine nuts.  This flourless cake was creamy and ganache-like.  Modestly sweet, the dark chocolate vibes came through with a bit of bitterness.  Nice crunch from the wafer and the fermented saltiness of the ice cream acted like flakes of salt with the cake.  Yes, this basically covers most of the menu and naturally, some dishes stand out more than others.  That goes for any menu especially when we are dealing with subjective tastes.  As a whole, the food delivers and there is a concentrated effort going on to be one of the best in the country.  As I've said, they are well on the road to accomplish that.

 

The Good:

- Vish knows when to be bold and when to dial it back when it comes the flavours

- Winnie dares to be a mad scientist with her cocktails

- Hasib and the restaurant team make every experience memorable

 

The Bad:

- As with any sharing plate restaurant, prices can get up there if you aren't careful, I'm not careful...