Review: Mata serves good Brazilian bar snacks (and some of the best sliders in town)
Mata ★
1690 Queen St. W., 647-691-0234
Felipe Faccioli, Tulio Lessa and Patrick Fraser, sharing chef duties, cannily opened their South American restaurant during World Cup, projecting matches on one wall and serving bracingly strong cocktails of Brazilian liquor. Even if you’ve never loved the beautiful game, their menu, composed of elevated sports bar snacks, will win you over. The highlights: tender, smoked pork ribs in a stickily tangy guava sauce, a shepherd-style lobster pie with a sweet mashed cassava, and a contender for the best sliders in town, the pulled smoky beef smothered in a peppery aioli and a creamy Brazilian catupiry cheese. Deep-fried, ancho chili-spiced chicken hearts, the most esoteric option, taste something like a fine, peppery country sausage, but turn unappealingly rubbery as they cool. Desserts are simple but comforting, like a savoury avocado crème brulee and a jiggling guava panna cotta.
&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mata-toronto-restaurant-10-624x395.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_293320" align="aligncenter" width="656"] (Image: Jackie Pal)[/caption]
Mata ★
1690 Queen St. W., 647-691-0234
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Felipe Faccioli, Tulio Lessa and Patrick Fraser, sharing chef duties, cannily opened their South American restaurant during World Cup, projecting matches on one wall and serving bracingly strong cocktails of Brazilian liquor. Even if you’ve never loved the beautiful game, their menu, composed of elevated sports bar snacks, will win you over. The highlights: tender, smoked pork ribs in a stickily tangy guava sauce, a shepherd-style lobster pie with a sweet mashed cassava, and a contender for the best sliders in town, the pulled smoky beef smothered in a peppery aioli and a creamy Brazilian catupiry cheese. Deep-fried, ancho chili-spiced chicken hearts, the most esoteric option, taste something like a fine, peppery country sausage, but turn unappealingly rubbery as they cool. Desserts are simple but comforting, like a savoury avocado crème brulee and a jiggling guava panna cotta.
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This place is great! It is crazy how they just have good reviews online (customers, bloggers, reviewers). Yes, the sliders are out of this world, top 5 in the city.
If the review just says good things, why 1 star? Amy Pataki gave them 3 stars, just saying. Definitely the “Toronto Life Staff” that tried the chicken heart never tried hearts before. Hearts will always be kind of rubbery! Crispy outside, rubbery inside. If you let it cool down, I can’t understand why that should be part of a review. Yes, cold is even more rubbery! Dont let calamari, octopus or any other kind of heart get cold as well, it will be rubbery for sure. Heard they just launched their fall menu. Sliders are still being offered?
Hi Nautilus,
Im Felipe, owner and one of the chefs at Mata. Tks for the compliments! We are glad to know that you had a good experience at Mata.
We are running our fall menu since last thursday. Come by to check it out.
Yes, the sliders are still on the menu!
And I wanna invite the staff of TL that wrote the review to come and try our new chicken heart dish and our new menu.
Jackie Pal, great pic.
Cheers
Felipe Faccioli
for TL to even review a restaurant at all means it’s “worth reviewing.” check the star system above. 11/2 stars here may be closer to 3/5 for a place like NOW or Yelp.
Small correction to this article (which can say alot about the article, author and the restaurant’s rating, also in need of correction), the sliders are picanha (sirloin cap) patties and not pulled beef or smoked. They did have a smoked beef cheek poutine that has been replaced with pulled pork (but beef cheek is on their brunch menu still with eggs benny)
I’d love to be back at Mata on my next visit to city. The food is really great, or rather, I should be saying that the flavors still tickle my taste buds. I was in town for couple of days and I had my stay at Anndale, the MAC Furnished Residences apartment. I had to visit some client’s at Liberty Village and they only invited me to spend some time here. I loved the ambience and food combo, just perfect.