Toronto’s Best New Restaurants: Bar Begonia
The prize for ugliest restaurant exterior goes to Anthony Rose’s newest location, his fourth in a handful of Dupont blocks. (Midtowners don’t seem to mind his monopoly.) But behind the grey stucco and greenhouse windows is a handsome room of marble-top tables, bistro chairs and an impressively stocked bar overseen by the Toronto Temperance Society cocktail wizard Oliver Stern.
To eat, there are breezily assured renditions of bistro standards: endive and shallot vinaigrette, mussels steamed in white wine, steak frites with a pool of bordelaise, and snacky bites like gougères and roasted veg to dip in aïoli. As at Rose’s other spots, Bar Begonia doesn’t take reservations, which is a pain when you’re stuck waiting outside, knowing the view inside is so much better.
252 Dupont St., 647-352-3337, barbegonia.com
