10 Best Dishes at Toronto Restaurants in 2014
10 Best Dishes at Toronto Restaurants in 2014
By Mark Pupo |
By Mark Pupo |
By Mark Pupo | Photography by Dave Gillespie
How to narrow down thousands of gratifying forkfuls into one definitive list? Easy. These are the dishes I’d order again and again, in descending order of deliciousness.
See all 10 best dishes of the year »
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- For a summertime corn-themed tasting menu, <strong>John Horne</strong> cleverly paired sweet charred niblets with spicy piquillo jelly, black bean mayo, shavings of fennel and a stack of luscious swordfish tartare. Across the plate, a few strands of corn silk were a grassy grace note.<br /><br /> <em>66 Wellington St. W., 416-364-0054</em><br />
- (Image: Dave Gillespie)
- 1. Canoe's Corn
- 1. Canoe's Corn
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- <strong>Mitchell Bates</strong> slow-cooks the beef in a sous-vide machine and finishes it in the deep fryer. The result is complexly flavourful, the meat equivalent of a fine wine. He completes the plate with compressed watermelon, roasted eggplant and sweet soy purée.<br /><br /> <em>190 University Ave.</em>
- (Image: Dave Gillespie)
- 2. Shoto's Short Rib
- 2. Shoto's Short Rib
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- The superstar of <strong>Daniel Boulud’</strong>s Toronto outpost <br /> is on the dessert menu: a grapefruit shell is filled with layers of frozen grapefruit, grapefruit sorbet, rosewater Turkish delight and a crowning bouffant of shredded halvah.<br /><br /> <em>60 Yorkville Ave., 416-963-6000</em>
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- 3. Café Boulud's Grapefruit Givré
- 3. Café Boulud's Grapefruit Givré
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- <strong>Rob Gentile</strong> makes art with pasta dough. He fashions double-chambered ravioli—one side filled with roasted squash, the other with braised duck—and gilds them with parmesan foam, fried rosemary and cranberry sauce.<br /><br /> <em>604 King St. W., 416-865-1600</em>
- (Image: Dave Gillespie)
- 4. Buca's Ravioli
- 4. Buca's Ravioli
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- There’s nothing subtle about Spanish-style cooking, especially <strong>Chris McDonald’</strong>s combination of super-fresh, lightly grilled tentacles, a hazelnut romesco sauce, charred red onions and fragrant sections of warmed orange.<br /><br /> <em>1560 Yonge St., 416-979-9918</em>
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- 5. Cava's Squid
- 5. Cava's Squid
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- <strong>Michael Caballo</strong> and <strong>Tobey Nemeth’</strong>s restaurant is among the city’s best because every dish, even the bread basket, wows. Warm slices of their nutty Red Fife loaf are the perfect vehicle for awesomely salty, high-fat butter from an Eastern Townships dairy.<br /><br /> <em>169 Niagara St., 416-703-4222</em>
- (Image: Dave Gillespie)
- 6. Edulis's Bread and Butter
- 6. Edulis's Bread and Butter
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- <strong>Justin Cournoyer</strong> does amazing things with root vegetables, especially a dish of carrots that he prepares three ways: roasted until they char, cut into ribbons and pickled in cider vinegar, and deep-fried into chips.<br /><br /> <em>971 Ossington Ave., 416-962-8943</em>
- (Image: Dave Gillespie)
- 7. Actinolite's Carrots
- 7. Actinolite's Carrots
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- <strong>Jonathan Poon</strong> pays homage to the humble curd in an elegant panna cotta–like dish. The silky custard is topped with a carrot and almond cream, and a briny nub of sea urchin. It’s a beautiful meeting of bitter, salty and sweet.<br /><br /> <em>1320 Queen St. W., 416-628-3586</em>
- (Image: Dave Gillespie)
- 8. Chantecler's "Tofu"
- 8. Chantecler's "Tofu"
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- The menu is mostly seafood, but <strong>Geoff Hopgood</strong> also makes a top-notch blood sausage stacked on a puff pastry cake with a disc of cured foie gras and, to cut through all that meaty richness, a granny smith slaw.<br /><br /> <em>325 Roncesvalles Ave., 416-533-2723</em>
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- 9. Hopgood's Blood Sausage
- 9. Hopgood's Blood Sausage
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- The traditional Spanish dish, served in a giant steel pan, is cooked to order—which means a 30-minute wait. Well worth it for the feast of clams, scallops and shrimp, and for the pleasure of scraping the final caramelized layer of saffron-scented rice.<br /><br /> <em>922 Queen St. W., 416-535-0404</em>
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- 10. Carmen's Paella
- 10. Carmen's Paella
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