Introducing: Cellar Door, a serious southern Italian restaurant at Lakeshore and Islington

By Renée Suen | July 17, 2014

By Renée Suen | 07/17/2014

Introducing: Cellar Door — Click to view gallery (Image: Renée Suen)

Name: Cellar Door
Contact Info: 3003 Lakeshore Blvd. W., 416-253-0303, cellardoorrestaurant.ca, @cellardoorTO
Neighbourhood: New Toronto
Chef/Owner: Robert Rubino, a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) graduate who trained abroad at Michelin-starred restaurants like Ristorante San Domenico in Bologna, Italy, and L’Atelier Joel Robuchon in Paris, France
Pizzaiolo: Rodrigo Palacio

The Food: Wood-fired pizzas, handmade pastas and other dishes from Rome and Calabria, a region in Southern Italy. A rustic, Calabrese-style pasta combines thick-cut buckwheat noodles with clams, scallops prawns, mussels and preserved chilis. Unlike most Italian chefs, Rubino cooks his food without butter or oil, and then adds a splash of good olive oil prior to serving.

The Drinks: The wine list includes sustainable and bio-dynamic wines from lesser-known regions of Italy and Ontario.

The Place: Housed in an old bank building, the restaurant is spacious and airy, with black walls, concrete floors and shelves lined with colourful jars of house-made pickles.

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9 thoughts on “Introducing: Cellar Door, a serious southern Italian restaurant at Lakeshore and Islington”

bob smith says:

July 22, 2014 at 2:53 am

Renee, you are a Moran. “Unlike most Italian chefs, Rubino cooks his food without butter”

Learn before you make such an ignorant and outlandish statement. After having spent the past month throughout all of Italy I can say with clarity that you are without a clue.
Alecta says:

July 22, 2014 at 5:43 pm

That address is in Etobicoke, which may want to be Toronto, but isn’t. Also, I do wonder what is Italian about “Mennonite chicken” and some of the other menu items.
Alecta says:

July 22, 2014 at 5:44 pm

Do you mean moron? Or are you suggesting a connection to the Moran family? If you’re going to criticize someone else, do check your own writing.
bob smith says:

July 22, 2014 at 10:10 pm

I agree. Let me be direct, f u c k y o u r s e l f
Fernando Pena says:

July 31, 2014 at 4:08 pm

I live in the area and have been to The Cellar Door twice. The first time I had the pizza and thought it
was ok but the service was beyond horrendous.
Despite the poor service I decided to go again as I thought they
deserved a second chance given it was a new local restaurant and we had friends
in town from Italy. I have to say my
second experience was worse than the first, the staff was disorganized and
forgot to bring the two bottles of wine we ordered, after reminding them for the
third time they game. Then came our
meals: the portions were small, overpriced and nothing special. … when our bill came I had a sour taste in my
mouth.
Oliviaa27 says:

August 9, 2014 at 6:28 pm

sigh… these comments are becoming boring. You describe “horrendous” service after having to (the horror) remind the server for your bottle of wine! I’ve heard that before… in another version of the story, it started with a pea… and a princess.

Cellar Door is a great addition to an up & coming neighbourhood. Something’s happening in New Toronto. A decrepit infrastructure & broken transit are pushing DINKs closer to the jobs.

Servers were very friendly and more than competent, albeit a little nervous/apprehensive. The pizza menu is inventive and very tasty (creamed kale with gruyere… went against my gut and ordered it… so good!). And guess what. They don’t roll their eyes when you ask them to (gasp) slice your pizza!
bob smith says:

August 21, 2014 at 8:15 pm

Stuff it in your ear ‘a lick the’, be PC elsewhere fool
zekat says:

September 23, 2014 at 2:38 pm

You’re a snob
Honey Sheth says:

September 26, 2014 at 10:17 pm

Was just at the Lakeshore restaurant, had a worst experience, wondering that place looks nice from outside decided i will take my birthday dinner their today. Turns out not only they ruined my birthday dinner but they ruined the whole mood. we ordered 2 things and the server cant even manage to remember that and she just served us one. Expecting that the second dish must be coming anytime soon we waited for 25 mins, turns out she comes and asks us if we want anything else. And when reminded she blamed it on us saying i thought you ordered just one thing. not only that. You guys need to hire people who are good at communication skills and are not sexist. all in all the whole dining experience was a nightmare, people inside are loud and yelling at each other, this is not a get away dining experience as it seems from outside window. Never going back again. not even for free.