What’s on the menu at Noorden, a modern Dutch restaurant from the owners of Little Sister
Our Review of Noorden
Name: Noorden
Neighbourhood: Davisville
Contact: 2110 Yonge St., 416-488-2110, noordento.com, @noorden_to
Previously: Quince
Owners: Jennifer Gittins and Michael van den Winkel (Quince, Little Sister, Bar Batavia)
Chef: Peter Tompkins (Biff’s, Quince, Little Sister)
The food
Dutch small plates flavoured with Indonesian spices. The beef tartare, for example, is seasoned with sambal oelek chili paste and kecap manis (a thick, sweet soya sauce), mixed with pickled Asian pear (instead of cornichons) and served with shrimp chips. There are also a few traditional Dutch dishes on offer, like white asparagus with sauce grebiche.
Roasted carrots with quinoa, yogurt and heirloom carrot ribbons. $9.50.
Deep-fried egg whites filled with sambal oelek aioli and topped with house-cured sardines. $4.
Beef tartare mixed with rice wine–pickled Asian pear, dressed with shallots and served with shrimp chips. $14.75.
Pork ribs spiced with cumin and chili paste are slow roasted with apple juice and then slathered in sambal cobek sauce. $14.
This skirt steak is flavoured with a dehydrated rendang spice rub. It comes with long beans and fried sambal. $16.75.
Seared steelhead trout with gai lan and pickled chilies. $16.75.
The drinks
Gin, gin and more gin—the bar is stocked with 42 varieties of the stuff. Everything on the cocktail menu—like the KLM 692 named for the Toronto-Amsterdam flight—is gin based, and the G&Ts feature house-made tonic. All of the beer is local except for Chateau Neubourg’s pilsner, which is imported from Holland.
Some of the gin, like this bottle of Fords, isn’t available at the LCBO.
The space
After running Quince for a decade, Gittins and van den Winkel decided the neighbourhood had outgrown their Mediterranean bistro. They watched dozens of DIY videos on YouTube and revamped the space on a shoestring budget.
After an artisan quoted $20,000 for a zinc bar, van den Winkel made one himself.
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Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.
