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The Dish Power Rankings: winter deep freeze edition
| February 21, 2013
Toronto Life’s roundup of the restaurants with the biggest buzz, the longest lineups and the toughest tables to snag.
The city’s most powerful restaurants stayed busy despite storms and frigid temperatures. Below, Porzia makes a dramatic climb to second place and a drop-in from a UK food celeb nabs Momofuku Noodle Bar its first appearance on the list.
- Edulis (no change) Edulis doesn’t have a single table for two available on a Friday or Saturday between 6:45 and 8:45 p.m. until April 5. That’s power.
- Porzia (↑6) Parkdale’s new Italian restaurant was hopping with socialites late into Saturday night when we overheard Basilio Pesce, the harried chef-owner, tell a guest that it’s been like that every Saturday since he opened.
- Rose and Sons (no change) The praise continues to stream in for Anthony Rose’s throwback Annex diner (our two-star assessment: “good chaotic fun”).
- JaBistro (no change) Downtown’s best sushi restaurant is so popular that it’s now opened for Sunday service.
- Playa Cabana Cantina (↑4) Friday and Saturday dinners are now fully booked by mid-week at Toronto’s best new taco bar.
- Farmhouse Tavern (↑7) Despite 39 cancellations and no-shows during last Saturday’s storm, Farmhouse still served 100 guests.
- Shōtō (↓1) The buzz is starting to ebb for David Chang’s Toronto flagship. Evidence: it’s actually possible to find Friday reservations on its website.
- Momofuku Noodle Bar (new this week) Nigella Lawson, in town last week to promote her new Italian cookbook, managed to squeeze in a “surgical strike” on Noodle Bar for “ramen, kimchi, pickles, fried chicken, pork buns of bliss.”
- OddSeoul (new this week) The new Korean-American restaurant from the brothers behind Swish has been packed on weekends since it opened in December. After a pair of raves from The Globe and The Star, we expect the crowds will only grow.
- Playa Cabana (new this week) Claire Danes was spotted eating dinner last night at the original Annex Playa Cabana, which is getting spillover buzz from its sister hotspot in the Junction (weekend walk-ins are becoming a thing of the past).
Honourables mentions: Joanne Kates reluctantly joined in yesterday with the critical consensus on Patria. Glas’s vegetarian tasting menu keeps selling out. And where does Marc Thuet go for a late Valentine’s dinner? Why Splendido, of course.
