Review: Ardor Bistro brings Peruvian ceviche and pisco cocktails to the Ossington strip

Ossington’s newest restaurant adds Peru to the United Nations roll call of the strip’s cuisines. It’s the newest venture from the fraternal team of James Bailey and Ivan Tarazona, best known for running Mount Pleasant’s long-standing French bistro Celestin. Bailey commands the bar with experience, mixing excellent cocktails from a range of pisco liqueurs imported from his home country. Tarazona’s kitchen is slow to get the food out, but it’s usually worth the wait. The five-course prix-fixe includes a juicy sous-vide chicken Ballantine with yellow pepper purée, and a sensational Peruvian ceviche made with sea bass, tilapia and fluke and served with toasted corn kernels, crisp sweet potato chips and raw onion. On the list of mains, the seafood-quinoa stew is a standout, loaded with tender shrimp, scallops, octopus and squid. Grilled octopus is firm and supple, but the flavour only comes alive with dollops of chimichurri. Only one dessert is available, but it’s all you need: fluffy blood orange mousse with Ontario strawberries. The tiny wine list highlights Peru’s vineyard-heavy neighbours Argentina and Chile.