Trend We Love/Hate: ever-longer tasting menus

Engaged in a never-ending game of friendly one-upmanship, the city’s chefs started launching ever-more elaborate tasting menus this year. Don’t get us wrong: we love the creativity on display. But when a tasting menu lasts four hours and costs $200, dinner feels like a hostage situation that ends when we pay our own ransom. Below, Toronto’s longer tasting menus, ordered by the number of courses.

• Yours Truly’s Carte Blanche menu is the city’s longest, running between 15 and 20 courses for $85–$100, plus an extra $55 for wine pairings
• At Momofuku Shōtō, $150 buys 10 courses in one of 22 prized seats (pairings, $80)
• George has long offered a full range of tasting menus, from $99 for five courses up to $140 for 10
• For $70 at Edulis, a diner can opt to “put your belly in our hands” for about seven courses
• Taste Canoe, Canoe’s aptly-named menu, is seven courses long, from amuse bouche to dessert ($100, $150 with pairing)
• Chantecler’s Jonathan Poon recently launched a new tasting menu for $40–$65 that typically includes six or seven courses, if you count the various intermezzos (pairings, $45)
• Justin Cournoyer at Actinolite  offers a six-course “chef’s picks” menu for $75