Top Five: Toronto’s best Caesar salads
Top Five: Toronto’s best Caesar salads
Toronto menus are filling up with luxe, light and irreverent takes on the classic starter. The basic components are the same—romaine lettuce, crunchy croutons and a yolk-thickened sauce—but the add-ons, ranging from flower petals to pine fronds, are anything but standard. Here, our five favourite reinventions.
See all five Caesar Salads »
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- Lavish ingredients elevate <strong>Canoe’</strong>s otherwise faithful salad: baby romaine, buttery brioche croutons, a light garlic emulsion and luscious hunks of maple-chili-marinated grilled eel in lieu of anchovies. $18. <em>66 Wellington St. W., 416-364-0054.</em>
- (Image: Michael Graydon)
- 1 | Reinventing the Eel
- 1 | Reinventing the Eel
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- Breakfast at <strong>Marben</strong> brings a grilled sandwich made with Spanish flatbread, lemon-parmesan cream, wild boar pancetta and compressed romaine alongside a duck eggshell filled with whipped yolk for dipping. (The pine fronds and wood chips <br /> are strictly decorative.) $11. <em>488 Wellington St. W., 416-979-1990.</em>
- (Image: Michael Graydon)
- 2 | Caesar Soldiers
- 2 | Caesar Soldiers
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- <strong>Don Don Izakaya’</strong>s iteration tops a lemony romaine base with flower petals and delicate wisps <br /> of parmesan. A hoop of puff pastry stands in for croutons and a poached duck egg releases a flood of yolky richness. $7.50. <em>130 Dundas St. W., 416-492-5292.</em>
- (Image: Michael Graydon)
- 3 | Zen Garden
- 3 | Zen Garden
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- <strong>Farmhouse Tavern</strong> turns the salad into a soup with parmesan rind–infused broth, smoked trout, garlic croutons and crispy fried pigs’ ears. It’s garnished with two dressing-tipped romaine leaves for a hit of freshness. $10. <em>1627 Dupont St., 416-561-9114.</em>
- (Image: Michael Graydon)
- 4 | Liquid Lunch
- 4 | Liquid Lunch
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- <strong>The Gabardine</strong> serves romaine hearts with rosemary-flecked croutons and brittle strips of double-smoked bacon. The runny yolk of a soft-boiled egg adds extra heft to the light garlic dressing. $12. <br /> <em>372 Bay St., 647-352-3211.</em>
- (Image: Michael Graydon)
- 5 | Breakfast of Emperors
- 5 | Breakfast of Emperors
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Toronto menus are filling up with luxe, light and irreverent takes on the classic starter. The basic components are the same—romaine lettuce, crunchy croutons and a yolk-thickened sauce—but the add-ons, ranging from flower petals to pine fronds, are anything but standard. Here, our five favourite reinventions.
See all five Caesar Salads »
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Click-bait headline to vaguely foolish slideshow. Give me a tableside caesar from Jacobs, or better yet Hy’s, and I’ll gladly leave these Ceasar-esque variants alone.
Still new to town, but Fonda Lola’s handheld Caesar is exemplary of “good things come in small packages.” Some big flavor in there!
Jacobs or Hy’s get my vote as well!
Another vote for Jacobs, how it doesn’t even show up on the list is inexcusable.