Review: Annette Food Market brings garlicky goodness and gluttonous wood-fired pies to the Junction

Annette Food Market ★★ 240 Annette St., 647-792-6963

Two thousand Junction–High Park residents signed a petition to help the owners of this new red sauce restaurant obtain a liquor licence. The area’s freshly mortgaged couples, soccer parents and not-quite-retirees undoubtedly need an easy place to stop in for pizza and a glass of off-LCBO wine. In Annette Food Market, they have exactly that. The 24-seat room glows from the wood-burning oven, wafts garlic goodness and buzzes with neighbours bumping into each other. The sharing menu is highly affordable and if you stick to the house-made pastas, like the al dente porcini mushroom–pear ravioli in lickably rich sage brown butter, or the pizzas, which arrive on blackened crusts that slump under the weight of luxe toppings like sausage, sopressata, ’nduja and fior di latte (all on one gluttonous pie), you’ll likely leave happy and full. Venture off-carb, though, and you may end up with under-seasoned cauliflower accented by a few sad raisins and capers, burrata that chews like poutine curd, or berries macerated in white balsamic vinegar that give your panna cotta a briny twang. The tatted and suspendered staff is friendly enough, but long waits and wrong orders turn this night’s casual dinner into a three-hour test of Torontonian politeness.

Have an opinion on Annette Food Market? Add your review here »