Weekly Lunch Pick: a luxe take on a classic sandwich at a new King West TIFF hub
This Thursday marks the start of TIFF, with its usual flurry of stars. Celeb hunters hoping to avoid the red carpet crush should know that the new Ritz-Carlton Toronto will host its fair share of TIFF press conferences and undoubtedly some stars as well. At Toca, the luxe hotel’s eye-catching restaurant, chef Tom Brodi serves Canadiana-focused food made with local ingredients. Lunch starts with warm slices of spongy, olive-laced sourdough. The LBLT ($23) features soft, tarragon-laced chunks of poached Yarmouth lobster, a stack of Canadian back bacon and diced tomatoes pressed between two dense halves of a Thuet pretzel bun. The hearty sandwich comes with two vegetable sides: a sweet and crunchy coleslaw of shredded red cabbage, carrots and red pepper and a simple mixed green salad dressed with a tart vinaigrette (which is apparently where the dish gets its second L). A watermelon and aloe cocktail ($8)—a virgin mix of aloe water, lime, watermelon juice and earl grey syrup—washes everything down nicely.
The cost: $42 including tax and tip
The time: 60 minutes, including a quick stroll to inspect the restaurant’s $250,000 cheese cave
Toca, 181 Wellington St. W., 416-572-8008, tocarestaurant.com.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/food/weekly-lunch-pick-toca/&title=Weekly Lunch Pick: a luxe take on a classic sandwich at a new King West TIFF hub&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/wlp-toca-624x282.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_87338" align="aligncenter" width="656" caption="Lunch at Toca: olive sourdough, watermelon aloe cocktail and LBLT (Image: Renée Suen)"][/caption]
This Thursday marks the start of TIFF, with its usual flurry of stars. Celeb hunters hoping to avoid the red carpet crush should know that the new Ritz-Carlton Toronto will host its fair share of TIFF press conferences and undoubtedly some stars as well. At Toca, the luxe hotel’s eye-catching restaurant, chef Tom Brodi serves Canadiana-focused food made with local ingredients. Lunch starts with warm slices of spongy, olive-laced sourdough. The LBLT ($23) features soft, tarragon-laced chunks of poached Yarmouth lobster, a stack of Canadian back bacon and diced tomatoes pressed between two dense halves of a Thuet pretzel bun. The hearty sandwich comes with two vegetable sides: a sweet and crunchy coleslaw of shredded red cabbage, carrots and red pepper and a simple mixed green salad dressed with a tart vinaigrette (which is apparently where the dish gets its second L). A watermelon and aloe cocktail ($8)—a virgin mix of aloe water, lime, watermelon juice and earl grey syrup—washes everything down nicely.
The cost: $42 including tax and tip
The time: 60 minutes, including a quick stroll to inspect the restaurant’s $250,000 cheese cave
Toca, 181 Wellington St. W., 416-572-8008, tocarestaurant.com.){kind=link}
$42 for a sandwich and a drink!
$42.00 for a sandwich and one drink? Didn’t they offer free refills? I won’t be eating there.
canadiana? watermelon? olives, lime….just because wine juice may be bottled here doesn’t make it VQA….seriously dude, you need to stop throwing press releases around like their news
You can have a lobster dinner for that price!
aren’t three of the main ingredients in the meal grown/raised in Canada? ISn’t that Canadian enough for you? The watermelons and limes might have been grown here too?
Also I don’t think Renee qualifies as a “dude”?
renee took the picture, no credit is given for the article (as i stated-it is a rework of press release information-no real journalism here)
watermelon is truly as canadian as…limes! toca buys all of their stuff from sysco or gfs like all other restaurants and these are sourced from where in the world they are cheap and plentiful. toca isn’t scouring local organic farmers markets for watermelons and limes…dude
and dude…we can grow many things here, doesn’t make them canadiana…i don’t think of watermelon-i don’t think of canada-dude
What a joke.
so parkdaleeater what is your definition of Canadiana? It can only be Canadiana if it only exists in Canada? Or is it anything that evokes the thought of Canada? Are we limited to calling BC Salmon, Lake Ontario Pickerel, and Maritime Lobster Canadian or can we include Chinese cuisine (as an example) as something Canadian because they are such a huge minority population? Or are we only allowed to call native american cuisine Canadian?
Also the byline at the end of the piece indicates it’s be Renee, but she’s also credited with the photo.
The sandwich looks amazing. I can smell and taste the lobster and with bacon?!?! I am salivating and so jealous of Renee right now….
No sandwich/drink combo is worth over $40.
$40 over-priced BS… next!
What a joke for real. I just got back from Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Ate at some AMAZING top restaurants with REAL organic fresh ingredients grown on the premises and even with the exchange rates it was less expensive than the “sandwich” above.
Toronto will never be hip and cool no matter how much it tries. I can say this because I’ve lived and vacation in Europe every summer. High rents equals inflated prices for these over the top establishments in this city. Too bad patrons don’t get quality for their money. It’s all a hype.
@gt You said, “I can say this because I’ve lived and vacation in Europe every summer.”
We are all real impressed – Loser.
I am impressed, I lived in Italy for a year cooking with some good chefs, nonnas, eating at low end places and top end places. There is one thing they all share good food and good quality. Yes its expensive but also people need to realize its at the F**kn Ritz. what should you expect? you don’t go to the Bentley dealership to by a Honda.
@Joe Hamilton. I usually don’t respond to idiots, but your comment proves my point about this city. You represent all the morons that know nothing about food. Try traveling a bit and broadening your horizons, especially to places such as Italy where good food and the ritual of eating are sacred and to this day Italians are still teaching the rest of the world how to eat.
Enough said loser.
Hey Parkdaleeater… maybe you should get out of Parkdale and look around at local farmers markets. There are lots of farmers in southwestern Ontario growing watermelons, and they just so happen to be in season right now. Not sure why a watermelon can’t be considered canadian, they have been growing them here for many years. Expensive sandwich yes, but don’t criticize without any knowledge to back it up dude.
dudes….it is so easy to rile you up….
canadiana does not include melons, travel to asia ask them what they think of when they think of canadian food…melons don’t appear on the list…we need to embrace what we are famous for, not what we CAN grow but what we are best at growing…that is canadiana…i’m not talking about the melting pot that we are-our international flavours are great-but when we are talking about a restaurant that is focused on canadiana it should celebrate those things-like the lobster, like the salmon, like game meats-there is nothing wrong with that….
i get out of parkdale everyday and out of ontario and canada with great regularity-but embrace local where ever i am….sorry that my ‘knowledge’ doesn’t measure up to mel’s…
relax, take a pill (make sure it was made within 100 miles though)
It’s a hotel restaurant and it’s the Ritz-Carlton, so it is obviously expensive. The problem we have in Toronto, when it comes to such high-end establishments, is the service. The Ritz is amateurish and overly casual, which makes it not worth the money. As far as Europe goes, the cult of authenticity can be tiresome; they have crappy food there just like we do here. But go to the Crillon in Paris, and you will know what extremely competent yet unpretentious service can be like. It makes Canoe look like McDonald’s.