What I'm saying elsewhere...
Galactica: Sabotage (via katamaran78)
Sheer brilliance.
The Duke of York Pub, 39 Prince Arthur Avenue, Toronto; entrees between $5 and $16.
Chicken pot pie & sticky toffee.
A friend of mine (hi Amanda!) told me to go to the Duke of York pub when I put out a general call on Facebook for places to eat in Toronto, so on the list it went. It helped that the Duke of York is virtually in the hotel's back yard, about a 2 minute walk.
Front of house
C'mon, it's a pub. You shouldn't expect a fine dining, or even a dining experience. The wait staff were fantastic nonetheless. The hostess seated me promptly in a comfortable table near the bar. My waitress, Dollie (this can not be her real name), was attentive and knowledgeable about the pub's food, offering me a couple of favourite options when I asked her what was good. she checked back on me a couple of times throughout the meal - not too often, but often enough that I felt taken care of.
Unlike last night, the food came promptly, exactly when I wanted it.
I had headed over to the pub a little before 6pm, and it wasn't at all busy; however, it really started picking up at about 6:30, and was just about packed by 6:45.
Main
Amanda told me to head to the Duke of York when I was in Toronto, but she didn't really tell me what to have when I got there. Since I'm feeling adventurous this trip, I decided to put my fate in Dollie's hands. I asked her for her recommendation, of which she had a couple; I settled on the chicken pot pie, after toying with the butter chicken, which was supposed to be really good (chicken pot pie just seemed like it was more of a pub meal than butter chicken, despite Britain's love of curries).
I'm really happy I ordered it. It was exactly what a chicken pot pie should be. The pie was piping hot and wonderfully flavourful, with a couple of surprising additions such as anise. The crust, the backbone of a good chicken pot pie, was light, tender, and flaky, and the pie - which, if I'm following the bodily metaphor is its lifeblood - was perfectly balanced to the pot pie. It came served with a perfect mashed potato and peas.
Dessert
When Dollie returned after I'd finished my main, she asked if I'd be interested in dessert. As she started listing off the dessert specials, I told her I was putting myself in her hands, and asked her to bring me what she thought would be best. A few minutes later, she returned with a sticky toffee pudding. It was just delightful. Sticky toffee pudding isn't a very complicated dessert (but then again, what is complicated at a pub?): it's a sponge cake made with dates covered in a toffee sauce, usually served with ice cream. But, like the chicken pot pie, it's brilliant in its simplicity. The sticky toffee at the Duke of York, although heavy, was a great way to top off the meal. Even better, the Duke of York makes their own desserts, rather than bringing them in from somewhere else. This really does make all the difference, folks, and shows you that the chefs actually give a damn about the food they're making.
Overall
I don't know if it was just in comparison to the dinner last night, the pretty mediocre conference food we had for lunch, the energy expended after a long day of talking and thinking, or if the chef of the Duke of York is just on his game, but tonight's was just a damned good dinner. Although I do enjoy it, I think some chefs can get too complicated with their dishes, ruining the enjoyment of the food itself. Sometimes, as the Duke of York handily illustrates, simple really is just best. And Dollie was, well, a doll. I'll be back before I leave Toronto.
But not tomorrow night, when I head to Mistura!
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - RGM version (via OkGo)
This combines my three favourite things: 1) Self-produced music videos, 2) Rube Goldberg machines, and 3) random destruction.
Signatures, situated in the Intercontinental Toronto Yorkville. Entrees between $24 and $34;
Prix fixe ($35; $50 with 'Niagara wine tour'): roast tomato & fennel soup; red-wine basted tenderloin with smoked mash; apple pie.
It's my first night in Toronto, and since I travelled most of the day, I was quite hungry when I got in to the hotel, a little before 8pm. I normally avoid in-hotel restaurants; I think they rely a little too much on the kind of traffic i was today: the hungry traveller who doesn't have the energy to head away from the hotel for dinner. I did, actually, take a quick walk up and down the block, as I didn't see anything on their posted menu that immediately appealed to me, but didn't have the energy to walk much further (and felt like something nicer than McDonald's or pub tex-mex, which were the other two nearby dining options). I decided I might as well give Signatures a try after that quick walk, since I was tired and didn't want to wander any further.
Front of house
The hostess seated me at a largish booth for a party of one; that being said, there didn't really seem to be facility for individual diners, or even two-seat tables. I got the feeling that they generally dealt with larger parties - 4+ (and indeed, there was a party of 8 finishing their meal as I came in). The hostess offered me a paper, which is something new for me. I'm not sure if this is a common courtesy at hotel restaurants, or if my status as a single diner afforded me the option ("he's obviously not going to be talking to anyone..."). I initially declined the paper and started reading the menu. The front of the house was lightly staffed, though it was later in the evening when I had my sitting. The end result was a curious mix of the restaurant feeling understaffed while giving the impression of the staff not having much to do. When he was serving me, the waiter, Tomasz, was helpful, courteous, and attentive; he smartly returned to tell me the ice tea was unsweetened and gave me the option to change my drink order before it arrived.
The menu included a prix fixe option that wasn't posted outside the restaurant, so I decided to give that a try. I like prix fixe; it gives me an idea of the chef's personality and tastes. The options were varied, though slanted a little heavier towards fish options for the entree than I'd personally care for. I decided on the roast tomato and fennel soup as an appetizer followed by the red wine basted tenderloin with smoked mash, and told the waiter (when he eventually came) that I would select a dessert option after the meal, and asked if he could bring me the paper I had declined from the hostess (hey, I changed my mind after realizing that I had nobody to talk to). The waiter offered appropriate apéritifs and digestifs before and after the meal that, if I enjoyed alcohol, would have gone well with the meal.
Appetizer
After a somewhat long while, the hostess appeared with what she thought was my appetizer, quail with root vegetables. I'm sure this may have been tasty, but had to tell her that I had not actually ordered it. She whisked it away quickly, apologizing for the mixup. About 10 minutes later, my soup arrived.
Roast tomato soup is something that's incredibly hard to befoul. Puree some roasted tomatoes, add in some broth and spicing, and you're pretty much there. And indeed, the chef did not mess up the roast tomato soup. That being said, it wasn't really anything of note. It was on the brassier side than I might have liked, and the fennel didn't really shine through near enough. As a tomato soup, however, it completely served its purpose.
The chef included a twisted bread stick in the soup that, if it were not straddling the line between too chewy and too stale, would have been a nice addition. For the most part, I pushed it around the bowl, trying to get to the soup it blocked.
Speaking of the bowl, I think their choice of plating on the appetizer was not a great one. The bowl was quite wide and shallow, which made actually getting at the soup after the first two or three spoonfuls a little difficult. Combined with the breadstick, which acted somewhat as a dam, it made the dish harder to eat than it perhaps should have been.
Main
Unfortunately, this is where Signatures really fell flat. The waiter, again after quite some time, brought the entree out, and stumbled a bit over the explanation. I honestly can't remember the full name of the entree - "red wine basted tenderloin with smoked mash" is as much as I can remember, but the smoked mash also included small red grapes, bacon, and something else I wasn't able to identify.
Although the cut of tenderloin was a smidgeon on the tough side - not awful, just not as tender as I expect a tenderloin to be - I have to say that it was cooked to a perfect medium rare. This was, of course, helped by the fact that the tenderloin was about a 3oz cut. Overall, the size was just about right, so I don't really have any complaints about it on that front. The red wine basting was very weak, however, with very little flavour being added to the meat. There are two schools of thought on this, of course: one school says that you shouldn't stand in the way of the natural flavour of the meat, while the other says that you can complement and even enhance the natural flavours. The chef clearly studied the first school, as the red wine was but an initial whisper on the tongue. Personally, I prefer a strong red wine reduction paired with tenderloin, so this could also be my own bias kicking in.
Quite the opposite can be said about the smoked mash, however. It was a flavour explosion, unfortunately not in a good way. The chef's hand was heavy when adding smoke to the mash; I'm sad to say this, but the first taste of the mash was like a mouthful of used, wet cigarette butts. The intensity waned as the meal went on, but it left a poor initial first impression, and one that I had a hard time getting past. The bacon and red grapes were an interesting addition to the mash, however (they were served as an island around which the mash flowed), and on their own were quite enjoyable. A more gentle hand to the smoking, or at least a different choice in smoke (perhaps something that doesn't taste so much like tobacco), would likely make this dish much more palatable.
Dessert
The waiter remembered that I had wanted to select dessert after the meal, and asked what I would like to choose. I asked him what he would suggest to best follow after the tenderloin; he took a moment and suggested following it with their apple pie a la mode. I agreed, and asked that he bring me an earl grey tea with some sugar.
After what seemed like an inordinately long time, the waiter reappeared with a pot of earl grey tea and cream. Although I hadn't asked for cream, and had to ask again for sugar, I did note that he took the time to properly steep the tea so that it was ready to drink. He poured a cup for me, then returned with my sugar. After another fairly lengthy wait, he returned with dessert.
The apple pie was fairly straightforward; a smallish piece of fairly standard apple pie along with a single scoop of vanilla ice milk and some berries (two slices of strawberry, a blackberry, and a ground cherry (often incorrectly called gooseberries)) with a caramel sauce drizzled on the plate. Taste-wise, it was again pretty straightforward and not really exceptional. My guess is that the pie is brought in, rather than prepared in-house. It was also lukewarm, which put a final note on a mostly mediocre meal.
Overall
Overall Signatures was mediocre, considering its menu positions (in dishes, if not in price) it as a mid-to-high end restaurant. The service was considerate, though not swift (this could be due to the time of night and the fact that my waiter was looking after 3 other tables), and I did leave a healthy tip (a little over 20%, and primarily because the waiter had either the nerve or the wit to ask if I was a chef after voicing my concerns with the meal). Prix fixe is supposed to take time; in fact, it's a bit of an insult to rush through it (hence I never asked the waiter about the wait); that being said, the wait between courses seemed a little too long, especially for the dessert course. Signatures really did fall over with their food, however. It may have been the time of night, it may have been the prix fixe menu, or it may have just been a bad night for the chef; it's hard to tell from only a single sitting. Other diners seemed to be enjoying their meals, which were off the normal menu, and at least one of the people sitting near me was a repeat customer, so there is some definite promise there.
Tomorrow night's dinner: the Duke of York pub. Thursday night: Massimo Capra's Mistura!
I’m a big fan of the semicolon; it’s featured in a lot of my writing.
How to use a semicolon - The Oatmeal
Pittsburgh International Airport after hours (via productsofthearts)
What to do when you’re stuck in Pittsburgh on a 10 hour overnight layover.
I was once stuck in Helsinki Airport overnight, and we had a much less interesting time, albeit we did have Strolleys.
CBC News - Technology & Science - Canadian internet slow, expensive: Harvard: In other news, birds have mastered flight, and fish are often wet.
Announcement | IE6 Funeral: Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight
CBC News - Manitoba - Tory MP calls Louis Riel a 'villain': Has it been 50 years already? (I once had a History prof that suggested public opinion on Louis Riel shifts roughly every 50 years).
Infographic comparing what you get as a pirate vs. what you get as a legitimate customer.