Ottawa Citizen

TORONTO, THE FOOD

At last, Michelin Guide highlights some of the city's great eats

- PETER HUM phum@postmedia.com Peter Hum, the Ottawa Citizen's restaurant critic, attended the Michelin Guide's unveiling for Toronto as a guest of Destinatio­n Toronto.

Food lovers bound for Toronto have a new and discerning resource to help them choose which of the city's 7,500 or so restaurant­s they should visit.

The Michelin Guide's inaugural survey of Toronto's dining scene, released in mid-september, whittles the field down to 74 restaurant­s, ranging from a stunning, two-star sushi splurge to enthusiast­ically recommende­d purveyors of tacos, Thai barbecue and smoked meat sandwiches.

The work of an unspecifie­d number of inspectors who arrived at restaurant assessment­s by consensus, the global taste-making brand's survey singled out 13 starred restaurant­s, 17 Bib Gourmands, which are more affordable restaurant­s of notable quality, and made more than 40 other recommenda­tions.

“Food lovers have a lot to discover in this amazing city,” said Gwendal Poullennec, internatio­nal director of the Michelin Guides, at a lavish unveiling gala in Toronto.

The Michelin Guide is to give Toronto restaurant­s ongoing scrutiny through the years, fulfilling its end of a so-called “marketing partnershi­p” with tourism organizati­ons for Toronto, Ontario and Canada, Poullennec confirmed in an interview.

At the same event, Toronto Mayor John Tory spoke for many when he called Michelin's arrival in his city “a big deal” that would drive its growth and internatio­nal renown, not unlike the Toronto Internatio­nal Film Festival.

Both Poullennec and Tory called the diversity of Toronto's culinary scene one of its defining features. The Michelin Guide survey, which can be accessed through its website and app, celebrates 74 restaurant­s spanning 27 types of cuisine. Contempora­ry Canadian, Japanese, Italian and Mexican restaurant­s garnered stars.

During my few days in Toronto, I visited just a few of Michelin's picks, which were quickly inundated with reservatio­ns as a result of their instant fame.

Quetzal, a buzzworthy downtown restaurant lauded with a freshly minted Michelin star, served us thrilling, modern, Mexican-inspired dishes such as dryaged amberjack aguachile with watermelon. Quetzal's chef, Steven Molnar, said that within a day of the announceme­nt, his 120-seat restaurant was booked solid for the next month.

Molnar, a Hungarian-japanese Canadian who cooked in France and Montreal before ultimately returning to Toronto to cook modern Mexican food, may exemplify the diversity of Toronto all by himself.

“My main goal is to showcase Mexican food in a way Toronto hasn't seen and Canada hasn't seen,” said Molnar, who has made multiple research trips to Mexico.

“My father is Hungarian and my mother is Japanese. What am I supposed to cook?” he added.

Puerto Bravo, a more modest eatery in Toronto's east end, dazzled with top-notch and distinctiv­e octopus and shrimp tacos. No wonder the tiny restaurant, which reflects the cooking of Mexico's northeast coast, garnered a Michelin Bib Gourmand nod.

Even if you can't get into Michelin's top-tier selections, you can still eat very well in Toronto. For example, you can dine happily at more casual restaurant­s that are once removed from their higher-end, starred siblings.

If you can't get into Alo or Alobar Yorkville, I can vouch for the more relaxed yet distinguis­hed fare at Aloette, the famed restaurant group's neighbourh­ood bistro. Similarly, there's Giulletta, the trattoria spinoff of the Michelin-starred Osteria Giulia.

While the rarefied temple of raw fish called Sushi Masaki Saito, the only Toronto restaurant to receive two Michelin stars, will be beyond many budgets, you can eat at its more casual sibling, Tachi, a vendor in the upscale Chef's Hall food court for a fraction of the price.

Tachi is a standing-room-only sushi bar where chefs deliver an omakase meal of a dozen outstandin­g sushi items in 30 minutes. Tachi received a Michelin recommenda­tion, if not a star.

We were able to eat lunch at Bar Raval, a cosy haunt for lovers of Spanish small bites that received Bib Gourmand kudos. It whetted our appetites for the slightly larger menu at its slightly pricier sister venue, Bar Isabel, which received a Michelin recommenda­tion.

Michelin is not all-knowing when it comes to Toronto eateries. You may well find places and attraction­s that Michelin ought to take notice of in years ahead. For example, no Toronto restaurant was awarded the new Michelin green star, which inspectors give to restaurant­s with exceptiona­l commitment­s to sustainabi­lity.

I'll submit for your considerat­ion Avling Brewery in the up-andcoming east-side neighbourh­ood Leslievill­e, where a 4,000-squarefoot rooftop garden is responsibl­e for everything from the salad on the Nordic-asian menu to the marigolds that find their way into the brewery's Orpheus Farmhouse Ale.

Even if the Cheese Boutique in Toronto's west end never gets a Michelin nod, it deserves a visit. The epicurean grocery store is now in its sixth decade of business, and it is not only a destinatio­n for buying the world's finest cheeses. The private guided tours of its store and cheese vault, which include tastings, should please any foodie, barring lactose intoleranc­es.

That's especially true if your host is the store's ebullient maitre fromager Afrim Pristine, the star of Food Network Canada's Cheese: A Love Story.

Pristine was one of the Toronto culinary champions who helped entice Michelin to come to town. Naturally, he was at the gala that was the result of a half-decade of effort by both Michelin inspectors and Toronto's culinary boosters.

“What a great moment in Toronto's culinary history,” Pristine wrote on Instagram, beneath a photo showing smiling and suddenly famous chefs.

Michelin will continue its scrutiny of restaurant­s when it unveils its picks for Vancouver this fall.

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 ?? SUSHI MASAKI SAITO ?? The Michelin Guide inspectors who visited the two-star Sushi Masaki Saito restaurant in Toronto said, “Laughter fills the air, thanks to chef Masaki Saito and his jovial team, and for a few blissful hours, the world outside melts away.” Top photo: Alo earned one Michelin star in the guide's inaugural survey of the city's dining scene.
SUSHI MASAKI SAITO The Michelin Guide inspectors who visited the two-star Sushi Masaki Saito restaurant in Toronto said, “Laughter fills the air, thanks to chef Masaki Saito and his jovial team, and for a few blissful hours, the world outside melts away.” Top photo: Alo earned one Michelin star in the guide's inaugural survey of the city's dining scene.

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