Easy does it well when it comes to lunch
Finding an all-day breakfast restaurant isn’t that hard in Toronto. Finding all-day lunch is an entirely different matter. Easy Restaurant is both, a godsend to those who do shift work, keep off-hours or just get really hungry at 10:30 a.m.
Peter Morrison’s Parkdale fixture, with its ’70s film posters and Tex-Mex menu, has eight lunch options that go beyond bacon and eggs.
“The lunch side of the menu is less popular than breakfast, but that said, I did get a few morning sandwich people today,” says the server.
Taco salad ($12.95) is filling, healthy and attractive, arriving in a modern white bowl encircled with tomato slices.
Triangles of corn tortillas deep-fried by the rotating kitchen crew are welcomingly under-salted. Use most of them (save some for later) to scoop up homemade guacamole that, while creamy, is bland: a squeeze of lime juice will liven it up.
Alongside the guacamole is a pile of black beans and corn kernels, mixed with just enough fried jalapenos and cilantro to keep things interesting. Underneath are large handfuls of pristine arugula and baby spinach veined with shreds of Monterey Jack cheese. Salsa runs along the fresh green surface, made in-house from San Marcos canned tomatillos. The trick is to mix everything together.
This is where the reserved tortilla chips come in handy. The salsa is hotter than a parked car in summer. There is no need for the imported Valentina hot sauce from Mexico on the table. The chips cool things down.
With lunch like that, who needs dinner? Easy Restaurant, 1645 Queen St. W. (at Roncesvalles Ave.) plus one other location, 416-537-4893, easyrestaurant.ca. Open seven days, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. apataki@thestar.ca, Twitter @amypataki