Find comfort on Bloor W.
THE WHITE BRICK KITCHEN
★★ (out of 4) GOOD Address: 641 Bloor St. W. (at Euclid Ave.), 647-347-9188, thewhitebrickkitchen.com Chef: Stephen Howell Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reservations: Weekday lunch and Tuesday to Saturday dinner only Wheelchair access: Patio entrance, washrooms downstairs Price: Dinner for two with lemonade, tax and tip: $50
It is arguably the best fried chicken in Toronto.
The White Brick Kitchen turns out buttermilkmarinated birds that are juicy under a greaseless batter so crisp it makes crumbs on the table. Like the rest of the food here, it is messy, filling and tasty.
I’m at the Koreatown diner by chance, having plunged down an Internet wormhole while researching another topic. One minute you’re typing a key phrase into a search engine, then 10 minutes and untold hyperlinks later, you’ve arrived at new knowledge.
We could all use such serendipity. The vibe There is much to like about White Brick Kitchen.
Service is prompt and smiling. The patio is shaded and quiet. Canadian memorabilia hangs on the wall, like a1953 Ontario road map. Fellow diners reflect the Annex location: The young and the academic. Breakfast is served all day.
Brothers Stephen (ex-Stockyards) and Matthew Howell opened their self-described “North American comfort food” restaurant five years ago. From the Korean spots around them, they learned to cook with kimchi and to appreciate the retail strip’s low-key character. Making a splash isn’t for them.
“I like flying under the radar,” Matthew says. Pinkalicious It takes 15 minutes to fry the chicken. During the wait, the Caesar ($8.75) makes a good first impression with its beef salami wheel perched on the steakspiced rim for fun.
Then there’s the homemade ginger beer spicing up a $7 shandy.
But the drink on every table seems to be the lemonade ($3), fuchsia thanks to a good glug of grenadine. The syrup’s sticky sweetness fights for dominance with the citric pucker, a battle that lasts until the last slurp. Big mac Portions are generous. Half a chicken is the standard serving. Fries come by the bushel. Salad is a field’s worth of baby arugula.
“It’s a lot of food,” the server says when asked to pack up leftovers.
Case in point: Trashily delicious mac ’n’ cheese ($15). This carbohydrate party kicks off with cavatappi noodles and enough cheese to tether mouth to bowl. Sun-dried tomatoes stain the sauce pink and create the required pimiento cheese effect.
Crushed Ritz crackers are the tacky top, put they’re as much for texture as for Instagram. Lovely mess Fried chicken ($18) comes with fluffy waffles or so-so biscuits. For $2 extra, the kitchen sluices the plate with a zesty sauce evocative of General Tso (outranking Colonel Sanders across the street). The waffle quickly becomes red pulp.
Breakfast poutine ($13), on the other hand, is a glorious mess.
Terrible things are done in the name of Canada’s iconic dish. This is the rare success, the maple starchiness of baked beans blending seamlessly into vegan gravy.
Snappy smoked sausage plays off melting cheese curds. A fried egg yolk oozes onto unbowed fries. “It’s a monster,” the server says. Yes, but it’s a beautiful monster. apataki@thestar.ca, Twitter @amypataki