News

Senses

318 Wellington St. West, Toronto. 416-935-0400. Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip, $280.

My mother taught me a lot of stuff that I cheerfully abandoned at the first possible opportunity. I put the ketchup bottle on the table. (I know she's rolling over in her grave right now at this public admission.) My lipstick seldom matches anything. I wear patent leather shoes after Labour Day. But dammit, there is to be proper service at table in expensive restaurants. A girl's gotta draw the line somewhere. When we sat for almost half an hour at Senses with no bread offered (wine and water having been poured), I thought: "It's just one slip."

But then the server explained the amuse-bouche as a shot glass of honeydew "coulissss" with white asparagus foam. Twice he refers to a coulis as a coulissss, and tells us to down it as a shot, but there is no way that (mis-pronounced) purée is leaving the shot glass without being spooned out. No spoon is provided. Good luck eating purée from a shot glass with a fork.

As the meal unfolds, despite my having told the waiter at the beginning to keep the designer water coming, a server visits our table three times and fails to notice empty water (and wine) glasses. We empty the bread basket but no more comes.

Is it horribly old school to expect seamless service when dinner is costing just shy of $150 a person including very moderate alcohol consumption, tax and tip? If yes, put me out to pasture now, but please order in foie gras and lobster.

Senses re-opened on Jan. 25 after a much publicized reno of both space and menu. According to the publicists' spin, chef Patrick Lin has achieved a unique fusion of Chinese tastes with French technique. A new idea? Methinks not. Chef's combos are clever, but hardly headline makers: Nice fresh Dungeness crab is cutely garnished with shrimp in endive packets and exotic fruit salsa, and fresh geoduck (giant) clam is shaved thinly over micro-greens with blood orange and mango. But neither dish rocks my world. Red tuna tartar is more interesting, thanks to being rolled up in thinly-sliced sweet-and-sour mango and strewn with house-made crisp lotus chips.

The only stellar app is lobster bolognaise, wherein lobster-studded pasta is sauced with an erotically intense sauce that tastes as if a great quantity of lobster shells has been boiled down to build a sauce that is pure, strong essence of lobster. Chef loves lobster: His best main course is a big, fat wok-fried lobster tail of impeccable texture zinged with chili, ginger, shallot, garlic and black bean, then gentled with a touch of cream for a delectable East/West fusion.

But are we in the presence of greatness? Is this Susur food? Stadtlander food? Not a chance. Duck breast has been marinated in five-spice powder, its skin crisped, but the pea green and mushroom accompaniment is merely pleasant. Kobe rib-eye steak is impeccably tender; its garnishes are good but not inventive. Nor is slightly overcooked steamed barramundi with soggy Chinese veg anything to crow over.

Senses' reno is about as exciting as the barramundi. It is now and always has been a splendid room, tall, elegant, gorgeous. But little has changed, save for the addition of a very pretty "wine wall." We remain grateful for the best sound absorption in town thanks to one tall wall upholstered in taupe, dark brown and black velour squares. We love the gigantic lampshades and the grey/green curtains.

Perhaps oddly, for Chef Lin's claim to fame is all about the savouries, the best part of dinner at Senses is the sweets. Apple fritello is creamy rich panna cotta topped with three almost unbearably crisp apple beignets. Banana cream pie is the ultimate mousse, dense, light and creamy, with a caramelized lid, fragile sugar cookie base, and a big dollop of the deepest darkest chocolate pudding I have ever had. Warm chocolate and marshmallow tart is a grown-up s'more moment, thanks to caramelized homemade marshmallow with dark molten chocolate cake and espresso ice cream with candied kumquats.

But post-prandial pleasures aside, if I were having a publicist garner attention all over town for a reno and a menu re-make, I think I'd wait till I had something more to show for it.