Thai Chef Nuit Regular displays the khaosoi beef dish she made at Khao San Road restaurantJENNIFER ROBERTS For The Globe and Mail
Campagnolo
832 Dundas St. W.
416-364-4785
$150 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip
That a downscale little bistro in a barely reno'd Coffee Time makes this list should tell you that Toronto has definitively abandoned formality. Chef Craig Harding's burrata (cheese made of fresh mozzarella filled with heavy cream) is a cloud of dairy erotica drizzled with garlicky oil, with roasted white and Champagne grapes. The other fabulous appetizer is tender grilled squid with arugula pesto and a tartlet of rice with squid ink. Mr. Harding's house-made spaghetti all'Amatriciana is dream-world pasta. Any resemblance between its sauce and an ordinary tomato sauce is nominal. He browns a lot of garlic in oil, and further jazzes the tomato sauce with tiny chunks of cured pork. He uses sheep's-milk ricotta as foundation for the lightest gnocchi I've met in months, perfect foil for rich sweet tomato-braised oxtail. Ignore the deep, velvety salted-caramel budino at dessert at your peril.
Porchetta & Co.
825 Dundas St. W.
647-352-6611
$15 for dinner for two, no alcohol
Porcine heaven is boutique pork marinated in sage, rosemary, lemon and garlic, wrapped in prosciutto, rolled in cured pork belly (for sweet and fat) and then slow-roasted. The warm, sliced pork with pork crackling goes on olive-oil-drizzled, crisp sourdough kaiser buns. The result is sweet, crunchy and fatty – sin between slices. Counter-top stools offer a dine-in option, but the constant draft from the door opening and the crowds lining up make takeout a more pleasant choice. Do not ignore the sides: Rapini spiked with chili and onion is all salt and crunch. Red beans are stewed with shredded pork, tomato and carrot, the barest hint of sweet making this the ultimate pork 'n' beans.
Khao San Road
326 Adelaide St. W.
647-352-5773
$80 for dinner for two with Thai beer, tax and tip
Say goodbye to gummy too-sweet pad Thai. Chef Nuit Regular cooks the food of her Chiang Mai home with fealty to authentic flavours. She zings Thai squash with red curry, shrimp paste and lemongrass and fries the fritters to perfect crunch. She adds house-made garlicky chicken sausage to cold rolls for a taste thrill. Gaeng massaman is smooth, rich peanut-and-tamarind sauce studded with toasted peanuts, on tender chicken and big chunks of potato. Pad phed pha, best done with pork pounded into tenderness, combines the meat with almost-raw Chinese long beans. But my favourite Nuit dish is khao soi, a textural fun fair somewhere between soup and stew – super-rich coconut cream spiked with red curry and lime, with a three-layered confection of savouries: superbly tender chicken, al dente thin noodles and, on top, a roof of crunchy, ungreasy deep-fried noodles.
Guu SakaBar
559 Bloor St. W.
647-343-1101
$85 for dinner for two with sake, tax and tip
Guu is a smile-inducer. They shout "welcome" when you arrive and "farewell" when you leave. You too might have to shout – for food – because there's loveable mayhem at Guu. And yummy Japanese food. Best in house is salmon natto uke – raw salmon, with natto (fermented soybeans), crisp fried garlic and wonton chips, shibazuke (pickled eggplant and cucumber in plum vinegar seasoned with ginger), takuan (pickled daikon), green onion and raw egg yolk. You mix the elements and wrap them in crisp nori to make scrumptious sweet/savoury crisp/soft packets. There is also lovely daikon salad, a crazy cool slaw of cucumber, tiny greens and slivers of slightly marinated daikon. Isobe-age is charming batons of sweet, tender fish cake in crispy, crunchy tempura batter studded with bits of nori for flavour… and green-tea salt for snazzy dipping.
Tofu Village
681 Bloor St. W.
647-345-3836
$35 for dinner for two with tax and tip
In Koreatown on Bloor near Christie, Tofu Village stands head and shoulders above its brethren, thanks to tofu silken enough to justify the restaurant's name, daily house-made kimchi less fiery than elsewhere, and full-bodied bi bim bap – still the rice-based meal-in-a bowl, but here the ingredients are more precisely prepared than elsewhere. Korean wonton soup is deep, rich broth (tastes like pork to me, but they say it's chicken) afloat with many big, fat pork dumplings studded with seaweed and chives. Chap chae is classic sweet-potato-noodle salad, here splendidly spiked with slivers of cabbage, red pepper, green onion and marinated beef ribs.
Keriwa Café
1690 Queen St. W.
416-533-2552
$175 for dinner for two with tax, tip and wine
Chef/owner Aaron Joseph Bear Robe, from the Siksika Nation in Alberta, has apprenticed under Michael Stadtlander and cooked at Splendido – and you can taste it at Keriwa, where the first impression is the subtle scent of wood smoke. Canada's first Native restaurant is a graceful ground-breaker, with incredible food and graceful service. The whitefish, our Cree server tells us, is line-caught on Lake Huron by fisherman Ken, whom they phone when they need a few fish. As an appetizer it's raw, very lightly smoked (in house, of course) and served with properly light buckwheat blinis made piquant with horseradish crème frâiche and pea shoots. It doesn't exactly hurt that apps are served in miniature dugout canoes made of burled wood. Among the mains is an updated pemmican: ultra tender braised bison with barely pickled yellow beans, pea shoots and a scatter of Saskatoon berries. Such nuanced food!
Modus Ristorante
145 King St. W.
416-861-9977
$180 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip
Chef Bruce Woods is having a midlife renaissance. He made great food at Il Posto in the late 90s and then at Centro from 2002 till he burned out and stopped trying. Today, Chef is on fire again. The deep, rich sauces on pasta, the long-cooked unctuous meat dishes, the olive oil, the Parmigiano-Reggiano, the big flavours, the exuberance on the taste buds are all present. Great lashings of truffle oil and shavings of black truffles turn squash agnolotti into food of the gods. Chef's risotto is of impeccable texture – al dente rice with creamy sauce – and the cream and lobster flavouring is both generous (lobster chunks) and beautifully balanced (saffron for sweet, pecorino for salt and speck for bite). The scallop main is six big, sweet golden sea critters on carrot puree inflected with sage and brown butter. A cute little slaw of shaved fennel and micro greens is a bouquet of fun atop the scallops. This is traditional Italian cooking at its best.
The County General
936 Queen St. W.
416-531-4447
$90 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip
The General is Splendido's downtown downscale beach-head, with loud 60s music, lots of brown liquor, and farmhouse food gone snazzy. Like ridiculously tender, lightly smoked pork belly piled on three delicate little steamed buns, one zinged with marvellous house made kimchi, one with avocado chutney and one with green-apple slaw that contrasts nicely with the richness of the pork. And the best ever Reuben sandwich: Sweet, moist house-smoked brisket with snazzy gruyère, subtle sauerkraut and real Thousand Island dressing on impeccable dark rye. There is fabulous fried chicken with multi-chutneys, and impeccable frites. And noise and lineups and no reservations. For good ol' boys ('n' gals) gone hipster.
F'Amelia
12 Amelia St.
416-323-0666
$150 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip
You can tell by the spotty service that F'Amelia's owners are first-time restaurateurs, but they got really smart about the kitchen and hired cooks from Splendido and The Black Hoof – which produces impeccable Italiana and charming charcuterie. There are gnocchi like pillows, and tagliolini with perfectly cooked sweet soft clams and mussels in deep, rich garlic-and-chili oil. Rosemary and Parmigiano scent smooth polenta with soft, rich osso bucco. And the pizza! Blasted in the Neapolitan pizza oven for 90 seconds, it comes out crisp and charred, with superb toppings. My personal favourite topping is cold fiore di latte with cold cherry tomatoes covered with a trail of freshly made emerald pesto.
Enoteca Sociale
1288 Dundas St. W.
416-534-1200
$180 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip
The hottest table in town, thanks to the new guy at the stoves: After a brief sojourn cooking at Lucien in the fall, Grant van Gameren (ex Black Hoof) is settled at Sociale – for now. When the meat man cometh to down-home Italiana, what does he do? He becomes a pasta master! Everyone hates being pigeon-holed, but we do miss chef's charcuterie wizardry. This, however, is not to damn his pasta. Tossing it with chicken gizzards, porcini and gorgonzola is dancing on the edge of the ledge. Blue cheese 'n' gizzards? But it works! Fresh B.C. spot prawns are the sweet jewels that adorn house-made spaghetti, with salt from cured fish roe, bitter from rapini and hot from chili. Charred broccoli and roasted-red-pepper sauce jazz up pasta with robust pork sausage. Chef smokes and then fries sweetbreads for soft heart and crisp skin. His grilled octopus is charred and tender. Good luck getting a reservation.