The past year was a woeful one for restaurants. The recession hit them hard and many – including Boba, Truffles, Lakes, Carman's, Bigliardi's, Indus Junction, Era Ora, Monsoon, Flow and Jalapeno – closed. The few that opened were mostly unambitious. On the upside, prices went down, local food hit centre stage and salume made a taste explosion. It's no coincidence that five of 2009's best serve meat that is smoked, brined or otherwise preserved. Herewith are my the Top 10 of the year, in order from most preferred.
The cool, casual space is drop-dead gorgeous and the food is homey Italiana from a Mark McEwan alumnus who keeps a salumeria (glass cold room) full of house-made sausages and hams. His salads (such as orange and shaved beet with radish and red onion) are sexy, his pastas are superb and the desserts are divine. Best is crostatina: Ontario buffalo ricotta barely sweetened in tender pulverized almond crust with poached pears and delicate honey sauce. These are flavours that shout joy from the rooftops. 602 King St. W., 416-865-1600
Charcuterie was 2009’s trendiest dish – and nobody does it better than Black Hoof.
The Hoof doesn't take reservations, doesn't take credit cards and typically involves a 45-minute wait for tables, but it also serves the best cured meat in town bar none. Its expertly composed charcuterie boards might include fabulously fatty pork terrine, pancetta blessed with great big flavour, bresaola sliced so thin that you can see the laminated wood stripes of the board underneath it or boar salami aromatic with fennel and moist with big fat globules. It is a carnivore's paradise. 938 Dundas St. W., 416-551-8854
Under its new owners, Splendido took is menu down a notch, offering deliciously simple food for complicated people.
New owners took it down a notch, offering simple food for complicated people. But what simplicity. Instead of foie gras, we have silky foie-gras parfait with toasted brioche and drunken cherries. The delicate house-made pappardelle, meanwhile, come with delicate white rabbit and oh-so tender baby artichokes. The wait staff cares, knows its stuff, charms. And the desserts are dreamy: Lemon meringue pie is imaginatively deconstructed, consisting of a small pond of lemon curd topped with meringue swirls, a pastry disc and a small swirl of yogurt that has been hung in cheesecloth to delete its water and intensify the sharpness. If only life was Splendido. 88 Harbord St., 416-929-7788, www.splendido.ca
Local is a tiny, funky bistro with a passionate Italian in the kitchen. Co-owner Fabio Bondi is a pasta master who makes ziti from scratch and stuffs his half-moon pockets with a silken purée of butternut squash and goat cheese and sauces them with fresh sage leaves fried crisp in butter. But Local doesn't take reservations, so good luck getting a table. 1710 Queen St. W., 416-534-6700, www.localkitchen.ca
When Jamie Kennedy downsized and sold his eponymous wine bar, its new owners (chef Scott Vivian among them) renamed it Wine Bar, retained the warm wood decor and also kept the no-reservations policy. Most of the menu remains pure Kennedy, and mostly at his standard. Still on are the fab frites and many of Kennedy's fab small plates. For his part, chef Vivian makes sweet love to scallops, dabs slow-cooked onion jam on blood-red beef tenderloin, does exquisite things with mushrooms. But they need to work on consistency – and on serving their glorious artisanal cheeses at room temp. 9 Church St., 416-504-9463, www.9church.com
