Agostino’s sits in Toronto’s toughest market, where cheap and Asian thrive and high-end rarely survives.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Agostino's
2497 Yonge St., Toronto
647-351-0507
$80 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip
Franco Agostino has never opened a restaurant I disliked - and there have been a lot of them. He has variously owned Banfi, Caffe Doria, Il Posto Nuovo, Imperia and Franco's. And all of them have had certain things in common. He is never, for instance, at the top of the food chain, but his food is always robust Italiana based on credible ingredients and solid technique. And pasta is clearly his first love; one has always been able to count on Signor Agostino for mouth-watering pasta, pizza and antipasti.
His new opus, Agostino's, occupies the way-too-big space that was briefly the nominally high-end Indian place Chakra (and before that Mimosa). The room has warmth thanks to bright tangerine walls and a variety of wrought-iron chandeliers, blue and white checked tablecloths and (oh, the cleverness!) a tall, peaked ceiling clad inexpensively but charmingly in bamboo blinds.
But can Franco cut it at Yonge and Eg? Although he is a few blocks north of Eglinton, it's the toughest market in town - tough because there are too many restaurants, they're all cutting their margins to sell cheap, the clientele are young wannabes with tight purses and the rent is killing. There are three formulas that work at Yonge and Eg: cheap (especially really cheap), unambitious pizza/pasta parlour and Asian. Nothing more upmarket survives between Eglinton and the Mason Dixon Line defined by Centro and North 44.
But Franco has always been cunning. Look at Banfi, the casual pizza and pasta bistro that le tout Forest Hill lines up for. He has a demonstrated ability to walk the fine line between price point and good taste. One wonders, though, how a restaurant as big as the new Agostino's can pull in enough customers to pay the rent. If he's right, they'll be attracted by the relatively friendly prices for food they'll think is fancy.
His pasta mains are from $15 to $19 and fish/meat mains go from $22 to $27. Foodies-in-training may be wowed by finding branzino (sea bass) for $24. I'm way too picky for Agostino's branzino, but others may not mind that it is slightly overcooked and perhaps not precisely as fresh as in more expensive restos. Saffron vinaigrette and endive marmellata both sound très gourmet; will it matter that the vinaigrette is too liquidy and not very tart and the veg are boring? The addition of plumped golden raisins to branzino references the Italian sweet and sour classic agrodolce , but the sweet without enough sour to balance it is like the Beatles without John Lennon.
Signor Agostino has crafted a clever menu. The crowds who make Grazie super-successful may be seduced by the upscale sound of steamed shrimp and mahogany clams in green chili brodetto. To me, the light chili-spiked tomato broth was lovely but the clams were overcooked. I, however, am a middle-aged curmudgeon who cooks clams often and tends to them neurotically, yanking them off the heat the second they open. Perhaps the chef at Agostino's is less compulsive. His warm mussel salad would suggest it, given the slightly overcooked shellfish. And the paucity of mussels in the salad suggests that someone has a gimlet eye on the bottom line. But it all sounds so sophisticated. Grilled octopus with Yukon golds and spicy tangerine citronette is overcooked, slightly tough octopus with wonderful warm potatoes and onions in pleasant vinaigrette. Spicy tangerine citronette? MIA.
Baccala mezzaluna is half-moon-shaped pasta stuffed with (says the menu) cod, golden tomatoes and green olives. We find the stuffing to be unembellished salt cod but the tomato sauce is pure Agostino - simultaneously rich and delicate. The gnocchi, on the other hand, are too sturdy and their oxtail sauce has little bits of texturally unamusing gristle. For dessert, they offer tiramisu, ice cream and berries.
This is a deeply ordinary dining experience - and it may be just what Yonge and Eg wants for dinner.