CLOSED: The Stockyards (Toronto)

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 699 St. Clair Avenue West
Type of Meal: Dinner

After visiting New Orleans and having delicious fried chicken at Willie Mae’s Scotch House, I was intrigued to sample what Toronto has to offer. The Stockyards was rated #1 in the city by Blogto, so naturally it seemed fitting to start with the best.

My friend warned me the restaurant is small with limited seating (about twenty bar stools facing the kitchen and wall). Since they don’t take reservations, we decided to head over earlier but found a line an hour long by 6:30. Luckily, the girl at the cash agreed to take down our number to call us when a table was ready. There are plenty of bars in the area to wait at. Since Stockyards isn’t licensed, also provided us the opportunity to have a drink before dinner.

Between the four of us we split two fried chicken dinners ($15). Each arrived in a cast iron skillet with four pieces of chicken, a large serving of fries, a decent sized coleslaw, ketchup and hot sauce.

The buttermilk marinated chicken was juicy and tender - even the denser breast pieces. The breading was crispy, thin and had some spice mixed into it. Personally, I would like a flakier crust to give more crunch and spices mixed into the buttermilk to brine the meat better. All in all, it was good fried chicken. Although I liked Stockyard’s chicken, I personally found the fried chicken at Patois more suited to my taste.

The sides were amazing! The fries were thin, crispy and full of potato flavour. Despite being stuffed I couldn’t help but continue to consume them. Additionally, the coleslaw was balanced between acidity and creaminess; I particularly liked the celery seeds mixed throughout.

Wanting to try some of the Stockyard’s famous BBQ (unfortunately, their ribs and chicken wasn’t available), we split a pulled pork sandwich ($8.50). The soft egg bun was piled high with big chunks of smoky meat. Although the pork was well flavoured, there could be more BBQ sauce – I like it saucy! Some coleslaw also topped the sandwich to add freshness. Note, when ordering sandwiches it will arrive by itself, for an extra $2.50 you can add a side of fries.

In an attempt to balance out the meaty starchy meal, we ordered a side of brussel sprouts ($6). They were delicious – cooked well (soft but still had bite to it) and flavourful from the addition of smoked ham and sriracha sauce. Consider ordering this as they arrive quickly and may help stave off hunger while waiting for the chicken to be made.

If the wait doesn’t appeal to you, Stockyards does offer take-out. In fact, it seemed to be a popular option. You should live in the area or be willing to eat without a table nearby as letting this delicious chicken sit in a paper container and get soggy would be a shame.

Overall mark - 7 out of 10

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Gastro World's Grading System

• Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
• 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
• 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
• 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
• 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
• 10 - absolute perfection!

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CLOSED: Cava (Toronto)

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 1560 Yonge Street
Type of Meal: Dinner

Situated in a street level corridor of the St. Clair Centre, it’s not a location you’d expect to find a restaurant with Cava’s Spanish and Latin American flair. But, individuals certainly known about it given its busy dinner service on our week night visit. Their dining room is a stark contrast from the dimly lit corridor outside, as upon entering you’re greeted with clean blonde wood and tons of lighting.

With a fairly extensive tapas menu, there are a large number of choices and a particularly good vegetarian selection. We relied on the advice of Theran, our server, to narrow down our choices. His favourite dish is the pincho of Gamay-poached foie gras ($9), so we ordered one each given the small portion.

Generally, I’m not a big fan of foie gras (based on taste and ethical reasons), but decided to try it anyways given the hyped up dish. Thick slices of cool foie gras sit on a crisp crostini and is topped with a dollop of pear mostarda (similar to a chutney). The poached foie gras is one of the smoothest I’ve ever had with a consistency similar to a flourless chocolate torte.  As it melts in your mouth, your tongue is coated with rich flavour; but, before it becomes too overpowering the sweet mostarda cuts through and mellows everything out. If you like foie gras than this is a dish you need to try.

My friends really enjoyed the Spanish mackerel ceviche verde ($14) which is less tart than typical ceviches. Instead, the cilantro, fish and tomatillos (?) shine through, with the mixture tasting good on its own or with the fried tortillas accompanying it. For me, I found it a bit bland and would have liked more heat and citrus to counteract the oiliness from the tortilla chips.

The warm salad ($10) had some great vegetables in it - artichoke, piquillo pepper and oyster mushrooms. They are all grilled and dressed with a simple caper vinaigrette and sprinkled with cilantro. This is a hearty salad and good for the cold weather.

This dinner was the first time I’ve tried jamón Serrano ($16.50) and must admit that after having Ibérico is a bit of a disappointment, but you get what you pay for. The slices were too thick making them difficult to cut or chew. Overall, it was sort of tough – perhaps because the ham wasn’t well marbled – and doesn’t have that melt-in-your-mouth quality I enjoy with charcuterie.

Hands down my favourite dish of the night was the eggplant ($9.75). Wedges of eggplant are coated, deep fried and then cooked in a dish with tons of gooey queso fresco (cheese) and a tangy tomatillo sauce. Drizzles of honey and tons of bonito flakes top everything and just brings the dish together so well. It had a great combination of flavours and I could easily eat a whole plate of the eggplant with some crusty bread. You definitely have to try out this dish when you visit.

The roasted brussel sprouts ($8.95) were nice but pretty plain. Sure they were cooked well and had a nice caramelized crust to bring out its natural sweetness but they lacked a complementary flavour – the black garlic just didn’t really stand out.

To end we had a series of the more substantial small plates. The first was the grilled squid and zucchini ($15.75) in a romesco sauce (a hazelnut and red pepper blended puree). There was a fair amount of squid accompanying the dish, but could have benefited from a bit more time on the grill to give it a smokier crust. Although quite colourful, the romesco sauce wasn’t very strong; overall, it’s decent but lacked anything exciting.

                                                      

The grilled sea scallops ($23) were perfectly cooked so they were just cooked through and remained sweet and tender. The cauliflower puree was creamy and certainly had some butter in it. I love the addition of lentils to contrast the smooth puree, but wish they were softer.

Lastly, my friends wanted to try the veal sweetbreads ($23). Having only had a small piece of it once in my life, I knew it wasn’t horrible but was always under the impression it was calf brains. Turns out I was completely misinformed and sweetbreads is actually the thymus (throat) and pancreas of the animal. At Cava, Chef McDonald uses the thymus of the veal.  As with my first experience, it actually tastes pretty good (akin to a very tender piece of chicken with a denser pâté texture) but not something I’d order on a regular basis. Hats off to the chef for pairing it with a radicchio-poblano chile salad, which went so well adding a freshness against the heavy sweetbread.

To end, we shared a plate of churros con chocolate ($8). You really can’t go wrong with freshly fried pieces of dough dusted with sugar and served with hot melted dark chocolate. If the star anise was left out of the batter it would be even better; the licorice taste of the spice just isn’t something I like. But, once the luscious chocolate covers it, the flavour is thoroughly masked so not a deal breaker.

All in all, the food was good; our meal had some really great dishes and none were overly disappointing. But, the true highlight was the great service we received from Theran – friendly and approachable, attentive to our needs and so knowledgeable about Cava’s menu. However, I’d caution you to order a few dishes at a time and then order more if required. We ended up ordering too much and were stuffed by the time the scallops and sweetbread arrived. But, just make sure you order the eggplants, you’ll thank me for it later.

Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10

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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

• Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
• 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
• 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
• 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
• 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
• 10 - absolute perfection!

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