A Delight at Luma

It's been a busy couple weeks and I never had a chance to share our experience at Luma, the new Oliver & Bonacini at Bell Lightbox on King. It is an upscale restaurant in the heart of theatre district - what I loved is that the moment we sat down, our waitress asked if we were under any time crunch to hit a show. Even if you think that is a given for restaurants in the area, I would never take that for granted so I really appreciated the ask (even though we were not on our way anywhere!). Luma is spacious and contemporary, with large windows facing out on King. We sat along the back of the restaurant and had a great view of the space.

The menu is varied and offers many options. We, of course, had taken a preview on-line before settling in on the restaurant for the night...and here's how we filled our bellies:

Appetizers: We had tuna tartare, grilled octopus and foie gras torchon. The tuna tartare (pictured) was a surprising dish - very colourful and fresh and perfect as an appetizer. There was so much stuff in it! The grilled octopus, with a bit of kick, was also quite colourful and uniquely prepared. It was good, but I would have liked the octopus a bit more tender (I was thinking Mediterranean style). The foie gras was also quite a surprising experience - not because we don't know how foie gras tastes, but this was one of the better perparations we have had. It came with brioche (which we could have used more of) and pineapple salsa, which added a unique flavour we have not had before. We happily inhaled our beautiful appetizers.

Mains: I am usually a fish girl and Tony goes with meat, but on this night,

I opted for the steak frites (how could I walk away from lemon pepper rub, mushrooms and truffle butter??) and Tony went with roasted cod. My steak frites came piled high and delicious, it smelled amazing even before my first bite and really hit the spot. It's always a bonus to have LOTS of mushrooms! Tony's cod was a stunning dish, served also with mushrooms and porcini cream...and foam! I love foam on my fish! We were both very pleased with our mains, and happy they continued to elevate our experience at Luma after our wonderful appetizers.

And yes, we made room for dessert. Actually, I was quite full, but Opera Cake was just calling my name to try. It was a 3 part dessert, centered by the almond sponge cake with mocha butter cream and chocolate ganache accompanied by popcorn ice cream and caramel popcorn. I'm not big on caramel popcorn but it was an interesting flavour mix in any case, the most unique dessert on the menu.

Overall, we had a great meal at Luma and would be happy to visit again. The flavours were fresh and colourful - loved the use of some new flavours with some very typical dishes which made it unique. Next time you're down to see a show and in for a little splurge, try Luma!

A Day in Stratford with Dinner at Rundles Sophisto-Bistro

It's rare that we hang around town on long weekends, since we usually make our way back out West, so with the beautiful weather, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a day trip. We had heard great things about the town of Stratford so we started asking around about things to do and places to eat. A friend recommended Rundles to us, a highly regarded restaurant in the little town - reviewed by Fodor's and Frommer's. Of course, Stratford is also home to the annual Stratford Shakespeare Festival, a celebration of theatre through classic and contemporary plays and musicals May through early November. The most popular play this year is likely The Tempest starring Christopher Plummer (for those who don't know, he was Captain von Trapp in Sound of Music, and is famed originally for Shakespearean plays). While The Tempest was playing during the Sunday matinee we were hoping for, it was sold out. Fortunately, we found great tickets for Evita. One of the great discoveries we made while researching plays was becoming a Play On member - it is a program designed to promote theatre to those under 29, and offers $25 tickets for great seats at various shows! We ended up with fabulous orchestra left seats, row E, right beside some uber expensive seats and the view was great.

Evita: The show was good and very intense, with scenes moving quickly through. The music, of course, was wonderful, done by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Although most reviews had celebrated the actress Chilina Kennedy over the play, we loved Josh Young the most, who played Che and narrated the story. The story was powerful and captures just a small part of the glamour and mystery behind Eva Peron, but enough to give you a taste into her strength, determination and ambition. For better or for worse, the story is captivating.

Matinee was the perfect time for a show - we left Toronto around 10am, pretty leisurely for us, and made it to town in time for lunch and a quick walk around. We came out of the play around 4pm and had time to paddle boat along the river before heading to dinner. It was a beautiful day, and we were lucky not only to paddle boat but also to enjoy music on the barge that was going on - a really nice summer day to be out!

Rundles is located right by the river, in a beautiful building - a mix of traditional and contemporary style. We arrived at the restaurant a tad early but they were able to seat us. We originally made reservations for the restaurant (which was actually quite full) and ended up being seated in Sophisto-Bistro. We didn't know this until we saw the menus, but after taking a peek through, we were happy with what we were seeing and decided to stay. Sophisto-Bistro offers a 2 course prix-fixe menu for $44.50 and 3 courses for $55.50.

Appetizers:

Lobster bisque with salt cod croquettes - the bisque was light yet flavourful and frothy. I wouldn't normally consider bisques really healthy, but it did seem that way! The salt cod croquettes were also a pleasant surprise - i've never had good ones before, they are normally underwhelming friend dough balls, but these actually tasted of cod and were quite good!

Grilled calamari with shredded green papaya, kohlrabi and mango - the calamari was served on a skewer, grilled to just the right tenderness, and the salad had just a slight kick to it.

Mains:

The braised short ribs of beef was amazing!

It was tenderly falling apart as it should, and we were given a utensil resembling a fish knife for the meal - a telling sign of its tenderness. We've had great braised beef before, but what took this meal over the top was the fantastic horseradish cream. It looked like whipped butter, and because of the large portion served, we weren't even sure what it was. Eating the horseradish, as Tony said, was like eating a vegetable. It was light and you could put as much as you wanted on the short ribs and not be overwhelmed by its flavour.

I had seared sea scallops with peking duck and green mango salad, in a brown butter flavoured with yuzu. The sauce was amazing and I couldn't get enough. I cut my scallops into little portions to maximize the surface area to soak up the brown butter! Needless to say, I also made the most of my bread to soak up the sauce!

Dessert:

Vanilla-flavoured crème brûlée and chilled lemon grass soup. It was a really complex dish, very fragrant and with an assortment of flavours that all came together nicely in the crème brûlée, the ice cream it was served with, and the lemon grass "shooter" it came with. A truly unique and delicious dessert.

Dark chocolate cream praline, with espresso granita and "Indian Summer" zabaglione (light whipped custard). I LOVED the zabaglione, served with candied pistacios on top. I also dug deep for the dark chocolate, but I guess in my hurry to pick a dessert I skipped by the "espresso" part, and those who know me will know I'm not a fan of coffee. It was all delicious of course, but in the end I swapped for Tony's fabulous crème brûlée so we wouldn't waste the granita as I desperately picked through the top and bottom layer :P

We had a great time at Sophisto-Bistro and wonder how amazing the "restaurant" menu might have been, but just means we should take another trip back. In the end, we were happy with the menu choices and our delicious meals for a really great price.

We had a wonderful day in Stratford, and we were glad to have made the drive out (was under 2 hours), see a show and have a fabulous dinner.