WINTERLICIOUS: Contemporary French at Celestin

Another Winterlicious has passed us and time to reminisce about our last meal of the "season." Our first taste of Celestin was several years ago when Tony bought me a delicious birthday cake from the bakery. Truthfully, I had heard mixed things about the restaurant so I couldn't wait to check it out for myself. And really, you can't go wrong during Winterlicious - even if a 3 course meal were bad, it's not like you blew a lot of money trying a new place out.

Celestin is a fairly small intimate restaurant, contemporary in nature but not too sleek and still holds some traditional charm. The good and bad thing about Winterlicious is you don't need to spend a lot of time studying the menu, you only choose between a couple set options, but part of the fun is evaluating the options and deciding what to eat! In any case, we were quick to browse the menu and made our decisions.

There was no doubt what started I would have, the lobster bisque, one of my most favourite things in the world, how could I ever resist?? It was as delicious as I expected, with a light froth and solid lobster meat (it is my pet peeve when there is no actual lobster meat!). I definitely could have used more in my little bowl. Tony had a delicious ricotta gnocchi, was light and just right as an appetizer.

I had a braised lamb shoulder with prawns and white beans as my main, which was quite good except that I don't like white beans very much (I must have overlooked it on the menu!). Tony's roast sea bream was really good, the fish was prepared just perfect and served beautifully. Although both our mains were tasty, I thought the fish was more exceptional in its preparation. I love good fish when it is cooked to the right level with just enough flavour added.

I can't say the portions were exceptionally large so I definitely had sufficient room for dessert - a Creme Arlequin which was some version of a creme brûlée topped with this amazing layer of dark chocolate. It was amazing! We also had a Winter Pudding with caramelized apples, which was also very yummy. i think the best part was that the desserts were delicately prepared and not too sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed them both, but the Creme Arlequin was definitely the better surprise of the two.

Overall, we really enjoyed our experience at Celestin. The food was good, the restaurant nice and quiet enough to catch up with friends, and the service was friendly and intimate. It's a little more modern than Auberge, but food still quite good, although more simple. I appreciate when a restaurant doesn't overbook themselves for Winterlicious. We felt comfortable and had a nice time. As we looked around the room, it looked like a lot of regulars visiting. A nice side benefit is that there is a public parking lot across the street from Celestin - having parking is an underrated asset. We've wasted a lot of time driving round and around the block to find street parking in the mid-town areas and is very annoying, enough to deter me from visiting again.

Celestin
623 Mount Pleasant Rd.
416-544-9035
www.celestinrestaurant.com

WINTERLICIOUS: Quality Food, Service and Ambiance at Auberge du Pommier

We were most excited about our Winterlicious reservation at Auberge du Pommier, a lovely French restaurant in North York. Although minutes from my office, it has always been a bit far to trek on the weekend. This year, we got an early reservation to drop in right after work with our friends Al and Gloria...perfect!

I think Auberge is one of those restaurants that really takes pride on delivering a great Winterlicious/Summerlicious experience, which can't be said about all participating restaurants. When you make a reservation at Auberge, you know it will be a quality experience. It was our first time at the restaurant so we were eager to start eating.

To start, Tony and I were both most interested in the puff pastry with goat cheese...but since we always want to try as much as possible, we also ordered the sweet shrimp cocktail salad. The puff pastry did not disappoint - it was a simple dish (not to understate the actual complexity to make!), delicious, and served beautifully accompanied by delicate. The shrimp cocktail salad was a VERY good choice, it came as a tower of shrimp served with dill and tarragon and was super tasty! I felt like I could have had a whole second plate and was eager to sweep up the remaining sauce with bread. It always pays off to try more items on the menu! In the end, I think this was my favourite dish of the night.

Choosing mains was tough, all 3 options sounded good. We ultimately settled on peppered Wellington County beef and baked pickerel, giving up the coq au vin. The beef was very good, had great "beef" flavour, which is always hard to find. The flavour was almost baked into the meat, it was slightly dry but great flavour made it for me. My fish was prepared just perfect, although not outstanding in any particular way, I still really enjoyed it. It's not always easy to serve baked fish with just the right texture, tenderness and flavour.

For dessert, I opted for the cheese plate with "Le Blackburn" and

Tony salted caramel mousse with caramelized white chocolate torte and banana chocolate sorbet. My cheese plate was good, but a little disappointing. I was expecting an assortment of cheeses - simply my misunderstanding. The cheese was actually quite good, but as I prefer soft cheeses, I think I "under" enjoyed it. Tony's dessert, on the other hand, was wonderful. Everything on the plate was good! I was initially hesitant because I am not in love with caramel, but the salted caramel mousse was really tasty along with the torte and the sorbet...it all came together beautifully. Having chocolate banana sorbet is just awesome - who doesn't like chocolate and banana??

We had a great experience at Auberge - it is a solid French restaurant, a rustic house adding to the simple and understated charm. I also appreciated the exceptional attention to service, our plates always came with two servers at a time...these small details matter. I always feel a tad rushed for Winterlicious meals, but and although our food came quickly Auberge did not compromise quality or service.

Auberge du Pommier - guaranteed for a good Winterlicious experience!

Auberge du Pommier

4150 Yonge Street

416-222-2220

Click here for Winterlicious Menu.

Redemption: A Tasty Meal at Coquine

It's not often that we'll return to a restaurant we've had a bad experience in, but the exception is usually made for gatherings because it's not really about the food, there's always something acceptable to eat, it's about the people. We made a return to Coquine Bistro on Yonge this weekend for a friend's birthday. Long time followers of my blog know I generally don't write "trash" reviews - why share bad experiences? I'm here to celebrate food! I have shared some mediocre experiences in the past, usually to express my disappointment more than anything. Coquine was one such experience more than a year ago where we stopped in for a bite after picking our friends up from the airport and were served a disappointing meal that came slow and cold. I was disappointed because the menu had looked so good online! Well today, we have redemption! We had a wonderful meal last night and are glad we had the opportunity to return.

To start:

I had escargots, which were baked with lots of ooey gooey cheese. They were hot and delicious and exactly what I was expecting. Tony had French onion soup, which was also delicious. The soup was not super salty as it is in most cases, but had a rich, sweet onion taste. We were both pleased.

Mains:

I was still a little skeptical of the restaurant when I ordered,

so in debating between the veal bourguignon and seafood linguine, I decided to go with the safer linguine - how can anyone screw up pasta right? My seafood linguine ended up being AMAZING, probably one of the best seafood pastas I have had (imagine that!). It was served with copious amounts of seafood, I could barely finish the giant scallop, mussels (done just right), shrimp, clams...let alone the fresh pasta. It was all served in a little peppery white wine broth and was just perfect. I lapped it all up in the end! Tony had veal liver, and he was also very happy with his meal, asking for it rare, it came more like medium rare, but actually quite perfect how it arrived. Served with a savoury sauce of onions and mushrooms, Tony said it was some of the best liver he's had in years.

Dessert:

Our meals were such large portions that I was too full to indulge in dessert, but the waitress kindly brought over a chocolate lava cake and creme brulee for the birthday girl that was passed around - I had a small bite of the cake which was oozing chocolate; no doubt, having a whole dessert would have been good too!

I'm very happy to write about what a great meal we had, especially since we were so disappointed the first time. Our waitress was also quite good, no wine glass was ever empty or had to be filled by the group themselves. Hopefully Coquine maintains its consistency and our bad experience was pure bad luck! We are definitely happy to recommend and return to Coquine now!

Coquine is at 2075 Yonge Street, phone 416-322-6767.

Duck Galore in Quebecois Cuisine at Cafe du Lac

Followers of this blog know that I have some certain favourites for food - duck, foie gras, truffle. Anything with those three really can't go wrong! Last night, Tony and I ventured out to Etobicoke to visit Cafe du Lac, where the Quebecois cuisine features duck in many ways, poutine with short ribs, and foie gras that can be added to every meal! Our friend Stella had advised us to call ahead to book the "duck in a jar," which without ever seeing the actual description, I trusted would be a good bet (I totally get caught up in the exclusivity factor that I have to order ahead of time).

I regret that our visit to the mall earlier in the day meant we already had some "low class" poutine from Hero Burgers, and so we passed on the delicious sounding appetizer. We opted instead for the Farmer's Pate, created by the chef, and the blended mushroom soup that came with Tony's prix fixe special. The soup was delicious and reminded me of the great meal we had in Paris at Cinq-Mars. The arrival of my duck in a jar was an ordeal for the entire little restaurant - the chef came out to witness the "unveiling" of the duck, making the waiter just a little nervous that he wouldn't screw up this masterpiece. The duck is literally cooked in a jar, and served upside down on a plate, to be carefully removed by the waiter to maintain its standing shape. Applauses around were heard as the waiter successfully removed the jar and no tumble of duck was heard. I should mention that this didn't happen EVERY time this main was served, maybe it's just because I was extra excited, as was the table beside us, and we broke out in applause and cheers together. The arrival of Tony's special, boar chop, seemed ordinary in comparison! Our two mains couldn't have been more different - my duck was rich, decadent, fatty, and delicious (did I mention it was stuffed with foie gras!?), and Tony's boar chop was surprisingly simple, yet distinct in taste, and I loved that it was served with colourful vegetables. Truth be told my duck was a little tough to cut through, but every bite was heavenly, from duck, to foie gras, to cabbage and mashed potatoes. We left nothing un-eaten!

We are mostly downtown snobs, too lazy to make the trek outside to eat very often, but Cafe du Lac was definitely worth it. It sits in a little strip mall - in fact, you'd easily drive past it without knowing what you are looking for. It is fine dining food in a neighbourhood establishment, with friendly and personable staff that is excited about their food. In fact, we had arrived early for our reservation, and the waiter did not realize that we had already claimed one of the limited duck in a jars we called ahead for - I was pleased that they were still saving the main for us (even though by then we would have been incredibly late), and in the end, meant that the table next to us got a chance to snatch up the "freed" duck. Cafe du Lac is a wonderful little restaurant with modern Quebecois cuisine that we will certainly be back to...although maybe not so soon as I am still feeling full the day after!