Summerlicious: Bent

Bent

777 Dundas Street West

Toronto, ON M6J 1V2

(647) 352-0092

We risked rainstorms warnings and floods to have dinner at Bent. In fact, the moment we stepped out of the car and walked towards Dundas, lightning struck. Right across the street. Boy was it loud. I don't know if you've ever seen and heard lightning that was just a crosswalk in front of you, but it is scary. Your heart flutters and yours ears require adjustment. You might shriek and jump a little. Smile nervously at your friends. Then you're left with the pounding of your heart as you realize that you were darn lucky escaping that.

But we lived to tell you about our Summerlicious experience at Bent!

Our group of six was seated near the front and our server took our drink order. Note to self, ask what the price is for drinks that have none listed! They had a great mojito line up in which most of us took part in, but it was expensive and took us by surprise when the bill arrived. On one hand, I felt it was expected as they needed to make up their costs elsewhere, but for that price, I would have expected a pitcher, or the world's best mojito!

While we kept perusing the menu, we actually took to ordering some appetizers off of the Summerlicious offerings because they sounded so delicious!

Here's one of them, a spicy tuna and watermelon ceviche with shaved red onion, cilantro, crispy shallots, fresh citrus juice, Rocoto chili, and Chinese doughnut fritter. I really liked the addition of the yau ja gwai, this was unique and we've never seen it done before. The tuna and watermelon was a good combination and we liked how juicy and large the chunks were.

The second one we tried were the duck confit spring rolls with braised onion sweet tamarind sauce. Quite filling as the spring roll was stuffed to the brim! Admirably, the duck wasn't dried inside and had a good sauce to it.

This was the popular Summerlicious appetizer choice as we saw servers carry these olive trays out of the kitchen again and again. Shrimp tacos with charred onion tomato salsa, chipotle, and avocado in a taro shell. Mini bites consisting of a great flavour combination.

I had thought the shells were fried wonton wrappers since the taro didn't stand out, but the filling more than made up for it.

Howard's Summerlicious appetizer was a crispy chicken dumpling served with roasted chorizo, a maple syrup and smoked chili lime glaze, and Parmesan emulsion with salad of watercress and frisée. This surprised me the most as it had quite the kick. Not the pick for those who can't handle their hot and fiery, but for those who can, this was delicious!

Time for our mains! I had the crispy Assam-styled salmon with tamarind, ginger flower, four citrus, mustard and fruit. That's right, fruit! Little bits of green grapes and grapefruit, accompanied the perfectly cooked salmon.

Howard had the largest ravioli I've ever seen. Pulled beef ravioli with Malay black pepper emulsion, garlic mushroom, and confit tomato. This dish won raves all around the table, from those who had ordered it and from those of us who were lucky enough to try a bite or two. It was so good that our friends joked about ordering another one.

Finally, they also switched it up by not having you pick one of the three dessert items on the Summerlicious menu. You get all three! From left to right: strawberry, rhubarb, and lemongrass compote with a Grand Marnier crème fraiche and a butterfly pastry; passion fruit and mango panna cotta topped with coconut tapioca, pineapple, and passion fruit granitée; and profiterole with vanilla custard served with hot chocolate sauce and sesame brittle.

The all-round favourites of the trio was the mango panna cotta and the profiterole! Please Sur (see what I did there?), can I have some more?

The next time you're walking down Dundas Street West and you see that arrow? Go in.

Summerlicious: Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill

Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill

100 Adelaide Street East

Toronto, ON M5C 1K9

(416) 366-7827

We're not strangers to Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill this year. This little gem quickly made it to the top of our favourite restaurant list this year. For us, they're mostly saved for "special occasions," but when we saw that they were participating in Summerlicious, we had to make reservations. 

We went for an early seating, but the table by the window had already been requested for a later reservation. That's okay, we still got a view of the park and some sunlight as the diners didn't arrive until near the end of our meal.

There weren't too many people at first, but when our mains were served, the restaurant filled up pretty quickly. It's not a very big space, so there isn't a lot of staff in the front. I think our waiter was working the entire floor! Regardless, he was attentive and automatically gave us extra utensils when we told him we were sharing each dish.

The bar that is almost the whole length of the dining room. Great place to sit if you want to watch them shuck oysters and grate horseradish!

Everyone around us was ordering the ShuckerPaddy’s L’il Shucker-Seafood Tower which came with an oyster, clam, prawn, sashimi, and crab. That was originally what I came for, but Howard pointed out that I don't usually eat prawns or crabs. Which was true, I'm actually not a huge seafood fan - unless it's sushi, oysters, or fish - so we decided to order a plate of P.E.I. oysters on top of our Summerlicious items.

Delicious, the oysters were so fresh and had a very clean taste!

The house-smoked haddock fishcakes with black olives, pickled ramps, grapes, and cucumber. I had to pick out the olives and piled them on Howard's fishcake. The fishcakes themselves were good, consistent with our previous visits. And the grapes! Loved their use of grapes and how this element changes each time we have it.

This was their Spanish style tomato, salt cod, and chorizo chowder. Not as piping hot as we would have liked, but it still tasted good. Howard loves his soups!

For the main dish, we tried the Irish organic salmon with a risotto of toasted barley, vine ripened tomatoes, fresh peas, basil, and Grana Padano. The salmon was quite good, my favourite part was the crispy skin. This was a first for me, I've never had risotto as a meal before!

Following, the Kawartha Berkshire pork loin with a succotash of grilled corn, chipotle cured bacon, black beans, and coriander. While it was good, I think we both missed having the rib-eye!

Starfish frites! We just had to add this to our order. The fries are seasoned so well, making them insanely addictive.

For dessert, Howard had the poached Ontario apricot with a raspberry and Gamay wine reduction, and Tahitian vanilla ice cream.

The first thing he did was take the pit out of the apricot. Then he sliced off a piece for me to try. =) I liked the apricot more than the ice cream, if that's even possible.

The famous sticky toffee pudding. Now, how could I resist?

One thing that did surprise me was that their lunch and dinner menus for Summerlicious were exactly the same. Most participating restaurants change it up, offering lighter courses for lunch. So really, for a lower cost, you could go and have the exact same meal during lunch. I'm wondering if maybe the lunch portions are smaller? Or, we may have been charged the premium for dinner service. Another thing to note, gratuity was included with the bill - perhaps only for Summerlicious, as we never saw it on the bill before.