The Chase Fish and Oyster

The Chase Fish and Oyster

10 Temperance Street

Toronto, ON M5H 1Y4

647-348-7000

Birthday weekends are the best! We haven't eaten out and tried a new restaurant in a long time, so Howard did a little research and picked a restaurant for my birthday dinner last week. The only stipulation I gave him was that I wanted oysters. I think it's been more than a year since I've had a good oyster platter!

Oyster platter delivered. Each table is given a card and pencil to mark the amount of raw seafood they would like to order. So I penciled in three Foxley Bay oysters and three Salt Grass oysters after our knowledgeable waiter went through the description. All oyster platters come with fish and oyster hot sauce, cocktail sauce, and migonette. Just so perfect that I could try each sauce per oyster. Maybe eight next time so I can really load up the lemon and horseradish on one.

We tried a bunch of sharing plates and this was by far our favourite. The big eye tuna "nachos" - in quotation marks because it was made with crispy taro root chips, hot mustard saffron emulsion, and sweet onion and shoyu dressing. Delicious and refreshing, it was so good during this chilly winter, imagine how much better it would be eaten on the patio during the summer!

Next up, the hot smoked white fish on toast with caviar and pickles. Great flavours and I don't even like pickles! But everything worked together to form that perfect bite.

Couldn't resist a side of shoestring fries. I love fries.

Octopus with harissa, spiced merguez sausage, mustard greens, and sauteed red onions. We made merguez sausages last summer and I thought they were pretty awesome. But this one was a hundred percent stronger and punchier in flavour. There were only a few slices on the plate, which is a good idea because it can easily overpower the octopus.

We decided to share a main, but thought that the portion was similar to the sharing plates. Regardless, the scallops with pumpkin ravioli, foie gras butter, and arugula was rich and creamy.

I always look forward to dessert, but felt this was too much chocolate and sugar for one person. Did I just say that? Darn, I am getting old! But thank goodness we shared it because it could not be finished as a single serving. The hazelnut bombe with hazelnut whipped ganache, dark chocolate cream, chocolate cake, and candied hazelnuts was like a giant Ferrero Roche minus the thin wafer shell. I can't believe I'm going to say this as well, but dessert was our least favourite dish of the meal!

But that doesn't matter, we are definitely going back and looking forward to trying the other restaurants from this hospitality group: The Chase (which is upstairs), Little Fin (right beside), and Colette Grand Café.

The Fat Radish

The Fat Radish

17 Orchard Street

New York City, NY 10002

(212) 300-4053

We weren't sure what to expect, but I had seen so many lovely photos of the restaurant and now I knew why. We walked in to a small foyer decorated with bikes, wine bottles, plates, plants, and bouquets. White subway tiles alone one wall with a large sink and cabinets. Opened shelves, exposed brick, and chalkboards. The bar appeared as we ventured in with swing-out chairs and then a simple and airy dining room. There's some natural light from the sun roof, window shutters, and easy lighting along the walls with greenery peeking in. Everything looks rustic, casual, and fashionable. At one point, Howard mentions that it does feel like we're eating in an enclosed park or garden.

The food here is known to be created with well-sourced, seasonal ingredients and there isn't any particular focus as we spot naan, curry, and soba among scotch egg, celery root pot pie, and kale Caesar salad.

Service wasn't the greatest. We stood by the bar, unsure if we were supposed to grab a table ourselves or if we were to be seated. Even though the bartender spotted us, she made no effort to help or call someone over. Finally, one of the servers came over to seat us and later came back with the menus. Things started to get better once we ordered as our meals, I even spotted a few smiles from our server. Then the food arrived!

I love seared tuna salads so I went ahead and ordered the Seared Block Island Tuna with watermelon, cucumber, and thai chili vinaigrette. This was light, refreshing, and delicious. I enjoyed the sweet flavours from the watermelon, the crunch from the cucumber, and the sweet and salty vinaigrette with just a little kick of heat. My only quibble would be that the presentation could have been improved on and that the tuna could have been cleanly sliced.

Howard ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger with duck fat fries and house pickles. The burger was pretty good, I was lucky enough to have a bite of it - just one before it was quickly taken away from me. But those fries! I liked the fries the best! Fries, wedges, whatever you want to call them, I enjoyed stealing about half of them and dunking it in the upside-down white top hat ketchup holder.

A lovely spot for lunch or brunch, the Fat Radish turned out to be the first restaurant where Howard and I ate as an engaged couple! To celebrate, we clinked our glasses of water together. Of course, I had no idea this would happen when I made the reservation the previous week!

Winterlicious: North 44 )º

North 44 )º

2537 Yonge Street

Toronto, ON M4P 2H7

Tel: (416) 487-4897

Last Winterlicious dinner for the year! We're just slowly making our way through Mark McEwan's restaurants in Toronto. Having tried Fabbrica and Bymark, North 44 was the next logical step. We went after work and surprised ourselves by arriving early - rush hour traffic wasn't too bad!

Our hostess led us to what we thought was a cozy corner of the restaurant. But, because it was near the entrance, the area was really chilly every time customers came or left. The nice thing was that it was roomy and we didn't have to coat check (because my coat may have helped keep me from catching a cold that night).

We had a very nice waiter who gave us some great drink recommendations for the night. I personally loved that they had a mocktail menu, yum!

Most of us ordered the seared ahi tuna served with Japanese pear, cucumber, yuzu, and chili. Can't go wrong with that combination, it had great flavours and textures with each bite.

The crisp skinned chicken supreme with potato croquette, leeks, honey mushrooms, and pan jus. Wow, was not expecting a large portion of chicken! I found mine to be juicy, but Howard found his a bit dry. We all liked the potato croquette, would have loved more!

Our dinner companion tried the ice cream sandwich with vanilla ice cream between two winter spice cookies, served with a warm caramel sauce. It was also sitting on top of some shaved coconuts, quite a playful dish.

Pavlova with passion fruit and berries were not the guy's favourites. I guess they need something more substantial when it comes to dessert. I thought it tasted fine and that the presentation was quite nice compared to the other two.

I seem to always be gravitating towards chocolate. Their chocolate pot de crème was served with some cherry cookies, toffee crunch, and pop rocks. The spoonfuls of chocolate with the pop rocks were really fun!

The overall meal was okay. For some reason, I had thought that North 44 was on the same level as Bymark or higher, but after experiencing both, Bymark's service was more in line with "fine dining." The food runners at North 44 were a bit rough and would plop the dishes on the table and leave. At Bymark, dishes were neatly presented and explained. The atmosphere at North 44 was also more on the casual side and each waiter appeared to serve a greater number of tables.

Just One left for us to try! We can't wait to see what will be offered during Summerlicious, heck, we can't wait for summer!