The Red Tomato (Toronto), 8.5/10

It can be tricky turning up in a town and finding a decent place to eat without any prior research. As our visit to Toronto was around a wedding and there were other people from Australia there, we weren't quite sure of the plans and so hadn't really organised anything. However, we found ourselves looking for a suitable dinner spot after the day at Niagara Falls. I had amused myself on the drive back reading the tourist descriptions of the local restaurants ( My favourite: "And remember, if it tastes like yo mama's, it's Joe Mamas!") and had decided on a Creole restaurant called N'Awlins. When we got there, however, it was really quite expensive, so we wandered along the 'Entertainment strip' of restaurants and happened across The Red Tomato. It was offering two courses plus a drink for $24, the menu looked good and the restaurant looked cool and fairly busy, so we went in.

The restaurant is downstairs with a second restaurant on the ground floor. The Red Tomato part was very funky, with red booths and dim lighting from the funky lamps and wall lights. Our waitress came over immediately and was bright and cheerful (the service in Toronto was almost always incredibly bubbly, helpful and wonderful). The two course menu was a choice of 5 mains, followed by two desserts and a choice of wine, beer or martini. I opted for the Shiraz from the Niagara region, while Kyle chose the Steam Whistle pilsner.


The choice of mains was impressive, including lobster and seafood linguine. In the end, we negotiated to try the brisket and the veal chop and share. Usually when you do this, though, the meal that lands in front of you is so good, it can be hard to give up, which is what happened here. I ended up with the brisket, slow oven-roasted for six hours until it was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth tender. I haven't had brisket before (but it wouldn't be the last time on this trip!) and this was a revelation. The sauce was a rich, thick smoky barbecue, a little oily around the edges, but the brisket was so moist and tender, I was completely enraptured. And then I had to give it up halfway through. That was hard. I should mention that the brisket was served with a mushroom and spinach risotto, which was okay, but didn't really go with the brisket at all and seemed more like a standalone dish.


While it was hard to give up, at least the veal chop was quite good. We don't really eat much veal in London and haven't had veal chop in a couple of years, so it was at least different. The meat was a little dry but was rubbed with a mix of rosemary, thyme and pepper, which was quite tasty. The accompaniment to the veal was gnocchi with asparagus and red pepper in a brown butter sauce. Again, while good, as John from Masterchef would say, it wasn't really coming together as a dish.


Both of these meals were huge (that was the other thing about Canada - every meal was enormous), so when our berry shortcakes arrived, I really didn't think I'd be able to eat any. Unfortunately for me, it was delicious - light, fluffy sponge cake sandwiched with light whipped cream and topped with a blend of tart raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrents. I don't even like cake particularly, but this was an ideal light, fruity dessert that cut through the richness of the meaty main courses.

For a complete punt, I was hugely impressed with The Red Tomato. They offered a good fixed menu in a super-touristy area but backed it up with really lovely food. While there were some odd matches in the main courses, the individual components were consistently good and the service and atmosphere spot-on.

Food: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

The Red Tomato
321 King Street West
Toronto ON M5V 1JF