Edulis (Toronto, Canada)
As soon as you walk up to Edulis, you immediately know you're in for a non-pretentious meal. The food in my opinion was far from simple; the chefs were able to let the ingredients shine on its own without overpowering it with crazy culinary tricks.
We settled on the carte blanche ($50 for 5 dishes) since we figured it was a good way to sample many of their dishes.
The Smoked Copper River salmon accompanied with beet puree, sweet pea blossoms and beet sauce was just so perfectly tender without any fishiness at all. A great start to the meal.
Roasted halibut in cucumber soup with razor clams and sea asparagus. Everything just tasted extremely fresh and the cucumber soup was really refreshing in the summer weather.
The roasted white asparagus had a light smokiness in its flavour with the cured ham adding a bit of saltiness, the arugula giving a touch of bitterness (not too much though, just the perfect amount) and some acidity from the salsa verde. Another perfectly balanced dish.
Rabbit with picarone peppers, lobster mushrooms, greens, garlic, and sweet onion puree. I'm starting to sound repetitive now; every element on this dish was sooo good.
Finally, we ended our perfect meal with the perfect dessert. Not too sweet though it had great balance between different textures: from the crunchiness of the sunflower seeds, to the softness of the golden nugget squash, with the corn cake adding a bit of bite and with everything being enveloped in a delicious sage cream.
This was by far one of the better and more well rounded meals I've had in a long time. From start to finish, the meal engaged us. I've never appreciated these seasonal ingredients as much as I did that night, where the chefs did a superb job highlighting each one with the perfect supporting cast. I would definitely revisit if I had more time in Toronto and not an exceedingly long list of other restaurants to try.
Reservations: Yes. Make online or call (416)703-4222.
Address: 169 Niagara Street, Toronto, ON, Canada.
http://edulisrestaurant.com/