Happy Valentines Day! Surprise! Well, I brought her flowers & tried to surprise her at the front door of her apartment, but I bumped into her in the elevator when I was heading up… haha, so I handed her the flowers while 10 other people cramped up in the same elevator gazed upon us awkwardly.
I told her to dress up and get ready soon, as we had dinner reservations at Luma!
Though we lived a close distance to the restaurant, the weather was no friend to us that day. The slushy streets and plethora of drenching puddles made walking the streets of Toronto a pain…. so we just decided to spoil ourselves for the night and just cab there ;)
Located at the corner of King and John streets, This Oliver & Bonacini restaurant is on the second floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox. It is the home of the Toronto International Film Festival and houses a wide array of elegant theatres and galleries. We stepped inside the restaurant and were immediately welcomed by a friendly host that took our coats and led us to our table.
We were greeted with a warm and inviting dining area, decorated with rich woods and leather, along with a great view of King Street.
At first when we sat down, I thought someone spilled red wine on our table haha!
But they actually decorated the table with shiny red heart glitter! Lovely touch for valentine’s day :)
Luma had a 3-course prix fixe menu for Valentine’s day, filled with a wide variety of options that made both our mouths water. We asked our waitress for recommendations on what she liked the most, but that wasn’t much help either because she loved everything!
When the waitress greeted us at our table, she also asked us for our initials…
We pondered for a few minutes why she would ask that, but the jaw-dropping menu distracted us once again…… I may even have forgotten to blink.
After narrowing down the options, Samshimi decided to get the oysters! They which were extremely fresh, and came with a side of winter melon mignonette, lemon, and passionfruit dressing, which made each oyster more savoury than the last.
I had decided on the braised chicken and foie gras terrine. Never had I tasted such a good mix of the two, especially with a delicious cranberry sauce. The garnishing with heartnuts and brioche was also a nice touch, which changed up the texture of the appetizer.
For the main, both of us could not resist the sake-marinated sablefish. Usually we like to share our dishes to get a taste of everything, but once we saw the sablefish on the menu, we both looked at each other with a grin and yelled at the same time, yo i aint sharing HAHA, so we each got our own.
This asian-infused dish gave our olfactory lobes quite a night to remember. The dish was smothered up with this HUGE.. and I mean HUGE piece of fish. I have tried quite a lot of sablefish/blackcod before, but this one beat everything by a thousand miles. It was perfectly flaky and was so tender and flavourful. Mixed with the wood ear mushrooms and Japanese ponzu sauce, this made one hell of a dish to remember.
Yeah we tried not to use the flash on the camera, oops ;)
Our dessert!!!!
We got the chocolate fondue for two. The waitress even came back and told us to resist drinking all the chocolate haha!
With the warm milk chocolate in the centre erupting its inviting aroma, the couples at the tables next to us couldnt help but stare. They gave us a handful of sponge toffee, biscottis, dragonfruit, starfruit, pineapples, and delicious brownies and cookies.
After devouring everything within minutes, we even contemplated about licking the bowl…
After a few good laughs and with our tummies full and satisfied, we decided to grab the bill and head home….but then the waitress came by with something sweet.
Quite a surprise! She came and placed these lovely decorated chocolate dipped strawberries on our table with our initials in the middle of a arrow-struck heart. (calvin + sam)! – it wasn’t even on the menu!
Hah! So that’s the reason why they asked us for our initials :)
One strawberry was decorated with a tuxedo, while the other with an elegant dress.
The dish was so cute that we couldn’t even bear to eat it.. so like the typical asians we are, we took pictures of it for 15 minutes, and I’m not kidding.
Caught us with a good laugh :)
We ate our respective ones :)
Sam got the dress.
& I got the tuxedo
Just an endless night of laughs and surprises.
We were so pleased with Luma. The atmosphere, the staff, and the food were all top-notch. Definitely a good place to bring a date. We were so surprised with the strawberries at the end, definitely gave us a good “AWWWWWW” moment. It was funny because when the waitress gave us the strawberries she whispered “well, you guys ruined the strawberry surprise for the couple sitting next to you hahahaaha!”
Let’s just say, we will be back here soon. I want more sablefish.
Luma 9/10
~Calvin
February 14th. 2013
Originally posted :: Calvin & Samshimi
Calvin's Instagram :: instagram.com/clavulinn
I told her to dress up and get ready soon, as we had dinner reservations at Luma!
Though we lived a close distance to the restaurant, the weather was no friend to us that day. The slushy streets and plethora of drenching puddles made walking the streets of Toronto a pain…. so we just decided to spoil ourselves for the night and just cab there ;)
Located at the corner of King and John streets, This Oliver & Bonacini restaurant is on the second floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox. It is the home of the Toronto International Film Festival and houses a wide array of elegant theatres and galleries. We stepped inside the restaurant and were immediately welcomed by a friendly host that took our coats and led us to our table.
We were greeted with a warm and inviting dining area, decorated with rich woods and leather, along with a great view of King Street.
At first when we sat down, I thought someone spilled red wine on our table haha!
But they actually decorated the table with shiny red heart glitter! Lovely touch for valentine’s day :)
Luma had a 3-course prix fixe menu for Valentine’s day, filled with a wide variety of options that made both our mouths water. We asked our waitress for recommendations on what she liked the most, but that wasn’t much help either because she loved everything!
When the waitress greeted us at our table, she also asked us for our initials…
We pondered for a few minutes why she would ask that, but the jaw-dropping menu distracted us once again…… I may even have forgotten to blink.
After narrowing down the options, Samshimi decided to get the oysters! They which were extremely fresh, and came with a side of winter melon mignonette, lemon, and passionfruit dressing, which made each oyster more savoury than the last.
I had decided on the braised chicken and foie gras terrine. Never had I tasted such a good mix of the two, especially with a delicious cranberry sauce. The garnishing with heartnuts and brioche was also a nice touch, which changed up the texture of the appetizer.
For the main, both of us could not resist the sake-marinated sablefish. Usually we like to share our dishes to get a taste of everything, but once we saw the sablefish on the menu, we both looked at each other with a grin and yelled at the same time, yo i aint sharing HAHA, so we each got our own.
This asian-infused dish gave our olfactory lobes quite a night to remember. The dish was smothered up with this HUGE.. and I mean HUGE piece of fish. I have tried quite a lot of sablefish/blackcod before, but this one beat everything by a thousand miles. It was perfectly flaky and was so tender and flavourful. Mixed with the wood ear mushrooms and Japanese ponzu sauce, this made one hell of a dish to remember.
Yeah we tried not to use the flash on the camera, oops ;)
Our dessert!!!!
We got the chocolate fondue for two. The waitress even came back and told us to resist drinking all the chocolate haha!
With the warm milk chocolate in the centre erupting its inviting aroma, the couples at the tables next to us couldnt help but stare. They gave us a handful of sponge toffee, biscottis, dragonfruit, starfruit, pineapples, and delicious brownies and cookies.
After devouring everything within minutes, we even contemplated about licking the bowl…
After a few good laughs and with our tummies full and satisfied, we decided to grab the bill and head home….but then the waitress came by with something sweet.
Quite a surprise! She came and placed these lovely decorated chocolate dipped strawberries on our table with our initials in the middle of a arrow-struck heart. (calvin + sam)! – it wasn’t even on the menu!
Hah! So that’s the reason why they asked us for our initials :)
One strawberry was decorated with a tuxedo, while the other with an elegant dress.
The dish was so cute that we couldn’t even bear to eat it.. so like the typical asians we are, we took pictures of it for 15 minutes, and I’m not kidding.
Caught us with a good laugh :)
We ate our respective ones :)
Sam got the dress.
& I got the tuxedo
Just an endless night of laughs and surprises.
We were so pleased with Luma. The atmosphere, the staff, and the food were all top-notch. Definitely a good place to bring a date. We were so surprised with the strawberries at the end, definitely gave us a good “AWWWWWW” moment. It was funny because when the waitress gave us the strawberries she whispered “well, you guys ruined the strawberry surprise for the couple sitting next to you hahahaaha!”
Let’s just say, we will be back here soon. I want more sablefish.
Luma 9/10
~Calvin
February 14th. 2013
Originally posted :: Calvin & Samshimi
Calvin's Instagram :: instagram.com/clavulinn
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