Saturday, 8 February 2014

ONE Restaurant :: Winterlicious 2014

Latte ($7)

Hot Water

Octopus Salad
kidney beans, oven dried tomatoes, marinated peppers, olive, arugula, buttered croutons, sherry vinaigrette

I didn't order this dish, but upon sampling my other dinner guest's dish, I quite liked it. The octopus texture is unique and the salad is refreshing. However, my dinner guest who did order it, did not like the salad and claims that the octopus was actually a sausage (2 of the 3 of us disagreed though, one agreed) and that the salad was ordinary. 

Pork Belly
asian glaze, pickled cucumber, red onion, carrot slaw, puffed rice, yuzu aioli, coriander, panko

Prior to going to ONE for dinner, I checked out other photos of the Winterlicious menu on Instagram. The portion looked quite small but I nonetheless wanted to try it. When it did arrive, I felt that the portion was quite small - but it was quite filling! The pork belly was delicious. It was soft, tender, and extremely delicious. The pork meat easily fell apart and the aioli and carrots added a sweet and refreshing compliment to the pork belly. I would definitely recommend and order this dish again.

Vegetarian Ricotta Gnocchi 
marinara, buffalo mozzarella, basil, balsamic, breadcrumbs

The gnocchi was delicious! I tried a little bit of my dinner guest's but the sauce was deliciously flavourful and I quite enjoyed the crunch of the breadcrumbs!

Scallops
Butternut squash puree, blood orange, pain d’epice, brown butter and bacon foam

The scallops were buttery and tasty. I didn't really taste much of the bacon foam, though I suppose it is more of a novelty. The blood orange was a surprising component though refreshing. I quite enjoyed the pieces of pain d'epice - which are reminiscent of gingerbread and/or cinnamon. The butternut squash puree was delicious and had some of the same spices in the pain d'epice strewn throughout which made its flavour unique (but good). The downside is that the entree is quite small (as most scallop dishes I've ordered in the past come with 3 or 4 scallops opposed to two; I'm glad the appetizer I ordered was quite filling as my entree was not).

Lemon Cheesecake
Blueberry compote, brown butter crumble, almond nougatine

Nothing outstanding or spectacular - standard restaurant quality lemon cheesecake.

Set Dinner Menu: $45/person + taxes & gratuity

ONE Restaurant is part of the McEwan family which also includes my other favourite restaurants Bymark and North 44 (I didn't realize this until I was seated and was greeted by a familiar menu format). ONE is located in the heart of Yorkville and has a stunning interior. The ambience is quite intimate and the servers were attentive. Even the waiter who distributes bread remembered which of us preferred which kinds of bread and offered more upon seeing an empty bread plate (and made a great recommendation to try the pepper bread). ONE is a great restaurant to bring a date or celebrate a milestone with a significant other, but note their portions are quite small (which probably attributes to the low Urbanspoon rating - all the dishes I've tried were delicious, but small).

ONE Restaurant
116 Yorkville Ave
Toronto, ON
416.961.9600 ex 1
One on Urbanspoon

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