Happy hour menus have been making a comeback with the
weakening economy. Planta’s menu is one of the most extensive and offers great
value to boot. While beer and wine ring in at $6 and $9, respectively, it’s the
$10 cocktails that wet my whistle. You can’t go wrong with the lych please,
a gin cocktail lightly sweetened with lychee, lemon, and pineapple with a
hibiscus sugar rim that delights.
Planta also provides a huge food offering that doesn’t skimp
on portions. With the lettuce wraps ($12) being half off their regular
menu price ($23), I expected a shrunken helping the equivalent to two or three
wraps. So, when the full plate arrived with enough of the gochujang covered
crispy fried tofu and roasted Brussels sprouts to make seven wraps we were
flabbergasted. Oh no, we ordered way too much food!
The menu offers no description with the chick’n fried mushrooms
($7) but they turn out to be lightly battered oyster mushrooms that’s
dusted with salt and pepper served with a thinned sweet chili sauce. They’re
dangerously addictive and so tasty that I could swap these for a chicken nugget
any day.
In a similar vein, the crust of the cauliflower wings
($8) was so crispy despite not being overly battered. Drizzles of unagi
sauce and sweet chili mayo covered the vegetables giving each bite a burst of
flavour.
For a lighter nibble, the summer rolls ($6) are an
option. It’s just filled with a lot of carrot and rice noodles and needed more
of the other ingredients (papaya, tofu, and herbs) to stand out.
The crispy rice ($9) would work better left intact,
so the starch doesn’t become cold and dry. At least they put plenty of the spicy
ahi watermelon and guacamole on top to balance out the tasteless rice
ball.
I preferred the spicy crab hand roll ($5 each), which
was stuffed to the gills with shredded hearts of palm tossed with ponzu
and spicy mayo. It’s more of a taco than handroll so it isn’t the easiest to eat
but does mean there’s little rice and tons of filling.
The sole dish that threw us both off was the spinach and
artichoke dip ($11). How can you mess up a creamy dip? By adding so much
coconut oil into the recipe that coconut was all we could taste. It felt like I was eating a savoury coconut
cream pie with chunks of vegetables. Its only saving grace was they don’t skimp
on the tortilla chips… too bad we didn’t need more than a few each.
Luckily, we had ordered so much food that we didn’t need the dip. Even without the dish, we left stuffed and with enough leftovers for another meal. Washed down with two cocktails each, our bill came to about $70 a person including gratuities and taxes. Welcome back happy hour dinners.
In a nutshell...
- Must order: chick'n fried mushrooms, cauliflower wings, lettuce wraps
- Just skip: spinach and artichoke dip, summer rolls
Address: 1221 Bay Street
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
Is That It? I Want More!
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