I feel bad for restaurants waiting for their liquor license.
The most profitable menu items can’t be sold, and staff suffer from paltry
gratuities from lower bill totals. If available, I generally get a drink. Yet, the
regulators were dragging their feet as not a drop was available during the
first two months of opening. After I got over the initial disappointment, I left
the meals feeling great! Satisfied and nourished in a healthy way. Maybe I don’t
need wine in my life.
Limon starts off the meal with a pickle plate that usually
contains a combination of cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots. Lightly vinegared and
salty, the pickles help wet the appetite.
Almost every table gets a dip and while the typical babaganoush
and hummus are available, the eggplant and pepper dip ($9) intrigued
me. Starting with a base of roasted eggplant, slivers of quickly smoked pepper and raw celery & onion are mixed in, so the dip is creamy and crunchy. As a
babaganoush lover, I thoroughly enjoyed this version! Without tahini the
dip is lighter and brighter.
Still their bababanoush ($9) is good with large chunks of eggplant and tons of tahini turning it creamy. It's just a touch sweet for me.
For the carb conscious, the dips arrive without a pita
($1.50), so you won’t be tempted. I wanted one with the eggplant and pepper…
it’s your regular run-of-the-mill thick pocketed pita.
It's remarkable how much they can stuff in a pita. You'll need to unhinge your jaw to bite into lamb kefta in a pita ($18), the ground meat kebab juicy and each bite bringing different flavours. The bites with their zesty and slightly spicy amba sauce are my favourite and despite the abundance of onion, they're well soaked so the acidity is removed and a crunchy sweetness remains.
Their sandwiches arrive solo but is enough to satisfy. The price for a side of French fries ($11) is a bit steep but it's a huge portion, enough to share amongst three.
The beef shish kabob ($30) was a tad chewy but at
least cooked well and perfectly seasoned and not overly salty. I recommend
upgrading to their Greek salad ($4 supplement), a village style version
containing large chunks of juicy ripe tomato, crunchy cucumber, briny creamy feta,
and onions. Limon augments the salad with roasted red paper and capers adding a
savoury smoky element that’s delicious.
If you’re in the mood for beef, order the strip steak ($34)
instead. It’s less grizzly and you get a sizeable portion of meat cooked to
your liking.
With three pieces of fish arriving in the roasted rainbow trout ($30), this is a shareable main. It's well cooked with crispy skin and tender meat and simply topped with onions and pomegranate seeds.
Having visited on three occasions, the sole visit the restaurant wasn't full was during a weekday lunch. And when it gets busy the ordering and paying process slows down as Limon creates a bottleneck by flowing both operations into one person, who I assume is the manager. Despite a number of workers, they seem to focus on serving, refilling water, and cleaning up. If you ask one to take an order or pay, the request gets redirected to the manager. What an odd way to slow down table turnover at a restaurant.
Warning: the tightly packed tables create a loud ambient noise at the restaurant. It’s a bit much at first, but as the meal progresses, I tuned it out. When the weather’s nice and they open the front windows, it almost feels like you’re sitting al fresco somewhere a bit more exotic than Midtown Toronto. A beautiful meal indeed.
In a nutshell...
- Must order: Greek salad
- Just skip: nothing
Address: 3265 Yonge 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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