Walking
into King Taps I got a sense of déjà vu. Especially on the second floor, where
the bar area seems to be a replica of another popular downtown Toronto hang
out, both restaurants top choices for after work drinks. By 5:30 it’s packed. Despite
it being early for dinner, I still had to wait about five minutes for the reserved
table to be set-up - others are told it’ll be an hour wait.
I can
see why King Taps is so popular - the atmosphere is casual, drawing in people
of all ages, and their food is tasty but moderately priced.
There
is of course a host of shareable plates for those who want to nibble. The poke
($16.50) is really tuna tartare, a stack of chunked Albacore tuna, mango, and avocado
dressed with delicious miso sesame-ginger vinaigrette. Tempura bits are placed
on top but most of the crunch comes from the deep fried wonton chips, which is
light enough to not detract from the fish.
The steak
frites ($27) is a good complete meal since it comes with a side of lemony
Caesar salad. King Tap sources their steaks from PEI, the 7oz sirloin cooked to
a perfect medium rare, tender and juicy. If you’ve never had beef from PEI,
it's said that if the cow grazes outside, you can taste the minerals and salt
in their meat due to the island’s proximity to the ocean. At King Taps, the
steak was properly seasoned and the saltiness well balanced.
While
I would have preferred the frites to be the thin variety, the chunky fries were
nonetheless hot and crispy. The only oddity was the abundant side of
horseradish that arrives with the meal; a condiment rarely seen outside of
prime rib and there’s a reason – it’s too strong for such a lean meat. A side
of au jus or aioli would work better.
If you
like seafood, the salmon and prawn risotto ($26) is a great choice – there’s a
large piece of salmon that’s moist and flakey and at least four fair-sized
prawns mixed into the rice. The risotto’s consistency is spot on, creamy with
enough broth so that it’s not overly watery or dry. The dish was also
flavourful, perhaps a touch salty if that bothers you, but the chunky mushroom
pieces helped tone the seasoning down.
Aside
from the atmosphere and food, King Tap’s service is also commendable: staff
members are friendly but are also great at managing the experience – our waitress
advised that if she put our entire order into the system, the food would arrive
together. Hence, she proceeded to enter our appetizer first and then when she
saw it was received inputted the mains. For such a busy restaurant it’s a shame
this is something staff need to look after, especially when it can be prone to
errors; surely someone should look at the ordering system and have it set-up
for a two stage firing from the kitchen.
Thankfully, the dessert order isn’t something they need to remember as well. King Tap’s sweet offerings consist of a number of sundaes. The strawberry shortcake ($8) was a nice light sharable ending with a fair amount of soft serve-vanilla ice cream, layered strawberry compote, a few pieces of fruit, and crispy graham cracker crumb sprinkled over top. Not overly fancy, but executed well and priced decently, much like the rest of their menu.
Oh and for beer aficionados they also have 50 selections on tap, some are even special collaborations with local breweries. Being a wine drinker, I didn’t crack into the tap, but nonetheless left with a happy buzz.
How To Find Them
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 100 King Street West (in First Canadian Place)
Address: 100 King Street West (in First Canadian Place)
Website: https://kingtaps.com/
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____________________________
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!
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