Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 1560 Yonge Street
Type of Meal: Dinner
Situated in a street level corridor of the St. Clair
Centre, it’s not a location you’d expect to find a restaurant with Cava’s
Spanish and Latin American flair. But, individuals certainly known about it
given its busy dinner service on our week night visit. Their dining room is a
stark contrast from the dimly lit corridor outside, as upon entering you’re
greeted with clean blonde wood and tons of lighting.
With a fairly extensive tapas menu, there are a
large number of choices and a particularly good vegetarian selection. We relied
on the advice of Theran, our server, to narrow down our choices. His favourite
dish is the pincho of Gamay-poached foie gras ($9), so we ordered one each
given the small portion.
Generally, I’m not a big fan of foie gras (based on
taste and ethical reasons), but decided to try it anyways given the hyped up
dish. Thick slices of cool foie gras sit on a crisp crostini and is topped with
a dollop of pear mostarda (similar to a chutney). The poached foie gras is one
of the smoothest I’ve ever had with a consistency similar to a flourless
chocolate torte. As it melts in your
mouth, your tongue is coated with rich flavour; but, before it becomes too
overpowering the sweet mostarda cuts through and mellows everything out. If you
like foie gras than this is a dish you need to try.
My friends really enjoyed the Spanish mackerel ceviche
verde ($14) which is less tart than typical ceviches. Instead, the cilantro,
fish and tomatillos (?) shine through, with the mixture tasting good on its own
or with the fried tortillas accompanying it. For me, I found it a bit bland and
would have liked more heat and citrus to counteract the oiliness from the
tortilla chips.
The warm salad ($10) had some great vegetables in it
- artichoke, piquillo pepper and oyster mushrooms. They are all grilled and dressed
with a simple caper vinaigrette and sprinkled with cilantro. This is a hearty
salad and good for the cold weather.
This dinner was the first time I’ve tried jamón Serrano ($16.50) and must admit that
after having Ibérico is a bit of a disappointment, but you get what you pay
for. The slices were too thick making them difficult to cut or chew. Overall,
it was sort of tough – perhaps because the ham wasn’t well marbled – and
doesn’t have that melt-in-your-mouth quality I enjoy with charcuterie.
Hands down my favourite dish of the night was the eggplant
($9.75). Wedges of eggplant are coated, deep fried and then cooked in a dish
with tons of gooey queso fresco (cheese) and a tangy tomatillo sauce. Drizzles
of honey and tons of bonito flakes top everything and just brings the dish together so well. It had a
great combination of flavours and I could easily eat a whole plate of the
eggplant with some crusty bread. You definitely have to try out this dish when
you visit.
The roasted brussel sprouts ($8.95) were nice but
pretty plain. Sure they were cooked well and had a nice caramelized crust to
bring out its natural sweetness but they lacked a complementary flavour – the black
garlic just didn’t really stand out.
To end we had a series of the more substantial small
plates. The first was the grilled squid and zucchini ($15.75) in a romesco
sauce (a hazelnut and red pepper blended puree). There was a fair amount of
squid accompanying the dish, but could have benefited from a bit more time on
the grill to give it a smokier crust. Although quite colourful, the romesco
sauce wasn’t very strong; overall, it’s decent but lacked anything exciting.
The grilled sea scallops ($23) were perfectly cooked
so they were just cooked through and remained sweet and tender. The cauliflower
puree was creamy and certainly had some butter in it. I love the addition of
lentils to contrast the smooth puree, but wish they were softer.
Lastly, my friends wanted to try the veal sweetbreads
($23). Having only had a small piece of it once in my life, I knew it wasn’t
horrible but was always under the impression it was calf brains. Turns out I
was completely misinformed and sweetbreads is actually the thymus (throat) and pancreas of the animal. At Cava, Chef McDonald uses the thymus of the veal. As with my first experience, it
actually tastes pretty good (akin to a very tender piece of chicken with a
denser pâté texture) but not something I’d order on a regular basis. Hats off
to the chef for pairing it with a radicchio-poblano chile salad, which went so
well adding a freshness against the heavy sweetbread.
To end, we shared a plate of churros con chocolate
($8). You really can’t go wrong with freshly fried pieces of dough dusted with
sugar and served with hot melted dark chocolate. If the star anise was left out
of the batter it would be even better; the licorice taste of the spice just
isn’t something I like. But, once the luscious chocolate covers it, the flavour
is thoroughly masked so not a deal breaker.
All in all, the food was good; our meal had some
really great dishes and none were overly disappointing. But, the true highlight
was the great service we received from Theran – friendly and approachable,
attentive to our needs and so knowledgeable about Cava’s menu. However, I’d
caution you to order a few dishes at a time and then order more if required. We
ended up ordering too much and were stuffed by the time the scallops and
sweetbread arrived. But, just make sure you order the eggplants, you’ll thank
me for it later.
Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10
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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!
