Coming from New York and being a world traveler, I’m a little jaded when it comes to a good meal. I’ve eaten the best meat, the freshest seafood, hand-crafted pastas, world-class chocolates, and delicate truffles. Surprising me at this point is hard to do. I certainly wasn’t expecting to find one of the best meals I’ve had in the past couple years on my weekend trip to Toronto. The purpose of the trip was to have a short, and easy weekend getaway from New York City. An hour flight, no language barrier, and European-style hotels were enough for me for a weekend trip… until Joseph and I dined at Lucien on Saturday night.
We got to Lucien at about 9:15 or so, which is busy for any restaurant on a Saturday night and weren’t surprised to find lots of well-dressed and bred locals enjoying artfully-presented meals paired with seemingly endless vino and vodka. Every table seemed to be smiling, and at first I really wasn’t sure if it was the Niagra-esque approach to alcohol at Lucien, the food, or both. I would soon find out that the food was the real star of this modern molecular gastronomy eatery.
Joseph started on the Bincho Grilled Octopus with fingerling potatoes, homemade chorizo, pimento, arugala and olives. I had the Heirloom Beet and Carrot Salad with cured beef, horseradish, pear, and watercress. The cured beef was honestly some of the best I’ve had in the past several years, and the dish was overall the most creative approach to thinly sliced beef that I’ve ever had. I ordered the Ontario Red Deer for my main dish, and as far as woodsy animals go, this deer was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. The meat was lean and red, as most deer meat is, but the chef at Lucien obviously was no novice: it was cooked perfectly to a reddish medium-rare that hardly required chewing (a near miracle when it comes to deer). The dish was accented by sides of celeriac, crispy wild rice, granola, cranberry and sage. And believe me, I’ll be back to Toronto for this dish alone. Several bottles of regional Riesling didn’t hurt either.
We finished the meal with the house Cheese Composition plate, consisting of all-Canadian artisinal cheeses and a Chocolate Complex… washed down by Canadian ice wine.
Dinner for two with drinks will run about $250 CN, or you can choose from a variety of tasting menus that range $70-95 CN per person.
36 Wellington Street East
Toronto, ON M5E 1C7, Canada
(416) 504-9990
