Tableside service at Black+Blue

 Hubby took me to dinner at Black+Blue at the Exchange Tower in King St. one snowy evening. It was a rescheduled date, but he did keep the surprise until we walked up to the place, with pictures of bulls. Oooh, we were having steak!

Black+Blue Toronto

The place was vibrant as we entered with the bar and a huge wall of wine greeted us. While the wine wall had a ladder, I wondered how the bartender can possibly get the drinks from the top of the shelf. The drinks must be good, too, for all that effort! To get to our table, we walked past the meat locker with the glass allowing us to see all sorts of premium cuts of meat, which included Kobe, Wagyu and Canada and USDA Prime. Their website indicated that the beef is dry-aged for 28-45 days in a one-of-a-kind Himalayan salt-lined meat locker. I could not wait to see the menu!

Meatlocker @Black+Blue

It was so easy to get lost in the menu. I wanted to try everything! The Raw Bar offerings (which included Seafood towers!) seemed as enticing as the other signature entrees (where I was eyeing the Mushroom Risotto). However, we came for the meat and so I had to focus.

We started with tableside Caesar salad. Hubby and I really enjoy Caesar salad prepared tableside. I guess knowing that my dressing did not come from a bottle, makes it even more delicious. And the dressing was good! It was garlicky and cheesy and got our appetites ready for the main course. However, we noticed they did not have bacon bits. Maybe it wasn’t their style but I do love a good sprinkle of bacon bits in my Caesar salad. They also serve Tableside Steak Tartare and surely that would have been good. But we had to get some greens, right? Now, lest you think it, not all meals were prepared tableside. We were out for something special so we wanted to try their tableside service.

Caesar Salad @Black+Blue

Our main course was Beef Wellington which was a beautifully cooked tenderloin wrapped in mushroom duxelles (finely chopped mushrooms) and pastry. It also came with truffle jus, baby heirloom carrots, pommes purée (which is just a fancier way of calling mashed potatoes).

Tableside Beef Wellington @Black+Blue

The Beef Wellington was also presented tableside. It was carved very nicely and plated beautifully before it was served. The meat was just melt in your mouth and the duxelles was so full of flavor! I detected some wine in there 😊 The pastry was buttery and flaky and the sides were just the right complements. The heirloom carrots were a bit tough, though, but tasty nonetheless.

Tableside Beef Wellington @Black+Blue

pommes purée for our Beef Wellington

Beef Wellington @Black+Blue

Hubby and I wanted to try yet another tableside offering—for dessert this time. The Tableside Crepe Suzette seemed so enticing (though we were advised their signature was the Buttercake) but we were both stuffed! I would not be able to comfortably walk out of there if I still had some dessert. We decided to come back here just for dessert next time. Maybe then, we can try both the Crepe Suzette and Buttercake!

It was a beautiful meal. The ambience was great and the service was very attentive. The food, of course, was spectacular. I would not hesitate to go back!

New Favourite: Southern Thai dining at Koh Lipe

 

Koh Lipe Scarborough

I love love love Thai Food. I am always in search of some good Thai restaurants especially since my previous favourite, Pai, is such a pain to make reservations (for our group) and get to. Chiang Rai has replaced Pai’s spot in my heart (and stomach) for a while now, but it looks like we have a contender! The fam and I checked out the Michelin Guide’s Koh Lipe in the Scarborough/Markham location! I have heard good things about the Chinatown location but am so glad there’s one a tad bit closer! And we are soooo glad to have discovered this! Now, I understand that Pai specializes on Northern Thai and that Koh Lipe specializes in Southern Thai, but it is Thai to me and I love all of it 😊!

 It took a while to choose what we wanted to try since everything on the menu looked so good! We finally settled on a couple of specials and some classics.  

The staff was friendly and the service was fast. It did not take long to get all of our dishes served!

 To start, we got the Crispy fried smelt which was so yummy! It got us excited about all the other dishes to come! The smelt was topped with crispy garlic and it was delightfully tasty! The green chili dipping sauce gave the perfect sweet and sour taste to balance out some of the oil.

Crispy Smelt @Koh Lipe

 We then got Tom Yum hot pot which was pork bone in Tom Yum soup. The serving was generous and while broth was good, I could use a bit more kick. After a while, we had to ask them to turn off the flame so that the boiling broth does not all evaporate.

Tom Yum Hot Pot @Koh Lipe

 We also got the Chef’s Special Luok Jhim platter which featured steamed mussels, shrimp, squid and fish, rice noodles flavoured with fried garlic, chili-lime sauce and lettuce wraps. We were thinking, after some very good (junk) eating the previous days, maybe we should go for some steamed food. We reminded ourselves later, to make no pretentions going forward! While it was still delicious (seafood tends to always delight this family), this was our least favourite dish. It was just, well, steamed seafood with lettuce wrap and dipping sauce. What did I really expect? Anyway, we vowed to try the Prik Pao Talay (Stir-Fried smoked chilli platter, shrimps, mussels, squid, and clams) next time!

Luok Jhim platter @Koh Lipe

We all definitely enjoyed Mas Sa Man which was a tamarind coconut red curry with peanuts and potato. We got Braised Beef (instead of the Veggies/Tofu version—see why we felt we needed to have the steamed seafood?).  It was just an explosion of flavours in our mouths! Curry with tamarind was something we don’t usually get to try and we really enjoyed the sweet, sour, mildly spicy sauce with the very tender braised beef. It will be a challenge not to order again even if we want to try so many other dishes when we come back.

Mas Sa Man @Koh Lipe

 Of course, we got our usual Pad Thai (with chicken) and it while it was not the best, it still had all the elements we love about this dish--chewy noodles, good sauce (not too much tamarind to make it sour and not too sweet). They didn’t scrimp on the chicken and did not drown the dish with bean sprouts. Will try their Pad See Ew or Pad Kee Mao on our next visit.

Pad Thai (with chicken) @Koh Lipe

 We also got a Honey Longan drink and Thai milk tea which were good to balance out the rich flavours in between bites—and allowed us to eat some more!

drinks @Koh Lipe

 We ended the meal with the mango sticky rice dessert. It came with half a mango atop wonderfully chewy sticky rice and coconut cream. The mango jelly topping was cute but doesn’t really do much to add to the already delightful dessert. It was a wonderful way to end our meal!

Mango Sticky Rice @Koh Lipe

There were Southern Thai specialties we have not tried so we would definitely go back. We think this will now become our new favourite Thai place!