Elle M'a dit Restaurant, Toronto.

Elle M'a dit is a very small resto on Baldwin Street where the food is prepared by Alsatian chef Gregory Furstoss. I found the menu inspiring so of course, we had to graze most of it, but we could have ordered more.


We began with what virtually every table was eating, the tarte flambee. There were several versions but we chose 4. The best thing about these different tarts, each quite wonderful, was the impeccably thin, crispy edged crust. First we enjoyed the creamy gorgonzola, crispy onion and potato tart (no photo). 


Grilled portobello, sundried tomato, pesto and gruyere cheese.

Duck confit, potato onion and gruyere cheese.

Traditional: bacon, onion, frommage blanc and gruyere cheese.

A perfectly textured, hand chopped bison tartar flavoured with diced onion, topped with a quail egg yolk and accompanied by crostini. This was just about as good as tartar gets from both a flavour and texture perspective.

Braised beef tongue with sweet purple potato gnocchi. The tongue was perfectly tender and juicy; the gnocchi were lovely soft pillows and the julienned carrot topping made the whole affair on the plate most edible.

Sauerkraut with white wine, sauteed in duck fat, with grilled pork loin, pork belly, smoked sausage and fingerling potato. A very good version of one of my very favourite Alsatian specialties. The smokeyness of the sausage worked so well with this dish; the tasty sauerkraut as good as it gets. An accomplished dish.

Our dessert was another version of the tarte flambee, this one covered in a thin layer of sliced apples dusted with cinnamon. A perfect finish.