Sunday, September 2, 2012

Harbord Room Restaurant, Toronto

The Harbord Room gets a lot of buzz. I had not been for a long time and my daughter wanted to take me there. The house made burger is often commented about, quite positively. It was listed "#1" on the Toronto Life "25 Best Burgers" web site.

Roasted tomatillo and almond gazpacho with avocado, smoked plaintain, guajillo chili, lime, pickled cucumber and fresh herbs. This was a wonderfully refreshing, very tasty, cold soup. The mild heat of the chilli gave dimension to the delightful combination of contrasting flavours.

Hard to tell from it's looks, fried soft shell crab po-boy in a white bread bun with pickled cippolini onions,red cabbage slaw, house pickles, tarragon and old bay mayo. Good, thin, crispy chips on the side. Loved the sandwich. The crispy crab and crunchy slaw contrasted nicely with the very soft, white bread bun.

The vaunted burger with caramelized onions (no cheese for me), arrived medium rare as ordered and was a good burger. However, compared to my "gold standard", I found the texture of the burger to be a bit too mushy and the flavour of the beef not quite beefy enough for my taste. I liked the bun and the house made ketchup was terrific. 

The Japanese cheesecake with strawberry ganache, basil and mint mousse and malted milk crumble, was not to my liking.

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