Winterlicious 2014 – STOCK

After a longgg delay, I’m finally able to tell you all about STOCK restaurant, located on the 31st floor of Trump International Hotel/Tower in Toronto. This is my 2nd time attending a licious event at this fairly new establishment, but my 1st time trying it for dinner! Headed by Executive Chef Geno Santos, the food is phenomenal here, service is beyond high class, decor so chic and modern… but you wouldn’t expect any less from Trump right? No wonder it sits in the list as one of the most expensive restaurants to dine at in Toronto (with their regular priced menu for those days you’re feeling baller about food).

The moment you enter the revolving doors into Trump Tower to get to this restaurant, you will feel the wave of classiness and fanciness envelop you. Especially when you’re seeing the residents get their grocery bags taken out of their cars and wheeled up FOR THEM in those fancy luggage carts… you know this place is high class. But anyway, you’ll be headed to the elevators where Mr. Elevator Man will kindly ask where you’re headed to and press the button to the right elevator for you O_O. Situated not too high but high enough, on the 31st floor, you’ll be surprised this restaurant doesn’t offer much of a view from dining inside. Not enough large window space for spectacular views, but enough to let light in during the daytime. Unless you’re seated right beside a window space to be able to look out, you probably won’t see much. I do believe they have a patio that you can walk out on in the summer though. Don’t take my word for this one, I’m just guessing cuz I saw a glass door.

Before we move on, I need to spend a little time on just the environment of this place. I want everyone to know that THIS is the place you DO NOT want to dress down for. I’ve read a couple of yelp reviews where silly people decided to go in jeans/sweater and felt SO out of place. Let me tell you now, you guaranteed will be if you do that. The males who know what they’re doing are all in suits and the females are decked out in pretty accessories and outfits. The service here is so attentive you should FEEL disrespectful if you’re wearing anything less than your best =). I remember walking in, getting my chair pulled out, then them immediately bringing me this cute fancy little stool to place beside me telling me that “this is for your purse ma’am”. Seriously, they brought… a CHAIR… for my PURSE. Classiness at its max. Dress for it please.

And now finally, for the photos of the long anticipated foods:

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I realized I didn’t do a good job with surrounding environment pics with this place. So here’s the only one to start along with my outfit as well. I think I just got too overwhelmed by the nice-ness of it all I wasn’t ready to take my phone out and start snapping pics of everything and seeming impolite xD. If you must, restaurant interior pics are all over google anyway =P

The decor at the lobby just outside the elevators and the restaurant. Pretty things, fancy couches, carpeted floor, dim lighting… items just blatantly telling you that you’re at an expensive place!

The fancy heavy leather-like menu. With STOCK engraved into it but you just can’t see with the fancy lighting.

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And as diligent as I am, I remembered the bread pic! The “thing” that came with the bread was the most underwhelming I guess since most the others would come up with some fancy puree dips (Auberge / Canoe / LUMA), or at least fancify their butter into shapes (North 44). But butter is butter and it’s just as good.

Bread to start. Regular slab of butter. But still a delicious regular slab.

Soup was gooood. Nice and thick. Flavours worked altogether. Favourite part was the delicious pieces of meat inside for me. I apparently unknowingly took the majority of it and it was my partner’s dish. Oops! I thought they had some already…

Appetizer – Lentilles du Puy Soup

This was the dish that I knew I would get all along when I first saw the menu here. AND IT WAS AMAAAAZING. I’ve never had octopus carpaccio before! This dish actually seemed to look like it has 10 different ingredients on the plate. I put them altogether along with my octopus and everything worked so well together. I don’t know how. Man but look at the menu description – EVO pudding, pepperoncini, black olive crumble, crisp potato . I’m not sure how but they all work with octopus. YUMMY innovative mix!

Appetizer – Tender Octopus Carpaccio

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I’m not a person who eats lamb, but I did steal a little piece of this to taste-test it! Since I’m no person to make lamb comparisons, all I could say was the lamb meat was good…? It’s not tender or meltingly soft, but very meaty… I’m not sure whether lamb shank is supposed to be like that, but my partner enjoyed the dish! And the sauce with the veggies was delicious for me as well. I actually didn’t have any problems with the taste of the lamb meat… I usually don’t like strong lamb-y flavour so I never eat lamb meat, but it was actually fine for me here… hmm…

Entree – Braised Shank of Lamb

The presentation of my plate was spectacularly done. I removed the bacon piece to show you more of how the pork tenderloin was like. I actually DID NOT expect it to be like that. No sauce and just thick pieces of meat O_O. Surprisingly… it seems the pork wasn’t as tender as I expected it to be. I ended up having to eat it alongside with as much sauce as I could scrape off the plate, along with the eggplant mush thing (which was very delicious on its own too). I know I’m not a hugeeee meat fan, but the pork itself I know was good quality stuff, just that the dryer+thick slab didn’t cut it for me without enough sauce to even it out. BUT… THE STEALER OF THE SHOW WAS ACTUALLY THAT CUTTLEFISH. JUST WOW. THAT CUTTLEFISH… was definitely melt in your mouth soft and delicious. It’s like eating the yummiest food in the form of pillow softness. I just wish they had filled my plate with cuttlefish and I would’ve been 100% satisfied completely with no complaints.

Entree – Roasted Pork Tenderloin & Cuttlefish

A closer look at Roasted Pork Tenderloin & Cuttlefish (without the bacon decor)

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Dessert was the hardest part to choose… because I wanted to try them all. But as per the waiter’s suggestion, went with his favourite which was this. This is a pomegranate mousse on top of valrhona chocolate, accompanied with different types of chocolates decor and marmalade. I definitely loved that this dessert was very unique and different. I’ve never had a pomegranate flavoured dessert before! Even though I am not a fan of mousse generally, I did enjoy this dessert and finished EVERYTHING on the plate! It was definitely more on the sour side… which is ALSO not my thing, but I still liked eating this and having a contrast to what I usually have for dessert favourites. But after having this, it left me wanting to try Caramalized Quince Torte as well to see if it might have been even better and more to my liking xD I’ll unfortunately have to leave that for someone to tell me how it was… I saw it being brought out and it looked fantastic as well *o*

Dessert – Guanaja Bavarois

Heehee, very glad I got this plate of mixed treats! I know that they sell these chocolates on the side so I wanted to give them a try (checking them out after the meal and found out they were $2.25/pc)! The macaron was DELiCIOUS – a rare flavour of persimmon and it was made unexpectedly well! As I am quite a macaron fanatic myself, I thought this wouldn’t live up to some of the specialized store’s products, but it sure did! The circular thing was a butternut squash truffle and you’d think it sounds so undessert-y… but it tasted perfectly and not funny like the name sounds at all! Bigger chocolate square was actually a cranberry marshmellow inside! So soft and cute and pink and chewy (insides pictured below)! And the smaller chocolate square was delicious toooo!!! Pear flavoured chocolate. Oh, all these special tasting desserts, I loved it!!!

Dessert – Winter Confections

Dessert – A closer look at the cranberry marshmellow chocolate

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The washroom is fancy as heck (what would you expect by now???). Everything is sleek black. And I mean everything. Dim lighting means a blurry outfit pic, but we’ll still go with it for consistency =P

Dress Style – Dressy / Business
This is THE place to dress it up and not be scared to be over the top

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Ta-daaaa. There you have it. STOCK, one of my faves for winterlicious as well. Although this meal wasn’t as PERFECT as it was last time I came, the service and everything else was. And this meal is definitely the most different and unique in terms of flavours and combinations. Will definitely be back, so make sure you put this one at the top of your list for the next licious event! Or for that special date/event, this is the place to go to spend your $$$ and it won’t disappoint!

Fancy Foods Fanfare~
Dreamz*

http://stockrestaurant.com/
Restaurant: STOCK®
Winterlicious: $25 Lunch // $45 Dinner
Reservations: Call within first few days. This restaurant is still fairly new so less ppl are aware of it, but as word gets out I think it will start to fill up faster! It’s also not very big so the good dates will go fast!
Attire: Dressy/Business/Fancy