Ahhh, Splendido – a restaurant which has flourished in the Toronto foodie scene for so many years, and unfortunately, this would be my last review for them. Last year, they had announced that they would be shutting their doors as the owner decided to move on to new things. Read all about it here if you missed the news, but sadly they are now closed and these photos are what remains of my delicious time spent there :(
Nonetheless, I’m very glad I was able to dine here twice for licious. Both times I have had top quality food and I’m happy that Chef Victor Barry obtained such great success with Splendido, and will be moving on to greater culinary adventures! I returned here for dinner for Summerlicious after having an awesome Winterlicious the season before, so I was excited to try the new things. The meal was excellent and everything would have been wonderful except for one annoying fly that bothered our dining the whole night -_-“. Let’s have a detailed look at my last Splendido meal though :’)
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Sounds like a refreshing non-alcoholic combination indeed, perfect for the summer right? Except that lemonade was truly… full of lemons. It was quite sour and not what I was used to for the usual sugary filled lemonades… so this was a tad too strong in sourness for my personal liking :S
In addition to the Summerlicious menu, they had also offered a Side Menu and Tasting Menu items. Ordering off of these would incur extra charges of course, but we decided to try it out since we were there already :) The Uni special consisted of Uni (of course) on top of a potato bun on the right, and on top of squid ink toasted brioche on the left (very accommodating to allergies). We were very excited to see the abundance of uni since this is a delicacy in Japanese sushi bars. The bread and the sauce here definitely had enough flavours to overpower the uni, which is what I believe might have been intended because many people are unsure of the unique and strong ocean taste that uni can bring. So to make it more palatable for everyone, they put together this combination. It was still very deliciously done indeed!
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The foie gras was suuuuper smooth and divineeee to have. It almost felt as if my appetizer plate was a dessert, the way it was presented and the ingredients that came with this. The strawberries made the dish very summer appropriate and added a freshness factor to it. Definitely love the foie gras here!
Because this IS advertised as salmon sashimi, so I caution you that as picky Japanese food eaters, we may have had something in mind already. But this restaurant is definitely taking inspiration from other cultures and creating its own kind of dishes, so I applaud them for this! The salmon sashimi actually turned out to be a smidge salty with the sauce, but the blend of flavours on the dish as a whole was still very tasty. And the slight subtle spiciness added by the rice cakes gave it an great additional twist!
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Those chunky looking steak pieces actually turned out to be very tender and chewy. Not difficult to eat at all. The rest was just plated with tomatoes to go give you a well balanced meal of meat and veggies :)
The salmon was perfectlyyyy cooked. And I can’t stress how much I love it when a restaurant FINALLY cooks my fish right. Soft and flaky and smooth on the insides. The rest of the dish was definitely very much influenced by Chinese flavours. The vegetables and the sauce definitely reminded me of food at home =P
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This cheese is known to be good cheese amongst cheese lovers. Very heavy for a final dessert. Combined with some apple jam and nutty buttery toast making this a strong finisher. Of course I haven’t acquired the taste for this cheese… but the accompaniments I very much enjoyed!
This was definitely advertised as a “cake” of some sort on the menu, but to my surprise it did not come as what you would expect for a regular cake. This was more of their own version of a broken down strawberry shortcake I guess??! There was berry gelato with a bunch of cream, and lots of strawberries. And some crumbly stuff which I guess represents the crust?! But definitely not in the usual cake form! LOL. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this broken apart cake dessert for its flavours… not because they disappointed me of my vision of real cake!!!
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Overall, I enjoyed my time at Splendido (minus the stupid fly that somehow got in cuz it’s summer and stayed around, blegh). They always provided exceptional service and high quality dishes. I’m glad I was able to try a completely different take on the foods even though I had been here before. The meal was very satisfying and I’m definitely sad that I won’t be able to eat at such a great restaurant again! Here’s to finding new restaurants that provide the same great experience!
Clink,
Dreamz*
http://splendido.ca/
Restaurant: Splendido
Winterlicious: $28 Lunch // $45 Dinner
Reservations: Unfortunately, they are no longer open :'(
Attire: Business Casual / Business
A winter/summer/de Licious Toronto with Dreamz 