Best new restaurant in Toronto in 2017

CANOE

66 Wellington Street W., 54th floor., 416 364 0054

An edible hymn to Canada, 54 floors using a wraparound view of the lake as autumnal twilight, at sunset turns the heavens the bewitching strong azure that dreams are made from. This really is the sort of eatery where big statements are manufactured. Oliver & Bonacini’s flagship is a magical mystery tour of Canadiana that is modern, from mountain cranberries to balsam fir crème fraîche. Canoe handles them with admiration that is total and sources the absolute best in local ingredients. Who else offers pheasant savoury and moist, with grain porridge flavoured with foie gras, braised celeriac and tiny onion cups cradling lightly pickled mountain cranberries? A gorgeous hunk of fork-soft red venison with dehydrated grapes, Swiss chard, ice wine jus and Jerusalem artichoke chips? Deconstructed butter tart for dessert? This can be serious edible Canadiana.

PATRIA

480 King St. W., 416-367-0505

King of clubs Charles Khabouth made a really wonderful restaurant, as he always does. Patria is two floors with a giant art installation that is embroidered, fascinating lighting plus a tall wall. Three- year-old corned ham that is is nutty thanks to the acorns the hoof that is black free range pigs ate; this is a carnivore’s dreamfood. Patria brings in artisanal wines and cheeses and serves the cheeses at common indoor temperature, with sweet broiled oil and /tart quince jelly -kissed baguette. Their blue that is Spanish is a farmhouse product that gives French Roquefort a run for its money. They do amazing tapas tsmcatering. Creamy/ crisp manchego croquettes. Fab fresh house- fried artichoke chips turn a salad that is huge into way more fun than veg ever are. Patria’s kitchen does the traditional foods of southern Spain but lighter and more jazzy. With spinach sounds common but tastes exciting, chickpeas stewed. Additionally very southern Spanish and more accurately cooked is fideos with clams and chorizo, short thin pasta stewed in spicy tomato broth, infused with smoke from chorizo, atop perfectly cooked clams that were fat.

TUTTI MATTI

364 Adelaide St. W., 416-597-8839

Chef Alida Solomon is at the top of her match. Her Tuscan cooking is nearly as good as it gets in the hills around Florence and Siena, her fixings impeccable, her taste buds dazzling. Porchetta is everywhere, but rarely as entertaining as Alida’s variation shaved on grilled bread with miniature crispy-fried shallot rings, arugula plus a slather of tuna emulsified smooth in mayo (a play on the trad vitello tonnato). Smooth waitstaff pour deep rich pheasant consomm onto pheasant and chestnut tortelli with crisp little touches of farro and dried apple fragments. Perfect lamb includes grilled fennel, preserved fab and lemon pickled cabbage. Among the most effective five Italian restaurants in Toronto.

EDULIS

169 Niagara St., 416 703 4222

The tiny resto that is perfect keeps getting better. They offer two everchanging tasting menus — five courses for $85 for $65 or seven classes. The cosy room, thanks to host Tobey Nemeth’s kind trust, is as luscious as the welcome. And also the food: Chef Michael Caballo’s cooking is elaborate, ever more sensitive and sophisticated, from house-made crusty bread with Quebec farmhouse butter -preserved fruit. Bonito is hardly kissed by one day chef with charcoal, adds flash-fried potato crisps, smoked potato pure, wild onions, and sauce of bone marrow with red wine. Yum! Soft surf clam with shaved fresh porcini comes in just brown butter dashi and cedar oil. Baby lamb shoulder has a suggestion of mint grape sauce, in shaved carrots, raisin pure. If dessert is their own preserved apricots with bergamot sabayon and buffalo yogurt in a fragile tart, close your eyes and inhale paradise. This is really a kitchen that worships seduces and the seasons with skill.

ZUCCA TRATTORIA

2150 Yonge St., 416-488-5774

Some wonder why after all these years the un-hip trattoria still prospers. It’s because Andrew Milne- Allan is a great Italian cook and the service is warm and suave. There is no kitchen in town responsive to the foods of every season. Baby greens in springtime, soft veg in summer, root veg in winter. And all with splendid pastas and seafood. It’s clear that chef is more in love with fish and pasta than with meat. His pasta command keeps growing, his capability to reveal noodles with deep rich flavours. He stuffs tortelloni and ravioli with the gifts of each season, he strews off fresh al dente pasta -cuts in fabulously intricate daily soups. Fish is his other love, garnished and always perfectly cooked like a fantasy that is good. His meats are much less exciting nowadays, perhaps less appealing to the maestro.

BORALIA

59 Ossington Ave., 647-351-5100

Toronto’s court to Canadiana is breathtakingly delightful thanks to superchef Wayne Morris. Chef’s item that is most notable, L’clade, is mussels that come to the table topped using a glass dome. The waiter lifts a thick fragrant cloud of smoke that is pine and the dome floats upward. Chef’s stuffed onions are sublime: These are little onions stuffed with curry spices with silken creamed carrots lightly seasoned. Chef’s pan roasted elk is the very best meat in town: soft, succulent, jam-packed with flavour. But tend not to leave Boralia. The flakiest pastry that is possible encloses ineffably tender small balls of squab dark meat with onions and carrots. The pie sit pieces of the squab breast, strong, rich, fork-tender. Wayne Morris and partner Evelyn Wu Morris have created a charming room with apt Canadiana shtick. But what matters most, consistently, is the taste of things. And theirs is outstanding.

THE HARBORD ROOM

89 Harbord St., 416 962 8989

The most yummy bistro in town is a magnificent deep coral room with ceiling fans that are lazy and schoolroom lights, it’s only trouble being that it is known by everybody else too, so it’s consistently crowded and also the servers are diverted. But the food is scrumptious. There are still excellent soups and hamburgers, excellent octopus and their supernal brick chicken remains — fabulously soft succulent chicken pressed to intensify its flavour. Chef Cory Vitiello has recently veered towards the Middle East, deliciously. Borani is eggplant dip with crispy crunchy fried house-made pita chips. Moroccan beef cheek is stewed till fork-soft with sweet spices along with a side of cauliflower roasted with golden raisins. For dessert I favour the ethereal ricotta doughnuts to dip in puckery lemon curd that is creamy.

THE BLACK HOOF

928 Dundas St. W., 416 551 8854

The Hoof does some luscious pig products and grand charcuterie — We love the greasy crispy smoked pork jowl with roasted figs, the fat set off by pickled pears with blue cheese in vanilla -pear sauce. Their entry into taco-property is, in addition, very great — high-flavoured cochinita pibil tacos. And they’ve diversified into the vegetable kingdom. Totally charred rapini makes sweet love with crispy, caramelized onion mayonnaise and charred figs walnuts with mustard seed vinaigrette. Cavatelli do with veg. Still no res and still only debit card or cash, but at least it is possible to quaff cocktails while you wait at either Hoof offshoot, Rhum Corner next door or Cocktail on the other side of the road.

CAVA

1560 Yonge St., 416-979-9918

Cava’s kitchen goes from strength to strength. Chef Doug Penfold (who now juggles Chabrol as well) continues his meat supremacy — His jamón is dreamy, his charcuterie impeccable. He adds whimsies to help it become sing. He still makes pintxos of fantasia -roasted figs and lightly pickled sardines, and the time honoured favourite fried eggplant with bonito flakes, puckery tomatillo sauce and melted fresh cheese. But chef has added non-meat treats for a broader audience. Reddish fife wheatberry salad with parsley, pomegranate, pistachios, pickled cauliflower and argan oil is loaded with flavour, as are grilled king oyster mushrooms with fab flavourings. And exactly what a chile punch in shrimp ceviche. No wonder the place is packed despite its location that was banal.