Susur Lee

[Wilfrid]

A short drive out of the city center, Susur Lee's restaurant is a brightly lit splash of white on a quiet shopping street. Modern and minimalist inside, with white walls and some tasteful art works (I especially liked what looked like children's toys inside small vitrines strung across the wall). Monday night, but the restaurant was fairly busy, a little noisy because of the bare walls. Service was a bit frantic, especially the hasty, advance delivery of cutlery for future courses. I was surrounded by spare knives and forks most of the evening.

I ordered the seven course surprise tasting menu at $110 (about $68 US), and ate an amuse of soy bean custard with a black bean garnish with a very reasonable NV Louis Roederer. Then the evening started going backwards.

My waiter should have warned me, or I should have taken the trouble to consult the sommelier; but imagine my surprise when, as I tasted a fresh, sweetish California chardonnay, my first course turned out to be a very large and generous meat dish. When another meat dish followed, I began to suspect that the kitchen was sending out the courses at random. Then the sommelier noticed my bewilderment and I learnt the truth. Susur's tasting menus are designed backwards, moving from the heavier to the lighter meat dishes, then through fish to salads. In synch now, the sommelier started pairing wines with the dishes, and everything started to swing along nicely.

What a meal. The recitation with which each dish was delivered revealed a dozen or so ingredients. This is what I can remember, and turn your PC upside down if it doesn't make sense:

Two roast squab legs, one with a foie gras reduction with chopped gherkins (an "evolved" sauce charcutiere?), one with a sauce based on a reduced Chinese stock; chanterelles, rutabaga, fresh chives.

Confit of foie gras (prepared in house, I'm sure) and a slice of Muscovy duck breast served over a black plum stuffed with nuts, and wrapped in a garlic potato twirl.

Braised belly pork from an 800 year old Chinese recipe, with mushrooms and a rich, almost chocaltey dark sauce. This was accompanied by a light, cool, petillant Italian red.

Warm slices of slightly spicy salmon, garnished with tomatoes. A glass of Funk Riesling.

Lobster tail garnished with sea snails over a mussel and mustard sauce (excellent, grainy English mustard made more tha one appearance in the menu). Sandstone 2000 Chardonnay from Ontario.

Salad of tomato and basil jelly, stuffed fresh tomatoes, beets, etc. A different local Chardonnay, Inox.

A warm spicy ginger cake speckled with dried fruits, ice cream, and...well I lost track. A local ice wine.

That barely does it justice. The foie gras reduction in the squab dish was profoundly rich and earthy. The combination of lobster and sea snail with the mussel and mustard tones of the sauce was incredible. This was a knockout dinner.

Susur Lee was omnipresent in the dining room (and he must have a great kitchen crew to be turning out dishes of this complexity all night). I had a couple of pleasant chats with him, and he's a diamond. He explained his theory that with orthodox tasting menus, people satisfy their hunger by consuming plenty of bread and wine at the outset, leaving little appetite for heavier dishes in the later stages of the meal. So he's turned the traditional tasting menu on its head. I am not sure that Escoffier and all that came after can be discarded so easily, but dishes of this magnificent quality excuse idosyncracies. I told him the cooking reminded me a little of Gray Kunz at Lespinasse, which I think he took for the compliment it was intended to be: he mentioned the importance of his French training.

Just in terms of what's on the plate, I would say this is a destination restaurant. Exceptional.

[tommy]

interesting. the "backwards" approach seems to make sense on that level.

what were your thoughts on the local wines?

[Fat Guy]

Here's an exerpt from a piece I wrote about Toronto restaurants. This part comes right after I explain that too many Toronto restaurants are generic:

"One major exception is the restaurant Susur, which many - me included - hold out as Toronto's finest. Susur Lee, the chef and owner, has created an institution unique enough to justify the purchase of a plane ticket.

His locally sourced ingredients speak of Ontario and Canada, while his Asian heritage and French training play off each other to create a cuisine like no other, sophisticated in its technique but effortless in its presentation.

Chef Lee specializes in multi-course tasting menus, and he has taken the bold step of serving the main course first (in our case, rare bison tenderloin with beef tongue, and pan-seared squab), and then progressing backward toward lighter items (like fish and vegetables).

He argues that the traditional progression of a meal has customers feeling full by the time the main arrives, and though this has never been a problem for Fat Guy, it might be a problem for some.

The one place I find myself in disagreement with Lee is over the progression of wine: even the palate of a professional sommelier isn't resilient enough to go from red to white, and mine certainly isn't. And if he's going to do this, at least he should start with the best part: dessert."

[Wilfrid]

How did I miss that? Thanks, Steven, and the wine progression was indeed tricky to manoeuver.

I meant to mention the price - $240 Canadian, or about $150 US. That's a seven course tasting dinner, with champagne and slightly too much wine (I was comped some of the wine because of the initial confusion). You can see what a bargain a straight three course dinner might be.

Tommy: the ice wine was nice (it wasn't the famous Inniskillen, which they didn't have by the glass), but I wouldn't pretend the chardonnays knocked me out.

[Lesley C]

I just saw Susur Lee on a decorating show (!) cooking pork confit with cherries and apples, and I'll tell you, I've never seen an apple peeled so beautifully. I haven't tasted his food, but just the sight of his technique assures me that with Susur you can believe the hype.

[Sheri-FB]

Just a word on Susur's flexibility and ability that I think members should be aware of, if not already. We visited Susur's in early August (in fact the second to last dinner seating before he closed for a month's vacation, at a time when you would think fresh supplies would be low and limit flexibility). I am a difficult person in terms of what I will eat (no seafood (allergy) or fish), so I never can order a tasting menu. Having read much in advance about Susur and his tasting menu, I was really torn but was going to order a la carte. Upon arrival, I was informed that there are always 2 separate tasting menus each evening and the chef is willing to tailor them to suit dietary needs. So, with no advance warning he put together a fish-less, seafood-less menu for me, with a completely different menu for my husband (who eats just about everything). We were aware in advance of the reverse tasting menu thing - but our waiter described it to us when we ordered as well. Actually, given the portion sizes of each course (and the fact that I did not have any fish or seafood course), I really did not notice it much. I do agree on the difficulty of wine - and confess we stopped drinking for the last 2 or 3 courses because I do not like going from full bodied red to more subtle wines.

Its been a while and I have lost my notes, but my strong recollection is that the man is a genius with fois gras and the overall experience was fantastic. I really want to convey how much I appreciate Susur Lee's flexibility and ability to put together a high quality tasting menu allowing me to experience the full range of his skills despite my dining peculiarities.

[Jinmyo]

Sheri, that's great. And welcome to eGullet.

[INNOCENT]

We dined at Susur this past Saturday evening. It was a curiously unsatisfactory experience.

We went in with great expectations. Well, the service was disappointing and the food was--memorable, but not in a satisfying way.

We talked about the whys and wherefores extensively afterwards. To give the chef and the experience its due will take more time than I have right now. I'll leave it to K. to fill in the blanks.

[KMPickard]

Long - just a warning.

Last Saturday my "innocent" spouse and I had a joint birthday celebration at Susur and, as he mentioned above, the experience was not totally satisfactory. This has taken a lot of thinking, folks. Balance is the aim.

There were many good things. The dining room is ultra cool - minimalist white with a few touches of kitsch to spice things up. A fifties silver aluminum tree (remember those?) spoke of the season.

The restaurant has two covers for the evening and, for some now obscure reason, I booked us for the early seating. That, in retrospect, was a big mistake.

To say the service was brisk is to slightly understate the situation. We arrived on the dot of 6:00 and were reminded upon being seated that we had to vacate the table by 8:30. ( We know, we know) Our waitress seemed in an unrelieved state of anxiety that we do so - she was tense and really didn't crack a smile all evening. She was in such a hurry that often the next course's cutlery would arrive before our last plates had been cleared.

We had hoped for the seven course tasting menu but were told, alas, that only the three and five course menus were available. Expressing our interest in the food I asked our waitress if there was any printed menu of the evening's offerings but she said ,no, that the person delivering the food would inform us in that regard.

As has been mentioned previously,Susur Lee starts his tasting menu with the "heavier" courses and proceeds to the lighter. It should also be noted that we were each served different courses. We elected to start our celebration with a glass of champagne - Louis Roederer - and to have the "tasting" size of the wines that the chef selected to accompany each course.

Once the food started to arrive I understood why there was no printed material - it would have taken pages and pages to describe the offerings.

I've never been served so many IDEAS in one evening. Each course arrived in pristine white china that varied in shape. The presentations were really beautiful - small pieces of art. This is very intellectual food. Perhaps more intellectual that sensual.

But here is where things got to be difficult if you were really interested in what you were being served. The runner ( is that the right term?) would very rapidly describe the course and then, well, run. The items presented were so varied and so numerous that sometimes we really never did catch the entire description. Our best intentions on note taking were foiled.

To the best of my knowledge we were served:-

1/ Amuse - Me - a tofu custard topped with herbs and garnished with tomato concassis. A bit subtle for me - the word "bland" springs to mind.

L.- a nice and refreshing gazpacho of ?- a good palate cleanser.

2/ Me- roast veal loin topped with a shrimp mousse - accompanied by three sauces, one of which was black olive, and two small stacks of three or four tiny perfect vegetables. The veal, although rosy looking, was pretty cool and pretty tough. It didn't relate to it's shrimp topping in any meaningful way. I was unable to identify several of the vegetables.

L.- stuffed Cornish hen with seasonal vegetables. This was the more successful of these two courses. Nice crispy skin and very moist flesh.

3/ Me- seared foie gras atop a roasted pear along with a portobello mushroom mousse(?) with a black truffle reduction. My foie gras was nicely crisp on the exterior but didn't have the contrasting cloud-like interior that I'd hoped for. There was something else on the plate too but I can't remember what.

L.- This was the winner dish of the evening. 5 mini preparations presented on an oblong white pedestaled plate. There was a riesling gelee, a tongue preparation, a torchon of foie gras topped with some candied pistachio, a mini cannoli filled with a creamy foie gras and best of all, a piece of seared foie gras atop a tiny toasted cinnamon bun. The last was utter genius in terms of flavour and texture.

4/ Me- cured boca negra (sp?), a mediterranean fish, atop a small celery root flavoured pancake with a creme fraiche topping. One cold seared scallop served with a goat cheese quenell and garnished with (I think) a dried mini squid - although I could swear the server said something about a giant squid leg!

L.- A boca negra fillet - lightly fried, I think, with a medley of vegetables.

5/ Me - Steamed lobster

L.- a scallop, a prawn and something else in a tomato based sauce

Can you tell I'm really losing my way here?

The evening prior we had seen the opera "The Turn of the Screw" (this is relevant I promise). Since the opera is performed in English we expected to understand the libretto and subtitles, of course, weren't offered. Both of us laughed because we actually found the singing in English to be more frustrating than any German or Italian opera. Instead of listening to the music we were straining to understand the words. Only when we stopped trying to understand what was being said could we hear the music being sung.

I think if we hadn't been as interested in the food as much as we were, we wouldn't have experienced the same level of frustration at not being fully informed about it. We haven't done enough eating at this level to not want to be educated along with our pleasure

The same lack of information was evident in the wine service too. We were given scant, generic information. No bottle was presented, no vintage given. As stated in another thread, even after several questions I never did find out the producer of that lovely Banyuls. Even more annoying to me was the the wines were served in "mini" glasses rather than the full sized Riedel's used otherwise. Granted, it did make the pours look more generous, but it did nothing to enhance the characteristics of the wine. There were a lot of respectable Ontario wines used, from Cave Springs, Malivoire, and Peninsula Ridge. As well there was a Gruner, a tokay, and the previously mentioned Banyuls. The wine service was in utter contrast to that at Gramercy Tavern where we had matched wines to the summer tasting menu. There the waiter, when he realized we were interested, went out of his way to display and explain his selections.

Okay, on to desserts. In some ways this was the best course of the evening.

There was more than one bite of three desserts on each plate. They consisted of , me, a chocolate tart, a white chocolate hazelnut mousse with chocolate cookie crumbs and a lychee/blackberry sorbet. For L. it was an "oozing" chocolate cake (and yes it did) a heavenly lemon tart and a forgettable fruit sorbet.

On completing dessert the question was "did we want anything else?'. A loaded question - but we demurely said "coffee, please". We are Canadian after all. No mignardaise's were offered. Hmm - that might take another 5 minutes.

L. astutely asked the waitress as the meal was drawing to a close if the seven course tasting was available at the second seating. The answer was yes it was- but there was no time to serve it to the first seating. We at least had the pleasure of hearing what the two courses we missed were.

Would we go back?

Never on a Saturday.

Not unless someone else was treating.

There's always next year.....

K.

[Jinmyo]

Thank you. Obviously the early seating is not the thing to do. Good information to have.

[GordonCooks]

I was very sorry to hear of your poor experience. I've dined at Susur at least 12-13 times and have always had a great dining experience. I will say I always sat later and had the table for the night. I hope you can give the place another try some time. Do you have a favorite place in Toronto ?

[Jinmyo]

Gordon, have you posted on any of those meals?

[KMPickard]

GordonCooks - I'm hard pressed to name our favorite TO restaurant because we don't dine there often in spite of living 2 hours or so from the city (depending on traffic of course). The peculiarities of our life dictate that our eating adventures happen largely when we're on vacation. Hence, I can tell you that I really like Annisa and Gramercy Tavern and really don't like DB Moderne. The one Toronto restaurant that we repeatedly frequent is Lai Wah Heen and it has never failed us.

K.

[ajay]

KMPickard,

Thanks for that thoughtful and measured post.

On a completley different note, my family has been considering visiting Susur (we will opt for the late sitting--thought it's tough for us to wait that long), and I was wondering if members can comment on the experience of vegetarians (of the lacto-ovo variety).

[GordonCooks]

Gordon, have you posted on any of those meals?

A more recent meal (July) was posted here (I was there again in October)

Big City Dining at 40% off

I've tried starting a few threads on Toronto but they've generated little interest. I, myself, Love T.O.

[Jinmyo]

Gordon, right. I remember this now. Thanks.

[GordonCooks]

GordonCooks -  I'm hard pressed to name our favorite TO restaurant because we don't dine there often in spite of living 2 hours or so from the city (depending on traffic of course). The peculiarities of our life dictate that our eating adventures happen largely when we're on vacation. Hence, I can tell you that I really like Annisa and Gramercy Tavern and really don't like DB Moderne. The one Toronto restaurant that we repeatedly frequent is Lai Wah Heen and it has never failed us.

K.

I give high marks to "Hemispheres" also. Patrick Lin is doing some great plates (if he's till there) It's been 7-8 months since I have.

[Degustation]

I've read that Patrick Lin has left Hemispheres. The reason given was "To spend time with his family and further his education". The article was about dining in a restaurant's kitchen, and it sounded like the author had a fine dinner just before Lin had left. Part of the menu consisted of: lobster tail and shark fin in lobster broth; squab breast glazed with sake, rice vinegar and soy that was paired with foie gras and spiced peaches; and dessert was three souffles: lime, lemon grass, and passion fruit.

Henry Wu's corporate chef Neal Noble is now back in the kitchen.

[Degustation]

Apparently Susur has just added an extension at the back of his restaturant. It's an entirely self-contained salon with a fireplace, carpets, wine cellar, private washroom, and view of the tiny garden. It can be accessed via the kitchen or a private entrance.

Edited December 17, 2002 by Degustation (log)

[GordonCooks]

Apparently Susur has just added an extension at the back of his restaturant. It's an entirely self-contained salon with a fireplace, carpets, wine cellar, private washroom, and view of the tiny garden. It can be accessed via the kitchen or a private entrance.

Nice! Will they serve meals in that space ?

[Degustation]

Yep, if it hasn't been booked by corporate groups or celebrity types, the room is available to anyone dining at the restaurant. Hmmm, a possibility for an eGullet gathering? Wilfrid can even do camp.

[ajay]

Hate to seem like i'm badgering members, but I'm still wondering if anyone knows or even better has experience with how susur handles vegetarians. I'd really like to give the place a whirl, but it would be for nought if the kitchen can't accomodate vegetarians, though what'd I hope for is something like the wonderful vegetarian meal beachfan described at les lodges, outside of Lyon, France. Any thoughts or insights? Please don't be shyl.

[Wilfrid]

Ajay, since my experience with Susur was that he was very happy to speak with diners and discuss his cuisine even during service, I would suggest calling ahead and enquiring about a vegetarian tasting menu. I think it would be very interesting if the restaurant was willing to do it.

[Degustation]

I understand that Susur has a vegetarian tasting menu that changes daily.

[Degustation]

I just had a great meal at Susur and I will provide a post a bit later. As indicated by previous diners, the details about each dish are staggering and I think the only way to perfectly capture the information would be to tape the runners who seem to effortlessly rattle off the descriptions, when they present the plates.

However, the good news is that Susur now has a website and you can see for yourself what his dishes are like.

Since it was a fairly slow night (3/4 full for the evening), I was amongst the others who were offered a tour of the kitchen and the new back room. Upon entering the kitchen, to the left is a small recessed prep area, which is used for cleaning fish, etc. Beside the prep area is a small alcove where the servers prepare the bread plates. To the right of the entrance is the main kitchen area, with a stacked row of steamers, and stoves and ovens on one side of the long counter and pickups occuring on the other side. At the end of the counter is where the plating occurs. Opposite the plating area is the dessert space where they also prepare the house-made ice creams and sorbets. The most interesting design aspect was a skylight that is situated high above the middle of the counter space, providing a light, airy feel to the room. I was standing near the kitchen entrance, where most of the serving staff would normally be congregating for pick-ups. As I chatted with Susur and the maitre d', the staff quickly hustled about, politely excusing themselves as they moved around us. It was pointed out to me that on Saturdays and Fridays they have two seatings, the pace is frenetic and they can go through about 1,000 plates.

If you enter the kitchen and walk straight ahead, you will get to Susur's new private dining room. It's a lovely, cozy space that seats about 25 people. The long table fills the middle of the space, and at one end of the room is a glass enclosed fireplace, and a wall of ceiling high (?) windows is just opposite the entrance. Susur indicated that sometimes they can put groups of six in that room on a Sat., if the main dining area is full. There is no extra charge for the room, as the same tasting menus are served.

To answer Ajay's question, a 5 or 7 vegetarian tasting menu is also offered on the menu. It also follows the "backwards" style of presentation. Eggplant ravioli with tomato confit and black truffle sauce is an example of a substantial veggie dish. Many of the vegetables are steamed and the different sauces are an important part of the creations. Apparently, some patrons just opt for the vegetarian menu for a change of pace so I would suspect that the meal would be a very satisfying experience even without the meat component.