Susur

[GordonCooks]

I'd be curious if Susur was in the restaurant that night.

Indeed, he was. I booked, only knowing he would be there. We even spoke when he came to our table (by our request), but he wasn't really interested in "hearing" anything. He was just making an appearance.

Sorry to hear Susur is not your cup of green tea. Any Toronto faves ?

[Schneier]

I had dinner earlier this week at Susur.

Susur is probably Toronto's most interesting restaurant. Chef Susur Lee cooks creative Asian-French fusion cuisine, and is known for beautiful presentations. It's the one Toronto restaurant I was most interested in trying.

The restaurant is muted white, with long clear lines. White walls, white cielings, white tablecloths, white chairs. The dark floors and small decorations are pretty accents, and the whole room feels serene.

Unfortunately, it's also noisy when crowded. But when the room is empty, the feeling is serene and simple.

Which is in stark contrast to the food.

The food is complicated. Every course has a huge number of ingredients, and they're put together in interesting ways. Some courses are compilations of smaller dishes, arranged artfully on the plate. Everything is arranged artfully on the plate. Some of the plates are so beautiful you don't want to mess it up by eating it. But eating is the point, and thankfully the food doesn't fall over itself. With very few exceptions, the complicated dishes worked well. I really enjoyed my meal here.

There are dishes you can order a la carte, but the real deal are the tasting menus. There is a three-course menu, a five-course menu, and a seven-course menu. The waiter explains that they can be tailored to individual tastes and allergies, although the menu warns that people with allergies may have problems with the menus.

The menus are also served in reverse order, with the heavy meat first and moving backwards towards the lighter dishes. I don't know what I think of that. And here I am writing this up, almost 24 hours after the meal, and I STILL don't know what I think of it. It's interesting. It makes wine pairings harder. But I'm not sure.

We didn't order wine.

And, of course, we ordered the seven-course menu.

But wait! There's more! They don't have one menu, they have two. And they send out one of each for the two of us, allowing us to try both. Of course we switched plates in the middle, which means that the number of different dishes we would try became fourteen.

I liked this place already.

(A note on the notes: I tried taking notes, I really did. I did okay for the first few courses, but there were just too many ingredients. I gave up about halfway through. The waiter was nice enough to write our menu down after the meal, and anything in quotes is from that piece of paper.)

Amuse Bouche:

A celery root blini, topped with lobster salad and Oestra caviar.

A tuna crisp with saffron aoli and a dill pickle.

Both were intersting and tasty, and a nice portent of things to come.

First Course:

"Smoked squab with a spicy barbecue sauce."

This was the only questionable dish, so it was probably best to get it out of the way early. The squab was perfectly cooked, and delicious. It was served with mashed potato and a corn compote, both of which were fine. The harcot vert and rhubarb bundle wrapped in bacon was pretty. But the barbeque sauce was out of place. It didn't work. It didn't tie the dish together. it jarred.

"Smoked beef filet tenderloin topped with a porcini and bone marrow crust. Back olive and artichoke Stilton sauces."

Much better. There were three sauces on the plate: the black olive sauce, the artichoke sauce, and a tomato puree. They blended beautifully, and were delicious. There was also a potato cake thingy.

Second Course:

"Soy marinated foie gras terrine with a fresh fig and port aspic. Foie gras bavarois with a black currant preserve."

This was the cold foie gras course. The figs worked perfectly with the foie gras. The black currant did, too. It was also the prettiest presentation of the night.

"Squab ballantine, ball of duck confit, and seared foie gras. Flavors: green onion, lemongrass, tamarind, and mango-saffron."

This was the cold foie gras course. It was really three things: the seared foie gras with a slice of tamerillo, the hot squab ballantine, and the ball of duck confit wrapped in, I think, leek. The "flavors" above were four parallel stripes of sauce. It was the second prettiest presentation of the night, and also very good.

Third Course:

"Wuxi pork with a pork braise sauce, roasted pear with apricot puree."

My notes started petering out right about here, and I don't remember what else was in the dish that didn't get written down by the waiter. It was a good dish, though. Not great, but good.

"Ham with a tamarind sauce, marinated endive salad."

It was a piece of braised ham, a piece of cooked endive, and a very interesting daikon cake wrapped in tofu skin. It was only an okay dish.

Fourth Course:

"Hamachi salad with rice crisp vermicelli, julienne carrots, diakon, and cucumber, salted plum and ginger dressing.

This dish was fantastic. It was cold and light and crunchy and refreshing, just about the best palate cleanser you could ask for.

"Marinated citrus sable fish with citrus segments and an herb infused oil, topped with a squid ink crisp."

Another good dish. Ignore the "squid ink crisp"; it was a tastless black noodle. But the sable was perfectly cooked, and the dish worked really well.

Fifth Course:

"Oxtail ravioli with a smoked oyster and truffle sauce, shaved black truffles."

"Shrimp flan with lobster, pink peppercorn lobster bisque."

Both were very tasty. I remember the lobster being rich and flavorful, and the oyster being huge. The black truffle worked well with the dish, which I didn't expect.

Sixth Course:

"Tomato consomme with tapioca and lemongrass."

I thought the tapioca was more for show than for flavor, but the soup was delicious. It was hot and light, and the lemongrass gave it the slightest of kick. And it was the only course we didn't have to divide in half so we could swap plates in the middle.

Seventh Course:

This was dessert. It wasn't written down, so I'll try to work from memory. The two plates each had four things on them. The passion fruit flan was the absolute winner. The liquid chocolate cake--I know, I know--was second. The banana tiramisu was also delicious. There was another chocolate-cake-like thingy that was okay, and another flan topped with whipped cream that wasn't any better. There was also a gooseberry dipped in something, and a chocolate truffle.

We were full, anyway.

The bill came in at $125 per person--and that's Candian. A fantastic deal, I thought.

Bruce

Edited February 21, 2004 by Schneier (log)

[Marlene]

Beautiful review. Thanks for sharing it with us Have you eaten in any of Toronto's other fine dining establishments? If so, how did Susur's compare?

Edited February 21, 2004 by Marlene (log)

[Schneier]

Beautiful review. Thanks for sharing it with us Have you eaten in any of Toronto's other fine dining establishments? If so, how did Susur's compare?

I've been to Opus (many years ago), North 44, and Scaramouche. Susur is the best meal I've ever eaten in Toronto.

Bruce

[merlin]

Thanks for the review Bruce.

Just reading the Globe & Mail article on the dinner Susur Lee and David Hawksworth put on at West in Vancouver a few days ago. A couple of the courses sound like what you had.

Alexandra Gill observed:

"Susur Lee's oyster with braised oxtail ravioli and black truffle sauce. The fragrant black truffle sauce elicited moans of delight, but confused guests who were unfamiliar with the nuances of Susur's style. It was the most robust dish of the night, and served for the third course"

-and-

"And while Lee came across as more complex culinary artist, his honey-marinated sablefish served on a bed of spiced citrus slices had a mixed response."

I had not heard much of Susur Lee until I read an article about him in Gourmet some time ago which made me so ravenous that I wanted to hop a plane and head to TO. Some day soon I hope. Your description reinforces that urge.

[Degustation]

Susur had an appearance on the Gabareau show where he indicated that he will be opening a new restaurant next to his current one. He said it would be called Lee.

[kevin]

Is he opening a new restaurant, or simply expanding his existing one. Is it Nobu Next Door, same place without the reservations, or will it be more like DB Cafe or Incognico, same perfection lets ponce.

[kevin]

Soory for the typo, I meant less ponce. Dyslexic typing.

[Schneier]

Is he opening a new restaurant, or simply expanding his existing one. Is it Nobu Next Door, same place without the reservations, or will it be more like DB Cafe or Incognico, same perfection lets ponce.

Our waiter told us about this. He said that it would b e a "dim sum" restaurant, whatever that means in this context.

Bruce