Dinner at Avalon

[rgruby]

Given the discussion about Avalon in this thread:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=38663&hl=

I thought I'd give a brief review of my meal there last night. We'd never eaten there before, but had eaten at Zocalo, the short-lived restaurant that opened along with Avalon (I'm guessing @ 1995 or so), and which shared the same kitchen and staff.

I'll start with the summary before I get into details. My wife and I both had the "adventure menu" - basically a tasting menu. As we had had a few drinks before we got there, and because we're both not all that knowledgable about food and wine pairing, we opted to go the food only version of the menu - $120 per. (I think it was $175 if you had the menu with the wine pairings. And yeah, I know that we're not going to get more knowledgeable if we don't start ordering wine, but there you go). I opted for beer, and my wife had water. We were both served the same dishes - and which were mostly the same as the other tables around us that also appeared to have ordered the adventure menu. Neither of us had a "WOW" reaction to any of the dishes. Mostly it was a "that was ok", and a couple were less so.

The adventure menu told us the cooking method - braised, steamed etc., but nothing else. I didn't take notes, so this is my recollection of what we had.

First course was "raw" tuna - by itself, with sea urchin, and tartare in a shiso leaf. The ingredients were fresh - and this turned out to be my wife's favorite dish of the night.

Next up was kingfish escabeche on a bed of orange peel and caramelized onion. My wife thought this way too sweet. As a small portion I thought it was fine, but I probably wouldn't want to eat it as a main without toning down the sweetness a touch, or offering another item on the side to counteract the sweetness.

Next up was "salt-cured" foie gras with a squab leg confit and a butternut squash sauce. I think there were green beans as well. I liked this course, but it didn't wow me. My wife was somewhat put-off by the fact that the squab's foot was still attached.

Next was a smoked eel custard with soya beans and roasted salsify. Neither of us liked this dish. Maybe we just aren't savory custard fans. Or maybe we aren't smoked eel fans? The soya beans and salsify were completely overwhelmed by the oily fishiness of the eel, and didn't do much for me on the texture level either.

Deep-fried skate was next, accompanied by a parsley and a curry sauce. The batter had some nice Indian spices in it - but the batter was ... . Let me start by saying what it wasn't. It wasn't greasy. But it wasn't crisp either. It was soft, yielding. Was it supposed to be like this? Did it sit under a heat lamp for a couple of minutes because one of us went to the washroom? I don't know. The skate itself didn't have much flavour either. There were some good flavours going on here in the sauces and the batter, but overall I wasn't thrilled with this.

Smoked king salmon on a potato foam with a fennel sauce arrived next. Again, I liked this dish - the salmon had a nice mapley, caramelized flavour, although it may have been a tad overcooked/dry, but it didn't floor me.

Braised lamb cheek navarin was next and my favorite dish of the night. Pretty standard dish - albeit with cheek, nicely executed.

A blood orange "gratin" was next up. A couple of pieces of the orange segments were improperly cleaned - resulting in my eating pith. Not the end of the world, but irritating at these prices.

Last was a chocolate canelle with a carmel sauce and peanut brittle. This was ok - but again neither of us swooned over it and my wife only ate half of hers. This is chocolate - and my wife. Usually that combination results in the disappearance of the chocolate.

So, all in all, we both were disappointed in our meal. The execution was mostly ok - but the flavours just didn't grab us. There were a few things on the regular menu that sounded tempting - next time we go, I think we'll try ordering off of it.

Note: edited to resume a post I had to stop half way through.

Edited March 27, 2004 by rgruby (log)

[timmychaudfroid]

You clearly don't have the palate to appreciate Chris Mcdonald's genius.

perhaps next weekend you should try the adventure menu at your local Red Lobster or the Keg.

[Jake]

rgruby - thanks for the review. I appreciate your thoughts and comments especially after the discussion on a recent thread.

I think I'll choose to ignore timychaudfroid's response. (S)he is new and perhaps is unaware that eGullet's purpose is to encourage posts such as yours and there is no need to be snarky or nasty because of a different opinion.

Please do let us know if you go back and order off the menu. I haven't eaten at Avalon in a few years, so I'm curious.

[Stalder]

I agree . . .thank you for your awesome review. It describes your meal exactly as I would if I were reviewing a restaurant for the site.

I think I am in the silent majority of readers on this site who are food LOVERS rather than food snobs.

I also think the rude respnse should be ignored!!

[sgfrank]

rgruby:

I was at Avalon the same evening, and had the same thing as you - and had pretty much the same response. Some of the dishes were pretty good, while others were okay, yet none were spectacular (though I thought both the blood orange gratin and the duck cheek navarin were excellent). If this is indicative of the usual level of food at Avalon, I can't see how it garnered Chatto's number 1, or how it even holds the four stars that it does in Toronto Life.

Some of the dishes contained almost amateurish components, like the skate, which I concur was a bit soggy (and I didn't go to the bathroom!), and the foie gras, which I found almost unbearably salty.

I think you must have forgotten the broiled (?) Porgy (?) (sorry, I don't have my menu here), which I enjoyed, as the safron sauce was quite nice, though again, nothing that made me say "wow".

As for timmychaudfroid... well, I'm with Jake on that one.

Simon

[rgruby]

rgruby:

I was at Avalon the same evening, and had the same thing as you - and had pretty much the same response. Some of the dishes were pretty good, while others were okay, yet none were spectacular (though I thought both the blood orange gratin and the duck cheek navarin were excellent). I think you must have forgotten the broiled (?) Porgy (?) (sorry, I don't have my menu here), which I enjoyed, as the safron sauce was quite nice, though again, nothing that made me say "wow".

Simon,

I didn't have the porgy - although some tables nearby did. I think we got the salmon instead?

Was this your first time at Avalon? What did you think of the eel custard?

[Kenk]

Great post rgruby!

This is the kind of discussion that is hard to find in the TO restaurant scene.

I find you gave a good description of your meal while being respectful.

[sgfrank]

Rgruby,

Interesting! I had both the salmon and the progy. Did both appear on your printed menu? That would be quite something if they missed a course! Our waiter forgot butter, but that was it.

Others at my table found the eel custard very peculiar (some didn't even finish it), but I found it flavourful enough to finish, and enjoyed some bites of it, but was blah on others - I guess the eel and seaweed or whatever else was in the custard wasn't distributed throughout, as I might have prefered.

This was indeed my first time at Avalon.

A question for you, or others who have dined at Avalon: is the sparkling water always free? We were not charged for it (as I would have hoped, since they were filling our glasses right until we walked out of the door, and were sharing bottles amongst tables). Would still (bottled) water be the same? If so, why would they offer tap water as well (I'm pretty sure I saw some pitchers milling about?

Simon

[kymbrlee]

A question for you, or others who have dined at Avalon: is the sparkling water always free? We were not charged for it (as I would have hoped, since they were filling our glasses right until we walked out of the door, and were sharing bottles amongst tables). Would still (bottled) water be the same? If so, why would they offer tap water as well (I'm pretty sure I saw some pitchers milling about?

Avalon charges a flat rate of about $3.50 per person for all the bottled water a customer drinks any night. Your waiter just forgot to charge you for the bottled water.

[GordonCooks]

Thanks for the review - I haven't done the adventure menu yet.

[rgruby]

We were charged #3.95 each for water. Pretty reasonable considering it was constantly refilled.

Didn't get a printed menu (wasn't offered, didn't ask), but the line by line receipt has a blank space between the skate course and the salmon. There's a spot there for something, but all it says is 2@ and then its blank. We had nine courses in all. It would indeed be interesting if they forgot to bring us a course. We did notice that others were being served a whole fish, but I just figured we got something else as it was nearing the end of the evening and perhaps they ran out of the porgy.

[sgfrank]

On second inspection, there was a per person water charge. I do agree that is it very reasonable.

We got a printed menu that simply listed the mode of preparation and the wine pairing at the beginning of the meal (this was simply the same menu as was in the menu that was brought to the table when we arrived). The waiter brought it so that we could keep track of the wines. At the end of the meal the waiter presented the 'demystified' version of the menu, so that we could remember what we ate.

As I think more about this dinner and discuss it with my dining companions, I feel as though it was more and more mediocre. The chocolate canelle reminds me of something you get out of the cooler case at the front of a diner, and the eel dish put off too many of my companions to ignore it. To those who have been to Avalon before (GordonCooks?), do I owe it another try, or is it simply a good restaurant, but not a spectacular or great one?

Another point that I just thought of, none of the presentations wowed me at Avalon. Rain, Susur, Splendido (just to mention some restos that I've been to recently enough to have a good memory) have all had dishes that made me say wow before I even touched the food, yet I can't remember any of the dishes being particularly attractive at Avalon. I don't need a masterpiece on my plate, but it seems par for the course for a restaurant of this calibre (price) to put a bit of attention into the presentation. Again, is this indicative of Avalon?

I must say, unless someone tells me otherwise, there's a long list of restaurants I'd like to try, or return to, before I return to Avalon.

Simon

[rgruby]

Despite my feelings about this dinner, I don't want to write off Avalon. I'm not going to write off Avalon. (My wife does not share this opinion).

It was one dinner that didn't grab me. At a restaurant consistently thought of by virtually everyone in the food cognoscenti here as one of the best, I'm hoping this was simply a menu that failed to excite me.

Was the "demystified version" of the menu the line by line bill (for example "kingfish escabeche) - or was it something more detailed?

[sgfrank]

The demystified menu was more detailed than the receipt. If I had it here I would tell you what it said, but I'm afraid I don't. It was akin to what one would find on a standard a la carte menu in terms of depth of description. I'd be happy to post it later in the week, if you wish.

I too do not wish to write off Avalon, but with no course in 10 succeeding in exciting me, I would need strong reason to return.

Simon

[GordonCooks]

To those who have been to Avalon before (GordonCooks?), do I owe it another try, or is it simply a good restaurant, but not a spectacular or great one?

My visits to Avalon have delivered some of the best food I've eaten in Toronto. I had a seared foie gras with a maple-espresso crema that rated as one of the best foie dishes ever. But given the menu circumstances, I've be more inclined to seek out a restaurant like Susur for those asian/japanese style dishes. What Avalon does quite well is utilize indigenous Canadian ingredients with excellent wine pairings. I have eaten meals that were technically correct but not inspirational at high end restaurants. Sometimes you have to have a good meal to make the great ones stand out. I'd give it another shot.

[rgruby]

The demystified menu was more detailed than the receipt.

I'd be happy to post it later in the week, if you wish.

Simon,

I'd appreciate it if you would post it.

Thanks.

[sgfrank]

Rgruby, sorry this took so long. Here is the Adventure menu for the 26th of March:

Raw

Yellowfin tuna with sea urchin, shiso and radish seedlings

Sake Tamanohikari Omachi Junmai Daiginjo

Pickled

Escabeche of kingfin with silverskin onions and moroccan olive puree

Manzanilla sherry la gitana

Cured

Salt-cured foie gras with squab leg confit, braised artichokes, morels and a soft-boiled quail egg

Vouvray chateur gaudrelle reserve 2000 loire

Steamed

Custard of nova scotia smoked eel, roasted salsify and fresh soybeans

Rioja blanca r. lopex de heredia vina condonia 1991 crianza, spain

Deep-fried

Curry-battered skate with pea shoots and spinach sauce

pinot grigio tiefenbruner 2002 alto adige

Roasted

Portuguese porgy with caponata and saffron-green garlic sauce

Corbieres chateau montrabech pitt 2001 languedoc

Smoked

Georgia strait wild king salmon "toro" with potato foam and fennel broth

Miscadet sevre et maine sur lie chateau du coing de saint-fiacre grande cuvee saint-hilaire 1993 loire

Braised

Lamb cheek navarin

Moulin saint-georges 1999 saint-emilion

Broiled

Blood orange gratin

Baked

Chocolate canelle with salted peanuts

Banyuls donamine du traginer 1996 languedoc-roussillon, france

Simon

[rgruby]

Thanks Simon!

Hmmm. They definitely failed to bring us one of the courses - the porgy.

Not really sure what to say about that. I'm more bemused than anything, really. But tips the scales over to doubtful to return on my part.

[Andrew Morrison]

Before I left the waiterworld of Toronto for Vancouver a few years ago (2001) I had the pleasure of dining at Avalon with some colleagues from my restaurant. The six courses and six wines that came out that night made up the best meal of my many years in Toronto working in the restaurant community. Absolutely phenomenal.

Please excuse the ignorance as I'm a zillion miles away, but has it really changed?

[rgruby]

It hasn't had great press lately. Maybe other places have caught up?

I don't really know - I do know that the meal I had there was not wonderful.

But, judging a place based on one meal isn't, perhaps, representative. That being said, there's about a dozen places I'd check out before I'd go back.

Anyone else been there recently?

cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[GordonCooks]

It hasn't had great press lately. Maybe other places have caught up?

I don't really know - I do know that the meal I had there was not wonderful.

But, judging a place based on one meal isn't, perhaps, representative. That being said, there's about a dozen places I'd check out before I'd go back.

Anyone else been there recently?

cheers,

Geoff Ruby

←

It's on my re-visit list but I want to hear something positive before I pull trigger

[mkjr]

You clearly don't have the palate to appreciate Chris Mcdonald's genius.

perhaps next weekend you should try the adventure menu at your local Red Lobster or the Keg.

←

Just curious as to what purpose this serves? What do you hope to accomplish by belittling a substantive review? Please let us know.