Fat Friday - Brassaii

The return of Summerlicious to Toronto means two things for Matt and I: Good food, good prices! We get the opportunity to try out some of the more upscale restaurants that we probably wouldn't dine at on a regular basis. And, even with the Summerlicious fixed price, it was still somewhat of an expensive meal, but the food - well worth it!

This week I was the one to pick a restaurant, and after reading through the menus of several different restaurants, I settled on Brassaii, a close by restaurant with some good reviews.  Since it's also a limited menu with only three choices for each the starter, entree and dessert, I had to make sure that there was something for both of us. And Brassaii, well, their menu had it all!

To start, Matt and I both enjoyed the fresh bread while we waited for our starter to arrive. We both ordered the Watermelon, feta and arugula salad with balsamic glaze - fresh tossed greens with balls of melon and feta cheese drizzled with vinaigrette... very enjoyable! I was mislead, I thought, when I first read that it was a watermelon salad, because I thought the watermelon would have been more prominent. But it was still darn tasty!

For our entrees, we each took different paths. I ordered the Orecchiette with bocconcini and oven dried tomatoes with pesto, and yes, I had to Google the Orecchiette prior to going to the restaurant to see what it was. Luckily, it turned out to be pasta, and the combination of flavours was really delicious! The sundried tomatoes, I think, were what really completed the dish, and I think I just might have to duplicate this recipe at home in the near future. (On a side note, turns out my KitchenAid has a pasta making attachment that I never knew about - I thought it was just a meat grinder. Thanks to my helpful brother for pointing that out to me!) Matt's dinner was just as good, as her ordered Spice rubbed sirloin steak soy-mustard sauce with Mediterranean cous cous. Once I saw that steak was on the menu, I was pretty certain that he would choose to order that. I tasted a bite, and it was very nice! The cous cous wasn't the usual type we cook at home; it was much bigger and felt a bit more like pasta, but very enjoyable nonetheless! 

Portion sizes were good, which meant we still had room for dessert. I chose the Brassaii chocolate cake layered with lemon gelee, and even though I'm not a huge fan of lemon in desserts, the chocolate cake trumped that and won me over. The lemon was actually a very nice accent to the dark chocolate cake, which wasn't overly sweet to begin with. Matt enjoyed Sable Breton tart with hazelnut cream and a vanilla apricot compote centre, which we actually had to ask the waitress what it was. Turned out, a little cookie with a mousse-like topping. I think he enjoyed it.


Well, I think Summerlicious ended this past weekend, so we won't be able to get out to enjoy another meal. Guess we'll just have to wait for Winterlicious to come back. But there is always Taste of the Danforth coming up...