A Classy Dinner Date

So my bestie and I decided to give Annona (in Park Hyatt Hotel) a try because I pass by this restaurant all the time and it always looked so fancy when I was staring in from the outside!

Bestie: pose with the bread! pose with the breadd!

This actually tasted pretty good. The homemade cracker/biscuit type thing at the back with sesame, poppy seeds and a light scent of olive oil/garnish. It tastes just like how it sounds; kinda salty, crispy and very grainy lol.

The cool bred with cheese bits and other unidentified garnish inside. The bread is very soft and fluffy (always a good sign) and the crust is crispy. The cheese and bread worked really well with the olive oil. One of the better bread I've had. And I just really like restaurants that cut up the bread for you since I always find it so clumsy to do it myself.

 Coq au vin - chicken drumstick braised in red wine. The chicken is cooked perfectly; tender and juicy fused with the perfect amount red wine (seasoned really well). The chicken taste is in perfect harmony with the acidity and sweetness of the wine.

Halibut barley risotto. If you're a big fan of creamy food, this is the dish for you! I like how they replaced rice with barley to make this risotto since it adds more dimensions to the dish. With rice, a risotto is often has this soft, gooey texture, but with barley, it retained the silky texture without the gooeyness. Since barley is quite chewy, it makes it a fun dish to eat. I really liked this since it has chunks of melted cheese mixed into the barley. Though I must say, I'm not a big fan of the halibut nor the olive oil they drizzled on the side. It upsets the balance of the dish and makes it way too heavy and filling to finish.

This is my entrée, ribeye with mushroom gratin (the grey thing in the middle) and onion rings. Okay, so starting with the ribeye. You can really tell how skilled the chef is by ordering a piece of steak. I asked for medium-rare, but the steak was totally rare (I see strands of white tendons when I cut through it). I feel that I'm starting to lose hope in restaurants in the GTA since I haven't had a satisfying/cooked well steak for a long time. Sigh. The red wine jus was so nicely flavoured, but it was not enough to rescue a ruined piece of steak. R.I.P. steak...

Moving on to the mushroom gratin (originated from France) is kind of like the French sister of lasagna. The gratin is made of many thin layers of potatoes with mushroom, cream and cheese fillings separate the potato layers. It's the first time I've had a mushroom gratin and I really liked it! Similar to eating lasagna, but it feels more hearty and satisfying. The red wine jus worked super well with the gratin also! Again, the red wine's acidity and sweetness brought a balance to what would've been a very creamy/heavy dish.

I didn't eat the onion rings so I cannot tell you how it tastes. Overall, I feel that the chef put a lot of effort in this dish, since you have to use such different techniques to cook the three components of the dish. I also liked the idea of using the same sauce for all three seemingly unrelated items to tie to dish together. Too bad the idea wasn't executed well. Sigh.

Our mini desserts.

Just mango gelato, granulated sugar and fruits. Nothing too special, though I do feel that the mango is a tad too sour.

S'more tart. Again, the idea sounds appealing but sadly the taste wasn't. You can tell if a tart is well made but cutting into it. A good tart crust is very easy to cut through (even with just a fork), but a store-bought/grocery store tart, it'll take a hammer and a very sharp knife. And this tart is definitely the most grocery-like dessert I've eaten. Ever.

Pear bread pudding. This is the least store-bought dessert on the plate. This actually tastes decent, but I don't know what else to say.

Chocolate lava cake and caramel ice cream.

It did what it was supposed to I guess. But it tastes like those lava cake mix you can buy from any grocery store.

Overall Review:
Food: 6.75/10
My friend and I got more and more disappointed with every course. The appetizers started out great, but the desserts (the part we were looking forward to the most) was a huge flop. I was expecting more for the price I'm paying and from a restaurant in the hotel.

Ambiance: 5.5/10
It definitely looked better on the outside. The dim light and the tainted glass windows definitely beautified the restaurant. Usually hotel restaurants have such nice décor and definitely very fancy schmancy. This one doesn't look like that and is definitely not going for the minimalist look. Not impressed at all.

Price: 4/10
Store bought desserts for $35/person? Not worth it at all, since the ambiance wasn't there, the skill of the chef wasn't there, the food is not great quality. So what exactly are we paying for? We're paying for the fact that it's a Park Hyatt restaurant.

Service: 9/10
The service was the only thing up to par I feel. There was a coat room, and the servers actually help us take our coats off. Before dinner started, they would place the cloth napkin on our laps, and after eating our bread, they would use that silver scraper thing to scrape the bread crumbs from the table. (If anyone knows the name of that silver thing, please tell me!)

Final Verdict: 6/10
I don't think I'm going to visit this restaurant ever again. I don't understand why they have such high reviews on yelp.ca

Address:
Park Hyatt Hotel
4 Avenue Rd
Toronto, ON M5R 2E8
(416) 324-1567




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Food From Above

So I know I've been M.I.A. for a while, but I do have a valid reason (not that it's a good excuse, but still valid). My laptop was in the shop for 3 weeks, because it wouldn't turn on. I had to make a few runs to the library each day to finish my paper and 2 exams in these 3 weeks (so proud of myself!) My computer is now fixed (at a substantial price sigh) but I'm back in business! 

I did not originally plan on coming to Horizon (the restaurant on top of the CN Tower overseeing the whole city 346m above ground) aka 360 restaurant, but my friend planned this surprise outing which is right up my alley! Thank you again mystery friend! :)

Cauliflower bisque (smooth, creamy, super seasoned French soup). Believe me, it was seasoned alright. I feel that the soup itself was already super seasoned, but when they added the blue cheese crème fraîche, it just made it a tad too salty. The olive oil was a nice touch though, it helped take away some of the saltiness and added colour to the presentation.

Hot smoked atlantic salmon terrine. I believe the inside is creme cheese mixed with assorted seeds and wheat type substance wrapped around smoked salmon. Does it remind you guys of a really big piece of sushi? There are also soured olives on the side. Well, I'm not a big fan of raw salmon nor deli-type food, so this was not the dish for me. All I can say is, it tastes like very fancy deli food.

This is the gnocchi, and eh, nothing special.

Chicken milanese. What stole the show isn't the fried chicken patty, but the vinaigrette. Though it says it's grainy mustard, but it's infused with honey and citrus flavours. The zesty zing was a good contrast and compliment (paradox?) to the starchy chicken. I swear I licked every bit of that sauce from that plate. Literally. Well, not really literally. The chicken on the other hand, is meh. Nothing special. I also think it's too fried.

Apple crumble. This is one of those desserts where it tastes heavenly for the first few bites, but you can never finish. The caramelized apples drenched in a vanilla bean broth? on top of melted vanilla ice cream. This is literally the epitome of sugar overload. I'm appreciative of them giving us such a big plat of dessert, but if they gave us a smaller version, I probably wouldn't feel so sick afterwards. Don't get me wrong, this apple crumble is mouthwatering, but approach with caution. Don't eat too much!

Dark chocolate lava cake topped with chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup. I didn't eat this, because I didn't want to walk around downtown sugar high. But according to my friend, this is very chocolatey, even almost a bit too chocolatey. Again, I would advise anyone who order it to approach with caution.

Glass floor. Too bad it was soo foggy that day! :( We sat there and waited soo long for the fog to clear up but this is the best shot I got.

Me being the dare devil that I am LOL. Not really.

Overall Review:
Food: 7/10
Eh, nothing too special. Standard food.

Ambiance: 9.5/10
The is the number for what it would've been without the fog! Sadly we didn't see much of the city that day.

Service: 7/10
Standard service, but at times we really had to hunt down the server. The food came out pretty fast (partly because there weren't many people there for lunch).

Price: 8.5/10 or 6/10
8.5/10 for winterlicious price. I mean $15 for all we've had is a pretty good deal! I usually get a pasta for that price! But you have to keep in mind we had to pay for a lift fee ~$11 per person to get up there. Therefore 6/10. And if it's not for winterlicious, it's VERY expensive for the quality of food.

Final Verdict: 7/10
This is one of those tourist traps with overpriced food. BUT with that said, the ambiance is breathtaking, especially at night. And it's a good place to go if you wanna impress someone I guess lol! I may come back during winter or summerlicious if there's a special occasion, but that's it.

Address:
CN Tower
301 Front St W
Toronto, ON M5V 2T6
(416) 362-5411

www.cntower.ca

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