I spent my day off eating and drinking. How irresponsible of me, but I had so much fun! Since I had to be downtown Toronto for an appointment I figured I might as well make the best of it. Ages ago, before becoming a suburbanite -- is that a word? -- I lived downtown T.O and every now and then I have strong urges to return to the mother land (or something).
After spending a couple of hours at the Starbucks at Bay and College, reading Bourdain and people watching, I met a friend for drinks at O'Grady's. Although I didn't go there for the food and only ordered an appetizer platter to go with the beers I was saddened by the menu choices and terribly dissappointed by the service. Although the server visited our table often to check if we needed more drinks, she completely disappeared once it was obvious we were no longer going to drink and I asked for the bill. It took more than half an hour to get the bill brought to us and then to have the credit card picked up and charged. Guess once she figured she wasn't making more money off us, we were no longer a priority. Think again sister, I was still to enter a tip amount on the dotted line!
After my friend left, my partner and I decided to dine back home so we drove to Cachet in NewMarket. It was our first visit and we were pleasantly surprised. Decent, unpretentious food and rather extensive wine list. Since we had had appetizers and booze in the village we decided to skip the apps here. After scanning the starter menu we didn't feel we missed out on anything; calamari, bruschetta and ceasar salads appeared, along with French onion soup and spinach salad. Entrees were a different story. Lobster Ravioli was my first choice, a Cachet favorite, but at the last minute I chose the Crab and Shrimp Duo: a skewer with 4 jumbo shrimp and what must have been a king crab leg on a bed of basmati rice and vegetables. Jen went for the seafood paella after I talked her out of the pickerel. Pickerel could have been good but it came with a sweet potato mash and napa cabbage slaw -- not exciting enough if you ask me. Sure, we could have asked for substitutions I suppose, but I usually try to go easy on the kitchen staff. The drink on the table was a bottle of Chardonnay from Chile which we thought a good pairing for our food. For dessert I had cognac -- sorry to dissapoint you! Jen was already full and drunk (she says) so she skipped dessert altogether and since I don't have a sweet tooth I decided to spend my buck on more booze and ordered cognac.
We'll be returning to Cachet for the service, the atmosphere and the food. See, I told you this blog was not just about cooking!
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