Summerlicious 2014: Paese

After the disappointing start to Summerlicious with my visit to Fred's Not Here. I really hoped that Paese would not just be more of the same. Paese Ristorante on King St. is the younger brother (or sister) of the storied Bathurst location. First opening its doors in 2010 (almost 21 years after the original!) Paese on King has quickly become a local favourite for Italian fare. It goes without saying I was very eager for my first visit and Summerlicious was the perfect excuse to make it happen.

We started off the night with Calamari. Now considering we ordered this at Fred's I was a little weary about ordering it again. Paese was more than ready to aleviate my fears with a fantastic appetizer that really highlights how to correctly execute a dish. Expertly seasoned but light, intensely smoky without being burnt, just perfectly cooked. The tender calamari was accompanied by lemon mayo, capers, red onion and a little bit of greens. All the ingredients served to elevate the squid without covering it up.

The second appetizer of the night was Meatballs. Now meatballs fall into two camps, ones that have a soft tender texture due to liberal use of breadcrumbs and wet ingredients and ones that have a coarser texture due to being predominantly meat (its a constant battle between finding the ideal texture and making sure the flavour of the meat comes through). The ones we had at Paese fall on the meaty side. The flavour was decent, Paese uses three different cuts in their ground: short rib, sirloin and brisket. Many places (especially burger places) will experiment to get the perfect ground that gives you the best combination of flavour and texture. The real highlight of the dish for me was the tomato sauce; vibrant and bright. The pecorino on top was kind of tough and was difficult to cut so it was hard to incorporate it into mouthfuls but the cheese itself had a mild nutty flavour.

For our first main, we had the Ravioli with Lobster. The lobster was expertly cooked, perfectly tender. The ravioli itself was delicious with the cheesy polenta combining well with the tarragon butter sauce. Cherry tomatoes were strewn throughout to help cut the richness of the dish. The pasta skin itself also had an interesting peachy flavour that I had trouble identifying. If anyone has experience with how this dish is traditionally made and can give me some insight, I'd love to hear from you!

Now the next dish really highlights how Paese does a good job of letting their ingredients shine. I ordered the Semolina Crusted Chicken that was accompanied with Panzanella. Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad; the one at Paese included cherry tomatoes, cubed English cucumbers and some leafy greens. If you appeciate fresh vegetables that are not covered up by complex sauces then you will really enjoy the dish. The crust on the chicken has a nice crunch due to the slightly cheesey semolina and a ring of chili oil encircles the plate as a garnish for those who like a small kick.


Before I start on the desserts I feel like I should point out that the portions at Paese were extremely generous. I'm not much of a stickler in terms of portion sizes but my meal at Paese genuinely had me wondering if I'd be able to finish, haha. Good thing I have a different stomach for dessert because the dessert here was exquisite.

To finish I ordered the Lemon Semifreddo and boy was I happy that I did. The semi frozen lemon custard was topped with shortbread crumble, blackberries and mint. The superbly light but deliciously lemony custard went so well with the crumble and blackberries. The texture of the crumble plus the little bite of the blackberry seeds all on the canvas of custard was heavenly. I really can't stop going on about how lemony the custard was, in my head I imagine a poor chef's apprentice being tasked with zesting 1000 lemons just to achieve this mind blowing result.

The final dessert of the night was the Cioccolato. Sooooooooo much chocolate. I'm a huge chocolate fan (check out the blog title *cough*cough*) but regardless of my unhealthy addiction to cocoa, this dessert was fantastic. The cioccolato had two layers of moist chocolate cake sandwiching a delicious white chocolate mousse, all upon a bed of warm nutella and topped with hazelnut brittle . It goes without saying that the dish was sweet, but not overpoweringly so. Even the white chocolate was airy and light. One the best desserts I've had in a while.

Paese was a breath of fresh air for my Summerlicious escapades and I look forward to a return visit in the future to try things off their regular menu. If you enjoy great Italian fare with fresh ingredients that doesn't over complicate then you should definitely swing by Paese.

Recommended

Summerlicious 2014: Fred's Not Here

This past weekend marked the beginning of Summerlicious 2014! In the past I have often been critical of Summerlicious restaurants as I feel that not all restaurants handle the influx of customers well, which hurts the consistency of their food and hurts the overall dinning experience. Nonetheless Summerlicious is a great event for people looking to try restaurants that they otherwise would not be able to, whether that be due to price, exposure or simply not knowing whats good on the menu.

Spanning two weeks in the month of July (4-20th) over 200 restaurants will participant in Summerlicious and provide 3-course price fixed menus for patrons who visit. Lunches will be fixed at either $15, $20 or $25 while dinners will range from either $25, $35 or $45. If you haven't yet made a reservation, do it soon, as many restaurants have had their bookings filled tight since last week. But enough of the chit chat, lets talk about some food!

Fred's Not Here is located at 321 King St W. (Right across the street from TIFF/Bell Lightbox!) and specialize in steaks and seafood. During my visit we ordered off the Summerlicious dinner menu. A fellow beef eater had suggested the restaurant and after looking at their offerings I eagerly agreed.

For appetizers we started with Fred's self-proclaimed "Famous" Lobster & Crab Soup. The dish certainly built anticipation as we quickly saw these buttery domes fill the servers table and make their way around the restaurant. The soup itself was exquisite. Intensely flavourful and creamy but not overwhelminly heavy. The flavour of the shellfish is front and center, lifted by the creamy base. My only qualm with the dish was that one of my friend's pastry did not cook all the way through. Fantastic start nonetheless and definitely the best dish of the night. Sadly Fred's strong start to the meal did not last.

The second appetizer was the Wood Grilled Calamari & Chorizo Sausage with Arugula. Unlike the first appetizer this one was poorly executed. Unevenly cooked squid; some parts were overcooked while others were undercooked and a lack of proper seasoning (seriously where was the salt?) plagued the calamari. The plainly sliced chorizo on the other hand had an abundance of flavour. It had a slight bitterness that went well with argula and offset the sweet mustard based sauce beneath. Despite this, the lack of seasoning would foreshadow more execution problems down the line.

The first entree of the night was the Wood Grilled “California Cut” New York Strip Steak
with Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Duck Fat Frites & Vegetables. I'm just going to get this out of the way now and say the steak was NOT SEASONED.  Now if you thought I ranted about this enough when I was talking about the calamari than you should prepare yourself. There is nothing, I mean NOTHING more blood boiling than seeing someone ruin a steak without properly seasoning it. The only dressing up a good piece of beef needs is an adequate amount of salt. This is a rookie mistake and seeing it from a restaurant that considers itself a steakhouse makes it even more ludicrous. Not only that, but a large portion of the outside of our steaks were burnt, which lead to an overwhelming carbon taste with. I've made better steaks at home with inferior cuts of meat. To make matters worse even the fries were not salted enough and we had to liberally apply it ourselves at the dinner table. Now people will tell me that the latter part regarding the fries was not a big deal, but anyone who knows good fries will tell you that the reason you season right after frying is so the residual heat from the fries dissolves the salt. By the time we realized the fries needed salt at the table there was no residual heat.

Praise a higher power that the Roasted Prime Rib of Beef with Celeriac, Yukon Gold Mash & Vegetables was good. The meat was seasoned well, although the black pepper crust was a little overwhelming for my taste. Doneness wise it was a perfect medium rare and the accompanying gravy tasted great without overpowering the meat. I also thoroughly enjoyed the mash and thought that the green beans (the same ones featured with the steak) were cooked to a perfect doneness; tender but still holding a crisp snap. Now this wasn't all smooth sailing as my cut of meat was not trimmed properly. There was a tough piece of tendon that could not be cut with a knife running along one side of the prime rib.

Now it was one of those nights where the stars aligned and everyone in my party ordered a different dessert. Which meant I got to steal little bits from each! To begin I had the Caramel Pop Corn Chocolate Hazelnut Sundae. The flavour combination in and of itself was quite good. The chocolatey ice cream had a hint of hazelnut that mixed well with the sweet caramel and fudge. Sadly the ice cream was half melted when it made it to my table and cold popcorn has a tough almost stale texture that is chewy in a stick all over your teeth type of way, probably not the greatest idea in hindsight.

Next we had the Fresh Fruit Ice. This was probably the most forgettable dish of the night, decent enough without any weaknesses but nothing to make it memorable. Similar to the sorbet, the Daily Selection Cheesecake (which in our case was creme brule cheesecake) was not memorable either, so much so that I even forgot to take a picture of it.

The Mixed Berry Shortcake however was the best dessert of the four. The cake itself was a moist backdrop to the tart and sweet berries on top.

Overall my visit to Fred's Not Here was mired with disappointment. I know I often tell people to not be overly critical on Summerlicious outings; but improperly cooked food and multiple lapses in seasoning are not acceptable from any establishment. The food at Fred's Not Here simply didn't make the cut on my first visit of Summerlicious 2014, I guess Fred really wasn't there that night.

Not Recommended.