Guu has been mentioned many times. I don't get it. I went once, decent food to be sure but a top 10 in Toronto? I don't think so. Izakaya is basically Japanese "pub" food served tapas styled. Maybe this is just a function of the sad state of the restaurant scene here in Toronto when Guu can be a top 10 restaurant on someone's list.

Frankly, I don't really know what "world class" mean, I was responding to other posts in this thread giving raving reviews. I just know that of the restaurants that I've been to around the world in Shoto's price range, this one would rank poorly. In fact, I'd say it's not even the best of Toronto at any price range.

I think Toronto's high end restaurant scene has been in a doldrum since the recession. When you have better European (e.g., French or Italian) food restaurants in Asian cities as Singapore and Hong Kong, then it feels something seems not right. It tells you the top chefs are going where the money is and it's not here.

When Daniel Boulud decided to come here it wasn't to open a Daniel (like in NYC) but it was the 2nd tier Café Boulud. We went last Nov/Dec and it was very mediocre for what you get, certainly below Café Boulud in NYC. Vancouver, a much smaller city, has surpassed Toronto as a food city.

I wouldn't say David Chang has "failed" per se, maybe a "C+" but not an "F". For example, I was at Les Amis (a supposed "top 50 restaurant in the world) in Singapore about a month ago and, I'm sorry, but it wasn't close. Their degustation was $300 SGD (or about $250 CDN) but it includes fois gras, lobster courses. Not just the ingredients but everything was simply much better, both food and service.

At Shoto, as themiguel noted below, it was pea soup, halibut, squab and beef cheek were the ingredient highlights. There was a dish with dumplings that weren't better than something you can find in a Chinese restaurant in Markham. I felt underwhelmed and then when you get the bill for almost $900 for the 4 of us (before tips), it didn't feel like we got $900 worth.

I'm going to take a slightly opposing view than the glowing reviews that appear to dominate here. We went last night with another couple and the consensus was it was good but not great and certainly not value for money vis-a-vis similar high end restaurants.

It was interesting and somewhat unique. The dinner starts with 4 amuses and then the 10 courses with the last 2 being desserts. There were no petit 4 at the end that is common with many high end restaurants around the world. We had the "short" wine pairing ($45) and the total bill came to over $250 per person including tips.

The best dish (by consensus) was the halibut which was cooked to perfection. Other dishes were OK, interesting flavors, some worked and some didn't. There were no "wows" by any stretch of imagination. Normally when you're paying so much, you expect at least one dish with a "high end" ingredient (like lobster, fois gras, abalone or something). Not this time.

One of my hobbies is wine collecting and I search the world for interesting wines, so I know a little bit. The wines served last night were decent but not worth IMO. The pours were limited to 2 oz but it looked like in some cases, the server under-poured. The wines themselves were OK but all of the under $20 varieties many from Ontario. The 4 of us paid $180 total for the pairing which would've netted us a pretty good bottle or 2 had we ordered ourselves. I would not recommend the pairing in terms of value for money.

I would still recommend that anyone who hasn't tried, should go once, but I wouldn't call it good value compared to other high end establishments we've visited around the world. Not even compared to a few other restaurants in Toronto.

Overall, we agreed on a 7/10 rating for food, but if you consider we spent $250+ per person, that rating drops a notch or 2.

Just to be clear, are you saying the hotel was sold and inferring that could mean LWH's lease will not be re-newed or are you actually saying LWH is closing?

I called them. The fire impacted 3 of their immediately neighbors in that old strip plaza, but Zen was luckily unscathed. They are open for dinner but will be closed for lunch at least for another week due to construction activity probably due to the fire.

I just recently opened a 1998 Grange and it was fantastic, powerful, one of the best Syrahs I've ever had! Unfortunately, it was my only bottle. The 1988 should be at its peak drinking window now and probably over the next 5-10 years depending on how it's been stored. You won't be disappointed if you like powerful wines.

Your best bet is to call the restaurant you're interested in doing the BYO and it's a special occasion. I did it once and they made an exception.

I ate at Kabuki and it was pricey and below average. They're usually 1/2 empty, not sure how they stay iin business so long. The burger joint is South Street burger chain restaurant. I ate there once and they were slightly more expensive than the one in Leaside. O&B is overpriced in my books; you can get better value along the Leaside strip or Mt. Pleasant south of Eglinton area. Overall Bayview restaurants are all overrated.

Geez, we had this on our to try list when we're visiting Melbourne after reading so many good reviews. What happened? Their website is still up but provides no explanation of why they closed.

Thank you for your reply but I'm looking at Charcoal Lane's website and it appears to be some kind of charity restaurant providing traineeships and apprenticeships to Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people. Though this is a commendable cause, I don't think this is the type of restaurant we had in mind for vacationing in Melbourne.

In any case, we have reservations at Rockpool, Tempura Hajime and The Point for the time being.

I haven't been for at least 2 years but that's a outlandish claim that you provide no support or explanation. They get a lot of repeat customers and recent reviews on food sites such as urbanspoon remain positive (except for their bad service which is their reptuation).

If they were unclean, I rather doubt they get so many returning customers. Care to elaborate on why they're terrible and dirty?

Hi All, I'm from Toronto and will be visiting Melbourne again this December. On previous occasions, we've been to a few of the better restaurants including Stasio and Vue de Monde. This time, we like something that best shows off local Australian food. Any recommendations or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Thai Bistro at 5306 Yonge St. opposite McKee Ave between Finch & Sheppard. Food is good as long as you can stand the reputedly rude waiter/owner.

I went to Mengrai Thai last weekend and it was excellent. I brought a friend and he said it was some of the best food he's had in a long time, period. Mengrai may suffer from inconsistency at times but I don't know why you would bring up a 1.5 year old thread, the only one critical of this restaurant to ask your question about today. Not sure that's fair.

We went to Kao San Road last winter and it was very good too and price reasonable but we had to wait even though we had a reservation and the place was packed and noisy to the point that we had to scream to talk to our friends across the table. And I think they no longer allow reservations so be prepared to wait.

Thank you klyeoh and M_Gomez, these are fantastic recommendations!! We'll be there for 5 days, so lots of opportunity to try many of these. Also didn't know about 53 being closed.

Did more research on Waku Ghin and it appears that while the food is excellent, it's not $500+ per person excellent, so we'll probably pass. To bad because we had an amazing experience at Tetsuya's in Sydney. Will probably go with one of klyeoh's suggestions. Thanks again.

Longtime Ch'er from the Toronto (Ontario) and sometimes Manhattan board and we'll be in Singapore around Christmas/New Years later this year. Have done some initial research as to some of the best restaurants there such as Iggy's, Waku Ghin (we loved Tetsuya's in Sydney) and 53, but I'm specifically looking for something that best showcases local Singapore food. We're open to recommendations in any price range from high end to street food. Thanks!

Yung Sing has been on indefinite hiatus for a while but there has never been official word from the owners, Chu and Ngan Ko, that it's closed for good. Do you know something?

Agree with the Globe review 100%. Very underwhelming and not worth Trump prices they charge. You can get better at 2/3 the price at many other restaurants in town. They boasted about the Chocolate Lab and so I ordered 3 pieces of chocolate at $3 each. Each piece was the size of my thumb nail. Total rip off. No plans to return again.

Not aware of any must try veggie restaurants, but near your area at the north-west end of Toronto has some decent restaurants...

The Stockyards Smokehouse for ribs and burger at 699 St. Clair near Bathurst
Il Mulino for Italian at 1060 Eglinton Avenue West near Bathurst
Simple Bistro at 619 Mount Pleasant Road south of Eglinton

The best "can't miss" restaurants are downtown which is probably too far for you.

If you want the real Il Mulino, go to Carisma where the former Il Mulino owner/chef now operate.

Elle M'a Dit http://ellemadit.com/

Terroni Bar Centrale (http://terronicentrale.com/) at 1095 Yonge in Summerhill area.

Surprised there isn't more mention of McEwan as an alternative all-in-one place.

I recall seeing black sesame ice cream at the Korean supermarket, Galleria, and I think also JTown as well.

Agree with Kaji, Acadia and Chiado. Not the best of the best of TO but others open Sundays to consider:

Scarpetta
Buca
Globe Bistro
Sotto Sotto
Harbour Sixty
Il Mulino

For me, south of Bloor is downtown! We haven't been back for a while since we don't live downtown. We knew the managers from their sister restaurant further north. I do recall the Peking Duck we ordered from Crown Princess and it was pretty good, as were most of the other dishes. We went to the "new" Dynasty for dinner once after the move and it wasn't good. Haven't been back since.

Crown Princess on Bay N of Wellesley.

Whether it's milk or dark chocolate really shouldn't be the issue (I prefer milk) but, rather than giving out cheap chocolate, they should've did a 5% off customer appreciation weekend or something like that, along with an advertisement in the newspapers apologizing and explaining the efforts they took to mitigate recurrence.

And they're targeting the wrong people. If you're in there buying stuff, it means you've already "forgiven" them and so what's the point of the chocolate? It's the people who haven't returned whom they should be targeting.

Fieramosca Trattoria (http://www.fieramoscatoronto.com/) on Prince Arthur north of UofT's Varsity Stadium is a cozy/romantic restaurant and good option at this price range. They have a private dining room that I think seats up to 20 that may suit your wedding party.

Are you talking about Château Faugères? I suggest you either contact the winery to get the name of the agent or talk to a Vintages Product Consultant who might be able to tell you from checking their internal database.

For reference, the list of all the agents can be found here:

http://www.vintageassessments.com/win...