Menu – Appetizer
Gazpacho soup (vegetarian)

or
Mixed greens, cranberries, cherry tomatoes & orange vinaigrette (vegetarian)

or
Caesar salad, double smoked bacon, garlic croutons

Menu РEntr̩e
Penne Pollo, sautéed chicken, mushrooms with tomatoes cream sauce

or
Spaghetti oven roasted tomatoes, caramelized fennel, chilies, bread crumbs, olive oil & garlic sauce (vegetarian)

Menu – Dessert
Italian Biscotti

or
Lemon Smifreddo

TOTAL COST – only $15

FOOD
Appetizer : The Gazpacho soup was great. Very refreshing. Out of the 3 appetizers, I wish I got that. I had the Caesar salad, double smoked bacon, garlic croutons which was…like any casear salad. The double smoked bacon was crazy salty…but if you have it with the salad, it’s alright.
Entrée : The Penne was cooked perfectly and very tasty. A great entrée.
Dessert : The Biscotti was alright. Like a standard cookie/biscotti. It left me a bit thirsty. I had the Lemon Smifreddo which was definitely the better dessert. It was very refreshing, a great palette cleanser.
Overall, I was very pleased with my food. I wish I got the Gazpacho over the Caesar salad. The Penne and Lemon Smifreddo were the correct choices though. I would definitely go back based on taste alone…however…

SERVICE
Terrible, terrible service.
1. They took our wine glasses away without asking if we wanted anything to drink. They gave us water but they didn’t even ask if we wanted Coke or anything.
2. They gave us hummus for our bread…but…bread went out to tables that sat after us, we had to ask for the bread which was sitting on the counter for over 5 minutes.
3. We had to ask for water refills, our water wasn’t refilled despite being empty for a long time.
4. Our desserts, much like our bread, were sitting on the counter as well for over 5 minutes.
5. Lots of waiting. Lots.
6. When the entrées were served, one of them didn’t come out with the other 6. The waiter says to everyone “this last dish will take another minute, please start”. The waiter says that to the table…shouldn’t it be the person who didn’t get their food? Weak.

OVERALL
…I would not return. There are a million places with good food and good service. It’s ridiculous to fall so short one on.

**PENDING REWRITE DUE TO SLEEPINESS** – 01/30/2010 – 1AM
**REWRITE IGNORED DUE TO LAZINESS** – 01/30/2010 – 2PM

I’ve gone to a few of summer/winterlicious things now. Only to 3 places for dinner, Auberge du Pommier, Benihana, and today to Didier. While the food was great, I don’t think the food measured up to Auberge du Pommier, but the experience was much better. The staff here was really exceptional, funny, courteous, they made my night.

FYI Benihana was clearly the worst of the 3. It was a regular teppanyaki place, but like, 3x more expensive. yikes. that was a fail of a winterlicious.

If you’re curious, I got a Pumpkin Puree appetizer, Jarret D’Agneau Crécy
(Braised lamb shank, carrot puree) entreé and a Gâteau au Chocolat Chaud
(Valrhona warm chocolate cake, chocolate sauce) dessert. The pumpkin puree appetizer was awesome in both presentation and taste. The Lamb looked awesome but didn’t satisfy my taste buds. Someone else at my table that ordered it thought it was great though, maybe it was just me.
You can see the menu here:
http://www.toronto.com/restaurants/article/647842

One of the koolest parts was that Chef Didier Leroy came out after the meal, asked how the food was, and shook everyone’s hand. I thought that was awesome.

It was pricey, even for winterlicious.
14 for 2 bottles of flat water.
60 for a bottle of champagne (about 5 glasses worth)
and the food, 45/person.
total it was like, 85 including tax & 17%~ gratuity.

Anyways, fun night. I really suck at restaurant and food review. I don’t think I should do this again.

Oh well, it was nice to write something for tonight.