Venez savourer un agréable repas chez North 44 Restaurant. L'accès est facile par transport en commun. Ils sont établis dans un secteur ou l'on retrouve de nombreux parcs, magasins et restaurants.
North 44 has a manager who does not know how to listen to his customer. I called the restaurant the day before our dinner and was told clearly they charged $50 for bringing your own wine. I asked for confirmation that the charge is for three bottles of wine for my whole table. She went away and came back with a firm confirmation that it is for the three bottles of wines and the whole table. I am OK if the restaurant make a mistake and apologize, but NO. The manager went to an extend to deny and
Reservations were made 6 weeks ago as most restaurants are fully booked near Valentine's Day. However, North 44 was 1/2 filled.
Our coats were quickly taken, we were quickly escorted to our table which had wide comfortable upholstered chairs. The service was very good for the exception that our server was very soft spoken and I had to ask him to repeat the specials 3 times. I guess the noise level in the restaurant didn't help much. North 44 has some nasty acoustics going on. It was soooo loud inside - people talking over each other, etc. Definitely not a place I would want to go to for a romantic dinner.
On to the food. Appetizers ordered were the Soup of the day, Lobster Bisque with 'blah..blah..blah" (couldn't hear the waiter), Quebec Foie Gras with other stuff that sounded like a lot on the menu but actually looked like a stamp on the plate. $24.95 for a teeny sampling? Well, as small as the serving was, the taste was really good, as was the texture. And I don't like anything with a ducky/goosey flavour...so this dish was surprisingly quite good to me. The lobster bisque had bisque foam on the top that tasted like lobster water (yuck). The bisque was seasoned perfectly for me and had a hint of cinnamon. The slices of seared? lobster (?) inside the soup was a nice surprise. The serving size was generous... probably too generous for such a rich tasting soup.
Entrees ordered were seared BC halibut in banana leaf. It arrived with a side of barely warm basmati rice. Also ordered was the braised beef short rib 'rubbed with spiced cocoa rub & served with soft polenta.
The halibat was unwrapped at the table. It looked impressive enough until you looked closely and noticed the whole top of the halibut was covered in slivers of fresh ginger. The fish tasted like ginger and not much else. As if that wasn't bad enough, the halibut was overdone. Severely overdone. The basmati rice was bland and tasteless...and cold.
The waiter, when informed, replaced the halibut dish with a quick cook entree of grilled Ahi Tuna - which was grilled perfectly and had good flavours, albeit, again, portion size was extremely small for $42.95.
The braised beef rib dinner was what I found most disconcerting. When the plate was brought over, I thought they had brought me another appetizer. The serving was that small! I would put the meat portion at 4 oz (maybe) . It sat in the middle of a pool of creamy polenta that was as soupy as cream of wheat. But...it tasted good. I didn't detect any of the 'spiced cocoa rub' flavour in the meat, but the dish did taste good and probably would have tasted better if there was more of it and maybe a few sprigs of string beans or some kind of veg. 2 'sauteed' strips of red bell pepper does not count as veg.
For dessert we ordered the Chocolate Bomb and Kashmiri Chai Brulee. Dessert was disgustingly sweet but was also well balanced with the tart fruit coulis spread across the plates.
The only alcoholic beverage ordered was a Lipstick Martini or Martini Lipstick. It was okay.
I don't know if my expectations were too high for this restaurant or if it's because I am a true foodie and a great cook that I expect that when I go out to eat in a restaurant the food will be better than what I can cook myself. I found only a part of that to be the case.
If you can't cook good food at home and you do want good food to eat, then I would recommend North 44. But bring money. Lots of it cause their meals are not filling. If it weren't for the delicious black olive artisan bread and endless water refills, I would have gone home starving.
My wife and I went here for our 15th wedding anniversary and were not disappointed.
Everything we ordered was cooked perfectly and served exactly as we wanted it and when we were ready. We chose to have the waiter recommend different wines for each course by the glass and found the pairings excellent.
At dessert we chose to have a dessert sampler which was again..AWESOME and the waiter took the time to write Happy anniversary in chocolate sauce on the bottom of the plate..(nice touch). While certainly hi end it was worth every penny for such excellent service and fine food.
The food was the best quality i have ever had. The service is almost too good. The prices are quite high, but if you have the money, it is completely worth it. I will return as soon as i can afford it.
BEYOND DELISCIOUS- AMAZING-TASTE EXPERIENCE
EXCELLENT SERVICE, BEAUTIFUL INTERIOR, I WOULD DEFINITELY RETURN. IWOULD NOT SAY THIS IS A CASUAL RESTAURANT,BUT CERTAINLY TOP NOTCH
Tuna sashimi was utterly boring, and the only good thing about it was its creative presentation.
Lobster risotto tasted great, but was more of a soup, which was confusing. It was overly salty.
Gnocchi was perfect. Highly recommended if you must eat here, and we would have ordered the other gnocchi variant as a dinner plate, had we had the chance...
By the time we were finished our $130 appetizers and drinks, we were told they were no longer cooking dinner. I'm going to leave it at that.
We had an absolutely terrible experience here. Out waitress was rude and discourteous, as was the manager.
Try somewhere else.
Overhyped. Definitely. You notice people go there to be "seen". Yet, its location is not exactly in a part of town to be seen. Thus, making at least half of its patrons looking like they try too hard. If you want to be seen, go to Yorkville, more classy. If you want to savour your culinary taste, this is good, but certainly not the best. Service, however, is top-notch. Without the service staffs, I am quite certain its rating will drop.
There is no doubt this restaurant has the best services. Of my many trips to Toronto, its service remains one of the best in the city. However, as for food, I must say that I am disappointed year after year. In my visit last year, I started to notice that its menu is being "recycled". I had a habit of keeping a copy of the menu of restaurants I visited. I compared them on my trip this year & I noticed that there had not been any changes to the menu. It appeared that the chef removes a few items in the winter menu and replaces them with previous winter's menu. Maybe it is due to Chef McEwan spending more time in his other restaurants. However, for a restaurant to success, you must keep your "star" dishes but also keep in mind of "moving forward.". Hope my next trip to North 44 will not be disappointed.
If I could give the service an 11 out of 10, I would. This restaurant has become the yardstick to which I compare all others.
Yes, it was definitely expensive, but the service and the food was there. Not like some other restaurants in the city that charge very high prices but don't back it up with superior food and service.
Most definitely will go again.
