This year, I wasn’t as enthusiastic about Winterlicious. For one, it’s always crowded and tough to get a reservation at a restaurant that you would want to go to, and the ones that aren’t probably suck. This year, they’ve also increased the prices so lunches may be $15, $20 or $30 and dinners range from $25 to $45! For those prices, I might as well go to a restaurant at a regular time and avoid the rush.

I ended up going to a Winterlicious lunch on Saturday, although it was really Springlicious because it was 7°C that day! We went to Oliver & Bonacini Cafe & Gril based on a positive experience last year, walked in asking for a two-top and waited about 40 minutes before being seated.

For starters, Pauline had the ever popular butternut squash soup (this time with madras masala cream and toasted almonds) and I had a matane shrimp pate with flax seed lavash & pickled diakon. I don’t know what half of those words mean. The appetizers weren’t spectacular, in fact the soup was better than the pate as it was spicy.

For the entree I had a lemon baked basa with Israeli couscous and tomato, coriander, and chipotle relish. The menu online originally said this was supposed to be a black dory instead of basa, and I didn’t know what a basa was (it’s a white fish apparently); but it was better than the third choice (goulash). I liked this dish, I hardly ever eat couscous and the garnishes contrasted the mild fish and couscous flavours.

Pauline had the penne with wild & tame mushrooms, roasted garlic and basil. This wasn’t really worth it since it’s a typical vegetarian dish.

For dessert, I ordered the bread pudding and Pauline had the apple buckle with lemon sour cream ice cream. I didn’t think either were that great but Pauline liked the apple buckle. In retrospect, I should have ordered the third dessert, sticky toffee cake, since it looked good when someone at a neighbouring table got it. But I thought it was going to be caramel and, you know, sticky.

The best part was that the lunch menu was still the bargain, $15 one! Since I’ve had two positive experiences here, I think I might be come a regular – a Winterlicious regular that is.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: food, toronto, winterlicious