SSO at Summerlicious - Hot House Cafe, Toronto

Hot House Cafe
35 Church St
Toronto, ON
M5E 1T3
http://hothousecafe.com/
(Church & Front)

I wanted so badly to like the prix fixe $25 Summerlicious menu of Hot House Cafe: the restaurant was packed and looked funky with its red & purple accents, the location is great - nice big patios and big windows for people watching in the St Lawrence Market area, and the descriptions of the dishes seemed excellent. I guess I just made the wrong choices.

My sister, Heather, loved her starter: two different types of breads with three different types of spreads (a tapenade, a goat cheese spread, and a sundried tomato spread). I was less lucky with my deep fried croquette bites filled with brie and risotto. Served with a thick handmade tomato sauce, I could picture this being delicious if it was just the brie. Unfortunately, with the risotto inside it just made it taste like I was biting into a pile of deep-fried mush. Hm.

I will say that the leek, chive, and mascarpone mashed potatoes had a big, different taste and were much enjoyed. The rest of my main wasn't as great. My rib eye steak was done properly and had a nice BBQ sauce, but I had to cut it to pieces to find pieces that weren't fatty (I am not a fan of fatty steak!). Heather didn't have trouble with hers, the lucky dog. And the mixed vegetables were a toss up. The cauliflower, zucchini, and pepper were flavourful and delicious but the broccoli and carrots were flavourless. In fact, they even seemed like they may have been frozen. Very suspicious.

After such an up-and-down dinner, we were both looking forward to our blood orange sorbets. They looked beautiful and were covered with fresh berries. . . but the taste didn't match! They were very bitter, almost like it was made only with blood orange rind, and none of the sweet parts. We ate a bit and finally let our sorbets melt.

All in all, I thought the location was great and with the pleased-looking crowds they must be doing something right with their regular menu. I was salivating as I saw pizza and pasta dishes passing me by. I would definitely go back to try their regular menu, or for their Wednesday Pasta Bar Buffet or the Sunday Brunch that the folks on Restaurantica seem to rave about.

In the neighbourhood: Stroll down Front Street, or hit the St Lawrence Market right around the corner.