To help you get to know the neighbourhood, we have complied a short listing of some features of the area, including restaurants, galleries, amenities and stores. We invite you to explore the listings below and visit the neighbourhood in person! Click on a category below to link to a list of local highlights! |
Reviews courtesy of Toronto Life Magazine There are a number of wonderful restaurants close by to the building. For a more detailed list of restaurants in the Queen West West area, we suggest visiting www.torontolife.com. Bon appetit!
The front patio offers views of expensive loft spaces, while a casual little back oasis makes the most of its urban surroundings. The menu boasts several pizzas and pastas, with interesting forays into unconventional tastes. An outstanding dish of duck prosciutto, for example, brings thin slices atop crunchy mixed greens with accents of pistachios, chewy dried cherries and fig—a multi-textured success. Three CD-size pockets of ravioli envelop delicately flavoured shredded bison meat, smothered in pleasingly light brandy cream sauce. The dessert sampler brings four outstanding selections; of these, blueberry cheesecake and richer-than-Gates chocolate torte shine. A short but representative wine list. Excellent, attentive service.
This sleek boîte seduces with gleaming jatoba—Brazilian cherrywood—and maple, lovely yellow-green walls and taupe vinyl banquettes under soft pot lighting. Chef-owner Mario Cassini’s Brazilian-inflected fare, interpreted with a light, contemporary touch, has its charms, but needs more spice and verve. Addictive comp p¯ao de quejo—cheese puffs—lead to eight apps that please but don’t thrill: unremarkable black bean soup, dry grilled sardines, with a timid lemon-salsa vinaigrette and bland, slightly greasy crispy won tons stuffed with hearts of palm that need their mild chili dip. Things pick up with mains, including moist chicken breast fragrant with a balanced, lemon-tinged curry sauce and mixed vegetables. Brazil’s national dish, hearty feijoada black bean stew, is less earthy than versions found at Dundas and Ossington, but still satisfies with juicy pork tenderloin, beef and chorizo, plus sides of rice, collard greens and toasted cassava flour and cassava chips. Strong finishes include rich, homemade dark chocolate fondant and wispy, featherlight passion fruit mousse. Affable, distracted servers.
Abetted by booths outfitted with Formica tables, a matching counter (with stools) and a vintage Coke machine, the genuine 1950s diner decor beguiles. Following suit, the bistro menu is loaded with charm. A dash of salt is all that’s needed to animate the daily soup, an appealing thick and tasty split pea. Though generous, smoked Arctic char salad loaded with greens, new potatoes and sliced avocado suffers from too salty fish, while angels on horseback sees chewy bacon wrapped around flawless grilled oysters. Crab cakes are mealy. Helped along by a handful of specials, mains generally succeed. Anchored by a blackcurrant gastrique, tough duck breast gets a southern U.S.–style treatment via collard-green-and-squash griddle cakes. Another reduction, of pomegranate and tarragon, gooses the nightly special, ably timed Atlantic salmon crusted with black sesame seeds and swimming in a fragrant coconut-cilantro-scallion sauce. Straight-ahead sweets; deeply dark chocolate-espresso mousse trumps maple-deficient crème brûlée. Amiable servers.
Drawing its name from its side street, this charming corner boîte offers elegant, warm respite in winter and a roomy covered patio in summer. A well-composed, ambitious carte of Italian classics suggests a kitchen that knows its stuff. But while the menu delivers on presentation, spotty execution spoils the effect. A half-dozen lightly breaded Ascolane olives please with their fillings of finely diced mushroom with spinach and cod with potato, but flavourless minced meat stuffing disappoints. Pastas—spaghetti carbonara, walnut-cream ravioli, gnocchi with gorgonzola—are divine. Pricey, meat-focused mains hit and miss. Grilled 10-ounce Angus tenderloin begs for salt and pepper, shallot and chanterelle its only accompaniment. House-made desserts continue in the classic vein—tiramisù, poached pear and the like. Gracious, professional waiters steer diners through a Wine Spectator Award–winning list of Old and New World reds and whites. Corkage $45.
A successful cross between pub (chest-high tables), restaurant (fine photography on walls) and temple for seafood devotees, Oyster Boy highlights fruits of the sea in every menu item. The focus, naturally, is the bivalve. A helpful oyster roster describes each variety as poetically as wine (“smells like cut grass,” “coppery finish”), and the little beauties are splendid enough not to need any help from the delightful accompaniments (the usual suspects, plus a house-made garlic-chili-ginger sauce tasty enough to eat by the spoonful). Baked oysters in 11 flavours and dangerously good panko-crusted deep-fried oysters keep the feast going. Other favourites prove there’s also a competent kitchen behind the award-winning shuckers. Salt cod fish cakes, fried golden and crisp, make Maritimers swoon with nostalgia; catch of the day is a more sophisticated dish—say, pan-fried snapper with Israeli couscous. No need to save room for mediocre desserts. Guinness by the pint with oysters, over 20 wines for the meal, and chummy service round out a pleasant visit.
The
dining room—dotted with a series of charming, rustic antique shop
tables and slightly less charming, uncomfortable antique wooden chairs—overlooks
the tranquil grounds of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
On one visit, the friendly, laid-back vibe is inviting, as is the short
but playful menu: a pear salad with manchego cheese, energized by a
drizzle of aged balsamic, and “artichoke and parmesan purée,”
an upmarket artichoke dip, with apple slices, walnuts and sourdough
toasts for dipping. Ontario lamb chops with a provolone- and orzo-stuffed
tomato get a tangy Mediterranean boost from cucumber-yogurt sauce on
the side. An abridged eight-bottle wine list offers a handful by the
glass. Kei The unpretentious decor is warm and inviting, with amber lighting, kitsch fish taxidermy and a central-hub galley kitchen. A handful of tables and a sliver of a patio are about all this two-person crew can handle. The resto’s nouveau Malaysian menu is long on appetizers and short on mains, with specials focusing on fresh fish. One day’s well-timed whole rosefish is double-fried and complemented by mango jam, sticky rice and superb okra. Boasting a punch of garlic, stir-fried pea shoots are tender and vibrant. Tempura tuna roll is deep-fried too long yet somehow arrives tepid, the tuna chewy, the cashew and cranberry lost amid the tamarind, Thai basil and chili sauce. Laksa, a classic, warming Malaysian meal in a bowl (a combination of shrimp, noodles, dumplings and vegetables), is slick with coconut milk and tastes of spicy heat more than any definable flavour. Fun Asian-twist martinis and nice food-wine matches. The
Drake Cushioned sofa benches stretch under Rorschach test art; old movies project silently onto the wall. The vibe is knowingly casual, but a smooth professionalism underpins service. Chef Anthony Rose’s seasonal cooking is marked by rich textures and powerful flavours. Cheese, cream and truffle smother crab meat and discs of potato as a bread crumb–topped gratin. Raw mussels and clams are barely seized by the heat of a creamy chowder, rib-stickingly thick around an island of mashed squash and shredded serrano ham. Pungent garlic-driven pickled vegetables cut the fat of a scrumptiously coarse terrine of many meats. Mains show interesting flavour combinations—braised rabbit with sliced green olives and pumpkin over soft polenta, for instance. Moist, thick-cut pickerel fillet works well with truffled cauliflower purée, slippery beluga lentils and a thin red wine jus. Cheese is a serious option, as are such deliciously homespun desserts as pear and chestnut tart with boozy prune and armagnac ice cream. Twenty-four wines by the glass. Mains $22-$32. Located in the heart of the gallery district, our building has easy access to some of the best art in the city.
Paul Petro Contemporary Art Clint
Roenisch Gallery Mittica
Gallery The
Angell Gallery The Candy Factory is located in the vibrant Queen West West neighbourhood, also known as the Trinity Bellwoods area after the large park located just down the street from our building. Within a few minutes walk you can find public recreation centres, tennis courts, jogging trails, dog parks, primary and secondary schools, places of worship and much, much more. For more information on the area, we invite you read the Toronto Life article On The Block focusing on Trinity Bellwoods or simply come on down and take a look around! This features list is currently being revised. Please return soon for an updated list. If you own or operate a restaurant, gallery, amenity or store near the Candy Factory Lofts and would like to be featured on this site, please write us an email with contact details at location@candyfactorylofts.net. Thank you. |
