Winterlicious - Pangaea

Ah, another treat for myself. This is definitely the last Winterlicious this year - I'm going broke. I went to Pangaea with a friend last Sunday (okay so I'm retracting a little)...but I've been busy with the car trouble.

I thought Pangaea was a very interesting name, so I looked it up: Pangaea or Pangea (derived from Παγγαία, Greek meaning 'all earth') is the name given to the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the process of plate tectonics separated each of the component continents into their current configuration. ~Wiki

Pangaea
1221 Bay Street
"An unpretentious charming little place...in Yorkville!"

True to its name, one will find Pangaea to be a very natural looking place. Its decor is simplistic with dark wooden chairs and soft coloured walls that seems to be striving to bring out the earth's elements. What I really liked about the restaurant was the down-to-earth service (and we had a really fun and easy-going waiter)! Notorious for its desserts, I was anxious to find out whether Pangaea can live up to this reputation. Guess I will find out after the entree and main!

For the entree, I had a very delicious Pear and Endive Salad. If you've never had a cooked (roasted) pear before you should definitely try it! Coupled with the pear were Stilton cheese (mmm, cheese...), watercress and mustard dressing. The pear was sweet and succulent (yes, even when roasted, does that sound strange?) and makes me start eating more fruit (I'm not really a fruit person). Although I have to say, the best cooked/roasted pear that I've ever had was at a little restaurant named Verona (on King St) but this was pretty close.

My friend had the Lobster bisque soup - I guess it must have been really good because he scooped everything out of that plate!

For mains, I opted for the Ocean Trout since I felt like I've been eating too much red meat lately (steak, grilled meat, lamb shank...). I'm not a fish person but I didn't feel like eating Sweet breads as a main...my friend ordered the Grilled Lamb Chop. For wines, he ordered the Australian Shiraz and I ordered a Niagra Sauvignon - it's also been a long time since I've had white wine. This night is a night of eating food that I'm not a fan of it seems!

The Ocean Trout was surprisingly good, although I found it a little bland, but Pangaea is also known to use very natural ingredients and aims at retaining its 'true' taste.' Since I wasn't a fish person, I would have preferred a slice of lime. If I had to compare it with other fish, it was 100 times better than the salmon that I had at Far Niente (I will never go back there), which was dry and seemed like it came out of a Hi-liner box (no offense to HL). The trout was presented on a bunch of lentils...I ate some of it, but I don't like lentils, or any sort of beans except maybe refried beans (lol). Fine onion rings were added on top of the trout.

Don't know how the lamb tasted, but again, my friend seemed like he enjoyed it. He enjoyed it all except the lingot beans. He hates beans and there were a lot of it!

Finally, it was dessert time and according to my friend, he's not a dessert person (...!). So, we got the Passionfruit pot de creme and the Ginger cake - what can I say, it lived up to its reputation. I especially enjoyed the passionfruit pot, but the maple candied pecans that came with the ginger cake was mmmmm....good! This was definitely a pleasant fine dining experience! Will have to come back for sure!

So that's all for Winterlicious...next round would be Summerlicious....hehe.