Winterlicious - Truffles

We pulled into Cumberland St. and parked the car before taking a short walk to the Four Seasons.

Truffles at The Four Seasons Hotel
21 Avenue Road
"If only the food tasted as nice as the place looked..."

We went up to Truffles where we were greeted by the Hostess. A man came by to take our coats before we went into the restaurant. Very nice so far. We were then shown into the Private Dining room where a table for two was waiting for us. I have never been into the Private Dining room before but as Andrew said, it had a very aristocratic feel to it. The walls were decorated with numerous paintings in gold coloured grids. Mirrors were plenty so as to make the room feel larger than it is and allows you to discreetly look around the room without turning. White table cloths draped over the table with another gold heavier table cloth underneath to contrast. Each table had its own candle and flower display holder, which added a nice, romantic touch. There was a new Executive Chef (Rob Bartley) at Truffles since Lynn Crawford moved to New York to become the Executive Chef of the Four Seasons there. Lets see how good of a replacement he is.

We made our choices and ordered a Californian Merlot with our mains. The maitre'd brought us a nice basket of mixed bread and we munched on that while we waited for our food.

For entrees, I ordered the Winter Greens, which was good. Croutons were made of beet and blue benedictine (tastes like blue cheese-ish) and very thin, dry pieces of fruit (?) added a nice sweet flavour to the mix. Apparently the salad came with a horseradish vinaigrette but it didn't really taste like it as the dressing was more thick and creamy than I expected - almost like a ranch. Then again, I'm not a chef, I only know what tastes good :p Andrew ordered the soup - Roasted Cauliflower Veloute, which was good. It had a nice creamy texture (not too thick) and did not congeal at the top (unlike the soup at Nectar apparently)!

We waited...and waited. Neither our wine nor our mains came. Finally, our maitre'd realized that he forgot to bring us our wine and apologized and offered to not charge us for one glass. As he poured our wine, a few drops dropped onto the table cloth, which I have never seen before in a nice restaurant. As we sipped our wine, our Lamb Shanks arrived. The portion was huge. But I have to say - the shank wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was quite average that I didn't even bother taking a picture of it. The shank was quite tender however and it really wasn't bad at all. Just wasn't up to par with my expectations. Andrew enjoyed it however. The maitre'd came by later to clear the table of crumbs which he subsequently brushed onto the floor with his hand...very un-four star like...

For desserts, we ordered the Caramel Apple Mousse with Calvados Anglaise and the Blood Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Sorbet. For me, the dessert was the highlight of the meal (pictures below). The caramel was made into swirls and hardened (like candy apple) and was paired nicely with the apple mousse. Pieces of apples were put inside the mousse, which added more texture and taste. Calvados as I found out is fermented apples (like fermented grapes for wine).
The Cheesecake was very good as well although I only had a bite. Of the two though, I enjoyed mine more :p
We asked for the bill and it came shortly after. The maitre'd pointed out that he only charged us for one glass of wine because of his mistake. So I opened the bill and lo and behold...there was a charge for just one ... BOTTLE of wine! We pointed this mistake out to him and he apologized again and returned with a new bill. This time it was just for the meal. He didn't charge us at all for the wine because of his mistake. Fantastic. I tipped him well enough, mistake and all and we left.

All in all, it was a nice night out - although I would not rush to go back to Truffles anytime soon. Next stop: Hemispheres at the Metropolitan Hotel.