Thursday, June 11, 2009

Amuse Bouche

Last night, I tried a new neighbourhood restaurant. It is called Amuse Bouche and it is not in my little neighbourhood of Liberty village, but is instead about 10 minutes walk to the east. It is just a block north of the King West strip in the neighbourhood of Niagara in downtown Toronto. Nicely tucked away from hustle and bustle of King Street, it is housed in an old house on a residential street corner. It is a French restaurant but not one you might go to all that often, as it is just a little bit pricey. Having said that, it was well worth trying and I am sure that I will be back there again for dinner.

It was warm enough to sit out on the terrasse (as my Montreal friend calls it). What would have been the "front yard" of the house was a small patio with 6-8 tables. There was a nice ambiance given that it was a quiet street. both food and service were very impressive and the menu was very interesting and extremely French.

The restaurant is named after a specific type of hors d'oeuvres course. "Amuse bouche is a French term which translates to "mouth pleaser". It is an identifiable course specific to the nouvelle food movement, which emphasized smaller, more intensely flavored courses. My friend was familiar with an "amuse bouche", but I wasn't.

To quote wiki:
It is distinguished from other kinds of hors d'œuvres by three characteristics. It is small, usually just one or two bites. It is the same for all of the guests at the table. And finally, it is not ordered by anyone; rather it is offered free of charge.
This is the picture of the amuse bouche which was served to my Montreal friend and I. It was so, so tasty!


We both ordered the "triple duck"... (my name for the paragraph of French words describing the dish). There were wonderful slices of rare roast duck breast, on a bed of white beans cooked with duck broth and duck meat and a duck Sheppard's pie in a small crock. So tasty!

We had a very nice bottle of red wine which when we enquired were told was privately imported. Apparently they bring in all their own wines.

I would highly recommend this restaurant and will keep it on my special occasion restaurants list. Our only disappointment was that the Chef(s) did not take the time to come out and greet the guests. This would have been the final intimate touch to a wonderful "European style" French Restaurant.

Amuse-Bouche Restaurant Web Site

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a wonderful place to eat!

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  2. I enjoy trying new restaurants. We have a few non-chain restaurants in my Pennsylvania town that you would like, I think. There is one restaurant in particular that you would want to try. It is called The Plaza Restaurant, and it serves Greek food. I would never think that a town such as ours would have a restaurant that specializes in Greek food! In fact when an exchange student expressed a desire to eat Greek food, we went all the way to Erie :-)

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  3. When I finally have a chance to visit your town I would most definitely like to try the Greek Restaurant. Having lived with a Greek "significant other" for a number of years, I like and appreciate Greek food.

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