Frank's Kitchen - Review

I was at the Women's show all day on friday and was sampling away on little bits and bites but at the end of the day my friend came to meet me at the show after work and after we left the show we decided to go grab some real dinner somewhere. Where to go around the Metro Convention Centre? Well we couldn't think of anything great so we started driving and then we got up to Queen's Park and I thought we could try going to ICI Bistro on Harbord. My friend is a friend of JP Chalet's. It's a tiny place and it was full but JP gave us a recommendation to go to College Street and check out Frank's Kitchen. I never heard of this place surprisingly. I don't go to College St. often because I find the parking is tough to find especially on friday and saturday nights but we drove around for a while and got lucky and found a spot near the Royal Cinema. Just so happened that we were also able to stop in there and see the guy I am filming a documentary on working at the Reel Asian Film Festival on our way to the restaurant. So we ventured over to Frank's Kitchen with no expectations and only a recommendation from Chef JP. We walked in and immediately liked the look and vibe of the place. Not extremely noisy and very cosy but not cramped. We waited a few minutes and got a table near the back and across from the Chef's kitchen. What we learned from sitting there was that Frank was a former chef at Centro on Yonge Street and had many years of high end experience. Well it showed in the details of his own restaurant.
The service was immediate and friendly without being pushy.
We were presented with fabulous mini loafs of different breads with olives and a tasty dip.

My friend and I ordered the Tuna Tartare and the Seafoood Cocktail to share. We love tuna tartare and order it all the time when we go to Nota Bene so how would it stack up at Frank's?
Well I loved it. It was similar but different with a more acidic flavour to the tuna.
The seafood cocktail was a deconstructed plate with shrimp and lobster with an obviously homemade cocktail sauce. It was very fresh tasting and I loved the presentation. There was also a guacamole style dip that came with it.

Then we were presented with lime palate cleansers presented on lovely little spoons. It tasted a bit like grapefruit to me but I wonder if it was a mix of citrus.

Then we shared the crispy gnocchi... something I have never heard of before. I love gnocchi so I was curious to see what it was like. It was almost like a gnocchi tater tot. a light potato crunchy little gnocchi shaped and crouton looking bite in a pool of gorgonzola cream sauce. It was very interesting and a bit of a twist on the usual gnocchi. I liked it very much.

I ordered the desert to try to see what they were like. I was presented with a shot glass with some sort of milk shake concoction.. not too sure what was in it exactly. There was also a tiny scoop of rasberry sorbet and a 2 bite molten lava cake which I thoroughly enjoyed. Nothing out of the ordinary with the lava cake but it was still delicious.

We were then presented with tiny little chocolate truffles and our meal was complete.

We ended up with a great meal that we had no expectations about. I think that's the best way to check out a restaurant. Go on a recommendation of someone you trust that has a great palate and be open to whatever they have to offer and hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised.

Frank himself was very entertaining telling stories to the man at the table next to us. So it was a very enjoyable dinner and I would highly recommend going there and trying it for yourself.

Frank's Kitchen is east of the Royal Cinema on College Street.