Concession Road a destination Restaurant

Restaurant:       Concession Road
Location:          760 St. Clair Avenue West
Website:           www.concessionroad.ca
Twitter             @concessionroad
Instagram         @concessionroad
Facebook          Concession Road

Media Dinner
Date: August 10, 2015
Global French Cuisine

Chef Masayuki Tamarn & Owner Derek Valleau

Last night about a dozen food bloggers were invited to Concession Road to sample their Global French cuisine menu.  I really love having dinner with my fellow food bloggers because we all want to take great photos of the food and really appreciate the details in the dinner menu and the whole experience.

Concession Road provided a really great evening of great food in a beautiful clean and modern space.  They said they are still working on the decor.  They have only been open since April.  The name Concession Road comes from the the first road plans in Toronto as explained by owner Derek Valleau that originally it was the 3rd Concession Road in the original plans of the 1800's.  

One of the other kind of retro things they have in the restaurant is their Absinthe service which is pretty interesting to look at with the ice water dispenser on their sexy looking bar.  We also sampled on some cocktails including their "Corpse Revivor" meant to be a "hair of the dog" drink.

The menu we sampled:

• Shrimp Bonbon, citrus salad - red pepper gastrique
• Romaine hearts, orange, hearts of palm, olives, avocado, manchego, sherry vinaigrette
• Beef tartare, asian pear, pickled vegetables, quail's egg yolk, toast
• Vegetable stuffed chard, vegetable sauce, chive-oil, beet crisps, toasted pumpkin seeds
• Sauteed calves liver, Korean bbq sauce, sweet potato, King oyster mushroom
• "JFC" Menonite farmed fried chicken, buttermilk mash, tomato, preserved lemon mayo
• Steamed Portuguese rockfish, tomato beurre blanc, fresh dill
• Chilled souffle cheesecake, boozie cherries, hazelnut bark
• Callebaut chocolate terrine, local berries, whipped cream

The food was truly beautiful and delicious and there were a few people in the group that had never had calves liver and they really enjoyed it.  My favourite dishes were the beef tartare, the juicy and crunchy JFC chicken,  the crunchy shrimp bonbons and I loved the smooth and rich chocolate terrine.

As Derek told our group that he thinks Chef Tamaru is a bit under the radar Chef who has some seriously great skills in the kitchen.  He doesn't like the word fusion food but he is classically french trained but his roots are Asian.  He is formerly from the Fifth, Crush Wine Bar and Jamie Kennedy Wine bar among other notable restaurants.

Derek Valleau is also the owner of the Indian restaurant Pukka which is a few doors down from Concession Road.  They took over the space from former Bywoods restaurant and said it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.  St. Clair Ave. West is quickly becoming the new area for interesting restaurants and is in proximity to the great Wychwood Barns.

I really wish they had this kind of quality neighbourhood restaurants in my area.  Maybe I need to consider moving closer to St. Clair Avenue West because it seems to be becoming a Foodie hangout with restaurants like the Stockyard, the Sea Witch, Pukka, Emmas country kitchen and a host of other great restaurants.

I hope you go and check out Concession Road.  Their other restaurant Pukka is still on my to do list.

*disclaimer the meal was complimentary but content and opinions are my own.