Blogger Girls Night Out
Location: Paese Ristorante, located on 3827 Bathurst Street (just north of Wilson Avenue)
Date visited: August 6, 2016
Website: http://paeseristorante.com/
Instagram @paeseristorante
My blogger pal Natalie (http://www.cookingquidnunc.com/) and I were invited to go for dinner at Paese Restaurant in North York. I live in North York so it was nice to go to a dinner pretty close to home. We brought along fellow blogger Shuang (http://www.theteleporta.com/) and my friend who lives within walking distance of Paese. Normally Natalie and I attend larger blogger media dinners with about a dozen other bloggers trying to get their photos and food in within a limited amount of time. This time we had a great Girls Night Out and took our time and all ordered different things so that we could sample a lot from their menu.
A nice touch was that they seated us near the window. This is an important thing because the rest of the restaurant had lighting that wouldn't have been flattering for food photos. We really wanted to get some great photos because the food was presented so beautifully.
We shared this amazing Seared Scallop dish with grapefruit segments and shaved fennel. This really is a classic pairing that works together to elevate the whole dish. We really loved this dish and my friends were amazed at how good the fennel was. I wasn't because I have done this before and it really makes the fennel shine. The Scallops were perfectly seared and tender and seasoned to perfection.
We also shared the Polenta Fries. We could have easily eaten an order of these each. They were better than fries with a whole lot more flavour and crispy on the outside and creamy inside.
As my main I chose the Veal Scallopini. For some reason I thought this would be breaded but it was just pan seared and served with a lemon beurre blanc sauce and green beans, grilled fennel and a piece of charred corn. The veal was like butter. I hardly needed a knife to cut it. The whole thing was skillfully put together.
For Dessert I chose the Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie and Affogato. I really wanted the cherry chocolate cookie. It had some sea salt on top. Some people like that but I don't think it needed the salt. It wasn't overly sweet and with the espresso and vanilla ice cream it was just enough.
And there was a whole lot more. Some of the other things we all ordered were from (l to r):
Braised Lamb and Green Beans, Seared Salmon with tomato salsa and fennel, Mojito's and wine, A dark and white chocolate terrina, Goat cheese and leek ravioli, charred broccoli, Charred Octopus, Foccacia bread and white bean spread, Pomegranate gelato, strawberry cheesecake, Caramel pudding. And in the mix is Natalie taking a photo of her dish while Shuang quenches her thirst.
We all really enjoyed our meal and the place was really nice. We had our own little private section because most of the people were seated on the other side. They didn't know what to make of us when we tried to take photos of the inside of the restaurant. I think they thought we were nuts so we stopped taking photos so we wouldn't get them in any of them.
PAESE is starting a contest for you to EAT. SHARE .WIN on Social Media that you can enter starting August 15 and it ends on September 1st, 2016.
SHARE a photo of your Favourite PAESE meal on INSTAGRAM using the Hashtag #PaeseXO and don't forget to follow @paeseristorante on Instagram to see what everyone is eating.
A winner will be chosen on September 1st to WIN a Dinner for TWO at PAESE Italian Ristorante
If you go to Paese for the first time make sure you tell them that you read about it on my Blog. I am sure they will take really good care of you.
Get away from the crazy downtown lineups and parking tickets and eat in North York where you can enjoy a relaxing meal and hopefully get a spot in their parking lot for free.
