Girls night out at Paese Restaurant

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.

Gastropost Celebrates 100 Missions

GASTROPOST Celebrate's 100 Food Missions with it's Gastroposters

Last night I was invited to go to a new Italian Restaurant on Jarvis Street in Toronto called Osteri dei Ganzi - @GanziToronto to celebrate Post Media's Gastropost Section in the National Post and online who were celebration the 100th Mission.  Since the beginning of the creation of the Gastropost online community and weekly column in the National Post, I have been taking photos of everything I cook eat or drool over.  Then I upload pics that correspond to the Gastropost weekly Mission.  Last week it was Melt. Then I wait and see if it is selected to appear in the Saturday's Gatropost section of the National Post.  Apparently I have been published over 40 something times.  So I have sent them my fair share of food photos.  Last night's party was to celebrate the 100th mission.  In attendance were the Gastropost Team who have to sift through hundreds of photos every week to select their fav's for the paper and the rest are posted online.  There was a room full of Food obsessed people like me.  Some of us who have been there from the beginning have received a Gastrosketch of themselves and some were printed on cards with our choice of a mission and they were spread all over the restaurant.  I never found mine but maybe they didn't print one.  But it was fun to meet fellow Gastroposters who you have admired their photos over the past couple of years.  There are Gastroposters who I tweet and Instagram but haven't even met yet and even missed meeting them last night, but there were a few that knew exactly who each other were so that was fun.  I was even told on instagram that someone had a coworker that loved my food and wanted her to meet me.  It's very odd.  I mostly take photos while I am at home alone and then post them so I never get that much feedback but apparently a lot of people love all the photos and then there are a lot of people that just don't get it.  Oh well...there was a restaurant full of people that get it.  

You can see in one of these shots the waiter was bombarded not by hands grabbing the food right away but cameras jamming as close to it as they could to get the perfect shot.  The food was very good.  I filled up on mostly desserts because I missed the Arancini balls at the beginning...too bad..   

The Restaurant's staff ver very friendly and patient with all the crazy foodies in the room.

Also in attendance was Chef Corbin Tomacezski who was there to get people interested in the Culinary Challenge for Cook for the Cure for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.   I signed up last year and the woman who organizes the Challenge remembered me.   I need to make lot's of new friends with money before I can sign up again this year.

Everyone had a great time and there were even raffle prizes.  No I didn't win one, but there were only a few.  Thanks to our hosts Duncan, Rebecca, Chris and Adam for the great party.   

I even got a ride home from fellow Gastroposter Jenny Roger.  (pictured below light hair with Maria (dark hair) another Gastroposter)

Let's hope I will still be posting at the 200 mission mark and we celebrate at another great party.

Keep following www.gastropost.com to see everyone's photos.

The Taste of Italy comes to North York

There is a new Italian Street Food Restaurant that just opened up in North York (on York Mills and Leslie) in the little strip mall at the corner.  It's called Via Cibo and it's going to be having it's official Grand Opening this week.  I thought I would check it out before it got too crazy to get in there.  I am glad I went early because by the time I left it was starting to get busy with curious people looking for some new food to try.

It calls itself Italian Street Food.  I am not sure it's really street food since how many places have a wood fire oven on the street?  Anyway that's the good part, they do have a wood fired oven in the corner of the restaurant so that they can make authentic Napolitano pizzas.   I tried the Margherita pizza,  I like my pizzas classic and simple.  The true Italians don't cram a million ingredients on a pizza, they normally have about 2 or 3 toppings.   If you put too much on a pizza it gets soggy and you can't taste the actual pizza anymore, just the mixed up toppings.

I have to say it did look like a beautiful thing as you can see and the pizza sauce had a great fresh San Marzano tomato taste.  The cheese got a bit solidified by the time I ate it but it tasted good.  The crust had that great authentic wood fired classic taste.  I would have liked to see the pizza cook for a wee bit longer to crisp up the crust in the middle a bit more.  Once you add the cheese and olive oil and put it on a plate it starts to get soggy in the middle.  Or maybe the solution to this is to serve it on a pizza stone or something.   Hot pizza on a cold plate makes it soggy pretty quickly.  But I know this is pretty classic so I am ok with that little thing.   It's nice to see a pizza with real fresh Basil at a pizza place in North York.  Most of the pizza places add dried basil, cheap mozzarella and some really bad processed canned pizza sauce.  This didn't taste like that and I was really happy to see that it can finally be done.  A decent reasonably priced Italian restaurant in North York.  Thank you and keep them coming.


I even had some bottled water from Italy.  I don't think it makes much difference but it showed the attention to detail in making it authentic Italian.

The room was beautifully designed with a long marble counter.  The staff was very welcoming and took my name and then I proceeded down the line where another staff member called me by name.  Again, attention to customer service and detail.  I picked a dessert and then chose to get water.   Another staff member brought my order over to my table when it was ready.   The service was excellent.  I do hope it stays that way.  The room although the tables and chairs were dark the window let in so much light that it felt bright and airy... a stark contrast from my morning brunch dining experience.  see previous post for details.

It wasn't a large menu but I will go back and try one of their pastas as they did look really good.

I have to say the only thing that wasn't authentic Italian was the dessert.   I got the Tiramisu which was present in a shot type of glass.  Unfortunately it didn't really look like a Tiramisu and it didn't taste anything like a traditional Tiramisu.  It wasn't bad tasting it was just badly named and should be called a mousse dessert instead.   I was surprised that they didn't have any Italian cookies like Amaretto cookies or even some fresh Gelato.   If they add a Gelato machine and make a couple of signature gelato flavours each day they will be the hot spot of the area for a very long time.

I do think this is going to be a very busy place and I think if they keep the quality and the service up it will remain in it's location for a long time.  Trends come and go but classic Pizza is forever.

but SHHH.... don't tell too many people so that I can still get a table in there when I have a Napolitano pizza craving.