Auberge du Pommier (an old review from Feb. 9)

Ahhh...Winterlicious. Something as a foodie, I look forward to every year. It's difficult getting a reservation here because of it's fame and for $45/prix fixe 3-course meal, it's supposed to be good bang for your buck. And being a foodie, I have heard delicious things about Auberge du Pommier. It is one of those Oliver Bonacini restaurants that are like a dime a dozen here in Toronto, except this one is supposed to be the Mother Ship of them all. Maurizio and I went with our delightful friends, Beatriz and Alberto, whom we always have a fabulous time talking and catching up with. But my food was so-so and the service was worse so. When given a menu that describes each dish with a written essay, I grow very wary. To start, we had the tiniest of all amuse buches - which was a mushroom quiche or tart. Meh, it was just o.k. All 4 of us ordered the "Salade de Saison" - arugula and endives with Muscat raisin dressing, Bleu de Gex and toasted walnuts. I am sad to say, this salad was the best thing on my tasting menu (next to the bread basket, the artichoke/onion/olive oil spread and the plump kalamata olives). As the main dish, we ordered the "Medallions de Boeuf" - swede aligot and roasted onion with comet tail (btw, what's a comet tail?) peppercorn jus. Everyone's meat was chewy in texture, and over cooked for a fine dining experience. I had and still have no idea what swede aligot is and if it was on my plate. Lastly, for dessert we had the "Brioche Pudding" - bread and butter pudding with apple puree and milk chocolate caramel. There was no brioche bread in here and no milk chocolate. It was more like flan meets creme brulee. It had no structure and no real taste. I ate it anyways more out of hunger than delight. Funny thing is, our waiter also agreed that to call this dessert a bread pudding was false advertising. The drip coffee was made of beans on the over burnt side and the coffee came AFTER we had already eaten our dessert. The "mignardise" were short bread cookies - to their credit, they were flaky, but again, no taste. My husband and I had a lovely appertif at the start of the meal and we ordered a bottle of the Shiraz, a 2006 Penmara Shiraz from New South Wales, Australia. It was nice and reasonably price pointed at $40/bottle. Would I ever come here again? No way. No one could pay me enough money to come here again. I would certainly go to Quince or Delux faster than I would go back here again. I can not, in good faith, recommend this restaurant to anyone. It's just not worth the bang for the buck and we clearly went on a night when the wait staff were not on their game.

Winterlicious 2009

Ok, everyone, get your AmX out and your phone ready to dial, because tomorrow, Jan. 13, if you're an AmX card holder, you get to put yourself ahead of the game and book reservations for restaurants in town participating in Winterlicious this year, and it is totally worth it.  I've already narrowed down the list to a short list, which I then made even shorter and have come up with 4 restaurants worthy of my time this year, provided my calls go thru tomorrow morning.  The lucky 4 restos I hope to visit are:  Amaya, Auberge du Pommier, Corner House and Quince (as a repeat performance not to mention the price is just right at $25 for a 3-course meal).  From January 30 to February 12, foodies like myself can enjoy prix fixed meals of 3 courses for a range of $15 to $30 for lunches and $25 up to $45 for dinner to places like North 44, Canoe, etc.  You're lucky if you can get an entree for $25 let alone a whole 3 course meal!  What I do every year is check out the list of restaurants online by googling Winterlicious, and then when I see a restaurant on the list that has intrigued me for awhile, I will check the menu to see if that gets my attention.  If it does, then that makes it onto my short list.  My original short list also contained North 44, Boiler House, Oliver Bonacini and Grill, and Canoe.  I think my shorter short list is far more fascinating and I can't wait to wake up tomorrow!