Restaurant Porn: OPUS in Toronto

Foodies,

Board member Jay Shampur and I partook last night of an incredible tasting menu at OPUS in Toronto. While this is a regular habit for Jay, this is only my second experience having a tasting menu at the famed Toronto dining landscape which just recently won an Ontario Hospitality Institute award this past April.

Our first dish which we did not take a picture of due to being engaged in conversation was a caviar and uni (sea urchin) topped tuna sashimi. Uni has a love it or leave it kind of texture and flavor to it which I liken to a poorly made chopped liver but in this case it worked perfectly thanks to the tanginess of the caviar and the buttery richness of the tuna.

The next dish was a scallop sashimi with a different caviar, parsnip foam and shaved chili pepper. As you see in the pic, quite a work of art. I am sometimes concerned with the smartphone food porn trend that chefs have become obsessed with style over substance but this was actually a brilliant combination.

Next up was an abalone sashimi (which I misheard as duck initially) with bomb pepper (that’s what I heard but remember I also heard duck first) and a beet aspic. This dish was EXTREMELY spicy, so much so that Indian born spice loving Jay commented out loud, “Damn, this dish is really spicy.” We both needed to eat some bread afterwards to tone down the heat. Tasty if a bit unbalanced.

The next dish was the standout of the night and one we personally thanked the chef for in person: Smoked oysters with pureed parsnips and a black risotto. Whoa, was this incredible. Whereas most seafood dishes need some salinity and/or acidity to balance them out, this dish was all about richness and then some. I could’ve eaten a portion 3-4 times the size. Chef Jason confirmed for us that they smoked the raw oysters themselves in their own smoker.

Next up was a dish that Jay unfortunately could not partake of but we couldn’t have informed the chef of beforehand as we didn’t know it was one of his choices – a snail, monkfish and vegetable chip medley sitting on a white risotto. This nicely contrasted the previous dish but also toiled in its shadow. While the snail and monkfish provided a nice change of texture, the smoky richness of the oysters was still lingering in our mouth.

Next came a beautiful pickled and poached whole sardine (minus the head) with a refreshing lightly dressed vegetable slaw. Very refreshing dish that cleansed the palate of the previous two dishes but also was quite substantial.

We thought that was the main but there was one more dish, a jackfish sashimi sitting on a bed of shaved fresh radishes and garnished with fried basil.

For dessert, we finished with a lovely molten dark and milk chocolate cake. Sorry, pic is blurry but that’s what happens when you use an inferior Apple iPhone 6 to take food porn photos with. I’m sure you get the idea. Jay, get a Samsung next time.

Unfortunately, I had an ankle injury on Sunday during judo and was on off the shelf painkillers for it and therefore had to go very easy on the wine for health reasons, not to mention saving a bit of money to help cover needed physiotherapy.

Given these unfortunate circumstances, Jay generously bought just one bottle of wine to be shared between us (more might’ve been dangerous to me with other drugs in my system): a Tawse 2008 Quarry Road Chardonnay.

Again, I’m a Chardonnay hater but I must admit this was pretty darn good. Very flinty for an Ontario chard, lots of coconut aromas and green apple and pineapple flavors, and a ton of lees flavor. To be honest, but for the lack of bubbles, this really tasted like some of the high-end grower’s champagnes Jay has been introducing me to lately.

Interestingly, we got into a conversation with a fellow diner at the bar who noted that he couldn’t stand the big oaky vanilla Chardonnay coming out of California and we gave him a taste of this to compare and he really enjoyed it.

Overall, a fantastic dining experience. I would love to see what OPUS can do with a tasting menu when allowed to play with other proteins such as poultry, lamb and beef.

Looks Delicious!