The Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal ™ returned to Scaramouche restaurant in Toronto. (https://www.scaramoucherestaurant.com/) Scaramouche is a long-standing landmark restaurant in Toronto specializing in modern upscale French cuisine. It was founded in 1980 by Morden Yolles, whose family owned the residential condo building where it’s now located near Avenue Road and St. Clair. The restaurant has never had so much as a sign indicating its presence during its entire existence and in fact if you drive up to the building, you’ll only see the Benevuto Residences sign indicating it’s a condo building. You either know it’s there or you don’t.
Fellow TWEC ™ and board members Jay Shampur and Michael Grammer along with myself returned to celebrate the birthday of our friend Jane, whose friends Paul and Angelo joined us this evening. This was the latter three’s very first visit and my second.
We started off the evening with classic Martini and Gin and Tonic cocktails:
We then opened up with our first of two wines, the G.H. Martell 2012 Victoire Gold. This is a Riche style Champagne, full of toast, baked apples and per Michael a hazelnut note.
For our appetizers, I had a trio of fresh schucked oysters followed by the Terrine de Foie Gras:
Jane, Jay and Mike all had the Italian Burrata Salad :
Angelo had the Mushroom Ravioli:
Lastly, Paul had the Romaine Hearts which is an upscale deconstructed Caesar salad:
Mike then opened our second wine, the Albert Grivault 2013 Meursault 1er Cru Perrieres. This has a very light flint othe nose and a very creamy body with sweet baked apple flavors made complex by saline and umami notes. The years have been very good to this wine. I think I drink Meursault way too young as I always picture it as a spicy matchstick with lots of phenolic notes and crisp tart green apple. I have a couple of 15 Meursaults I have been holding on to and I hope they turn out just as good.
We paired the Meursault with our mains. Michael had the Turbot special:
Jay had the White Asparagus:
I had the Butter Poached Lobster with Seafood Risotto:
Jane had the Roasted Chicken Breast with Gnocchi:
Paul had the Filet Mignon with vegetables and red wine jus:
Angelo had the Quebec Duck Breast Confit along with a side of Parmesan Fries:
We then had a trio of desserts to finish the meal. Paul and I each had their famous Coconut Cream Pie:
Michael had the Milk and Honey, which was a combo of wildflower honey mousse, milk sorbet, honey oat crumble, crispy milk wafer and bee pollen.
Jay had the classic Warm Flourless Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche ice cream:
And the restaurant gave Jane a nice little present:
TWEC ™ would like to thank Scaramouche and especially our waiter Michael who took great care of us. We look foward to returning. Check them out if you’re in the Toronto area. The food is great and the prices are very affordable for high end cuisine, with this particular outing coming to an average of about $CDN 120 per person before including alcohol charges, taxes or tips.