Trio Restaurant

Date Visited: Dinner on Wednesday Jul 22, 2015

Company: +Will

Trio Restaurant in the Novotel Hotel in North York was the restaurant my friends and I decided to go for our usual Summerlicious meal. However, Stanley got delayed on his flight from New York so we unfortunately had to cancel that dinner. I discovered that Novotel is actually attached to +Will's place of work though so we could still check it out ourselves another night since I was in town for Wayhome the next day. Helpful thing to note is that they will validate your parking if you use the hotel garage below the building!

The restaurant was very empty when we arrived but looked extremely classy with lots of sun shining in. We took a look at the menu and ended up both getting the exact same things. We started off with the 5-Hour Pulled Pork with caramelized onions and a Canadian cheddar mac & cheese fritter on top. The presentation was on point for this dish, so pretty! There were a lot of flavours on the plate. I wasn't a big fan of the white ranch-like sauce on top as I  didn't think it went well with the pulled pork. Also the fritter was a bit too well-done to the point where it was hard. Unfortunately, it didn't impress me as much as the plating.

For my main, I went for the Grilled Sirloin on a Portobello mushroom on mashed potatoes and chimichurri with frizzled onions. The smell of the chimichurri was very potent, you definitely could smell the basil in there. I asked my steak to be medium-well but it was more well-done as there was no pink whatsoever and it was a tough to chew. Other than that, the rest of the dish was delicious. The portobello was cooked perfectly and the mashed potatoes were very buttery. Extremely filling!

Lastly was the Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse, it came in a cute little glass and was a nice amount to end the meal. It was very light and tasty. 

Food: 2.5/5 - Better than what you would normally find in a hotel restaurant, but could have been better.
Decor: 3/5 - Bright and classy, lots of tables. Very quiet when we were there.
Service: 4/5 - Waiter was kind and very professional.
Willingness to go back: 1/5 - Wouldn't come out of my way to return.
Overall: 2/5

Website: http://www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-0910-novotel-toronto-north-york/restaurant.shtml

Portico

Date Visited: Dinner on Friday Jun 19, 2015
Company: +Will

Will and I decided to go for a nicer dinner to catch up after a few crazy weeks. We've passed by Portico which is attached to the Cambridge Suites Hotel many times but have never eaten there. I was looking for places in the area and decided to make a reservation to check it out. It was not busy at all around 7PM on a Friday as I think we were the first ones there for dinner. The decor is very classy and has an atmosphere for finer dining, very fitting for the hotel scene. Their water is infused with various fruits which was pretty cool and different from the classic lemon water.

Their menu was pretty limited with only a few options and all on the pricier side. Once we ordered, we got some buns to start. We got about 3 which was an odd number, and all of them were different. Nothing to special about the bread, but they had two types of butter which were really good.

For my main, I had the Seafood Riscotto with Sautéed Tiger Shrimp, Sea Scallops, Sweet Pepper, Leek, Roast Tomatoes, and Garlic Lobster Butter. The plate was huge but the portion was smaller than I expected. I didn't love this dish, the riscotto was plain with just a tomato sauce and it could have been cooked more thoroughly. There were only 2 scallops which were overcooked which made them hard on the sides. The shrimp was really good and large but the flavour wasn't quite there overall.

Will ordered Portico’s Famous Pad-Thai, I had a bite or two but I could hardly find any noodles in there, lots of veggies! But the flavour seemed on point and Will enjoyed it.

By the time we were done, a few more people where there, mostly from the hotel as they seemed to be on business trips by themselves. The enjoyed the setting as it was very quiet and the waitresses were very attentive. Surprisingly good service!

Food: 2.5/5 - Not my favourite and a bit pricey
Decor: 3/5 - Super fancy and clean but a but too much so...
Service: 4/5 - Great!
Willingness to go back: 1/5 - Definitely wouldn't go out of my way to return, much better restaurants in the area.
Overall: 2.5/5

Website: http://www.porticorestaurant.ca/

BnB (Burgers and Bistro)

Visited: Dinner on Friday May 3, 2013

Company: Party of 8 for +Stanley's weekend home from NYC.

I don't exactly remember where I found out about this restaurant... it just came up somehow while I was browsing for places to have dinner for +Stanley's 'return to Toronto' weekend. But the day before we were going, I was doing some research and I became a little bit skeptical about the restaurant. Mostly because it is situated inside a hotel, I was worried that it would just be overpriced, mediocre food. Either way, we headed to the Sheridan Hotel on Friday afternoon (after +Stanley got drunk after one beer) to find BnB. 

Even walking through the lobby of the hotel, we saw a wide range of people, from the super classy to average Joe's. We were somewhere in between varying in outfits from hoodies to business casual. The restaurant was definitely on the classy side, but that's pretty expected for the Sheridan Hotel.

I was debating getting a burger prior to dinner but they looked pretty good as they were being served to other customers. I decided to get the Chicken Burger Caprese, with a side of sweet potato fries. When we all got our burgers, I noticed that the toppings were all over the place, cheese covered half the burger while the red pepper was on the half. The actual chicken patty was definitely frozen prior and felt very processed, like something I could get from the grocery store. +Gisele pointed out that the burgers were also very charred, as the flames in the kitchen were very high. She also didn't enjoy how messy her Steak and Egg Burger was to eat, with the egg yolk running all over.I think the bun was the redeeming quality of the overall burgers, I really enjoyed the flavour and variety of seeds on it. However, +Will created his own burger and didn't like the bun he chose. I also tried his milk shake but found it extremely sweet. The creativity of the burgers were also enjoyable, there is a unique combination of toppings on each. I surprisingly thought the arugula added a lot to my burger... at least the toppings were fresh. +Brian's Bison Burger with the drunken cheddar was an interesting looking meal to say the least. The sweet potato fries were average at best but +Alex's Chipotle Mayo really added a nice spicy kick to them. 

I was lucky to find a 20% off coupon online for this place so i was pretty happy with that. We paid $20 each for our meals. But my prediction prior was fairly accurate, the restaurant attempts to serve high class food and prices for the hotel crowd but falls short in crafting their food in the most important details.

Food: 2/5 - Nice toppings and bun but how can you mess up the main part of the burger

Decor: 2/5 - 'Hotel class', fancy but not my crowd

Service: 2.5/5 - Not the fastest, but might have to do with our party size

Likeliness to go back: 0.5/5 - No desire

Overall: 2/5

Website: http://www.bnbtoronto.com/