It was the best of meals, it was the worst ...
JOANNE KATES
jkates@globeandmail.com
December 29, 2007

This was a big year for small plates ... as in tapas. Even Mark McEwan jumped on the bandwagon. One, his glamorous new Yorkville hot spot, is all tapas. Gastronomically, '07 was also a paradox of local and organic on the one hand versus steak on the other. More and more chefs are using healthy local and organic ingredients, while steak houses serving the fattest meat on the planet - kobe/wagyu beef, the foie gras of cow - are springing up like mushrooms after rain.

Restaurant prices continued upward. In '06, serious restaurants broke the $150-for-two barrier. This year, they broke the $200 barrier, thanks partly to the tapas trend. Ordering several small dishes costs the kitchen more trouble and the diner more money. Sides aren't always included these days, so watch your bill ratchet up.

The good news is that Toronto keeps getting yummier. The depth, breadth and diversity of our restaurants are second only to New York's. Herewith the 10 best and 10 worst restaurants of 2007 in no particular order.

The Best
Cru
(http://www.crurestaurant.ca)
In a gorgeous renovated 1930's art deco Woolworth's store, Cru dishes up gnocchi so light and sweet they mimic clouds, with tarragon-scented light lobster cream and chunks of barely cooked lobster. Berkshire pork belly is crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. The pleasure principle lives on in the west end.

Colborne Lane
(http://www.colbornelane.com)
When wunderkind Claudio Aprile opened Colborne last winter, we slavered over his rich, complex, modern cooking. Who wouldn't swoon over the likes of licorice and burnt honey sauce on uber-tender Peking duck, and sweet/hot squid, both tender and crisp? But instant popularity overwhelmed the wunderkind; both food and service flagged badly. Prognosis: in recovery.

Golden Turtle
(416-531-1601)
An Ossington dive serving the best pho in town. Classic rare beef pho has thin slices of beef atop rice noodles in rich broth with sweet spices. Seafood pho is sweet chicken stock with al dente egg vermicelli, barely wilted leaf lettuce, and mixed seafood including big shrimp and fish balls.

Imperia
(416-921-1471)
Franco Agostino has owned Banfi and Il Posto, so Imperia's great tastes are not surprising. From impeccable thin-crusted pizza and fab house-made pasta to sophisticates such as lobster risotto, his food is incredible Italiana.

Kaiseki-Sakura
(416-923-1010)
Serving elaborate Japanese tasting menus, Kaiseki is the best Japanese restaurant in town today. Our eight-course dinner began with deboned quail topped with "sea foie gras" (a.k.a. monkfish liver), soy and miso-soaked mushrooms and tofu, with a side of tiny water chestnut chips. One course! Top that.

Spice Room
(416-935-0000)
Greg Couillard the spicemeister is back, and at the top of his game. Sauces are vintage Couillard - sweet, hot, a hint of sour, deep, complex and spicy. Perfectly cooked meat and fish are dazzling. Welcome back the jolly jump-up sprite of the kitchen.

Amaya
(http://www.amayarestaurant.com)
Toronto's first superb Indian restaurant is to most curries what Pavarotti was to the Spice Girls. For example, Amaya prawns, their sauce a tamarind-scented green-mango curry with green chili and fenugreek, sweet and hot and perfectly balanced on the big, barely cooked shrimps. They do tandoori duck breast: ruby red slices in orange-inflected sauce with shredded apple. Move over, duck à l'orange.

Oro
(http://www.ororestaurant.com)
Tarek Aboushakka left North 44 after 20 years and bought Oro. He hired chef Sam Girgis, who produced great food at Lure. Sam is a modernist who makes seafood minestrone. He dollops goat cheese gelato on a fragile tart of caramelized onion and leek in gossamer custard. His osso bucco is fork-tender. He shaves fresh artichokes into nicely textured risotto. Add Tarek's silken service and Oro shines.

Seven Numbers
(http://www.sevennumbers.com)
Eglinton Avenue missed Mamma Rosa's pasta in particular and the Marinuzzi family's brio in general. Standing in line at Seven Numbers and schmoozing with Rosa while she cooks is part of the crazy-quilt culture of the little restaurant with prices to match - and terrific southern Italian food.

Lucien
(http://www.lucienrestaurant.com)
After closing YYZ, Simon Bower teamed up with chef Scot Woods (ex Habitat) to open the warm, intimate and delectable Lucien. A classic Woods plate is deconstructed southern fried chicken: He removes the skin, cooks the meat sous vide for moisture, fries the skin crispy and "glues" it back onto breast meat with buttermilk. Hot, enriched buttermilk spurts from a small round croquette. On the side are lightly creamed collards, smooth onion gravy and buttermilk foam!

The Worst
Sado Sushi
(http://www.sado-sushi.com)
My sushi does not include heavy sauces, weird combos (blue cheese, spicy mayo and raw tuna?) or servers who forget my order. But it's working for some people. Le tout Forest Hill flocks to Sado Sushi. Is it all about location?

Seoul City
(seoulcityrestaurant.com)
Upscale Korean sounds yummy. But beauty is skin deep here because of flavour-free bulgogi, greasy bland dumplings and horribly dried-out rice.

E-Pan
(416-260-9988)
A failed Asian crossover - gentrified but gastronomically blah, featuring hot and sour soup that is neither, bland Singapore noodles, tough salt and pepper squid and thickly battered General Tao's chicken: Chicken nuggets meet General Tao, the general loses.

Mother's Dumplings
(http://www.mothersdumplings.com)
In a tiny space below stairs, four cooks labour mightily, fast fingers flying, to make hundreds of fresh Chinese dumplings every day. The dumplings are clad in superbly fresh, tender dough and perfectly cooked. We want to love them, but neither dumplings nor soups have flavour. Bring your own sesame and soy, or stay home.

Coca
(416-703-0783)
The darling of Queen Street West is gorgeous but not delicious. Fried things are greasy, flavours are either underpowered or oversalted, and other than the lovely flatbreads (Catalan answer to pizza), Coca's kitchen does not live up to the cool quotient of its dining rooms.

Sassafraz
(416-964-2222)
Rebuilt after a 2006 fire, Sassafraz still has appalling service and the food is a pathetic parade of overcooked meats, clumsy flavour pairings, heavy sides and banal flavours. What a pity such a gorgeous room is mired in mediocrity.

Harbour Sixty
(http://www.harboursixty.com)
Looks like a bordello, charges like a three-star ($57.95 for New York strip steak, $35.95 for lobster martini) and schmecks like a lot less. The aforementioned lobster has no flavour, frites taste like frozen, creamed spinach is gummy and crab cakes recall cereal.

Peter's Chung King
(416-928-2936)
The dirty sign out front should have been enough info. This is the food of Toronto's unfortunate gastronomic yesteryear - too hot but not tasty hot and sour soup, indelicate fried dumplings, soggy Szechuan green beans, overcooked, too sugary Szechuan beef, and dry Singapore noodles. Complete with dirty bathrooms.

Reds
(http://www.redsbistro.com)
Hiring a serious chef didn't make Reds a good restaurant. You still stand in line to check your coat, you still feel mass-produced, you are still served by wait staff who would do well at the Keg. But you pay for serious food.

Six Steps
(http://www.sixstepsrestaurant.com)
A confused resto. Is it a bar or a dining room? Wait staff seem to make it up as they go along, and the kitchen's reach way exceeds its grasp. The menu is too complex, with painfully spotty execution (decent lamb with soggy rosti, horribly overcooked roast chicken and scalloped potatoes, so-called caramelized apple tart with shoe-leather dough and no caramel).