I recently went for dinner at Woods Restaurant and Bar in Toronto. The restaurant, tucked away in a street in downtown Toronto, specializes in dishes with ingredients mostly sourced locally.
It was a rather quiet restaurant when I walked into it shortly before 6 pm. After the obligatory vaccine passport check, concierge guided us to a comfortable location from where I could have a bird's eye view of the entire restaurant.
After the serving of water and taking the drinks and appetizer orders, our waiter brought us house-churned butter and freshly baked sour dough bread slices.
The waiter informed me that the chef uses the house-churned butter is used widely for various dishes.
Appetizers at Woods Restaurant and Bar
I ordered seared Quebec foie gras and Ontario prime rib carpaccio.
The foie gras was fresh and buttery, seared perfectly. It was served on a sour dough toast.
The carpaccio was again fresh and thinly sliced. The contrast of the pleasantly pink interior and the off-white border was a perfect sight, and it was served with pickled mushrooms and herbs.
Mains
I ordered a very Ontario dinner - seared Ontario elk.
It was served with crispy oyster mushroom, tortellini and apple and parsnip puree.
I don't recall ever having had elk. However, my taste buds were excited when I had the first piece - it was almost medium rare with appropriately grilled edges. The puree blended in nicely.
Dessert
Though the dessert list has a few items, only two were available - "Woods S'More" and "Woods Doughnuts".
The S'More came with chocolate mousse, toasted meringue and smoked ganache while the other one was simpler, with cinnamon sugar and warm chocolate sauce.
Both desserts were fresh and warm. While the meringue was fantastic in the sauce, the doughnuts had just enough amount of sweetness.
Final Thoughts on Woods Restaurant and Bar in Toronto
Service was very professional and excellent. It was great to see two waiters serving each of us.
I left the restaurant around 8pm to an almost full place. It was good to see a restaurant getting busy on a weekday in Toronto downtown area.
