PRIME 18 St Thomas, at Bloor W, 416-971-9666, windsorarmshotel.com/prime.
A mega-bucks steakhouse in a luxury hotel is the last place you’d expect to come across a vegan brunch, but that’s exactly where you’ll find raw chef Doug McNish’s all-veggie Sunday spread. Seems the rich and famous like to eat healthy occasionally, too.
While everyone else is pigging out at the Windsor Arms’ $50 all-you-can-eat buffet in the gorgeous Courtyard Café next door – palm trees! silver chaffing dishes! classical pianist! – we’re stuck in the virtually empty Prime listening to Al Jolson, watching the staff iron table linen. A copy of the Sunday New York Times and a blueberry smoothie loaded with antioxidants and crushed ice in hand, we’re soon tucking into chef’s vegan take on the Benny. Built on a gluten-free English muffin, it translates as two smoked ‘n’ seared tofu cutlets dressed with wilted spinach and an oddly yellow eggless hollandaise.
Chef’s health-conscious spin on French toast sees gluten-free sprouted grain bread stuffed with strawberry compote and sided with bacon fashioned from tempeh (both $15). That might seem pricy for most. But for a Yorkville resto where a side of mashed potatoes laced with lobster goes for $20, a brunch of this calibre is a bargain.
Brunch Sunday 10:30 am to 3 pm. Licensed. Access: barrier-free.
