LEE (603 King West, at Portland, 416-504-7867, susur.com) Complete prix fixe lunches for $45 per person (à la carte dinners $55), including all taxes, tip and a glass of wine. Open for lunch Monday to Saturday 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, dinner 5 to 11 pm. Closed Sunday. Licensed. Access: two steps at door, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNNNN
News that Susur Lee has just introduced a Monday-through-Saturday prix fixe lunch down on King West has caused barely a ripple on the local foodie scene. Why, here it is a sunny afternoon and we’ve got Lee virtually to ourselves.
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That won’t be the case for long. Once word gets out that the superstar chef’s three-course meal deal goes for all of $28 – about the price of an appetizer at the old Susur next door – Lee should be packed to its exposed rafters.
I’m not surprised it’s not. When Lee launched six years ago, the down-market boîte left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Naturally, since Toronto’s major culinary celebrity was involved, there were lines out the door from the get-go, so much so that tables had a two-hour time limit.
The tapas-style plates that inspired the feeding frenzy – dubbed Susur Lite – showed little of the innovation that made Mr. Lee famous, and service was downright surly. I remember being crammed into a tiny table under a paint-by-number portrait of a sobbing clown and wondering which of us was the bigger fool.
The Lee we find this Friday lunch couldn’t be lovelier. We’re greeted at the door with a smile and, our coats taken, shown to a prime window table. Servers are both friendly and informed, a most professional crew, and the enforced time limit’s a thing of the past.
Made up of Susur’s greatest hits, the prix fixe is simply phenomenal. It begins with what has become Lee’s signature dish, Singapore Slaw ($12 à la carte lunch/$19 dinner), an outrageous multiculti julienne of jicama, scallion and carrot tossed with pickled red onion in apricot vinaigrette and dressed with a beehive of deep-fried taro threads. If a main-sized salad isn’t your thing, opt for Lee’s impressive spin on Szechwan hot ‘n’ sour soup ($11/$12) finished with congee donut croutons.
Of the two optional mains, caramelized black cod ($22/$23) in citrus butter is classic Susur, a perfectly flaky fillet in a sauce that borders on butterscotch, a pair of crisp potato ‘n’ pea croquettes on the side. A meal in itself, slices of garlicky rare Korean-style skirt steak ($22/$24) fan out over an insanely delicious bed of puréed spuds, grilled mushrooms and spice-kicked ponzu, a tangle of peppery arugula to garnish.
Dessert comes two ways as well, either a trio of Tong Yuen-style rice flour dumplings stuffed with creamy chocolate ganache in hazelnut-dusted crème Anglais, or an audacious take on molten chocolate cake – quel cornball – coupled with good ol’ vanilla ice cream.
That’s not the only cliché Lee tackles. I never expected I’d ever see Caesar salad ($13) on a Susur menu, but here it is, the lowest of common denominators, even if it does sport a topknot of skinny pakora-battered onion rings. And as at every other roadhouse in town, chicken is four bucks extra.
Susur hasn’t done hamburgers since his days at the Peter Pan back in the 80s. And what burgers they be, 8 ounces of minced Black Angus on a proverbial sesame seed bun, traditionally topped with lettuce and tomato as well as buttery avocado, miso mayo and stinky Danish blue cheese ($18). Best burger in town?
They’re sided with some of the weirdest fries yet. Lee used to serve matchstick frites so brittle, they were next to impossible to eat. The new model are much chunkier and come dredged in a spice mix chef calls “golden sand.” At first, its notes of salt, cardamom, sesame and paprika seem discordant, until an epiphany: Susur’s doing ketchup!
stevend@nowtoronto.com
