It’s an ambitious concept – or, rather, ambitious stack of concepts: a restaurant showcasing every cuisine from Spain to Lebanon, Morocco to Greece, through lunch and dinner menus, customized chef’s-choice dinners, an on-site bakery, a take-away counter and a hidden cocktail lounge.
Ricarda’s, a glimmering pan-Mediterranean food complex tucked inside the new QRC West building at Peter and Richmond, deserves credit for shooting for the stars.
Named for the wife of the restaurant’s (not publicly named) owner, the space is a jaw-dropper befitting one of the most architecturally stunning new developments in Toronto. Brass, chalkboards, marble and moss-green leather tie open kitchens with seating that winds through the space. I want my apartment to look like this.
And if I wanted to hang out here breakfast, lunch and dinner, I could. Catering to the local office clientele, Ricarda’s does everything from grab-and-go pastries and good espresso to panini and boxed salads at a dedicated counter (estimated service time: four minutes).
For the other end of the day, there’s Attico, a tapas lounge ingeniously built atop an elevated loading dock, doing Catalan-style pay-by-the-toothpick pintxos while affording a nifty bird’s-eye view of the lobby.
The meat of chef Samir Girgis’s menu is a mix-and-match of Mediterranean influences and components. How’s the food? Beautifully put together, like everything else about Ricarda’s. But the joy of Mediterranean food has always been about transforming a few simple components into something extraordinary, through flames, seasoning or time – and here, under all the extravagant plating and the prestige of local ingredients, that simple joy just gets buried.
Nearly everything on the broad menu (tapas, apps, build-your-own salads or pastas, flatbreads, mains) is piled to perfection on enormous white plates dotted and smeared with squid ink or pulverized foie.
But a “smoked” octopus app, which arrives wrapped in a wilted leaf, has no discernible flavour (not even smoke). Steak is made with terrific beef (from Blue Mountain’s Top Mountain Farms), but comes pallid and devoid of any primal char save the picture-perfect cross-hatches on top. The red wine reduction poured over top adds little. I find myself getting way more excited about the side of fried pickled okra, which would make a great bar snack.
Food seems to get cold super-quickly in this room – even the stuff I didn’t spend 15 minutes photographing. (Could be the time spent labouring over the presentation in the kitchen, or maybe the blasting AC.) A chicken breast is just barely out of underdone territory, and for all the prosciutto it’s wrapped in, the cheese it’s stuffed with and the mushrooms dotted on top, a spinach and corn salad is the highlight of the plate.
There are winners on the menu: super-rich empanadas stuffed with duck confit, a tasty but not-super-groundbreaking grilled halloumi app with a dollop of fig preserves. A cheese and mushroom “flatbread” (guys, it has marinara sauce on it – just call it a pizza) shows off some nice touches like truffle-laced ricotta.
To finish, I tried two of pastry chef Sarah Tsai’s desserts, and they were identical – square cakes (pistachio or almond-citrus) topped with ice cream (baklava or ginger), both so subtly flavoured they mostly just tasted sweet.
The place has clearly been laboured over extensively and makes for a striking hangout spot with friendly service. The location means they’ll do well, but to capture the attention of the rest of Toronto, not just the neighbourhood, the kitchen might have to head back to basics. A little lemon, olive oil, sea salt and a grill – is that really too much to ask?
Fuel up between films
Ricarda’s isn’t the only spot to grab a bite around the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Here are a few other suggestions.
SIT DOWN
Los Colibris 220 King West, 416-979-7717, loscolibris.ca
Upstairs, find scaled-up takes on Mexican food. Downstairs, make the most of the final days of patio season at the fiesta-ready El Caballito.
Thoroughbred 304 Richmond West, 416-551-9221, tbto.ca
Dash across the street from Scotiabank Theatre to this cozy yet unpretentious spot for cocktails and bar eats.
Pizzeria Libretto 155 University, 416-551-0433, pizzerialibretto.com
Thin-crust Neapolitan pizza (and cocktails) will please even the pickiest diners.
Pai 18 Duncan, 416-901-4724, paitoronto.com
Wow your friends from out of town with wild street-festival decor and stellar Thai eats.
Bar Hop 391 King West, 647-352-7476 137 Peter, 647-348-1137, barhopbar.com
Head north or west from the Lightbox and you’ll run smack dab into one of two locations of this beloved King West beer bar.
Natalia Manzocco
Head to Carver for a quick sandwich between TIFF flicks.
EAT FAST
Flock 330 Adelaide West, 647-483-5625, eatflock.com
Rotisserie chicken salads and sandwiches are perfect for the TIFF-goer battling popcorn bloat. Warning: lineups at noon.
Carver 101 Peter, 647-748-1924, facebook.com/eatcarver
Two sandwiches (porchetta and roasted chicken), both alike in dignity, in Rob Bragagnolo’s takeout-only kitchen, where we lay our scene.
Ravisoups 322 Adelaide West, 647-435-8365, ravisoup.com
Grab a spot at the communal table and slurp down a bowl of goodness at this Adelaide soup shop – you’ll be back out the door in 20.
nataliam@nowtoronto.com | @nataliamanzocco
