Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 810 St. Clair Avenue West
Type of Meal: Dinner
Overall mark - 6 out of 10
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Gastro World's Grading System
Address: 810 St. Clair Avenue West
Type of Meal: Dinner
La Creole, a
new restaurant to land in St. Clair West, brings the taste of Haitian Creole
cuisine to Toronto. Given my friends and I are visiting New Orleans soon, La
Creole sounded like the perfect way to introduce ourselves to the Louisiana
food culture. After viewing the menu and doing some research, it appeared I was
a bit misinformed – Haitian and Louisiana Creole are influenced by the same
French and Latin flavours but not identical. Hence, you won’t find jambalaya, gumbo
or shrimp & grits here.
The ceilings
are draped with white linen while booth seats contained accent pillows, giving
the restaurant a toned down Sultan’s Tent feel. Lively music was played
throughout the restaurant, but alas no one started dancing in the stage area at
the back. However, the relaxed jovial atmosphere certainly put me in a good
mood for the food to come.
Almost
everyone gets a plate of their le plate fritay (small for $12 and large for $18;
large portion pictured below). Essentially,
it translates into a plate of assorted deep fried items. La Creole’s arrives
with numerous pieces of malanga root fritters, codfish fritters, marinad (deep
fried dough) and tostones (fried plantain patties).
Although they
look similar, each offers its own unique flavours and textures. The malanga
root fritters were the crunchiest given the little slivers that come through
the batter and fry on its own. Although the starch look like taro, its texture
is lighter and reminded me spaghetti squash. The taste of dried cod shown through
in the codfish fritters but the consistency a tad mushy for my taste.
Meanwhile, the marinad were surprisingly flavourful despite only being fried
pieces of dough; not oily at all they were light and fluffy with a great
savoury taste. Our table agreed the fried plantain were dry and bland, I had to
put a fair amount of pikliz on it to make it edible.
Accompanying
the fritay was a light refreshing watercress yoghurt dip and pikliz (a spicy
vinegar based coleslaw).
For the amount of food, there was way too little dip
and upon asking for an extra portion were charged $4. Certainly, the price
isn’t astronomical, but why the large fritay has the same helping of condiments
as the small to begin with was baffling.
Every main
came with a helping of black bean rice, tostone and a handful of spring mix.
Ben, the owner of the restaurant, had suggested we order the fried snapper
($23). Indeed, the dish looks impressive with a whole snapper arriving upright
and showed promise with a tomato and spicy heat coming from the creole sauce. But,
the fish needed more sauce as it was a bit overdone and dry. I’d imagine the
stewed version would likely taste better (at the very least more flavourful and
tender), but perhaps not as exciting looking.
The ratatouille
($12) was a complete miss, in my opinion. Perhaps it’s because the creole sauce
on the snapper and chicken were so packed with spices, but the ratatouille seemed
extremely bland in comparison. Despite the menu proclaiming it containing
spinach, eggplant, zucchini, cabbage and carrots, all I could taste
were carrots (for those who know me, these are one of my least favourite
vegetables). In the end, the dish just tasted like unseasoned stewed carrots,
which personally wasn’t appealing. What I liked most was the side of black bean
rice, which was quite delicious (a sticky consistency, but each grain of rice
still defined).
Lastly, was
the creole roasted chicken ($14), the best of the mains. Packing the most
flavour of all the dishes and the meat nice and tender, we should have just ordered
the larger version which feeds two for $23.
Opened in
mid-March, by mid-April more training is required for staff members. Despite having
only 15 items on the menu, our waiter couldn’t point out what each item on the
plate of fritay were. When asked what pepper was used to spice the pikliz, that
question couldn’t be answered as well. Of course, not every staff member may
know all the ingredients, but at the very least they should offer to ask the
chef and find out. Don’t get me wrong, service was friendly and attentive, but
as a curious minded patron the lack of knowledge wasn’t helpful and doesn’t
give me much confidence.
Perhaps my
taste buds have been westernized by the Louisiana styled dishes, but I was
expecting bold flavours and tendered stewed meats. Aside from the pikliz and creole
chicken none of them really reached that level. All in all, I found the food
decent but not something I’d want to have again.
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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
