A
scroll through Oretta’s Instagram tags and you’ll see it’s a beautiful
restaurant with a lavish dining room. Sure, it’s gorgeous, but there’s also
something eerily familiar about it. Looking around, there’s the airy high
ceilings and blush pink colour scheme of Figo, the art deco brass accents from
La Banane, and in the centre of the room, a huge round bar that also sits in
Lena.
Indeed, there’s nothing wrong with having elements similar to other
restaurants, but the sense of déjà vu kept sneaking in as I sipped on the tasty
a la nonna ($13), a spiced pear puree
and Prosecco cocktail, that could replace a mimosa any day.
As I
thought about the meal, I couldn’t help but see how the experience followed the
popular “hamburger method” of providing feedback – start positive, give the
hard meaty truth, then end positive. To begin, the fried parsnip polenta ($5)
was fantastic with the ultra-crispy golden crust, creamy interior, and
sprinkles of thyme and honey. A small slip may be how the cook sprinkles on salt,
likely after the sticks are intricately stacked, as I found the ones on the
bottom didn’t have quite enough seasoning leaving the last bite not nearly as
good as the first.
Torontonians
are spoiled with the quality of Italian establishments in the city. All the
sudden, serving freshly made pasta is just table stakes for most restaurants.
Oretta’s tagliatelle ($19) arrives as
a large mound of pasta tossed in Nonna Lea’s ragu and a generous sprinkling of parmigiano. All in all, it’s a pasta
Nonna Lea can likely stand behind, the red sauce was really hearty and meaty.
If only there was more of the tasty ragu, as I did find it a tad sticky and
difficult to untangle the long strands of pasta.
In
lieu of the traditional creamy liquid rice dish, the risotto al salto ($22) pan fries a squash risotto pancake to create
crispy exterior. With plenty of castelmagno
fonduta incorporated into the rice, the dish is fairly cheesy, so it almost
tastes like deep fried mac ‘n’ cheese balls with a creamy plump mushroom sauce
over top. Overall, it’s a good dish, but works better as a shared appetizer. As
a main, it’s a bit heavy and not quite satisfying on its own.
From
the moment the spalla d'agnello ($28)
arrived I knew the lamb shoulder was overcooked … looking like slices of thick
pork chop, there wasn’t an ounce of fat, let alone pinkness in the meat. One
bite into the lamb confirmed my suspicions, it was tough and the well seared
crust so hard it was scratchy on the way down. Even the medley of creamy baby
potato pieces, salty lamb bacon, and crunchy cauliflower didn’t help. Sure,
these would have been good as a side, but not nearly saucy enough to save the
terribly dry lamb.
Thankfully,
the chef’s selection of sweets in the assaggi
dolci ($16) saved the meal from a dreadful ending. It included the freshest
cannoli I’ve ever tasted - the shell presumably freshly fried as it was still
extremely crispy and distinct from the creamy ricotta filling. Even the
pistachios were left in larger chunks, so there was an intense crunchiness to
the cannoli, which finished much too quickly.
Make
sure you dig into the rich dark chocolate cake while it’s still hot and gives
off a lovely cocoa aroma. Although the ice cold vanilla gelato would pair with
the cake, it’s equally enjoyable on its own since it arrives on a bed of
chocolate cookie crumbs, which when mixed into the ice cream gave it a lovely
cookies and cream taste. What a great selection of desserts including
wonderfully thin and nutty peanut brittle dipped in dark and white chocolate,
sweet stick-to-your-teeth honeycomb candy (the honey toffee inside a Crunchie
bar), and moist squares of almond cake.
All in
all, another decent, but not excellent Italian restaurant has joined the fold.
My parting thoughts of the restaurant: a pretty but dry hamburger.
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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!
Is That It? I Want More!
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