Trevor Kitchen & Bar: Can Other Diners Spoil an Appetite?

Here’s a question for you: why are some restaurants able to attract the type of crowd any young, sophisticated, mannered person would want to dine with and others don’t? Or is it just plain unfair to judge a restaurant clientèle on a Saturday night?

This question is a lead-up to my mixed experience at Trevor Kitchen & Bar. It’s my first time here and perhaps others, who have dined at Trevor’s more than once, can add their opinion. In brief, the food is very good but overshadowed by somewhat perfunctory service and the patrons’ bad manners (not to mention fashion crimes – gentlemen who wear sweatshirts, please start reading Russell Smith). I have no idea why these diners are obnoxious and doing strange things to their dinner companions. Who are they? In general, people who have forgotten how to dress and act in public. I was wondering whether we, the Tycoon and Banker Babe were the only civilized ones in our dining section.

The space is best described as cozy: exposed stone foundation walls, low ceilings, lots of candlelight. There are two dining areas – one next to the bar and one in a separate room. The bar area is open and lively. Overall, it's charming, but due to the number of people, the ceiling height and the candles, it gets unbearably warm and stuffy towards the end of the night.

The menu is interesting and although it’s not a long one, there is something for everyone. Tycoon and Reluctant Chef both choose the beef and greens in applewood smoked bacon and sambuca dressing. This is actually beef carpaccio. The dish is excellent; tasty thin slices of beef under a small mound of arugula, and the dressing doesn’t taste too much of sambuca. I had ahi tuna tartare with rice cake and grapefruit salad. The tuna by itself is delicious but is completely overwhelmed by the rice cake. They could easily halve the cakes, and the grapefuit is a nice touch, but hardly a ‘salad’. Banker Babe immediately chooses tempura curry shrimp with apple and jicama salad. She loves the salad, but the shrimp are too bready – not quite tempura-ish.

For mains, Tycoon is true to type and has the dry-aged Alberta beef with bacon and horseradish crust. He also orders the frites from the day’s special, steak frites. I breathe an audible sigh of relief when he does not order the steak frites special. I’d like to know since when steak frites had to become a necessary item on every menu in the city? The frites are mediocre, but according to the Tycoon, the steak is fantastic. Banker Babe chooses her favorite – duck. It is prepared two ways: a breast, which is not rare enough, and a confit, which she likes well enough. She loves the combination of preserved blueberries with the duck – a classic preparation. The Reluctant Chef has venison with foie gras, dates, squash and gnocchi with sage jus. He pronounces his dish excellent. I have a hard time choosing a main, because I’m in the mood for the pasta dish but it seems crazy not to order the lamb and lobster with trumpet mushrooms, because it seems like a dish right up my alley. It turns out my choice is vindicated. The lobster and prawn spagettini in cognac and chive sauce is one of the best mains we sample. Spagettini is the right choice of pasta and it’s cooked perfectly al dente. The seafood is flavourful and the sauce is magnificent.

We are nicely sated but decide there’s a little bit of room yet for dessert. The cheese plate is tempting but we opt to share a dark chocolate espresso cake with marshmallow sauce and a quince turnover with a spiced caramel sauce. Both are excellent. A nice selection of teas is available. I am noticing that tea is the new after-dinner drink in Toronto.

Overall, I would give Trevor’s another try but if I experience the same type of crowd I may have to change my mind. And that would be a shame, because the food is delicious, interesting, usually pretty well executed, and well priced. It’s not as if a restaurant can control who shows up and they can do a lot of things right, but in the end it’s not just the food that impresses a diner and keeps her coming back.

PostScript: A friend of mine called [mind you, called, not commented(!)] about the service, which is s-l-o-w. Oops, an oversight on my part to not mention that I managed to become stark-raving-lunatically-stomach-growlingly-starving between the appetizer and main.