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futronic
Toronto, Canada
Wine Bottler
Posts:3214
 | | 06/10/2003 7:45 PM |
| Li’ly
656 College St.
Toronto
416-532-0419
I went to Li’ly on Sunday evening with a group of friends (eight of us in total) to celebrate my friend’s birthday. She had wanted to try this place for quite a while, so what better occasion?
Located on the very trendy/hip College Street strip, the décor is very sleek, very clean, yet very inviting with warm, light wood and soft lighting.
Simply put, Li’ly is a tapas bar – perfect for larger groups to share food, although they do have some entrees available. The menu is split up into salads, vegetarian, meat and game, and seafood tapas. For those who have never had tapas before, you basically order a whole bunch of dishes, take some and pass it along.
I’ll try to remember everything we had:
Pistachio-crusted lamb chops with aged balsamic drizzle
Sesame-crusted sea scallops with ginger horseradish
Chicken quesadillas
Fried brie with fruit compote
Beef carpaccio with shaved parmigiano and spicy tomato salsa
Eggplant, tomato, and buffalo mozzarella stack
Vegetarian spring rolls
Duck confit with figs poached in madeira
I think that’s it. The best dish was easily the lamb. Five chops cut one-inch thick, cooked perfectly medium-rare as per requested. Find me anywhere else that serves that for $13CAD and I’ll be there in a heartbeat to try it out. After we ordered the third round of lamb, they brought us a fourth order on the house. We doubled up on a couple other dishes as well, such as the scallops and quesadillas. Personally, I didn’t enjoy the scallops as I found them bland and undercooked. The carpaccio could have done without the spicy salsa. Bring on the traditional carpaccio with balsamic and capers. The duck wasn’t bad, when the figs in madeira steal the show in the offering, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Desserts are from Dufflet’s, a local pastry outfit that caters the course for many restaurants in the area. They offer two desserts daily. Sunday was a raspberry/chocolate mousse and lemon mascarpone cake. Standard Dufflet’s fare. Tasty, but nothing overly inspiring.
The wine list is weak, at best. Yes, it’s a list without vintages on it, so that means whatever the current vintage is what you get. At $32CAD, the Tyrell’s South Eastern Australian Shiraz (2002) was the most suitable for the menu. Other offerings included Masi Valpolicella ($32), Georges Dubouef Beaujolais ($35), Collio Chianti ($38), Fontanafredda Barolo ($75), and Masi Amarone ($85). There were others, but that’s what sticks out in my mind.
The place started to get a lot busier around 10:30pm when the DJs came in and started behind the turntables. Their lounge/funky dubhouse replaced the CDs that were playing similar music earlier. Unfortunately, it was a little loud and people had difficulty hearing conversations at this point. I was surprised that the place was pretty packed on a Sunday evening. Downstairs has a dancefloor and acts as more of a nightclub. Typical of the district, it’s a popular spot for twentysomethings and those in their early thirties.
Overall, I had a good time, although I don’t see myself returning unless it’s in a similar group outing. I will say that the service was great – the lovely Jen and Trish were very friendly and took care of everything we needed.
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