Thursday, 20 June 2013

Keriwa Cafe

In the west end of Parkdale, on Queen West near Roncesvalles is Keriwa Cafe.
The restaurant has gotten rave reviews in the last two years. They went through a stint opening their restaurant only one night a week for a 14 course tasting menu to the tune of $300. Ouch...but then they went back to their normal a la carte menu (thank goodness) and things became affordable again!



Menu

Confit Pork Belly with Honey + Wild Leek + Garlic Scape
The pork belly was amazing! It was so tender and succulent that it melted in your mouth and it was flavoured with a fantastic honey and garlic glaze. We cleaned the entire plate...mmmm

Bison flank steak with red pepper + eggplant + rye berry
They didn't have the short rib that day and instead substituted the bison shortrib with a flank steak.
It was honestly the best bison I've ever had - tender and delicious seasoned with a tasty mix of spices and cooked to medium rare perfection. And the sauces were the perfect complement: red pepper and sriracha hot sauce to add a little heat and a nice cool white sauce to clean the palate. The grilled eggplant was a great vegetable side. Yum!


Smoked Hen with Arugula + Elderberry + Fiddleheads
The smoked hen was this gorgeous lean white meat with a fully rich smoke flavour. You could taste the smoke in the meat - that's how absorbed the flavour was into the meat. The chicken was paired with a Crème fraîche and asparagus purée. It was pretty and delectable.

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Apple Crumble with Elderberry semi-fredo
The apple crumble was mixed with brown sugar and right on top of the whole mix was a roasted marshmallow that had the sweet half-frozen elderberry semi-fredo in the middle. I liked the play on textures with the gooey marshmallow, chilly frozen semi-fredo, crumbly apple crisps and grainy brown sugar.Very fun!

Panna cotta with crispy wild rice and pear gelee
Amazing dessert! Jelly but firm panna cotta with crisp and crunchy wild rice and a good creme anglais sauce with pear wine gelee. Despite not being very sweet, it fully satisfied my dessert craving.

Overall: For a relatively small restaurant, the food preparation took really long (like 3 hours long). However, the food was perfect - a variety of flavours and textures and so delicious!

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