Eight is the new restaurant and wine bar at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. It replaced Doku 15, an icily beautiful space with an Asian inspired menu that was empty whenever I visited. Granted I visited only rarely, mostly because I didn’t like the room which had too much concrete and felt like a zen bunker.

Eight is a warmer space. The reno isn’t revolutionary, but the red colour palate and comfy sofas have warmed up the space considerably. It’s a nice place to hang out. Mr. Rabbit and I were staying at the Cosmopolitan Hotel to celebrate our birthdays and since our first night found us totally snowed in (and over-worked and tired), we decided to eat in-house. The Asian theme is mostly gone from the former Doku’s menu too, which I would now describe as pushing upscale-d comfort foods.We tried several items, and found the food surprisingly good. The charcuterie plate included a Niagara proscuitto, fois gras terrine served on top of a nice apple relish, serrano ham, duck riette and what we think was a bit of cold chicken salad. This came plated with some crispy flatbread and a generous dollop of fig jam and it seemed like a totally reasonable deal for $18.

We were eating light and so both had the oxtail ravioli with red sauce and king oyster mushrooms. Four large pasta pillows had a nicely flavoured filling and a very good red sauce. This dish would have have left a bigger eater hungry, but it was a very pleasant plate for $16.

Mr. Rabbit tried the Adult Tater Tots($6) prepared with ham and cheddar. He thought these were good grown-up junk-food fun and ate them all before I got a chance to sample.

Mr. Rabbit put back a well-mixed Manhattan, while I chose from Eight’s wine list. Eight is a wine bar, but this was where things broke down for me. They have a good selection of by the glass wines (perhaps 15ish on the red list and again between the sparkling/white selections), and they offer 3, 5, and 8 oz pours in addition to bottles. The red list was heavy on Italian and Aussie offerings, but also featured a number of very interesting zags, including selects from Israel, Greece, and Turkey (actually, the Turkish wine was not listed). I originally ordered an Oregon pinot, but they were out so server recommended a Turkish tempranillo. This was a really fun drinker, great large-and-fruity flavour with a distinctive and pleasant edge. But I was somewhat surprised to learn that it was priced at $22 for a 5 oz pour. I can’t ever recall seeing a bottle of Turkish wine selling at $22? In fact many of their 5 oz pours were priced in the $20-something range, and it seemed a bit over the top. This is no doubt in part why we decided to retire to our room to cap the night with some champers that we’d brought-with. Still, having not been a Doku 15 fan, I quite liked Eight. And despite feeling a little gouged and wounded by their wine pricing, I may well stop by again to check out some of the other offerings on their new menu.

A side note: We also stayed at the Cosmo on Saturday night and arrived back-at-hotel after dinner at Colborne Lane (more about that later!) at about 12:30. Eight was absolutely jammed with 20-somethings, many of them obviously and obnoxiously drunk (like singing and staggering drunk), and it was a real turn off. The place was very civilized when we had 8:00 dinner on Friday but any thoughts of a nightcap were totally dashed by the grossness of this scene. I spoke with the doorman this morning, and apparently it’s like this late-night on weekends. So, unless you like near-vomit-y 20 year olds singing Rihanna, be cautious about when you choose to frequent this spot. 

ADDENDUM : I posted our experience at Eight on chowhound, eliciting a flurry of speculation about Turkish wine growing. After much debate, avocado_lover solved the mystery.

During a wine tasting at Eight, l asked about the legendary “Turkish tempranillo” only to discover that it was “Tscharke” tempranillo from the Barossa wine region of South Australia. $22 for an Australian red??!! (he,he,he)

Posted on February 3rd, 2008 by rabbit
Filed under: Toronto, Restaurant Reviews