Mr. Rabbit and I had dinner an impromptu dinner at Tutti Matti last night. This neighbourhood Italian resto has a very favourable reputation in Toronto, and since it’s in our new-ish ‘hood, we really thought it time to give it a try.

The place was not jammed on Friday night (8:00ish), which worked out fine for us since we didn’t have a reservation. The room is warm and relaxing, in light soothing tones, with lots of candles and a half-open kitchen. We sat at the bar (as is our custom), and ordered an app and some wine.

Bread was standard issue Ace Bakery-ish baguette. The wine list was a disappoint, given that we were ordering by the glass — I wanted white with my fish, while Mr. Rabbit went red with his pasta. There were only three choices for either variety, and although we went with our server’s recommendations, nothing was particularly interesting, though all were perfectly quaffable.

To start, we split the venison carpaccio served with pine nuts, figs and olive oil. The carpaccio was disappointing, and tasted more like grocery store deli roast-beef than what we were expecting. However, the figs with which it was served were so stunning that they made the entire dish worthwhile. It may be that we “ordered wrong” and should have been more attentive to the fact that the carpaccio was not to be served raw as we were anticipating.

Mains were fantastic. I had the special - snow bass in parchment paper. Modest serving of fish (I am not a big eater) was gorgeously prepared in citrus sauce, and served with purple cabbage, cauliflower (I simply do not like cauliflower, Mr. Rabbit happily hoovered it back), and small roasted potatos. Mr. Rabbit ordered a papardelle with thick brisket ragu. It was succulent and hearty… really quite lovely.

For dessert, we split the blood orange sorbet (server explained that they have a new ice cream making device and have been experimenting with gelato and other frozen desserts). This was a total winner. We also split a ricotta tart with a wonderful sweet crust and a gooey fig filling baked with the cheese. Again, fantastic.

Side note: we started our evening with cocktails at Ultra and finished with drinks at Bymark. Ultra felt a little cavernous during the early evening, but its atmosphere is plush, dusky and luxe, so we appropriated the space as a bit of a hideout from the regular Queen West scene. Bar at Bymark was a definite disappoint. Mr. Rabbit’s mint julep turned out to be a lime-y concoction resembling a bourbon-y mojito. Note to Bymark: there is no lime in a mint julep! But the big turnoff was the atmosphere… bigscreen television (basketball) and romantic drinks just don’t mix. Perhaps Bay Streeters find the TV helpful for daytime market-watching, but I found it takes the otherwise gorgeous room entirely downmarket.

Posted on March 31st, 2007 by rabbit
Filed under: Toronto, Restaurant Reviews