Sorrel

«Excellent!» What else is there to say? $ 1 oysters and $ 40 Pinot Grigio in Rosedale?!? Say no more really. The service was excellent and the mains divine. We will be back.

This is a 3.5 star review. (the 0.5 extra star is because i really appreciate atmosphere which this place had). This place used to be in yorkville, though this is the first time eating with them. The place is beautiful — an impressive place to bring people to — it has a formal look with comfortable feel to it. with a heavy background noise from chatter at peak dinnertime. Crowd mostly older canadians, dressed to impress. Servers are dressed professionally, tablecloths are white, décor/​design is impressive for such a small and intimate space. You can see the whole restaurant from most seats. Menu is varied and interesting enough. Service was friendly and responsive. Kitchen was super slow (took long to receive entrees but food was hot). I got hangry between apps and entrees. Duck confit meat was dry, meat was left on the plate. Truffle mash tasted like a few drops of truffle oil (did not see any bits of truffle) were mixed into a too-​large serving of mash and the flavour was sporadic and faint (incomparison to regular mash that I also tasted). Truffle honey was nice. if you take the truffle bits and specifically place them on whatever youre eating, you taste a nice strong flavour. But overall these 2 truffle items were underwhelming. the truffle taste and the super sweet honey taste wasn’t my fav. The truffle aioli on the other hand tasted delish (came on the side with the steak tartare). Steak tartare was nice and oniony, really good flavour — came with some hard (too thick imo) pieces of bread and some chips and the aioli). The quail egg yolk was very free of any white. Fried chicken skin wasn’t crispy enough. when you touch it with your fork the skin kinda folds/​breaks/​slides off the meat. The chiliean bass was very salty though the skin was beautifully crisp and texture of the meat done just right. The greens for our entrees were not creative in flavouring nor variety. Reminded me of classic asian veges because they were all done with garlic and so that the texture was soft. Lattes are yummy with much froth and a nice tall glass. There was the biggest inorganic strawberry on our cheese plate. Cheese selection was a total of 4 varieties. Dining experience was fine, but would not return nor recommend particularly.

Absolutely amazing place, great food and reasonable prices… We’ll be back soon

Sorrel offers a combination of French Bistro food — steak tartare, duck confit, seared scallops — and Italian bistro fare with a selection of different pastas. There are also daily specials which on our visit included seared Quebec foie gras appetizer and 2 different grilled fish. All sounded interesting. I would have been even more interested if the waiter had quoted us the prices. But he did not. I find it very annoying when a restaurant makes you ask the price of specials. They know full well people are uncomfortable having to ask. Having been stuck before for specials where I didn’t ask the price I either ask or forgo the specials. In this case none of our party of 4 went with the specials. We had Malpeque oysters as an appetizer. Well priced at $ 1 per oyster. But they were strangely mushy in texture. As opposed to fresh grated horseradish they provide pickled horseradish. 2 of us had Duck confit which was very good. One had seared scallops. Also very good. One had pasta with a tomato sauce which rated a good. Bread pudding for dessert was nothing remarkable. The wine list is unimaginative with an average 300% mark up. They do not allow you to bring wine and pay corkage.
Sorrel is a relatively new addition to the Rosedale restaurant scene opening a few months ago in the former site of Pastis, a longtime Rosedale favourite. Sorrel was packed on a recent Saturday night during Winterlicious. But it was not participating in Winterlicious and this was not a Winterlicious crowd. It is clearly a new favourite with the monied 65+ Rosedale crowd. There’s nothing trendy about the décor. It’s pretty basic and unimaginative. They have crammed every available square inch with tables which results in some rather unfortunate table locations and tables too close together. As a result, depending on where you sit, you can have people constantly bumping you as they squeeze by. In our case, there was a constant stream of traffic passing us to either the kitchen, the washrooms or the coat check. Waiters and busboys were constantly dropping cutlery or plates as they squeezed past. My wife and friend were constantly being hit in the head with coats or large handbags as they were brought to or from the coat rack. I focus on the atmosphere and the room because they illustrate what I feel is wrong with Sorrel. The food was good. The service was good. But the room and the atmosphere are poor. In terms of pricing, Sorrel is competing with the likes of Scaramouche Pasta Bar and Pangaea and many, many others. Similar menus. Similar pricing. Much better rooms. Much better atmosphere. Some of them also charge 300% mark-​up on wines. But most allow you to pay corkage. Bottom line is that we had no complaint about the meal. But dining is far more than just the meal. The dining experience at Sorrel was not very pleasant. I recommend trying the Pasta Bar or Pangaea.

I’m not surprised this place was packed on Friday evening, the quality of the food, the attention of the service, and the ambience were all first rate.
We had to sit at the bar because all the tables had already been reserved, yet, this was perfectly comfortable; the attention to detail and service by Ryan, the barman, was outstanding.
The grilled artichoke on arugula were unusual and well worth trying. The chicken livers had a crispy edge to them and crunched nicely, complemented by the balsamic and Apple. The buttermilk chicken was excellent even if slightly overdone. The veal was of a high standard but not exceptional.
We drank the good Sancerre and had a very good Nuits St. George, both of which were in the standard price range for these wines. ($ 75 & $ 120)
The only drawback, like Pastis before it, was at the ambient noise level was high. It was sometimes hard to hear what the other person was saying.
Certainly recommended to try.