Summerlicious at Bent | Toronto

It’s that time of year again, again!! Summerlicious is one of the best parts about living in Toronto, aside from Winterlicious (you can see my rave about that here). I have a tough time not going broke eating at all the restaurants constantly opening in the city  — those who are close to me know I have an ever-expanding checklist of restaurants on my iPhone. #LiciousTO is an economical way to hit up all my palate’s desires.

This summer, Susur Lee’s Bent was first on the list. Adam and I headed to the Dundas West Asian-fusion eatery Friday evening for our 8:30pm reservation, and I was happy when the woman who called to confirm the reservation asked us if we wanted to sit outside. Uh yea!

Even though the menu is presented like all $48 prix-fixe dinners at Summerlicious restaurants, our server informed us Bent’s menu is meant to be shared, which was good, because Adam and I were fighting over appetizers immediately after sitting down.

We promptly ignored the vegetarian options and went with salmon and beef to start, and then the beef and salmon as entrees. We’re carnivores through and through, what can I say?

The French & Japanese salmon tartare showed up almost immediately, before our drinks did! It sat at atop a circular of diced avocado in a little puddle of Miso emulsion. Normally, I would consider this to be way too much mushy, but the freshness of the salmon went well with the creamy avocado, though their could have been about 10 more of the crispy Lotus chips perched precariously beside the tartare.

Rounding out the pair of first courses was the pulled beef and braised onion peking crepe. The beef inside the savoury crepe tasted almost just like duck, pulled and delicate meat, and the two little spheres of herbed goat cheese were the perfect pop of sour atop this sweetish dish.

Next came the baked Tandoori salmon. Expertly assembled atop pooda (an Indian savoury pancake), the salmon tasted sharply of curry and was cooked to a perfect medium rare. The succotash added freshness along with the raita to round out the abundance of flavour on the dish.

Mid-salmon, the spiced braised beef papillote came to the table. Before I knew it, the server had described the dish, whipped out a pair of scissors and methodically opened the cellophane looking papilllote. I still don’t understand how that doesn’t melt in the oven!

Once our mains were cleared away, we started looking around for our somewhat erratic server to order our deserts. Surprise! We totally read the menu incorrectly thinking that we had to choose between the rhubarb tiramisu, churros with chocolate and caramel sauce, and the lemon curd with marshmallow and delicate lady finger, but nope.

We got all three.

777 Dundas Street West | Toronto, ON | (647) 352-0092 | bentrestaurant.com