Verona Ristorante

Italian fine dining, superior cuisine and top notch customer service is just steps from the city's theatre district. Enjoy a tasty fusion of northern and southern Italian cuisine, a la carte menu options and warm atmospheres, whether you want to cozy up at the bar, on a bench or at one of the quaint dining tables. Private function facilities and menus are available. Generally, dinner for two including wine ranges from $100-$120.

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It is a challenge, at times, to find a decent restaurant in the theatre district. This isn't because there aren't many restaurants. There are so many, in fact, that they employ staff to hang out on the sidewalk to try and talk you into stopping in for a bite. We didn't have to dodge the 'greeters' last Saturday, they were too busy shoveling the snow!

Ruth has suggested that we enjoy dinner at Verona Ristorante which is on King Street, about 1 block west of the Princess of Wales theatre where we would see Nicholas Nickleby at the ungodly hour of 7 pm. We were early for our dinner reservation when we arrived. In fact, we were early for the restaurant's posted opening time - 5 pm. It was either stand in the snow and cold or go next door for a martini. What to do, what to do?

Bistro 333; Blues Martini

We made the right choice.

When we arrived at the restaurant we were seated promptly. Some of the reviews on-line have complained about the service. We had no complaints, however, we were early and it was a blizzard outside. We shall have to return to truly gage the service. I suspect that we will because everyone loved their food and said that there were other items on the menu they wanted to try.

The food was what I would call 'Toronto Italian'. It was a huge leap from many Italian restaurants but not like one would find at the neighbourhood trattoria in Rome. Nothing is more annoying the someone who constantly compares everything to the 'mother' country so I shut up and went with the ride. It was to be a very rewarding ride at that.

I started off with their special salad.

It was two wedges of fried polenta on a bed of grilled mushrooms and fennel. Over this was layered simple greens. One top of the greens was a huge dollop or mascarpone cheese. WOW The entire salad was dressed with simple olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. It was a delicious start for the meal.

For my main course I ordered off of the menu. I selected the spinach ricotta gnocchi which was served with smoked chicken, forest mushroom, red onion, fresh basil, in a gorgonzola cream. I was expected large gnocchi flecked with bits of spinach like I have had in other restaurants. When it came I thought that there were spears of asparagus in the dish. I soon realized that these 'spears' were, in fact, the gnocchi.

The gnocchi were fresh and light, the chicken and mushrooms plentiful. The only thing that would have made this dish better might have been more gorgonzola in the sauce (in the interests of full disclosure I should point out that I am a gorgonzola fiend! Others might think it just fine).

The desserts were very non-italian, in fact, the only thing remotely italian on the menu was tiramisu (on which I took a pass). I decided to have the blueberry creme brule which was excellent.

Dinner was very good. The bill for me with 2 glasses of wine, a bottle of sparkling water, tax and tip came to $ 80.