One of Toronto's big anticipated events in the 'before times' was the opening of Eataly.
Food fiends who have visited one of Eataly’s 40 other locations worldwide have been counting down the days until the beloved brand arrives in Canada. Eataly Toronto does not disappoint with its three-storey, 50,000-square-foot space dedicated to Italian cuisine. I was one of those fiends having beem to Eataly outposts in Torino, Bologna, Rome, and New York.
In addition to aisles of both local and imported products (+10,000, including close to 100 varieties of extra virgin olive oil from producers that exclusively harvest in Italy), there’s an array of fresh produce, seafood, cheese and meat to shop for. In addition there are multiple restaurants scattered throughout the space.
When Eataly first opened I was super busy at work so my only visits were in between work activities. The restaurants were so busy that it was near impossible to get a table earlier than 9:30 at night.
Then the pandemic happened and everything shut down.
There was a brief period when patios opened up in Toronto and Eataly set up a large outdoor eating area. We secured reservations and headed in to the city. Traffic came to a complete stop - apparently the main highway into the city was closed. Then the rain started. Even if we could get into the city we had no interest in eating lunch in the pouring rain.
We finally made it in for a meal a couple of weeks ago eating at La Pizza & La Pasta which is their pizza and pasta restaurant (duh). Because we had been anticipating this for such a long time I was worried that all of that pent up anticipation would be crushed by a less than stellar meal. Happily this was NOT the case.
Now before I talk about the food some context is needed. At the time of our reservations were had a number of friends visiting Rome. Their social feeds were full of pics of the seasonal foods that they were eating as well as some classic Roman dishes.
For example - in Rome right now artichokes are in season and chefs prepare them in a variety of ways. When I was there in March 2019 one of my favourite ways to eat them was fried - the outer leaves turned crispy by the hot oil and the inner part of the artichoke soft and delicious.
One of the appetizer specials when we were at at La Pizza & La Pasta was fried artichokes which were served with a lemon aioli. Done!
It was challenging deciding on my main course because there were so many wonderfully sounding choices. However, so many of our friends in Rome had been enjoying one of the classic Roman pasta dishes - Cacio e Pepe (pasta served with a cheese sauce and black pepper) that I decided to try that to see if the chefs made it properly. This is a simple dish with no fancy ingredients - pasta, grated cheese, pepper and pasta water. NO butter, garlic, olive oil, cream or any of the other things i have seen North American chef's add.
At Eataly they did it right.
After eating that big bowl of pure comfort I didn't really want dessert however Paul was determined to have some limoncello and tiramisu so I had an espresso (Jerry was driving so no more alcohol for me) and fried sweetened ricotta balls (Castagnole). The espresso was the only disappointment of the entire meal - it wasn't nearly as hot as it should have been (likely the first pull of the day). The castagnole were amazing - light, fluffy and dazzling in their simplicity. The contrast between the fluffy filling and the crisp crust was wonderful.
This was a wonderful meal. We won't be joining all of our friends and travelling to Rome any time soon but our lunch at Eataly was a good culinary substitute!