This pop-up – located inside popular Queen West bar Rush Lane – is all about cured seafood and ceviche, from black grouper with leche de tigre (otherwise known as tiger’s milk, a Peruvian citrus marinade) to sashimi-cut octopus served with an olive oil emulsion. Chef Elias Salazar features nearly a half a dozen ceviche styles on any given night, highlighting the regional variances of Peru’s national dish. This street-style shrimp ceviche is topped with chunks of fried squid.
If you’re going to go for a classic raw dish like steak tartare, then a classic French restaurant like Auberge du Pommier is the place to do it. Set in a pair of renovated 19th-century cottages, Auberge du Pommier’s aesthetic is old-world yet sophisticated, mirroring its approach to fine French cuisine. Topped with a raw quail egg, the restaurant’s hand-cut beef tartare stays true to tradition with added garnishes of cornichon gelée and white anchovy giving it some extra flair.
Malcolm Campbell
The albacore tuna plate stands out as one of the crowd favourites at this progressive Canadian restaurant. Chunks of tuna tartare get a sharp kick with pickled jalapenos. Those chilis, along with pickled daikon radish, offer a spicy-sour experience with each bite, softened by umami-rich shiso leaves.
At Boralia, Ossington’s ode to the history of Canadian cuisine, chef Wayne Morris creates a dish that may be too beautiful to eat. Well, almost. He takes cured local trout, grills it over cedar branches and curls it up next to sour cream infused with gin and juniper. The trout’s tender flesh is complemented by pickled wild onions and roe.
It’s been nearly seven years since Enoteca Sociale first opened on Dundas West as a sister restaurant to Pizzeria Libretto, and the place just keeps getting better with age. The beef crudo – served with roasted shallot aioli, capers, watercress and sourdough croutons – hammers home the point nicely.
Campagnolo
Cured Fish
Cured fish is a popular sharing plate at chef Craig Harding’s critically acclaimed Italian restaurant on Dundas West. For this one, he sources hamachi from the superlative Taro’s Fish in North York. The hamachi is lightly cured with salt and sugar before it is drizzled with pomegranate agrodolce (an Italian sweet and sour sauce). It’s topped with pickled cucumber, sumac and sorrel for tang. The finishing touches are a splash of olive oil from a family farm in Italy, along with a sliver of luxury: fragrant white truffles.
