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Divino
Category: Restaurants Italian Italian [Edit]
1 Balmoral AveToronto, ON M4V 1J5
Neighbourhoods: Yonge and St. Clair, Deer Park
(416) 515-0003
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:30 am - 11:30 pm
Fri-Sat 11:30 am - 11 pm
Sun 11:30 am - 10 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Loud
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- No
7 reviews for Divino
7 reviews in English
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Review from melanie t.
Toronto, ON
5/18/2012
I don't know why this place isn't more busy than it is. It's delicious pasta. The gnocchi is mouth-watering and reminded me of the kind of dishes I ate in Florence. Like in Italy, Divino is about quality over quantity, so North Americans accustomed to large greasy portions may not like this place. It's filling without being gluttonous. The best part is that it's FREE corking Sunday-Thursday nights, so it makes for an affordable evening out. And the patio is one of the best on Yonge Street.
-
Review from Simika K.
11/7/2011
We were seated quickly, on a Saturday evening. The linguini bolognese I ordered was good enough but not stellar. Liked their Gorgonzola-infused caeser dressing for the salad a lot. My friend's Gnocchi in the cream sauce was quite delicious.
Overall - Good service, decent food. Has a nice neighborhood vibe.Worth a visit if you're in the neighbourhood but no need to go out of your way for it... -
Review from Karl R.
6/21/2011
The Great and Impressive Yvonne T. took me here for an early birthday dinner. In short (and sorry to say this mom) it was probably one of the best dinners I've had on my birthday (really, mom, I'm not saying your lasagna is bad I'm just saying have you TRIED Divino's calamari?).
The bread basket (well, more of a bread platter) had a nice mix between Italian bread and a kind of nut/tomato/olive loaf. A larger portion would have been grand but we ultimately ordered enough food.
We started with the aforementioned calamari, grilled not deep fried. It was covered in a kind of rich sauce and I could have easily eaten 3 servings.
I had the casarecci pasta with spicy Italian sausage. It was a spicy dish but not overpoweringly so.
We toasted the waning years of my life with martinis. I had the Limoncello martini. The drink had such a fruity look and smell I sort of forgot it had alcohol in it and nearly gagged on my first sip. They don't water the drinks down here and I got quite tipsy by the end of the meal on a single martini.
Service was great, decor was great, there's a sunken patio that I think I might prefer if it gave you a better street view. My only issue with Divino is it's not cheap. It's a great place to impress a date or the future infirmed, however. -
Review from Yvonne T.
Divino is located at the old Terroni location on Balmoral just South of St. Clair on Yonge. There is a covered patio outside for the summer months.
They lost one star for not returning my call for reservations. I called at 10am and clearly they don't check their messages and as I was trying to make a same day reservation, by about 2pm I called again and they took down my reservation.
Upon arriving we were promptly seated by the host - who also ended up serving us. We were served by about 3 different people as clearly the working environment is just as casual as the dining experience I had.
I came with Karl R. in tow and we were seated at the patio. We started off with Cosmopolitan and Limoncello Martinis. The bread basket showed up sometime after. When I asked the server what the chunks of orange in my bread were she said "I'm not sure actually. I think sundried tomato?". No explanation of what tapenade accompanied the bread was given either. The Olive and "Sundried Tomato" bread was quite good. Perfectly crusty on the outside and soft in the centre. The tapenade was also quite tasty. I would pass on the plain Italian Bread unless you're just really hungry!
For starters we got the Grilled Spice Rubbed Calamari with Cajun Tomato Salsa, Gaeta Olives and Balsamic Vinaigrette. This is perhaps one of the best grilled calamari dishes I've experienced so far. It was grilled to perfection and the tomato salsa had a nice sweet and sour tang to it which was balanced with the salty olives. Yummy!
Karl R. got perhaps the most difficult dish on the menu to pronounce... Casareccia served with a homemade spicy Italian sausage, rapini, garlic, red peppers, parmesan and fine olive oil. This, by the way, was a pasta dish. The pasta was a spiral pasta and was cooked al dente. However, I noticed that toward the end of Karl's meal that there was a WHOLE LOT of oil in that pasta dish!
I opted for the Seared Striped Bass served with Scallion Lemon Tomato Herbed Olive Oil, Market Vegetables (Asparagus, Broccolini & Green Beans) and roasted potatoes. The bass was nicely seared. It had a crisp skin but the fish was moist and tender. I will warn though that if you are not a fan of fish bones, that this is not the fish for you! It was not overly bony, but there were a few bones here and there. The potatoes were tasty as were the vegetables.
We decided to skip dessert as Karl loves to spend his time in coffee shops.
All in all, I would say that you get good value for your money. The food is tasty albeit the service being a tad casual. Their prices are on par with what you would pay at Moxies or Milestones, although the ingredients they use are definitely of better quality. I would come back to Divino again if I was in the neighbourhood. -
Review from Teena D.
6/1/2011 5 photos
Six of my coworkers and I had lunch at Divino today. It is in the old Terroni space (I'm not a fan of Terroni) and opened in April.
We ordered appetizers. The bruschetta was fresh and the cured meat/world cheese appetizer seemed to be enjoyed.
There is quite a selection of interesting pizzas and pastas. We all ordered pizzas. I went mainstream and ordered the pepperoni pizza. Others at the table had ingredients like shrimp, peppers, chicken, mushroom, walnuts, olives, etc. on their pizzas. My pizza was good. Along with the pizza, we could have olive oil or chilli olive oil as condiments.
The servers were friendly and a lot of fun. They were very attentive and made sure we had lots of water and pop. -
Review from Jannies L.
Brampton, ON
6/21/2011
Divino***- 3 and a half, but can't rate that so its a 3.
Went here for lunch because I was going to be in the area and found a voucher online the day before :D
There was four of us eating and 3 not eating sitting on a really nice patio with a roof. Had to wait a bit for one friend but still had a problem getting the waitstaff's attention a few times, probably because we were there exactly at 11;30 when they opened (i had a packed schedule for 1pm-5pm) so they were no where to be found after drinks were ordered until other patrons started showing up... the lunch business crowd.
We ordered:
$13.95 meat and cheese board
Salami, prosciutto, another cured meat, 3 types of cheese, some pear slices and olives. Was ok for $14 we expected a bit more, 3 thin slices of each meat and 2 of each cheese.
$6 Caesar salad
Was larger in size then we expected and was comfortably shared among the four of us.
$15 smoked chicken jalapeno pizza
Was kind of bland, but the jalapenos gave it a bit of a kick.
$14.95 parpadella steak pasta
This we ate after the pizza because we didn't want soggy pizza, after 10 minutes the pasta had stuck together and formed a ugly looking jelly paste. We had to really toss it and pull it apart for us to eat it. It was covered in oil and also didn't have much flavor. Mushrooms kind of saved it a bit.
$7 organic mill st beer- husband said it was good.
A side of bread, which we had refilled came with this amazing red pepper hummus dip of some sorts which was very yummy, not too salty but with the crusty bread it went really well.
Overall
Prices are cheap for environment and Italian food.
Next to the fire station- but didn't bother me that much, apparently my husband heard all the sirens...
At the end when we were trying to head out (like i said packed day) we waved down the manager after 10 minutes of no one in sight, the restaurant/patio was full at this point. We asked for the bill and he brought it but when we tried to give him money he said "She will come by and do it after" we said huh? if he was right there why couldn't he take it? About 10 minutes later the "she" came by... threw us off a bit! It would have been a 3 1/2 star but this manager made it easier to rate on yelp with that incident.
I would come here again if I was in the area even without the voucher but wouldn't make the drive otherwise. -
Review from Matthew M.
Mississauga, ON
6/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
A nice small restaurant just south of Yonge & St. Clair. Went here for lunch with a couple friends on a Friday afternoon. We were the first to arrive and luckily we beat the lunchtime rush because 20 minutes later the place was full and you would not have been able to find a seat!
