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Category: American (New) [Edit]
1710 Queen St WToronto, ON M6N
Neighbourhoods: Parkdale, Roncesvalles
(416) 534-6700
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
7 reviews for Local Kitchen & Winebar
All Reviews
Local Kitchen & Winebar
7/26/2010
1 Check-in Here
Local has a great neighborhood atmosphere and a friendly staff. Fun drinks and a good charcuterie, it's no black hoof but it's pretty good. I found the decor, and sharing a big table with some other diners to be a really nice and social experience.
The steak tartar with a quail egg was excellent. My gnocchi was excellent, however my partner's daily porchetta pasta was below average at best. Dessert was cheesy and yummy. I would definitely go back for food and atmosphere!
Local Kitchen & Winebar
8/12/2010
Local Kitchen:
The Good:
- For an appetizer: Caprese salad (they don't call it that on the menu, but that's what it essentially was). It was served with three slices of cheese with sliced tomato and was dressed with some balsamic vinegar. The cheese was mild and firm and there was just the right proportion of vinegar. It was a good start to the meal.
- For dessert: Chocolate mascarpone tart for dessert. The chocolate was very rich while the crust was just right in thickness and flakiness.
The Bad:
- The Ziti. Bland tomato sauce. Small portion. Not worth the $15 charge.
- The menu. The breadth of the menu is rather limited, so I'd suggest checking it out before visiting.
The Ugly:
- The setting. The restaurant is pretty much a hole in the wall. Actually, speaking of holes, I did notice a small hole in the floor next to our table, but I digress. There was only seating for around 30 people (including around 7 at the bar). Despite the small amounts of people, I found the noise level to be quite significant. There were many times where I felt I had to strain to hear the conversation across the table.
- The heat. This was a hot summer day. Interestingly, it was warmer inside than outside, which speaks volumes. They must be trying to save on electricity costs.
- The service. My girlfriend's colleague had arrived at 6:30 with her two year old child in tow. The rest of us were running a few minutes late. As a result, they would not seat her and her daughter at the table. They made her wait at the bar, which is not cool. Also of note to all you parents out there, there are no available high chairs, so unless you want to eat with your child sitting in your lap, I'd suggest going elsewhere.
Other notes:
- I had read a few other reviews about Local on Yelp and a few had commented on the gnocchi. I had a taste from someone else's order. I found it to be rather undercooked and to be way too heavy on the white wine sauce. On the upside, you could definitely taste the smoke in the potatoes (they smoke the potatoes before making the gnocchi).
- I had a taste of my girlfriend's fish entree. Aside from the portion being extremely small, it tasted ok. Also tried her order of cheesecake for dessert and that was also acceptable.
Total cost before tip for a table of four was $125 (everyone each had 3 courses, no drinks were ordered).
Local Kitchen & Winebar
Went to this little restaurant on a suggestion from a friend. Local kitchen is a cozy ittle italian place on the west end with a constantly changing specials menu.
Upon walking in you'll notice that the whole place will remind you of something between a deli and a meat locker. I think the meat locker curtains were a nice little touch. There are a lot of little things that also add to the experience. Mason jars for beer, water from refrigerated swing-top bottles and meat hanging on the ceiling.
I ordered the salami platter right away and followed it up with a N'Duja crostini, the gnocchi and a black pepper linguini with bacon.
The salami plate was quite interesting. Really similar to the black hoof if you'd ever been. They cure all their meat in house which is pretty cool. After trying them all I found myself not completely impressed with their selections. The shoulder salami was quite tasty. Perfect consistency, flavour and almost melted in your mouth. However the hunter salami was probably my least favourite. It had the consistency of a stick of lard with pieces of meat in it, gross. The procuitto that they had on there was not made in house and was okay, but not "mind blasting".
My friends ordered the two different salads and I had a tiny sample. One of the salads was a leek salad with some olive oil and an egg on it. If you're wondering how this looked, it's exactly how it sounds. 2 leeks with some olive oil (flavoured) and an egg. I was really unimpressed with this. It seemed like something I could have pulled together after an exam in university.
The other salad was actually quite nice. It had a bed of candy cane beets, a nice sweet dressing and Parmesan regiano slices ontop; a great paring.
The pastas were probably the best things about this place. Both the gnocchi and the linguini were hand made pastas. In my opinion a world of a difference. One thing that I found really delightful was the fact that you could actually taste the potato in the gnocchi.
The bacon linguini was pretty good as well, not the best I've ever had but pretty good. The bacon was thinly sliced and actually very light. Went really well with the linguini.
One thing that I didn't order but kept seeing people order (we sat at the bar) were Caesars. These did not mess around. Clamato juice, vodka, jalapeño, shaken and then topped with fresh grated horseradish. I'm really surpised I didn't order one but it'd be on te top of my list if I'd return.
Definately a place to check out if you can. Get the Caesar and tell me how it is. I overheard a person saying it was "too spicy". Silly rabbit.
Local Kitchen & Winebar
3/18/2010
Strange how the right combination of self-awareness and an even small amount of uniqueness can work to exponentially increase the significance of a new restaurant. Such is the case with Local Kitchen, both a patron and client of Toronto's ever-growing slow-food movement. While Local has recently gained an almost unfair amount of attention, much of it is undue.
Situated near not-so-nice parts of town, my fellow diner and I were not surprised to see not-so-local diners, with a mix of twenty-something couples, to groups of women in their forties trying to understand what all the fuss is about. Servers wear Parkdale t-shirts, and the kitschy decor is not shy in its enthusiasm for the neighborhood. Try not to be alarmed or bothered by how small the dining area is, with about room for 30 guests. I personally found it claustrophobic, especially when the only two servers working were trying to negotiate who would squeeze between our table and the one beside us first.
In replace of the bread traditionally served as a pre-starter at other Italian restaurants, our server brought a trio of preserved vegetables, a great, even if tiny, start to the meal. Two large chunks of semi-sweet and tender squash were seated next to a pile of reddish cauliflower pieces (in paprkika?) and on the other side, possibly the softest, most melty leeks I've ever had.
We tried to order most of the specials, and a few of the other notable dishes. The small salumi platter (16) included a very smoky duck, too-dry prosciutto and soppressata, and a juicy wild boar that I can only describe as truly special. The taralli (fennel seed biscuit) accompaniment was annoying, in that it was an unsuitably dry platform for tasting.
The battered rabbit-stuffed olives (5), a daily special, had a surprisingly large amount of tasty meat, but suffered from the throat-burning saltiness of the, presumably unwashed, olives. I tried to separate them in my mouth, unsuccessfully. A massive piece of very sharp cheddar cheese (15), served with truffled honey, maple syrup, walnuts, and pickled black cherries, all worked very well together (if served on a smaller, more reasonable platter, maybe they could have had the meat and cheese on the table at the same time, instead of being served fifteen minutes apart). Even more impressive was the crostini with chicken liver mousse (9), which proved more gamy and smoky than 'chickeny.' Not smooth, but not powdery, either. Bland fingerling potatoes (9) were a regret, tossed lightly in olive oil and coriander, with a few capers.
As for mains, the smoked potato gnocchi (9/14), which should have been advertised as a soup, was unforgiveably overcooked. Teleggio and rapini went unnoticed. The mushroom tortelli (10/15) was equally disappointing, served cold, and again, lacking flavour. I debated ordering a meat dish, given how great the pork belly with a quail egg (16) looked, but didn't want to have to wait for that, too.
While our server was friendly and took time to explain the menu, having to wait so long for everything was frustrating. Slow food should never mean slow service, especially at $120 (with drinks, tax, tip) for two.
Local Kitchen & Winebar
12/28/2009
5 photos
Local Kitchen and Winebar is based on the philosophy driven by the slow food movement and inspired by the foods of Italy. For those of you not familiar with the SFM, this isn't about chewing your food 100 times before you swallow or making sure you keep to the 10 km. speed limit when going through the drive-thru. This is about hard core, right from the roots to our table reverence for the bounty we live on.
Basically put the SFM is"a fundamental respect for our food, where it comes from, and the people who help cultivate it." In other words, don't fuck with the food, use it in its purest form, don't waste it, don't add nitrates to it, don't mess with the earth it's grown in or raised on and least of all don't diss those who show it all the TLC it needs before it hits our tables.
LKW opened just this past September and is a matchbox sized spot on Queen St. in Parkdale. It seats a modest 29 bodies and for sure one can say they didn't sink their setup deniros in the decor because this is Parkdale shtick in its purest form. The menu is tiny, very tiny. Ruled by what is available by season and at the market.
The wine lists are Ontario based which is ok, if you like Ontario wines. Me, I can take 'em or leave 'em, more so to the latter. While I understand the philosophy of supporting the locals, including the wine makers, I'm broken hearted knowing that I can't have a glass of Barolo or Barbaresco to enhance the lovingly prepared Salumi (this is the Italian equivalent of Charcuterie) board. The bite of a peppery Barbaresco would have been the perfect compliment to those little bowls of Caponata and mouthfuls of Soprosetta. We settle on wines from Daniel Lenko, one chardonnay, the other a white Cabernet Sauvignon.
My foodie friend, Lauren Wilson and I order a Salumi board as well as butter & lemon soaked crostini topped with a fresh anchovy. The crostini is sublime and the anchovy has barely any fish taste which catches us off guard. When you expect that big salty whack from an anchovy and you don't feel like you've been smacked in the face by Luca Brasi (who sleeps with the fishes) it's a surprise. The thyme in this dish only serves to enhance the lemon.
The salumi board, served atop a piece of petrified wood with butcher paper is put together by Mike Sangregorio, one of the owners. His partner, is Chef Fabio Bondi and he is at the helm of the kitchen. Together these guys produce the bulk of their own salumi for their charcuterie boards and he proudly fawns over the board as he does his GPS of the layout of meat. Of the five meats on the board, strangely enough our least favorite is their own cured Prosciutto. Lauren nails it perfectly when she sniffs the meat and says "I smell ammonia". Something in the taste of the prosciutto is off but the rest of the cured meats are excellent. Black walnuts on the side offer up almost a moss like taste to offset the meat.
The menu is minuscule and even more limited this evening than usual, probably due to the holidays and fresh supplies being limited. I opt for Smoked Potato Gnocchi with Tallegio & Rapini. I asked Mike about the smoked potatoes because this dish has an unbelievable flavour. He tells me that they have a coal smoker out in the back of the building and that they smoke the spuds before turning them into the mixture for gnocchi. The gnocchi are large. The tallegio is like melted butter and the slight bitterness of the rapini make for a good combination. This is an odd trilogy but it works. The smoke flavour isn't forced but rather gently infused into the dish and the more you eat it the more it grows on you. My only criticism of this dish is they would be better off to make the gnocchi just a tad smaller. Their size makes them feel heavier than they actually are.
Lauren chooses the Parpardelle with Pheasant Ragu and Swiss Chard. I can't seem to see the swiss chard in the dish and since the pasta is verde I'm wondering if they use the chard to make the pasta. The pheasant ragu is delicious, delicately balanced with tomato sauce. The wide ribbons of pasta are perfectly cooked, silky in their consistency, folded on to the plate, embracing the chard and the ragu.
I like LKW. I like what they stand for and I like what their food philosophies are based upon. I pitstop at Mike's prep station to talk about Northern Italian cuisine and for a moment I gloat over the fact that I've ventured into the heart of the Slow Food Movement in Bra, Italy. We talk about wild foods and Forbes and then that bastard tells me he is drinking a Barolo as he is prepping food!
LKW is also the home of Foodie Meets (for all you twitter fans). The hard core foodies often meet and partake of tastings here. Rumour has it that LKW is the place where the chefs such as Michael Stadtlander, like to dine on their days off. That is a true testament to LKW. Another Parkdale food haven is born.
Local Kitchen & Winebar
4/19/2010
Way better than its average rating. Great food great people. Grab the table at the front, you'll meet many new people.
Local Kitchen & Winebar
2/14/2010
I recently had dinner there with 2 others. The night before we'd eaten at Terroni on Queen, so the comparison was fresh in my mind.
We started with shared charcuterie. It was nice, but unremarkable.
One of us had the gnocchi in a white sauce and two of us had pasta with a tomato-based sauce - I can't remember the details. The pasta was watery and overcooked. The gnocchi was mush - it wasn't just slightly overcooked - it was a disaster. And the white sauce had virtually no flavour. It was like skim milk.
The raves I read about this place must have some basis in fact, so we will go back - perhaps it was an off night. But I'm dubious.
