Pizzeria Libretto – Danforth Edition

I wasn’t planning on writing a review on this location because I figured that it was the same as the other restaurant on Ossington. You can read that review here.

We went to the Danforth location twice this week. It’s convenient on our holidays because we can go to the Big Carrot afterwards for grocery shopping.

When you walk in to this location, you’ll like how much wider it is than Ossington and there is much more room for seating inside. I pondered filling you in on this little tip – they actually take reservations at this location (hopefully you don’t get the restaurant all booked up so I can’t go now). They have 2 pizza ovens, one that says “Pizzeria” and one that says “Libretto” – the other location only had one oven. Even with this, the service is much better on Ossington, but we weren’t in a rush so it didn’t matter much to us.

The menu seems to be about the same, except we noticed they had this puffed bread thing and we asked what it was. The waiter let us know that it was called Paneto (see picture above), and is basically a souffle of pizza dough that kind of deflates when it gets to your table. It’s not on the menu, so you have to know about it to get it. It does comes with one of their antipasto platters I think.

It was the first thing we ordered when we went back the second time and it was topped lightly with parmesan and rosemary. My mom actually let me order a cheese board that had 3 cheeses, breadsticks, crackers, figs, sliced pears and a pear compote (see picture above). It was a very good layout on a wooden board and everyone enjoyed, especially me. Their pizza of the day, when we were there had a smoked tomato and black garlic sauce and we asked if we could try a sample of the sauce with our appetizer, which they even heated up, and we LOVED it.

As far as pizzas go, Pizzeria Libretto has the best in town. Our family always orders the pizzas on spelt crust which I highly recommend. My mom’s favourite is the Marinara pizza which has no cheese, but the best tomato sauce, garlic and oregano, plus she adds arugula on top, it’s a great option if you are vegan, but I really like it too. My brother and sister always share the Margarita pizza which is a plain-ish type of pizza, but instead of being covered in cheese, it has little patches of really good cheese. My favourite pizza is the Prosciutto and Arugula without the prosciutto (I used to get it on the side and it made me too thirsty since I don’t eat meat that much).

I really like this restaurant, it’s great for families and they are great with allergies.

P.S. There is a downstairs bar, with a private room.

Gilead Café

I was excited to try a new restaurant (for me at least) tonight, especially knowing that it was Jamie Kennedy’s food. I reviewed the Wine Bar when it was his years ago. The prospect of getting to review another one of his places was exciting (admitting that his fries are the biggest draw!).

We drove up and I was surprised to see that the Cafe was in a super narrow alleyway, although it’s a street called Gilead Place. We parked behind the cafe in reserved free parking which was awesome. We walked into a dim atmosphere that was a little more formal than what regular cafes would be in my opinion. The menu is written on a floor to ceiling chalkboard that has a list of all dishes, prices, including wines too.

Because the kitchen wasn’t ready to start serving food yet (we dine early when with my little brother), the waitress offered bread and cheese, which I said no to, but then my brain registered that she said cheese and then I ran up to listen to that day’s cheese plate. (for those of you that don’t know me, I collect Fifth Town cheese stickers and call myself a “cheeseoisseur”). I eat mostly sheep’s and goat’s milk cheese, but when I’m out at a restaurant, if I’m really lucky, my mom lets me order cow’s milk cheese. We had two sheep’s milk cheeses and a blue cheese and they were served with housemade crackers and apple slices. My sister thought they were too salty, but I did not.

We got two orders of french fries which we enjoyed and sadly there are never enough it seems. Although I didn’t love their housemade ketchup, I was so happy that it wasn’t Heinz yuckiness!

My mom had a root vegetable salad and a beet salad that she loved. I tried the Swiss Chard that she shared from her salad and it was really good. My sister and I both got burgers that were served on an english muffin with caramelized onions and housemade condiments, and I thought it was very good, but it would be better if it were a bigger portion. So if you get it, beware if you have a big appetite like me and order sides! My dad loved his organic fried chicken, bok choy and sweet potato mash.

Their menu changes all of the time, so you might not be able to get these things, but it’s because they support local and organic so they change their menus with what’s in season.

Right now as I am writing this post, I am so thirsty from the salt in the meal! But, I did love my meal and the space at the Gilead Cafe!

Vicki’s Veggies Hot Sauces

I’ve been waiting for an entire year to have Vicki’s Hot Sauce again. Last year, her hot sauce was insanely good and I was really mad that when we ran out of our first bottle quickly, there was already none left at the market!

This year, I was overjoyed when I saw that they not only had one hot sauce, but 3 different varieties! Vicki’s farm grows the organic peppers and other veggies she uses to make the sauce. The 3 kinds are: Barrel Aged, Smoked, and XXX Hot (there is a picture of all 3 in this post). I sampled all 3 at Evergreen Brickwork’s Farmers’ Market last Saturday and decided that the XXX Hot was the spiciest hot sauce I’ve ever tasted (because I wouldn’t even try the one my mom made from the peppers in my garden since she said it was so spicy her head was going to blow off!).

I couldn’t decide which ones to get and luckily my mom came up with the GENIUS idea of getting all 3! So, now, at most meals, Vicki’s Hot Sauce is on our table.

Vicki's Veggies Hot Sauces 2011

I would go get yours before she runs out! 🙂

Belmonte Raw in Leslieville

I had the good fortune to go to Belmonte Raw with my mother, and got served directly by the owner and chef, Carol Belmonte. She is super nice and is a really good cook (I guess that’s un-cook). Right when I walked in to the little cafe-like space, I knew I was in for a real treat. The little blackboard listed very good organic ingredients and I immediately knew that I was going to get the Raw Burrito. Walnut “meat”, jicama, peppers, sprouts and other amazing ingredients were stuffed and rolled into a big collard green, used as the wrap. It was tied up with rope (make sure to remove prior to eating!) and sitting on a bed of sprouts and spinach. On the side were dehydrated crispy nacho chips (the best I’ve had – although I’ve only had one other), guacamole (I licked the container clean it was so good), pico de gallo (Carol was surprised when I knew it was called that!) and my favourite thing about the meal was the cashew “cheese”, which I was just tempted to eat alone with a fork it was so good.

Next out, Carol brought out a platter of Jicama “Fries” which were absolutely amazing. I was pretty happy when I saw the cashew cheese on the side for dipping them in. As far as juices go, Carol makes the best! My favourite is her green juice combo which has cucumber, parsley, spinach, apple, lemon, and ginger (I have had this before in her glass takeout bottles – I am happy that she doesn’t use plastic bottles). She also made us a juice called “Happiness”, which had granny smith apple, red grape and grapefruit and had a beet swirl garnish on top.

Because my sister has a severe nut allergy, we cannot go to raw vegan places with her because of all of the nuts, and I had never tried Cashew Mylk before. It was very white and creamy, I didn’t love it on it’s own, but would absolutely recommend it in breakfast cereal. She gave me 2 oatmeal raisin cookies, warmed up slightly in the dehydrator that were awesome. They were chewy-ish and very rich and flavourful – I loved the cinnamon and raisin combination.

I thought I was done after that, but little did I know, the best was saved for last. Carol’s Chocolate Thimble with peanut butter filling was supercalifragilisticexpialidociously awesome. It looked small, but on the inside it was HUGE flavour-wise. It’s worth an hour drive through traffic to get one (or ten) of these. I wish it wasn’t made with nuts so I could have brought some home, but I guess it’s part of Carol’s secret recipe.

Carol was so nice and she gave me another one of her Green Juices to take home, which I enjoyed just before writing this post.

I used the word “amazing” so many times yesterday when visiting Belmonte Raw (ask Carol yourself), and I bet you will too!

A little note from me: Belmonte Raw’s website wasn’t complete when I posted this, so I suggest you get in touch with Carol or just go in!