Saturday, May 7, 2011

Toronto Dining Review: Lee

Last night, my Beautiful Bride and I visited Susur Lee's Toronto enclave, Lee. It had been quite a while since we enjoyed a night out at a "destination" restaurant so we both eagerly awaited the experience. The 9 PM seating on King Street West seemed a little late when I made the reservation, but it turned out to be extremely fortunate since work responsibilities resulted in an extra-late (although exceedingly fun and satisfying) lunch at The Only Cafe on the Danforth, which ended at around 3 PM, followed by a margarita, a Pisco sour and a few chips and amazing salsa at Eduardo Torres' La Cabana down the street. We made our way to Ossington and Queen, where we snagged a couple of beers at Sweaty Betty's. Then we took a 10-15 minute walk towards Lee and stopped into a BBQ joint next door to catch a least a little of the Bruins game, accompanied with a Maudite for me and a Creemore Springs Premium Lager for my Beautiful Bride. After the 1st period ended with the Bs up 1-0 (and by now we know how it ended), it was off next door to dinner.

We arrived to see a line of about 10 people who we presumed had reservations. However, 10 minutes in, the line hadn't really moved at all. Leave it to my Beautiful Bride to assert herself and speed along the process somehow and finally get us our table. We were seated at an extra-comfy corner table by the window. Our waitress was extremely friendly and offered up her suggestions on specials and drinks perhaps not with the most in-depth knowledge of the offerings, but with great enthusiasm. Good enough start? Sure. My peach lychee martini (Peachee Lychee?) was almost silky. Unfortunately, it took about 20 minutes to arrive at our table. Sure, it's a Friday night and the place was pretty well-filled. Still, the waitstaff across the board appeared frazzled, spastic and generally confused across the board. I can usually get past service issues if the food delivers, so let's see about what matters most...

We ordered two appetizers: the hot & sour soup and the signature Singapore slaw with salmon sashimi. We agreed that the hot & sour soup was the best hot & sour soup we've ever had in our lives. When you get hot & sour from a traditional take-out joint you consider elements of consistency, tang, heat and flavor (OK, maybe salt). Usually you have 2 of these elements truly firing. Good hot & sour may bring 3. This soup was almost velvety...by no means overpowering but its flavors worked in perfect synergy. The slaw was also quite good...perhaps a little heavy on the peanuts and sweetness, but the salmon provided a solid complement. I can't imagine this dish without the salmon; it would be a Gotham-style pile of peanuts and honey otherwise. The verdict? Quite enjoyable but perhaps not as breathtaking as a signature dish should be.

Something fell apart between the two appetizers and the "entree;" I mention entree in "quotation" "fingers" because our server indicated that it's most appropriate for each person to order two entrees since they're sized as tasting portions. Well, our 2-3 PM lunch left us less-than-starved, so we stuck with one each. Eventually, they actually showed up.

First up: Black cod over shrimp cake. True to the word of our waitress, it was indeed a tasting portion. We saw about 4 slivers of black cod and a fair amount of shrimp cake. Other than the service, this was the most disappointing aspect of our visit. The black cod was gently seasoned and obviously quite fresh, but that shrimp cake was thoroughly uninspiring. It literally had no flavor whatsoever while maintaining the consistency of a failed risotto.

Next we had the salmon ceviche, which was served in a row of six Oriental-style soup spoons. Because of its proximity to sushi, I suggested to our waitress that wasabi would be a nice complement. Unfortunately, there was no traditional wasabi to be had, but after a bit of prodding and several minutes wait, she emerged with some wasabi oil. This stuff was bright, lively and added a little bit of chill to the dish...and I can't imagine the salmon without it. Again, the dish on its own suffered from a little too much sweetness and needed that base-level kick of heat to merge its components correctly.

The wine list had a great proportion of younger offerings...perhaps 50-75 if I had to guess now. Since nothing really blew my doors off on the list, we kept it simple with a Riesling from the Niagara region of Ontario. It was OK but I would have appreciated a little more mid-range depth to the list.

Again we had a breakdown in service after the tasting portions. Our waitress seemed to be covering a little more ground than her capabilities could provide. Accordingly, it took a little while to get the bill squared away. In all, I would describe the service as choppy at best, even for Friday night prime time. I expect wait staff at a destination restaurant to embrace the menu and to express passion about the menu to patrons. Didn't get that at all. What we got was an enthusiastic, friendly and unfortunately somewhat clueless level of service.

On our way out we stopped for a couple of drinks at the bar, where our bartender Chris took care of us quite well with a fair amount of friendly knowledge. The few minutes there inspired me to turn back towards the hostess stand and express my concern with the troubles at the front of the house. Needless to say, my words were not met with extreme kindness from the borderline Napoleonic supervisor of the team up front, indicating that amateur hour was indeed upon us. Chris apologized to us on behalf of the restaurant (y'know, he really didn't have to do that but it was a nice touch) and we left it at that.

Overall, the food was quite good. However, it wasn't so life-changing enough to give a pass to service that I'd term best as sloppy and somewhat unconcerned. It's a damn shame that even a chef as seasoned and well-respected as Susur Lee can have his cuisine underwhelmed by unprepared wait staff and an utterly helpless team at the front of the house, but that's what happened. Did we enjoy the food? You bet, and that's usually what matters. That it was just short of compelling enough to overcome the service difficulties is telling for each of these elements. There's a difference between "excellent" and "enjoyable." The food came up just a wee bit shy of the "excellent" bar, but again it was very good. Was our experience at Lee memorable? Listen, any night out with my Beautiful Bride is a moment to cherish. Did Lee add to the occasion? In the words of the wankers in that old Hertz commercial, "not exactly." The service was far too much of an issue to overcome...sort of like a crappy coat of paint on an otherwise really nice room. Would we come back? Maybe.