Soho Bistro

Last Thursday I went out for dinner with a couple of friends.

After receiving my menu, I was overwhelmed by the variety of food options. My friends decided to go with the prix fixe menu but me being the curious one I just had to look at the regular menu to see if there was anything better to order. I just couldn't decide there were just too many to choose from. So I decided to keep it simple and order from the prix fixe menu as well. However, even looking at that menu I still couldn't decide. After much deliberation I finally settled on the prix fixe menu.

To start off the meal here were our appetizers. Grilled calamari on spicy rice and sesame vinaigrette and crab cake atop of stir fry vegetables. The calamari was under seasoned and the rice was not spicy at all. It was just drizzled with sesame oil. What happened to the salt? That's all that was needed to give it some flavor. The portion itself felt like a meal rather than an appetizer. I don't normally complain when I am given too much food but this I could have done with just a smaller portion since it was lacking in flavor. Unlike the calamari, the crab cakes were seasoned quite well. There was also carrot, ginger and potato soup but wasn't worth a picture since once again it was missing some seasoning. Just tasted like plain carrot juice with a bit of salt and ginger in it.

Here were our entrees. Duck confit on garlic mashed potato with fresh herb glaze, smoked chicken with sundried tomatoes and cremini mushroom risotto, and pan seared Atlantic salmon with dill caper crust.

My risotto was yummy after the first few bites but then eventually I kind of got bored of it. Just look at my plate it's just one big pile of saucy rice. No matter how many spoonfuls I ate it never appeared to go away. Felt like the rice kept magically reappearing out of thin air. My friend's duck confit was delicious. As for the salmon it was mediocre. Nothing special to me.

Now onto the final course, our desserts.

Chocolate-caramel pecan torte, duo mousse and flourless chocolate cake. Out of all 3 my favourite was the chocolate cake. It was light and fluffy. The pecan torte was definitely full of pecans but a bit too much for me. My mouth got tired from biting into all those nuts. As for the mousse I'm not a really big fan of mousse to begin with. I don't even like eating icing as much in cakes. I like to eat the fluffy cake part rather than the cream and all. Yes this is one of my strange quirks. Just like when it comes to beef patties. I like to eat the flaky yellow pastry but the meat itself I just scoop it out and toss it away. Why don't I like it? I don't really know. I just know that I don't. Weird, uh?

Ok enough rambling about my peculiar behaviour.

I would like to give a special thanks to my friend Nina because without her camera I would never have gotten these beautiful photos to post on my blog. Although I did have to spam her a bit till she finally cracked and emailed them to me. Now the question is will she ever bring her camera out to dinner again? Then again will she ever go to dinner with me again??? Guess we will soon find out since we are suppose to go out again next month.

My conclusion for Soho Bistro. Although some dishes lacked seasoning still the remaining dishes were good enough to make me want to return. Next time I will try out their brunch menu. Maybe out on the patio this time but guess that won't be till next year since winter will soon be around the corner. I hate winter. Summer please come back so I can sit in a patio. Pretty please.

TOTAL BILL $92...MAY EAT AGAIN?!