40Scarpetta Toronto

Toronto would love to hate Scarpetta because who wants to like a resto brought to us by a globe-trotting New York chef for whom we’re just an extension of his brand, a little frisson of franchising? But dinner at Scarpetta is a de luxe delight, deeply layered complex Italian cooking in a glamorous room with fine and formal service. Nowhere in this town do we find polenta as smooth as here; how cosseted does one feel when the waiter spoons our fragrant truffled mushroom stew onto the silken polenta? The short ribs are more moist, more high-flavoured, more elegant than such a homespun cut of meat has a right to be. Even the simplest of Italiana – tomato basil spaghetti – has deeper flavor than one imagined possible. There are superb complex constructions like sablefish with roasted cherry tomatoes and lightly caramelized fennel, and duck breast with Sicilian spices and preserved orange. Small wonder the Thompson Hotel copped the wunderkind of New York Italiana.