There are just two more days for you to check out Summerlicious and get a god deal on what’s usually a pricier meal at a Toronto restaurant. How to choose?
I went a bit crazy with Summerlicious reservations this year because there was a gluten-free category and a ton of restaurants I didn’t know that looked like good deals. I then invited various people to various meals and also planned some solo dinners and lunches.
What happens when you ask a beginner to a Summerlicious lunch:
He sent: “So what is this food festival all about?”
“Just discounts at restaurants throughout the city. You have to choose carefully, but I have a bit of experience at this. Yes I did look through every menu with gluten free options…”
He sent:
“EVERY? There are a gazillion!”
You sent: “Not with gluten free options. Just like 40 maybe.”
It only took maybe a couple hours to whittle down my list. Time well spent, I figured.
What Restaurants Did I Choose?
Nami
La Bartola
Leña
Banu
Rosalinda
Minami
Are These Lunches and Dinners Good Deals?
Sometimes! La Bartola and Nami were my best experiences. Often the Summerlicious menus include regular menu items, but with a slight discount because you’re getting three courses instead of one or two. With Summerlicious you get an appetizer, main course and dessert. That means you might be spending more in total, but if you add up the original menu price of the three individual dishes, it’s often (a little or a lot) less.
The trick if you’re gluten-free and dairy-free like me is that the dessert has to be something I can actually eat (and isn’t just fresh fruit). Otherwise, the price just usually isn’t worth it. That’s why I liked Nami. At dinner I got 8 pieces of nigiri and 5 pieces of sashimi including sea bream and golden bream plus dessert for $75. The sashimi and nigiri weren’t less expensive than the regular menu, I don’t think, but I got this little parfait bowl of chopped up house-made fruit jelly (think Jell-O, not jam) with fresh blueberries and raspberries. It was light and refreshing, and easy to make – and to make in advance – so both the restaurant and I thought we were getting a good deal.
Sometimes places add new menu items, maybe to test them out, or maybe to put a higher quality item on the menu. I’m not sure if the fish selection was different, but for the quality of fish I received and how much you can spend on worse sushi in the city, that $75 was worth it.
Here’s the Sumerlicious menu at Nami:
Appetizer
All appetizers are served with miso soup
Sashimi: Five pieces of sashimi (two pieces of shima aji, two pieces of tai and one piece of chef’s choice) (Gluten Free)
Gyokai Carpaccio: Thinly sliced seafood marinated in chef’s soba shiso sauce
Hassun: Six kinds of appetizers including aji horse mackerel and spinach salad, anago sea eel grilled with sansho pepper, cold tomato jelly, Japanese style cold corn soup, lotus root dumplings with chicken flakes, and deep fried eggplant in dashi broth with shrimp flakes
Tempura: Choice of mixed tempura (one piece of shrimp tempura, two pieces of chef’s choice seafood tempura and three pieces of vegetable tempura) or four pieces of shrimp tempura or eight pieces of vegetable tempura
Grilled Vegetables: Chef’s choice of vegetables grilled with Japanese charcoal (Vegetarian / Gluten Free)
Oysters: Four pieces of fresh oysters served with lemon, ponzu sauce and garnish (Gluten Free)
Main Dish
Assorted Sushi (8 pieces): One piece each of shima aji and tai, and six other pieces of chef’s choice (ingredients decided based on the arrival of seafood from Japan and locally)(Gluten Free)
Kaisen Chirashi: Nine kinds of thinly sliced sashimi on a bed of sushi rice (ingredients decided based on the arrival of seafood from Japan and locally)(Gluten Free)
Maguro Zukushi: Four pieces of blue fin tuna sushi using all different parts including toro, chutoro and akami, with four pieces torotaku chumaki rolls (Gluten Free)
Gindara Saikyo-yaki: Grilled black cod marinated with chef’s saikyo-miso, served with accompaniments and a bowl of steamed rice
Wagyu Steak: Four ounce of Australian wagyu striploin steak grilled with Japanese charcoal, served with a bowl of steamed rice (Gluten Free)
Dessert
Miso Cheese Cake Ice Cream
Fruit Jelly (Gluten Free)
Daifuku Mochi (Gluten Free)
And here are some other photos of my meals, in case you only plan to eat with your eyes. The event ends tomorrow (Sunday, July 23, 2023)!
The nigiri course at Minami. Not as flavourful as Nami. The aburi up top were underwhelming, said my lunch partner. I couldn’t eat them because they weren’t gluten free. (?)
Squash flauta appetizer at Rosalinda. This meal could be enough food for a day. The tofu bowl main dish with salsa macho was also incredibly rich. Everything was tasty, just very, very oily, from the fried tortillas to the iceberg lettuce and cream in the appetizer to the dirty-rice-style grain dish, fried tofu triangles, edamame and salsa in the tofu bowl main. Why oil edamame?
Cheesecake at Rosalinda. It tasted like vegan cream cheese and not cashew, so that was a treat. I couldn’t pick out what fruit was in the red sauce, but something vaguely raspberry-y.
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