The Globe and Mail
February 28, 2009

JOANNE KATES'S TOP 5 RESTAURANTS

by Joanne Kates

Toronto is the most accessible city of edible neighbourhoods in the world. From cheap ethnic to gourmandizing excesses, it's all there - for less money than in New York or London, and better tasting than in Los Angeles or Frankfurt.

(under $120 for two)

Nota Bene Comfort food meets grand luxe: Duck salad is crispy duck shreds atop crunchy green papaya slaw jazzed with bitter sumac and sweet coriander, gentled with toasted cashews.

The apps are all like that - relatively inexpensive ingredients for painless prices (salad; $15), packing big flavour punch. Gourmandizing thrill-seekers adore octopus salad with smoked green peppers and young fennel in contrast to bitter rapini and piquant olives.

Suckling pig and boudin noir tart is what happens when a real chef takes on pork.

180 Queen St. W.; 416-977-6400

Harbord Room Is a hip wine bar with heavenly bistro food. Calamari, clams and chorizo is what happened when a downtown hipster renovated Portuguese clams with pork, spicy and ungreasy. Who would have imagined how much flavour could be packed into pumpkin risotto? Roast chicken breast is moist and crisp-skinned, with a purée of Jerusalem artichokes (spiked with apple and vanilla) surrounded by a moat of foie gras sauce.

89 Harbord St.; 416-962-8989 Nyood Terrific tapas: Octopus is startling in its tenderness, tossed with blood orange, shaved crisped Jerusalem artichokes, fresh basil and olives. Chef cures thin-sliced very fine steak with olives, which leaves it raw but builds a thin crust of olive piquancy, and serves it over thin-shaved citrus-marinated fennel with grilled young radicchio. Such is Nyood's collection of complex little bijous. 1096 Queen St. W.; 416-466-1888

Splurge ($150 for two) Madeline's Arguably the best nouvelle Chinese food in the world - witness crispy lobster beurre noisette, chili lime, egg, shallot, lemon balm in lettuce wrap. This is a fat nugget of sweet lobster in gossamer egg batter, with brown butter in a lettuce nest.

Crispy garlic Cornish hen with gorgonzola cheese sauce and sautéed apple is super-juicy hen with skin so crisp it's almost Peking duck, and caramelized apple with gorgonzola sauce.

The honey orange chili glaze on duck breast is a knife-edge balance of hot, sweet and sour.

601 King St. W.; 416-603-2205

Cheap (under $50 for two):

Caplansky's Zane Caplansky dry-cures briskets for two weeks and smokes them over hickory for 10 hours, producing an amalgam of traditional corned beef and southern barbecue - smokier than the former and more fatty and less sugary than the latter. His dingy second-floor space also dishes up poutine, fabulous fresh fries topped with smoked beef gravy and cheese curds. 12 Clinton St.; 416-500-3852 Moderate