3187 Yonge Street
416-322-0487

This summer, Wendy and I decided to try out a different restaurant for Summerlicious 2004. Both employed, we opted for the $30 dinner option. We chose Herbs because of they served REAL vegetarian food (note: fish is not vegetarian) and the vegetarian options were thankfully not pasta or pizza. The table d’hote options at Summerlicious includes a salad, entree, and a dessert. Drinks are charged separately.

Located right at Yonge and Lawrence in a very trendy part of the city known as North Toronto.
Decor is gorgeous inside, elegant dark brown suede couch-type seats surround the restaurant with gorgeous art surroundin the walls. Colour scheme seems mediterranean in cakki greens and deep browns and other earth tones.

One awkward moment came before our meal after we ordered. Our water guy brought over the basket full of fresh baked bread, it was kind of strange he only gave us one piece of bread each with a cute little bowl of basil butter. At least we expected a larger piece or we expected him to surrender his basket to us. We felt like tackling him down and taking the basket out of his hands.

Menu is only one page. Wine list is almost 15 pages. Appetizers range in price from $7-$10. Entrees range from $14.95-$32.00. They serve mostly meat, chicken, and fish dishes, but there is one vegetarian dish for $24 (called the Vegetarian Daily Chef Creation.)

I ordered the starter salad of field mushrooms, asparagus, sweet peppers,
and baby mixed Lettuce in a walnut vinaigrette. Although the salad was served in a large plate, the actual salad was ridiculously small but the taste was orgasmic. I loved the medley of mushrooms, peppers, and asparagus in this light nutty vinaigrette.

My main entree dish was the summer vegetable strudel. This consisted of philo pastry (looked like spanakopita) filled with zucchini, eggplant, squash, served with a mixed bean salad and charred tomato and saffron vinaigrette. This portion was normal and contained two vegetable pastries surrounded by bean salad and drizzled in this yummy vinaigrette that tasted like sun-dried tomatoes.

For dessert, I enjoyed the lime & marscapone tarte (pie) with a mango salsa.
The crust was light, and not greasy. It tasted like a brown sugar, granola , very yummy, and lime tarte was light and fluffy. Mango salsa was sweet and yummy. I think it was the best part of the dessert, so healthy and fresh.

Wendy ordered the chilled sweet pea soup with a little piece of toast with goat’s cheese, very cute. For her main entree, she ordered a huge portion of the atlantic salmon, charred on one side, with sauteed gnocchi, french green beans, cherry tomatoes and spinach topped with warm caper olive and lemon sauce. She loved her dish and she said she was pleasantly stuffed.
For desset, she has the Ontario strawberry bavarois with a sauce of mushed up Champagne berries. We shared our desserts so I enjoyed some of hers while she tasted some of my dessert. Her dessert was very moussy and sweet with tarte raspberry mushy sauce.

To conclude, this elegant French restaurant serves fabulous fresh food, tiny portions but VERY high quality. The wait time is bit long considering the place was empty (we arrived at 5:40pm)
but the service was exceptional. Presentation was artistic and minimalist. They accept all cards.