416-964-2222
100 Cumberland Street

We always talked about going, so I bought Mark a gift certificate to Sassafraz. We checked out the online menu & noticed that it was largely meat based, but when we called with our concerns, they offered to create a custom design a vegan meal for him, problem solved. So, we booked the reservation & went.

We dressed up fancy to go there, it is in Yorkville after all. It was a Sunday night, so the restaurant was mostly empty, but it was fine. We were surprised to be seated at a couch side by side, practically facing the window. I guess in the summer it could be nice for people watching.

As I am not a vegetarian, I had lots of possibilities to choose from. As the prices are fairly high, I opted to forgo an appetizer. They brought by a small basket of interesting breads & an amuse bouche, mine being duck with a berry coulis on a cracker that looked very similar to a triscuit. I also had a glass of white wine ($15) to accompany my main dish, which was extremely delicious, though not cheap ($38).

I had a dish composed of shrimp (2 of them, maybe), seared ahi tuna – ok portion & lobster – practically more lobster than shrimp, how odd, on a bed of Israeli couscous. This dish scored really high on the flavour factor, very low on the portion side of things.

Sassafraz is a good place to go if you want the ability to be able to eat an appetizer, an amuse bouche, bread, main course, dessert & wine, as the portions are such that even smaller people like me will have no problem packing them in, but someone else better be paying. My portion for these two items, and half a bottle of water (yes the fizzy italian stuff, I like my San Pellegrino) ran me about $75. Mark’s vegan surprise (a scoop of herbed potato wrapped in thinly sliced carrot in a vegetable broth with white asparagus), equally small, with no protein (quite the shaft) was $24 & he was starving afterwards. With my tuna & lobster, I was fine.

Our waiter was nice enough in the beginning, but when he discovered that we weren’t high rollers, our service level definetely experienced a noticeable drop, compared to the table next to us. Not good. What ticked me off in a significant way was that we ordered a bottle of San Pellegrino ($7) to share. I’m a slower drinker than Mark, so the bottle was going down quick, but instead of asking us if we would like more water, or pouring part into Mark’s glass, part into mine, as I think would have been the right thing to do, the host-like guy grabbed the bottle & poured the entire contents into Mark’s glass leaving me parched! Hello – whatever happened to ladies first? Why not attempt to accommodate us both? Not a way to impress me for sure. I knw the tactic was to get us to purchase another bottle, but they didn’t even ask, so that left a sour taste in my mouth.

It is most unlikely that I would become a regular there, I don’t have money to burn at this point in my life. Though my food was delicious, I wouldn’t say it was good value for the money, but then again, that’s not why people go to Sassafraz. I guess I’m just not a hip, rich Yorkvillian. Oh well. I think I’ll live.