Sassafraz is located in the posh Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto. This restaurant is housed in a quaint yellow Victorian house at the corner of Bellair and Cumberland. A celebrity destination, this restaurant serves a French-inspired Canadian cuisine in a fine dining setting.

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Sassafraz consists of a formal dining room and a bar/bistro. The restaurant has a huge skylight and is done up in a gorgeous white and cream color scheme. A waterfall wall is the main attraction of this upscale restaurant.

We were at Sassafraz for lunch. The menu offered a nice selection of dishes. I started my lunch with the roasted beet carpaccio with goat cheese mousse and blackberry pearl, fennel cress, walnut dust and maple glaze while my partner opted for the roasted squash and red lentil soup with cumin cream. Other starters that seemed good were the chowder with crab, smoked bacon, potato and celery with sereno chili oil and the baby spinach with pomegranate vinaigrette, honey toasted almonds and shaved chèvre noir.

The options for main course were scallops, rainbow trout, jambalaya, duck, tenderloin and chicken. Even though the menu wasn't huge, it definitely had something for everyone. For the main course, I selected the jambalaya while my partner ordered the seared rainbow trout. The jambalaya or the spicy Creole style with chicken, and andouille sausage, clams, gulf shrimp and tomatoes had the right amount of spice to give it a kick and was full of flavor. The seafood was very fresh and this dish was a delight to eat. My partner’s seared rainbow trout with carrots, fennel and kohlrabi in a manila clam saffron broth with beluga lentils was just as good. According to him, it was probably one of the best trout that he had eaten till date.

The wine menu was extensive and had more than 300 selections to choose from. We selected a nice bottle of Penley estate Hyland Shiraz 2007 to complement our lunch. This bottle needed to be decanted, which our bubbly, outgoing waitress was more than happy to do. A nice selection of cocktails and martinis were also available.

The dessert menu was small and featured caramelized apple tart, steamed toffee pudding, meyer lemon penna cotta, ice creams, chocolate flourless cake and cheesecake. After such a large lunch, we decided to have just ice cream and sorbet. My cinnamon with oatmeal ice cream was simply delectable. However, my partner’s sorbet of green apple and peach clearly failed to impress.

Service throughout lunch was attentive and absolutely perfect. Overall, Sassafraz is an elegant restaurant that is definitely worth a visit. It is an ideal place for those coming with a group of friends or with that special someone. Our rating for Sassafraz is Bombastic.

What I liked: The food and the ambience

What I didn’t like: Nothing much

Rating: Bombastic

Address and Telephone Number:
Sassafraz Restaurant
100 Cumberland St
Toronto, ON M5R 1A6
Neighborhood: Yorkville
Phone: (416) 964-2222

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