Restaurant Review: Colborne Lane

Just last Saturday I was lucky enough to have had a dinner at Colborne Lane with friends for Claire’s birthday, 7 of us in total. During the reservation taking the host(s) that I talked to were friendly, polite, understanding, and professional. I say understanding only because the original reservation was for 10 then with many cancellations had the number go down to 4 then back up to 7.   Each time we talked they remained friendly, were even going to give us the private room that was reserved for another party that canceled and thought we’d love to have it. Plus the added money I’d pay for the extra attention. I had a look at the room when passing on my way to the individual washrooms they provide for customers -which are outstanding –  just thought I’d add that. The private room would have been great, next time.

We got to the front of the restaurant and  I couldn’t help but look in.  The atmosphere and look of the space is beautiful: gorgeous long bar with a massive white back drop behind it. It’s hard to really describe the whole place, but I know what I felt when sitting at the table and looked around. It had a feeling of minimalist meets contemporary/modern. A very cool design, some of the lamps look like they found them at a garage sale but it all works together nicely.

Enough about the place and the way it looks. We came  for the food. I mean that’s the reason anyone goes to a restaurant – not for the ambiance of the place. Decor can take a back seat to the food in my opinion. It obviously has at the Black Hoof, from what I hear about the place.

We are greeted by a very nice, smiling waiter who offered to fill our water glasses.  One of our early arriving guests had already picked out a lovely white wine for us.  Can’t recall the name of the wine but it was worth the money. This coming from a guy who is just getting into wine and normally has a hard time drinking the stuff, this on the other hand was amazing.

The menu is designed so that the left side of menu is the appetizers, and the right side are the main courses. With the exception of the scallop course which is on the right but is in fact suppose to be on the left. The scallop dish- seared scallops clotted coconut + sweet chili + citrus fruit + nitro crème fraîche. Claire without knowing because she was in the washroom had the scallops as her main thinking a larger portion was coming, no one mentioned the opposite. Oops.

Basically we tried just about everything on the menu between everyone, a couple overlaps but all in all the whole menu. here is what we had for our first course. Oh, I forgot to mention that the waiter at the behest of the chef, told us that the menu is set up for a 3 course meal so we should choose 2 from the left and 1 from the right. We opted for a  2 course meal and then desert.

Parsnip soup
chestnut + shredded duck + huckleberry + truffle powder. This was designed so that the chestnut was actually an essence and looked like a poached egg sitting atop the shredded duck, huckleberry and truffle powder. The parsnip soup was then poured over the “poached egg” (for lack of another description) and melted the chestnut with everything else tableside. Impressive.
Fluke sashimi
yuzu + cauliflower pudding + black sesame + crunchy soy + yaki nori. The fluke was cut so thin and delicate that it melted in your mouth, you could feel the flesh sliding apart with the fat. everything was in perfect balance and seasoned to perfection.
Prawn ceviche
jalapeno + fingerling potato + cilantro + ocean aioli + jicama. I did not get to eat this dish but i know it was good from the smiles of  everyone else.
Crispy wokked squid
caramelized peanut + mango + chinese sausage + nashi pear + thai basil. First, I have to say I have no idea what chinese sausage is except that it worked well with the dish. I’m not sure if it stood out or just played with all the other flavours but I liked it. The squid was cooked perfectly, I think I may have moaned when I took a bite with everything on my fork. But the biggest surprise was the pear, the presentation on this dish was that of a campfire, the pears on the bottom, crossed by the squid and sausage with the peanuts and mango on top. Back to the pear, it was crispy on the outside, so when putting your fork into it gave the feeling of denseness but when you took a bite,  this bursting of flavour and juice came out, I’ve never had a pear like it.

On to the main courses now, which again we basically had the whole right side with some overlapping.

Vegetable tart
white truffle + manchego cheese + verjus + dehydrated tubers. I only had a small bite of this dish and though I was never going to order it, thought it was a nice dish. The guest who ordered it wasn’t impressed ( and I’m quoting here) “tasted like overly pureed baby food.”
Organic sea trout
sweet potato + oyster mushroom + tomato and lime chutney + yellow curry. This one was eaten pretty fast and never had a chance to try it. But I heard good things.
Black cod
saikyo miso + scallion sauce + borage cress + puffed tapioca. This dish I thought was a nicely presented and tasty dish. The borage cress was really good. The trout was perfectly seasoned.
Lamb loin
organic quinoa + medjool date + licorice yogurt + amaranth + black garlic. Never got to taste it but it was presented beautifully and I’m sure that all those flavours worked well together.
Triple seared beef tenderloin
yukon gold + heirloom carrots + caramelized soubise + pickled mustard seed. Three of us at the table ordered this dish. We all loved the presentation which had the yukon gold potatoes on the bottom like a potato cake then the heirloom carrots and the seared tenderloin with the pickled mustard seeds very top. The tenderloin had to have been close to the best I’ve ever had, rich, meaty, tender – oh so tender – cooked perfectly to medium rare and seasoned just the way I like it. The soubise was a great choice to go with everything, there wasn’t alot of sauce but only because the beef didn’t need it.  It had all the juice it needed in the center. I think it was very close to a perfect dish.

Desert was just as great as the rest of the meal.
Chocolate bar + cherries + smoked cream + rooibos ice cream + frozen chocolate powder + banana brulee.
Nitro thai chili ice cream + cardamom caramel + fruit & aloe vera salad.

I realize that I have basically swooned over this review and haven’t mentioned anything bad (except for the tart)  but I really can’t think of anything bad to say about the place, so if anyone has any ideas please feel free to comment. I forgot to mention that we were well taken care of. We were looked after by 3 waiters.

I will be back when the menu changes and  I will be going out to try Chef Claudios new restaurant, Origins, when it finally opens.

I would mention the cost but I’d rather not online only because it was a birthday dinner and don’t want the woman of honor to know.