Sazerac Gastro lounge is the perfect place for an evening of drinks and snacks. It’s also a beautiful space to host an event. It’s located on an unexpected part of King West, a bit past Bathurst.
I was invited to try the 6 course chef tasting menu. This was definitely one of the most interesting restaurants I’ve ever been to in terms of presentation and cooking style. Sazerac Gastro lounge’s new chef (Chef Jesse Chingcuangco) specializes in molecular gastronomy, which mixes science with cooking! He also uses fresh, local ingredients.
We were welcomed by this fantastic cocktail, the French 75 (brut gin, lemon, sugar) it tasted like a tart lemonade.
The first dish was the corn bread. It was moist and consisted of peaches and cream corn and Jalapeno. The aged cheddar and yam butter was fantastic.
The Ice Fish was next (Hamachi, Horseradish snow, red currants), and I was told it was quite good and refreshing. (I don’t eat raw fish).
My favourite feature of the salad was the herb rocks. I’d love to know how they made them.
This Kolapore Springs Trout was my favourite part of the meal. It was tender and full of flavour.
The cucumber, watermelon and dragon fruit sorbet was very refreshing and tasted overpoweringly of watermelon, but in a good way.
The Chantecler Rouge Chicken was certainly an interesting dish. The skin was wonderfully crispy, but I found the chicken too fatty and chewy.
I would describe the final dish, the rhubarb and walnut tartin, as a deconstructed tartin.
It was served in a bold way- the entire dessert was pushed to the edge of the plate. The dish consisted of walnut crumble, raspberry pebbles, rhubarb compete, banana ice cream and strawberry wafer. The strawberry wafer was pretty interesting- dried strawberries dried and sliced into a thin wafer.
I had a very enjoyable evening. I found that the menu didn’t really connect with the Creole side of things (except for the cornbread, and the use of sorrel in the dishes). This is a great place to go if you want to try unique dishes with bold flavours and new presentations. It’s also a fantastic place to grab a cocktail. The mixologist does his job well….all the cocktails were well executed!
Sazerac Gastro Lounge is on 782 King Street West.
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