Eight years ago, Cindy and I spent some time in the U.S. living with a vegetarian couple - I decided to go veg for the duration of the trip to see whether I was up to it and, before we knew it, Cindy and I were both enjoying the smugness of being meat-free. One of the key moments that tipped us into sticking with it happened in Toronto, when we stumbled onto high-end veg place Fressen. It was veg food like we'd never realised it could be and has become one of our fondest food memories. So it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I used some free time on a work trip in Toronto to revisit. Could Fressen possibly be as good as we remembered? Was it only so impressive because we were such naive vegos? Or is it truly a veg dining Mecca?
Well, good news everybody: it's still great! To be fair, we've definitely eaten fancier food, but Fressen does a similar thing to Shakahari in Melbourne or (the sadly departed) Sirens in Hobart - high quality, well-presented, slightly pricey veg meals.
It's a pretty popular place - all the tables were booked or full. Luckily they squeezed me in at the bar and left me with the menu. Which. is. massive. Seventeen appetisers and ten mains, most of which are gluten-free and all of which are vegan. I had a tough time trying to figure out what to eat - this is the kind of place where you want a biggish group so you can get a taste of heaps of dishes. Alas I was forced to choose just one appetiser and one main.
I kicked things off with the spinach blini (warm avocado and corn salsa sandwiched between fluffy herbed poppy seed and spinach blinis, $9).
What a start! The blinis were puffy, soft and delicious and the salsa mix was a bit tangy and a bit sweet and rich with charred corn pieces and creamy avocado chunks. Amazing.
For my main I was tempted by the grilled black bean seitan but eventually settled on the battered tempeh (herb battered and fried tempeh, topped with a mango coriander salsa and served with fresh sautéed vegetables and roasted potatoes, $16).
This didn't quite measure up to the blinis but it was still a massive and delicious meal. The mango/coriander salsa tasted pretty great but was a bit too liquidy. The tempeh crust was perfect though - crispy and lightly flavoured, housing some excellent tempeh chunks. The veggies were good too and there were loads of them. It was a big meal - way too much on top of the starter for me to check out the dessert menu (which is a shame, because dessert was one of our favourite 2004 Fressen memories).
Fressen is wonderful. The service is lovely - friendly and helpful but happy to leave me quietly reading my book at the bar. The vibe is nice too - moody lighting, polished wood tables and a buzzy (but not deafening) atmosphere. I've got a tough choice for the rest of this week - do I go back or do I explore all the other options that Toronto has to offer? I'm not sure I can wait another eight years for more Fressen.
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Fressen's been around forever, and I don't really know the Toronto blog scene, but a quick search turned up a bunch of very positive reviews in the last year - check out Vegan Band Dude, MeShell in Your City, Might Good Eats, Frank Vs Veganism, One Healthy Munchkin and Might Good Eats for (mostly) positive reviews. Lisa from vegan culinary crusade recommended Fressen to me when I put the call out on Twitter for Toronto tips and also has a short review of their (sadly no longer operational) weekend brunch.
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Fressen
478 Queen Street West, Toronto
416 504 5127 (if you're going on a weekend it's probably wise to book)
Cold tapas 3 dishes for $15, Appetisers $9, Mains $16 (although the combination of GST and tipping means you end up paying a fair bit more than those prices - I've no idea why they list pre-tax prices everywhere, but they do)
478 Queen Street West, Toronto
416 504 5127 (if you're going on a weekend it's probably wise to book)
Cold tapas 3 dishes for $15, Appetisers $9, Mains $16 (although the combination of GST and tipping means you end up paying a fair bit more than those prices - I've no idea why they list pre-tax prices everywhere, but they do)
Accessibility: Fressen has a small step as you go in and is dim and fairly crowded. There's another couple of steps between the bar area and the front room. I didn't check out the toilets, but I think they're somewhere above these steps (see MeShell's comment below). Ordering and payment happens at the table (or bar in my case).
Cool name too; I believe "fressen" in German means "to eat like an animal" and is used in the sense of "to pig out". But perhaps as the name of a vego restaurant it also reminds us that many of the animals eaten by meat-eaters are themselves vegetarian.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great name - I'd just lazily assumed it means 'Fresh'.
DeleteHehe, I was about to comment a similar thing to Brett. :)
ReplyDeleteSounds great - I want to go there - can see why you went veg. The battered tempeh reminds me of the one at the smith st dish and chip shop - but this one looks so much better.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually the desserts that tipped us over the edge in 2004, but I went too crazy on savoury without Cindy there to guide me this time!
DeleteWelcome to Toronto! I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to Fressen - but get out there and try some new spots. There is so many great things to taste.
ReplyDeleteAnd have fun.
I'm already back in Australia! And I sampled widely - look out for reviews of: Sadie's, Lady Marmalade, Commensal, Fresh, Hot Beans, Hogtown Vegan, Vegetarian Haven and Cruda Cafe!
DeleteI loved the Spinach Blini's too! It's really a nice little spot, but I'm always vacillating between liking it a lot, and being kind of indifferent. (I agree with your assessment!)
ReplyDeleteJust a note on accessibility - the restrooms are not easily accessible at Fressen and (as with many restos in Toronto) are down a relatively narrow staircase in the basement.
MeShell - thanks for that note about the restrooms, I'll edit the post to add your info. :-)
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