If you know me, you know that I am a huge fan of Doug McNish’s food (here’s one review, and another, and another, and yet another). Of course, when he announced that he was launching a new menu in February, I used needing to write a review as an excuse to go to his Thursday and Friday night dinner series at his Public Kitchen. Unfortunately I wrote most of the below review and never published it, and now, Doug announced that May 26th is not only the last time he is serving this menu, but he won’t be hosting dinners at his Public Kitchen again until the fall because he is moving into summer mode when he is at two farmers’ markets every week plus festivals in Toronto, New York and Chicago through the summer.
When I sat down at dinner in April, I had the usual problem of not being able to decide on just one of McNish’s dishes – I wanted to get four, at least!
My mom and I decided to get a caesar salad and beet ravioli as appetizers, which are two of Doug’s classic dishes – we were saving the more intricate dishes for the main course! The salad included sun-dried tomatoes and nutritional yeast, adding a zest to the classic flavour of caesar! The beet ravioli wasn’t my type of dish, but my mom loved it as usual! For our mains, I took the plunge and got his new ramen bowl – this includes heirloom wheat ramen noodles, mushroom broth, vegan egg white and egg yolk, charred scallion, wilted baby spinach, shiitake mushrooms, nori strips, sesame, ginger and miso drizzle, and pickled ginger. Needless to say, this was one heck of a dish! The egg, which I normally wouldn’t associate as being good with ramen, added an extra flavour that really made the dish wow me. Of course, it is not Doug’s dinner without his French Onion Soup (his recipe is one of the best I have ever had!). Alongside my ramen (which is MASSIVE), I ordered a bowl of this to share with my mom, because it is always so good! I wasn’t actually able to finish my ramen, so I took the leftover to school the next day for lunch – it was just as awesmazing! For dessert, we enjoyed a few classic items – his rice crispy square and his peanut butter fudge (which is still my favourite kind of fudge!).
Hopefully I will get to Doug’s before May 26th to have his fondue – it definitely looks awesmazing and I don’t want to wait until fall to try it!
Doug’s dinner menu includes a ton of creative dishes that I definitely recommend you try if you make it, otherwise, get to his Public Kitchen for brunch or to grab take-out or come to the farmers’ markets he goes to! His breakfast at Brickworks might just be my favourite meal of the week, have you been there?
Note to my readers: I am sorry that I haven’t posted in over a month as I am right in the middle of culminating projects at school and exams, and haven’t had time to write, edit and publish my reviews. I assure you that I am eating and will be continuing to share before I go away this summer!
