ARTS & CULTURE
16 Obiter Dicta
Jurisfoodence: Adventures in the TO food scene
Food Adventure #3: Patria
anthony choi › staff writer
Name: Patria
Location: 478 King Street West
Category: Spanish tapas
Atmosphere: Upscale, trendy, friendly
Additional info: Has outdoor patio. Reservations
recommended.
Website: patriatoronto.com
T
oday, w e w ill be reviewing Patria – an
acclaimed Spanish tapas eatery that was
ranked by Toronto Life as one of the Top 10
Best Restaurants of 2013. Located at the end
of an unassuming alley in the Entertainment District,
the restaurant is the brainchild of Hanif Harji (of
Kultura fame) and Charles Khabouth (Ultra Supper
Club, La Société), whose prior enterprises have
arguably focused more on glamorous, no-expensespared venues than on the actual food. Patria,
however, is a step in a different direction for the
two, with culinary quality becoming the equal if
not number one priority. In fact, Mr. Harji and his
executive chef went the distance to try and make the
place as authentically Spanish as possible, apparently
spending a good 16 months travelling about the
Iberian peninsula researching and testing authentic
recipes, and hunting down the necessary ingredients,
equipment, and staff.
ê Photo credit: where.ca
Upon entering the premises, take a moment to just
soak in the surroundings, as the venue itself is dropdead gorgeous from an aesthetic point of view, with
its full-length portraits and unique cross-stitched
fabric wall design, down to the white marble tapas
bar that anchors the center of the room.
The menu, written in a mixture of Spanish,
Catalan, and English, comprises of several parts:
tapas del bar (small plates), embutidos (Spanish
charcuterie), quesos (cheese), ración (shared plates),
carne (meat dishes), and arroz (rice-based dishes),
as well as daily specials. My friend and I, upon the
recommendation of the chef (who like the rest of
the service staff was most friendly and charming),
ordered five plates to share between the two of us. To
begin the night, we started off with some absolutely
delicious dates that were wrapped in sumptuous
bacon and topped with manchego cheese and
guindillas peppers (datiles con tocino ibérico - $9).
This was followed up with deep-fried potato balls
filled with chorizo and aioli sauce with a splash of
spicy piquillo sauce to the side, which had the perfect
mixture of outside crispiness and inside melt-inyour-mouth creaminess (bombas con salsa brava $12). The palacios chorizo ($7) was impeccable, albeit
rather sparse in quantity (the dish comically came
and went within the minute). From the daily specials
we ordered some black cod with parsley coulis ($25),
which was simply top-notch in quality (the meat was
so tender that it melted on one’s tongue). The only
disappointment of the night was the fried pigs’ ears
(orejas de cerdo fritas - $5), which beside the fact
that one could barely taste any trace of the paprika or
oregano that it was ostensibly cooked with, just felt
like we were chewing on overly fried French fries.
Drink-wise, Patria perhaps has the largest
selection of Spanish wines in all of Canada
(unsurprising given that the restaurant reportedly
spent over $120,000 importing wine across the
Atlantic by the container-load). As both of us were
more cocktail kind of people, however, we both tried
their Spanish Negroni (which to be fair did not taste
any different from your typical negroni) and Spanish
Manhattan (an interesting sweeter and lusher spin
of the original) instead. As a warning, however, the
cocktail prices, just like the wines, were well above
the downtown norm (both my drinks were $17 each).
Ultimately, if you have an insatiable craving for
some Spanish tapas or just Spanish cuisine in general,
while enjoying a simultaneous experience of visual
and gastronomic splendour, and have some room in
the budget to spend, Patria is the place to be. u
fin a l SCORE