The Carbon Bar, a gorgeously designed restaurant located on Queen Street East, seemed like a perfect little date night restaurant to go to with one of my faves.
From the same owners of Nota Bene, I was excited to see what they would do with The Carbon Bar. Southern/Texan cuisine and succulent meat slow-roasted in an actual wood fire pit? Hells yeah.
To start off, we ordered the Cabrito Papusa ($13). It was a goat-stuffed masa tortilla, that was fried on the outside to provide a hard crispy shell. On the side, it included an in-house salsa and 'guajillo date jus' that would pair the meat in the tortilla perfectly.
This dish was good. I was scared that the goat meat might taste a little too gamey for my liking, but it was prepared so that it didn't have that overpowering after taste. The sauce complimented the meat well. You just have to make sure you eat it quickly because the tortilla gets a little soggy if you wait too long.
For our main course, we decided to get two entrees and split them.
First up, we decided to order the Beef Brisket from the Wood Fire Pit ($19).
As per their menu, their Beef Brisket is "dry rubbed with sea salt and black pepper and enhanced by the smoke of white oak and cherry wood that smoulders in their wood fire pit." Amen.
It was so good! I really enjoyed this dish. Only thing that was missing was that it didn't come with enough pieces!
Lastly, we ordered the Octopus & Lobster Gumbo ($23), which was a tomato-based mixture of octopus and lobster with okra, sausage, hominy corn, poblano peppers and chorizo.
As a seafood lover, I am not particularly a big fan of octopus and lobster (actually the only two types of seafood I don't like). However, the waitress highly recommended this dish so why not? I decided to give it a try, and I was glad I did. All the different textures blended with the tomato-base well and the little kick of spice made the dish.
Oh, I also ordered one of Carbon's Original drinks, The Volstead (Hendrick's gin, Amaro Montenegro, cucumber, agave, lemon, and organge bitters) which was really good.
Thanks Mr. Bigourdan, Mr. Prevedello, and Chef Lee for the great meal!
99 Queen St. E.
Toronto, ON, M5G 1S4
Phone: (416) 947-7000
