Parlor Foods & Co. is located on King Street West just near Spadina. Being in the entertainment district, it is very easy to just walk right by it (I sure have done that!). Look out for the red door next time you walk down King West.
Walking in, you're greeted by a couple high tables, a hallway looking into the main dining room area, and a bar that looks very well stocked.
Although they have an extensive whisky bar, I decided to order one of the craft beers that they had available.
I haven't been here to eat before, but I actually won a free 3 course tasting dinner (chef's choice) from TheEverydayFoodie (@TheEverydayFoodie) back in December, and am finally cashing it in. I've heard many great things about this place so I couldn't wait to try it out.
We started off with two appetizers, a salad and a soup.
This soup was a kale puree with cauliflower cream and puffed barley. Although it doesn't look very appealing (it's hard to make anything kale look appetizing in my opinion!), it was actually very good. I loved how smooth the soup was with the little crunches of the puffed barley.
The salad was a smoked beet salad. Topped with roasted mushrooms, sliced pickled eggs, little crisps, and crumbled goat cheese, the beets were then also drizzled with a herb oil, red wine and maple gastrique sauce. I wasn't a huge fan of beets so I didn't have high expectations for this. However, I was actually very pleased when eating all the ingredients together in one bite.
And then it was time for the main feast: a deluxe surf 'n turf combo of meat and seafood.
These chunks of beef were cooked to a perfect medium rare, as you can see in the photo. It was served with potatoes, baby carrots, roasted oyster mushrooms, wilted spinach and drizzled with a red wine jus. This was absolutely divine, and definite favourite. The flavours worked very well together.
This pan seared Arctic char with brussel sprouts and cauliflower was my favourite out of the two. It was flakey and seasoned very well. It was light and the veggies on the side were delicious as well.
For dessert, we had this white chocolate chai pave with a coconut bark on the bottom but topped with candied orange, orange jam, and a current jus.
The other dessert we had was this chocolate fudge brownie sundae with salted peanuts, calvados ice cream, a banana flambé and cherry compote. These two desserts were quite interesting and not something I'd order just looking at the menu. The brownie was my favourite part of dessert.
Overall, I had a really good time here. Service was great, and the food came out at a steady pace. We weren't rushed to leave and the food was very delicious. I would definitely recommend going here for dinner, (and whisky if you're a whisky drinker).
*This meal was complimentary (thanks Jacky!), however, please note that all my opinions made are my own.*
