My favourite type of workout is where I lift... Lift pasta, that is.
Trattoria Nervosa is located in a cute yellow house in Yorkville proudly serving Southern Italian cuisine since 1996. 1996!! 20 years of experience in serving delicious food? Who could say no?
Nervosa (@NervosaTO) has four spaces where you can eat - a dining room downstairs, a patio outside, a dining room, and a patio area upstairs. And since it was a beauty day, the patios were open! As a lover of natural lighting, of course we opted for the upstairs patio.
As someone once wise said, "Brunch without cocktails is just a sad, late lunch." ;)
With that said, we ordered some cocktails to start. I love G&Ts, so when I saw that they had a complete separate section on the drinks menu for different gin and tonics, I had to order one.
This is the Gin & Old Street (botanist gin, blackberry, mint, lemon juice, and tonic water). J ordered nonino on the rocks, or 'rock' since it was just on one huge ice cube.
After ordering, we were given some bread to munch on while we waited for our food to come. I'm not typically a huge fan of bread, but the bread was just so fresh and it tasted so good with olive oil. But luckily before we were able to eat lots of the bread, our appetizers came...
What is this heavenly looking arrangement, you ask? Well, while looking through the antipasti menu, we saw two boards: charcuterie and cheese. Unfortunately (or fortunately hehe), there was no option to order half of each board. But we were advised that if you wanted both boards, you'd have to order both. So.... That's what we did.
With four different cured meats and three different cheeses, I present you our tagliere di formaggi and misto. We were able to choose which three cheeses we wanted (out of a selection of 6). Each component to the board was essential and delicious.
I think we spent an hour sipping our cocktails and nommin' on this board lol because the server was relieved when he saw that we were finally eating our antipasti. Oops :)
For our mains, we ordered the Capensate dish and their famous pasta dish, Mafalde ai Funghi.
Portobello, porcini, crimini, and oyster mushrooms (basically a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms) mixed in with parmigiano, truffle paste, and a light cream sauce - brings you this beautiful plate of pasta.
The capensate dish was actually served on a board. With four juicy scallops (seared perfectly, might I add) on a chickpea puree and a side of a baby kale salad with an artichoke vinaigrette topped with pistachios. The description is a mouthful to read, but also a mouthful of deliciousness. Each and every ingredient worked well together, and the man sitting next to us agreed!
For dessert, we got a chance to try the Tiramisu (lady finger, coffee, and mascarpone cheese layered in a jar topped with cocoa nibs) and the Lemon Semifreddo (lemon custard, pistachio crumb, and honey toffee). I am a sucker for tiramisu, so this is a definite yes. The lemon semifreddo surprised me though. It was a cold, semi-frozen custard - so refreshing after such a meal!
Nervosa is under the umbrella of Gusto 54 Restaurant Group, who also own Gusto 101 and Pai in Toronto. They will be opening up a sister restaurant to Gusto 101 on the east end called Gusto 501 real soon, and I can't wait! But until then...
Step on over to Bloor Street and visit Yorkville! You'll find a yellow house on the corner of Yorkville and Bellair Street.
*This was a complimentary meal; however, please note that all my opinions made are my own.*
