restaurant review: cantine

Restaurant: Cantine
Location: 138 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario
Telephone: 416-923-4822
Website: http://www.cantine.ca/
Meal type: Lunch

Average price per person: $20 CAD

What I had:
(Summerlicious event)
~ sliced bocconcini and roma tomato salad, garnished with fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil
~ spaghettini tossed with a fresh tomato and basil sauce, topped with goat cheese
~ fresh key lime tart served with raspberry sorbet and whipped cream

Ratings:

Comments:
This was my first visit to Cantine, a restaurant my co-workers chose for a lunch outing to take advantage of the Summerlicious deal ($15 for lunch). The restaurant is small, but seating is spacious and comfortable and the decor is really casual and pretty.

The service is quick and friendly and the choices on the regular menu are pretty good, at fairly reasonable prices.

The lunch that I had was fairly normal and wasn't anything spectacular - the tomato and boccocini salad was similar to the one I make at home and the spaghettini was cooked well, but was just pasta. The sauce was a safe tomato/basil sauce, but the goat cheese sprinkled on top was fresh and melted quickly into the pasta, adding a creamier dimension to the sauce.

I do have to mention the dessert though. The key lime "tart" was much creamier than most tarts that I've had and the lime flavour was subtle. It felt more like a lime cheesecake, than tart, but it was lovely and delicious. The crust was light and chewy and the raspberry sorbet was the lightest sorbet I've ever had. Again, the raspberry taste was light and "airy" and overall, the dessert made the meal entirely worth it.