Kultura Review by Lainey

Before I forget, I'm going to write this quickly and make it extremely short. I'm tired and mostly forgot the details of each dish. Forgive me.

Restaurant: Kultura
Website: http://www.kulturarestaurant.com
Type: 'Global'
Price: ~$60-$100
Location:
169 King Street East, Toronto, ON, M5A1J4
(416) 469-5183
Recommended: No. It's $$ as hell and the food doesn't live up to the price and it's in tiny portions too!
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Let me justify the overall rating. Unfortunately for the price we paid, I was not that satisfied with the food. I enjoyed the food at 7 numbers more and it was much cheaper!
The dinner hurt our wallets and I wouldn't have minded if the food was heavenly.

Environment - 9.5/10
First impression - wow! It is a very classy, trendy and modern place. It is catered to young people with giant wallets. Apparently celebrities have been seen there (which explains the crazy food prices...).
I liked how we had an entire floor (besides the lounge area) to ourselves. It felt like a private room :)
One mild complaint is the lack of a sign outside. I walked right by it not realizing it was the restaurant (since it has no sign, number, nothing). Next minor complaint is the tiny size of the restaurant. I wished the lounge area was a bit further from the dinning area.

Service: 9/10
Fantastic service. Our waiters were friendly, attentive and quick. No complaints!

Food
We opted for the 'dim sum' style where it was about $65 and you get to try 9 different plates.

Samosas: 7/10
Pretty good. Very very very mild spice but I could handle it :)

Some giant Shrimp - 6/10

Was this shrimp genetically modified or something? Nothing special besides the crazy size.

Edamame: 5/10

I'm not American. I'm not a fan of salty things. This was SALTY T__T I blame it on that sauce.

Does anyone remember what this was called? 6/10

It was ok. Nothing special.

Crudo Plate - 6.5/10

It didn't taste too fishy. Not bad.

Shrimp + Chocolate...? 7.5/10

Shrimp and chocolate? What a weird combination! But it worked. It was interesting and different.

Chicken - 8/10

Best dish of the night. I loved the potatoes and tomatoes too. Chicken was good, but could have a bit more flavour.

Lamb - 7/10

It wasn't too bad but not wonderful.


There was some weird phenomenon going on with those 'fries.' The ones at the top were yummy but the ones sitting on the plate where super salty. Eh?!?!

Foodgasm - Italian Chapter Photos

Sorry for the tardiness but here is the link to the pics!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96247&l=f80e9&id=590955183 (it's a public link)

7 Numbers Review by Lainey

I am excited to start a food blog with people. This will also benefit friends of ours who are interested in looking for a place to eat. I hope this helps everyone to find good food!

I am a very tough food critic, but it doesn't mean that I am picky with food. I love food, but I am a very critical person...(in all aspects of life... ^_^).

Restaurant: 7 Numbers on Danforth
Website: http://www.sevennumbers.com
Type: Genuine Italian
Price: ~$40
Location:
307 Danforth Avenue
Toronto, ON M4K 1N7
(416) 469-5183
Recommended: Yes
Overall Rating: 7.5/10

We went on a Thursday evening, yet I think we waited 30 minutes for a table. Supposedly we had a reservation but somehow it disappeared. We were 15 minutes late for the "supposed" reservation anyhow.

I have no pictures. We are relying on Jean for those... ^_^

Environment - 7/10
Casual, small and extremely cozy. The lighting was by candlelight so it was very dark. The atmosphere was nice, casual and laid back, and nothing too fancy.
However the "table cloths" were just large sheets of craft paper. The wine menu was also a huge stack of printed papers on a clipboard. Not exactly user friendly. The food menu was also a ghetto sheet of paper. At least we didn't have to walk up to the bar to see what food was available as Peter suggested.
To their defense though, it seems that their menu changes very often.
I was intrigued by the empty bottles of wine above my head though... :)

Service: 9/10
Our waiter was the greatest. He was very kind, prompt and sociable. He would come to us and ask us how we liked the food at times, and sometimes just chat with us. Fantastic service despite the long wait at the beginning.

Food
A note on selection: If you wanted wine, you had a huge stack of papers to sift through. But if you wanted beer (to Will's demise), you only had 3 choices. The cocktail list looked appetizing too.
Food wise, there was a handful of selection. But we opted for the fixed menu deal. $27/person for a group of 5 or more. It is "dim sum" style where everyone can try each dish, but everyone had their own main course dish.

Note: Unfortunately I have the worst memory ever so i don't remember the names of everything I have eaten. Hopefully the others remember and so I can edit the names of the foods after... :)

AntiPastas

The salad with cheese (forgot name...): 8/10
Simple, yet really good. I loved the cheese, BUT I wish that the cheese bits were smaller and scattered more throughout.

Insert name for thingy that is like a Panzerotti but isn't: 7/10
Tasty. Once again the cheese inside was really nice (pattern I am noticing here, this restaurant is good with cheese!). However I have a huge complaint about texture. It was covered in sauce and this made it soggy. On top of that, the sauce was a bit salty. The sauce should have been placed on the side.

The cheese + tomato dish: 8/10
Beautiful presentation...and what a unique dish. I really liked the 'cheese ball.' It was light, flavourful and had good texture. But the tomatoes were a bit of a disappointment as they paled in comparison to the cheese. Unless the cheese was the highlight of the dish...

Calamari: 8.5
It tasted very good, and texture wasn't too bad (considering that it is squid). Presentation needs a bit of work though, rather than throwing the calamari into a pile on a plate.

The other salad with bread bits: 5.5/10
Nothing special at all, but the bread bits (no...not croutons) were a nice touch.

Pastas

Spagetti dish:
It was everyone's favourite pasta dish, but I almost died from my first bite. It was spicy! So I can't evaluate this dish since it was too spicy for me...

Lasagna: 8.5/10
Really good and the veal bits were a nice touch. Possibly one of the best lasagnas I've ever had. It was a tad bit too salty, but it was probably because of the veal.

Other pasta dish with penne: 7/10
Simple, but good for what it was.

Main Course

At this point I was already quite full...

Horse Meat: 4/10
First time having horse meat. It was chewier than expected. Now I'm not sure if it was the meat or the way it was marinated, but it was darn salty! What a disappointment, but at least I can say I have tried horse meat.

Veal: 7/10
It wasn't spicy, but had this "sharp" flavour. It was drenched in sauce too and this made it a bit too salty. It was pretty good, but unfortunately I was quite full at this point...

European Sea Bass: 7/10
Jean's complaint was that it tasted like "Chinese cooked fish" haha. I thought it was pretty good though, but a tad too "fishy" for me as well.

Rainbow Trout fish: 5/10
Too salty!!!

Vegetable dishes:
At this point I was suffering from being so full. I didn't try the two veggie dishes.

Dessert
But...I had room for a bite or two...

White and dark chocolate mousse: 9/10
Excellent...orgasmic. The texture was light and fluffy, despite the fact that it was a heavy dessert. It wasn't too rich and sweet, just perfect. It was really cute and small too.

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I'm off to the Cheesecake Factory in the US next week! Look forward to that review!