Don Alfonso 1890
This was the primary reason for us to come to Toronto. My partner saw this restaurant somewhere, and has been yearning for this for a few years. Don Alfonso 1890 is located near the top of the Westin hotel that lies next to the water. We have not been to a Michelin Star Italian based restaurant, so this was something for us to be excited about. In addition, Canada has a “100 best” restaurant list, and in 2023, they rated this restaurant 35 out of 100.
From the site:
The City’s most internationally acclaimed restaurant, Don Alfonso 1890 Toronto has been awarded a Michelin Star in the inaugural Michelin Guide – Toronto 2022. Created in partnership with hospitality icon Nick Di Donato of the Liberty Entertainment Group, Don Alfonso 1890 Toronto is the only North American location of world renowned Michelin Star Chefs Alfonso and Ernesto Iaccarino’s Don Alfonso 1890. Sitting atop the iconic Westin Harbour Castle, on the edge of Lake Ontario, the spacious new location on the 38th floor, offers stunning views of the city skyline and Toronto’s harbor.
Ambiance & Service
To reach the restaurant, you can take any of the elevator. However, the elevator with the sign will only offer a few buttons, so it’s not hard to know which floor to press for. Upon entering the restaurant, we were immediately greeted and seated next to the window overlooking the bay. Despite it being very foggy and cloudy, it was still a spectacular and peaceful view. I can only imagine when there’s more light outside of how serene and amazing the seating would be like.
The service was amazing for a Michelin 1 Star restaurant, as the wait staff was coordinated on prompt on nearly every aspect of dinner service. The pacing of the food was perfect for us, especially given my partner eats about three times slower than I do.
Just a note about Toronto taxes that sales tax is around 13%.
Food
We opted for the $220 Signature Tasting menu, and I opted the “Classic” $120 wine pairing which had wine pairing with nearly every course of the meal. The difference between the classic and wine pairing is the former comes from the vineyards of Italy, and the latter has much further European reach.
The Brainwashed ($14) was nonalcoholic and came with Cedars non-alcoholic gin, apricot cordial, fresh lemon juice, elderflower tonic, and cucumber. This was most definitely a summer-like drink because it was quite refreshing and cool.
The bread was served with an individual portion of olive oil and various bread pieces. The black truffle butter was pretty good.
The First Pairing came with the canapese and was a Ca’Del Bosco, Cuvee Prestige, Extra Brut, Franciacorta Docg, Lombardia, Italy MV. This champagne was a bit more bold than expected, but it did taste extra crispy. They gave a pretty generous pour of this.
The Canapese from right to left came with flaxseed sesame wafer with fermented leek, parmesan organic bison tartare, purple cabbage and tapioca water and tuna ceviche, and a deconstructed caprese salad.
The Second Pairing came with the next dish below and was a Zyme, ‘From Black to White’ Il Blanco, Veneto IGT, Italy 2020.
The L'Anguilla came with eel gelato, acadian sturgeon caviar, rose scented tagliatelle, pulverized egg yolk, and minced wild herbs. This was really good especially with the wine.
The Third Pairing came with the duck and was an Envinate, ‘Lousas’ Vinas de Aldea, from Ribera Sacra, Spain 2021. This was medium body dry red with black pepper, pomegranate, and herbs aromatics.
The L'Anatra came with seared Quebec muscovy duck breast, celeriac puree, pomegranate sauce, baby spinach, anice demi glace, and cinnamon powder. The duck breast as expected was delicious and tender. The pomegranate sauce was a nice sweetness to it.
The Fourth Pairing matched with the ravioli and was an Elio Altare, Langhe Nebbiolo Doc, Piedmonte, Italy 2022. This has a nice rose petal aroma and tastes of nice tannins, red fruits, and moderate acidity.
The I Ravioli came with ravioli stuffed with pheasant Genovese style, king oyster mushroom, grana padano foam, and black truffle. The mushroom was OK, but the ravioli itself was delectable. The filling of the ravioli was dense and meaty. Paired with the red wine, it was excellent.
The Fifth Pairing came with the tuna belly and was an Azienda Agricola F. Tornatore, Etna Rosso Doc, Sicilia, Italy 2020. This has notes of red berries and cherries. It definitely hsa some tannins and acidity but is very bold with flavor.
The Il Tonno came with P.E.I. Otoro, puttanesca style, red cherry tomato sauce, nocellara olive puree, dried capers, and smoked eggplant pesto. This was basically bluefin tuna belly. This had a mild fishy flavor to it surprisingly, but reminded me a bit of the Chinese style fish where it’s cooked in a mirin-based soy sauce medley. I thought this was just OK, but the puttanesca sauce was quite good. I thought the dish needed a bit more pickling to counter the single dimensional flavors.
The Sixth Pairing came with a bison tenderloin and was a Tenuta Di Collosorbo, Brunello Di Montalcino Docg, Toscana, Italy 2018. This was bold, but it was absolutely delicious with the bison dish.
The Il Bisonte came with organic Manitoba tenderloin wrapped in layered swiss chard, buffalo mozzarella, salsa verde, and San Marzano red chili reduction. This was basically similar to a beef wellington, and it was phenomenal. The bison was dense and full of flavors. Coupled with the sauces and condiments, it was all really amazing.
The Seventh and Last Pairing came with dessert and was a Fattoria Zerbina, ‘Arrocco’, Romagna Albana Passito Docg, Emilia-Romagna, Italy 2021. This dessert wine was very refreshing and just perfectly sweet for my palette.
The Amalfi Coast came with vegan lemon mousse, orange marmalade, crunchy yuzu chocolate, carrot-green apple sorbet, and macaron crumble.
The Chef Selection of House Made Petit Four came with the following (from 5 o clock, clockwise):
- 60% dark chocolate truffle
- yellow lemon with citrus
- black sesame cracker with parfait
- chilled raspberry parfait with 24K gold leaf
These were all really good as anticipated.
They gave us a cork stopper with the Don Alfonso name on it, which I thought was really cool. This is something that restaurants in NYC don’t really hand out, but it’s nice that Don Alfonso provided a takeaway gift.
Final Verdict
Don Alfonso 1890 is a very amazing Michelin Star restaurant that we highly recommend if you ever visit Toronto. Not only the food is pretty good, but the wine pairing and scenic views are amazing as well. It’s pretty easy to get reservations here, and we’re really glad that despite that, their standards are still reasonably high.
Yelp Jabs
Decent food with amazing view. However this restaurant doesn’t feel like a Michelin 1 star. Food was pretty standard and not very creative.
I think the restaurant definitely feels Michelin grade. It’s definitely comparable to many of the Michelin 1 star restaurants in New York City.
The pasta was al dente (which appeared to be on purpose) … Not only was the meat gamey, but the crust (which appeared to mimic a Wellington) was limp and easily fell off the meat.
Yes, this Elitist doesn’t seem to realize that most do cook pasta to be intentionally al dente. Otherwise your pasta becomes mushy in texture which appeases a different crowd. Limp or not, that’s the purpose of the fork. To jab the crust and meat together. For my bison “wellington”, the crust was flaky and easy to pull off, but it definitely wasn’t as fragile as this Elitist was complaining about.
Revisions
- Dec 27, 2023 - Initial revision.