Louix Louis
For this 2023 Christmas to New Years holiday week, we spent time in downtown Toronto for the very first time. The unfortunate reality that we faced was that Toronto did not have a lot of restaurants opened on Christmas that weren’t original Chinese. So we were stuck with 3 options, and we chose this because of the dessert option. This was a special Christmas dinner at $175 CAD ($132 USD today) per guest.
From their site,
LOUIX LOUIS, located on the 31st floor of The St. Regis Toronto, is a place for daily indulgence, a stiff drink after work, an all-out spread with your favourite people, or something totally unexpected. We take our craft seriously. We’re perfectionists in the kitchen, and conversationalists at the bar — the kind of place where, for better or worse, everyone will learn your name.
Simply put — we’re connoisseurs of the really good stuff. Because isn’t that what life is all about? Who knows what tomorrow will bring but today, we eat.
Ambiance & Service
The interior looked very swanky, as people were dressed up for a night out. But the picture on the website didn’t quite match what was observed. The interior was very dark, and you don’t really get to see the shiny, spiffy decor of everything around. We were seated in lounge type seats, and my partner mentioned that their bench wasn’t as comfortable as my individual seat.
The service was good, and the wait staff recommended good wines. One thing I learned from Toronto was they bring the card machines to your table and ask you to swipe/tap, just like London. It’s actually quite efficient and secure. It makes me wonder why New York City restaurants still do it themselves.
Just a note about Toronto taxes that sales tax is around 13%.
Food
The Lever Du Soleil ($30 CAD, $22.63 USD today) came with Hendrick’s Flora Adora, DOM Benedictine, Passion Fruit Puree, Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge, and Lemon. According to the menu, it’s inspired by the color of the last summer sunset, and it’s described as spicy, bright, and fun. There is a touch of spice at the last few sips which will supposedly urge you to get another. Taste wise, I thought this was pretty good. It was very floral with a lot of citrus notes.
The Riesling ($18 CAD, $13.58 USD today) came from Tawse Winery from Niagara, Ontario, Canada. It was bright, crispy, and not as acidic as I normally expect from rieslings. It had sweetness, but it paired well with my dishes below.
The bread came out warm and soft, and it was served with some truffle butter. It was pretty good.
The amuse was some eggnog cream with caviar. There wasn’t anything special about it.
The Wagyu Carpaccio came with pickled mushroom, arugula, parmesan, and fresh périgord truffle. The carpaccio was decent though it reminded me more of slit roast beef. The mushrooms were very pickled, but the truffle really did nothing for this.
The Provençal Grilled Shrimp came with garlic butter, ratatouille, and winter greens. The grilled shrimp was grilled perfectly and quite tasty. The ratatouille had some olives in it, so you can imagine tomatoes and olives makes the sauce taste almost like a puttanesca.
The Canadian Lobster came with a half lobster, squid ink pasta, and sauce americane. It felt like they put lobster meat in the head portion. The noodles were a little overcooked, and it had a mushy, doughy texture to it. The sauce had strong lobster shell flavors to it that helped it taste OK. There was definitely something a little off with this. It felt like the seasoning wasn’t quite there, or just the idea of the dish fell flat due to the contrast between the squid ink pasta flavors and the lobster.
The Beef Duo came with AAA tenderloin, wagyu short rib, boulangère potatoes, and sauce périgueux. The tenderloin was pretty good, and the short rib tasted like it was braised. This all tasted pretty decent.
The Bûche de Noël came with chocolate sponge, dark chocolate ganache, tonka mascarpone cream, and pistachio cake. This was pretty bad. The cake was dry, and the chocolate wasn’t even decent.
The Baked Alaska came with roasted chestnut cake, rosemary fernet ice cream, ivoire white chocolate, and toasted meringue. I think the name of this dessert was misleading. It had a charred meringue top, and the chestnut cake was insanely dry. There wasn’t much ice cream. None of the flavors really worked together, especially since they chose the wrong flavors to accent. For example, rosemary can be quite strong and unpleasant if used in large amounts in this ice cream. The overall dessert was anything but a Baked Alaska.
The Chocolate Ganache bites came with dark chocolate and was infused with bourbon. This was OK. My partner thought the bourbon was a little strong, but I thought it was fine.
Final Verdict
For a special Christmas dinner, the meal tonight was not really worth the money. If you really feel like throwing money away because you had no other option, then maybe that’s fine. The restaurant itself though needs to do better in the food department, though I’m sure the drinks are all pretty good.
Yelp Jabs
The Kings cakes is 13 layers of chocolate bliss. I’d been looking forward to it with anticipation all week. It did not disappoint.
We saw this monstrosity, and it was literally just a 13-layer chocolate cake with some dressing. The size of it is huge, but if the cake is anything like what we were served tonight, I’d be quite unimpressed with it.
We tried the waygu short ribs and king salmon. Waygu short rib is about 6-7oz, braised over many hours to make it tender
What this Elitist doesn’t understand is if you take almost any (fresh) short rib and braise it, it’s going to be tender.
Revisions
- Dec 25, 2023 - Initial revision.