Richmond Station
1 Richmond Street West | 647-748-1444 | richmondstation.ca
Richmond Station is one of the newer restaurants in the downtown core, opened last fall by Top Chef Canada winner Carl Heinrich. Located on a section of Richmond St. W. that celebrates concrete, the restaurant is easy to miss, flanked as it is by two cavernous entrances to underground carparks.
Signage, too, is scant and what little is there is reminiscent of TTC subway signage. According to the marketing minds behind the venture, this calls attention to the restaurant as a waystation, a local “stopping place.” Hence the name: Richmond Station. To further emphasize the point, hung on the walls are enlarged black and white archival prints featuring scenes from the building of the TTC in the 1940s.
The resemblance to Toronto’s beleaguered transit system fortunately ends there — inside, the clean lines, the sparkling white tiles and the light streaming in through the giant round, front window immediately make you want to pull up a seat and sit down. The space is a split-level arrangement, with a narrow, high-ceilinged front room dominated by a long bar. At the back is a second room, squarish and with a long window into the open kitchen. Off in a corner is a tiny party room — if your parties run to guest lists of fewer than 10.
The dining room is crowded, but the service is nimble — my coat is whisked away, water is poured and the specials announced all within five minutes of my arrival. The menu and the wine list are both small but well-selected. There are plates to share and plates for one, and both carnivores and herbivores will be able to dine (herbivores will have a greater selection if they are the sort who count fish as a vegetable). The regular menu is supplemented with a daily chalkboard feature. The day my companion and I dine, there’s a prix fixe lunch — just $19! You get your choice of appetizer (potato chowder with pork broth and parsnip chips or quinoa salad with veggies) and choice of main (korean fried chicken with jicama slaw, kimchi and sriracha mayo, or a sliced beef sandwich with cheddar, arugula, sauerkraut and fries).
My dining companion opts for the prix fixe, choosing the quinoa salad and the beef sandwich. I’m intrigued by the regular menu offerings: I start with polenta fries ($7) and choose the wild boar ragu ($23) as my main.
The food arrives quickly, but not before I’ve learned from our neighbours to the right that they will be serving motion materials on Tuesday; from our neighbours to the left, I learn some intriguing details of a pending shopping mall development — before they glare at me and switch to rapid-fire French. Take note: Richmond Station is cozy and better suited to gossiping with colleagues than brokering business deals.
The polenta fries arrive and the little sticks are plated, Jenga-style, on a rectangular dish. Polenta is a corn-based dish and a starchy staple of Italian diets that’s used to sop up the flavours of its companion foods. Polenta is like a sponge – and can taste like one if neglected. But this polenta is lightly crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside. Heaven. Served with a spicy mayo and a housemade marinara sauce, these come close to deep-fried perfection.
My companion’s quinoa is a pretty dish, with flecks of colour from the zucchini, radish and sunflower seed sprouts. And it’s more than just décor, as the flavours and textures are wonderfully fresh. The red vinaigrette dressing is bold and elevates what could be just another trendy salad into something magnificent.
The wild boar ragu, made from a braised boar shoulder brought in from Stratford, smells wonderful. But will it live up to the aroma? Exotic meat dishes are wasted when chefs — through neglect or expediency — rush the preparation, resulting in dishes that are achingly disappointing. The Richmond Station ragu oozes deep, rich flavour, which suggests someone took their time with this dish. The ragu is paired with an orecchiette pasta, that I’m delighted to see is properly done al dente. The combination of the firm pasta with the tender boar works well, though my dish is a bit scant on actual boar.
Our server suggests dessert and we try the chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream, walnut sponge and salted toffee. Now, this might be the most transcendent dessert on the planet but the chef faces an enormous plating challenge — everything here is brown, or a shade of brown. The resulting dish is an assortment of brown blobs, plops and smears. This is not dessert for the faint of heart. Or for pre-adolescent boys.
To break up the monochromatic colour palette, the kitchen has opted for multiple textures. A crisp chocolatey disc. A crunchy bit of salted toffee. Torn chunks of, well, sponge (which my dining companion and I try before concluding they please the eye more than the palate). An intense chocolate cake. Creamy ice cream. There is nothing wrong with this dessert and the effort is admirable…but it’s still brown.
The food here is done well, reasonably priced and the kitchen hasn’t sacrificed substance in the pursuit of form. Skeptical as I am of marketing bumph, Richmond Station actually is a local stopping place, successfully capturing the feel of a quality neighbourhood restaurant despite being located in the financial core.
Judge Foodie’s verdict:
Highs: the food and the flavours; the value
Lows: forced intimacy with other diners
Kirsten Thompson is a Toronto-based research lawyer and commercial litigator. Since her call to the bar in 2000, she estimates that her restaurant to courtroom ratio has been approximately 14:1. Thoughts? Comments? Ideas for a review? Email her. Follow Judge Foodie on Twitter: @Judge_Foodie