At first, we were going to have about 12 people for dinner, but when I called Trevor, they said for any group larger than 8, they require a deposit of $35 per person (basically the cost of one Summerlicious dinner). With that in mind, we scaled down our invite to 7 people since it was ridiculous for anyone to fork out $420 for deposit. Also, it would definitely complicate things if some people decide to cancel last minute. At the end of the day, 6 of us came out for dinner: Sean (@InSeansOpinion), Evelyn (@eviechiu), Jenna (@JennaStothers), Shay (@shalynsays), Summer and I.
Although I did not have any pictures of the actual restaurant, I really liked the decor and atmosphere. The dining room had a pretty low ceiling and was situated downstairs so there were no windows. The lighting was pretty dim (as you can probably tell by my pictures) with a candle on each table. All these elements gave me a very cozy and warm feeling, and yet the furnishings were quite modern. I would give an "A" for the ambiance =) We started things off with a bottle of pinot grigio.
The bread came first, it was very very soft. Yum.
Note, because we had 6 people for dinner I can only comment on what I had. Also, picture quality isn't the greatest because of the dim lighting and sometimes it was hard for me to get a good angle of my friend's dishes.
Appetizer
Lamb pastrami with rye crisp, onion choucroute & russian dressing: I had this appetizer. The was alright, really nothing spectacular.
Ricotta gnocchi with wild leek butter & aged goat cheese (vegetarian): My friends said this was pretty good. Although it looked small, it was filling.
Main Course
Remember how I said with a big group, people usually end up ordering different things on the menu? Well this time, 5 of us ordered the surf and turf, and only Summer ordered something else! Summer said for the sake of my blog post and photos, she will order the pork belly hahaha =D
Surf & turf, dry aged aberta sirloin & jumbo shrimp with goat cheese poutine - I ordered my steak rare and although it came out rare, the steak was really chewy. We all had a hard time cutting the steak (the whole table would shake when we do so), and it surely didn't help that the knives we were given were maybe a teeny bit sharper than normal butter knives. As for the shrimp, it was not jumbo at all. The poutine was average at best - it didn't have much goat cheese in it.
Crispy pork belly with cornbread pudding, chorizo & cider glazed onions - Summer said the pork belly was delicious. She particularly loved the side salad that came with it. I shouldv'e ordered this too!
Dessert
Out of 4 possible dessert choices, we had 3 (nobody ordered the sorbet).
Cookies & cream tiramisu (vegetarian) - Those who had this loved it. They were skeptical at first about the cookies and cream, but the spin on the classic tiramisu turned out yummy.
Crème brulée (vegetarian) - I forgot to ask how this was.
Oh and it came with cookies.
Dark chocolate & caramel torte with peanut butter chantilly (vegetarian) - I had this for dessert. This was probably the best course that night for me. The peanut butter provided just enough sweetness to counter the dark chocolate, which wasn't very bitter. The berries and whipped cream was refreshing with the dense torte.
All in all, I thought my Summerlicious dinner at Trevor was average. I've heard good things about Trevor in terms of their normal menu (especially with the option of adding foie gras to almost anything on the menu). I never form an opinion of a restaurant purely based on my Summerlicious or Winterlicious experience anyway (except for Toula, my worse, and several other's, 'licious experience ever). Having said that, a restaurant with a great 'licious experience would definitely entice me to go back more than one that didn't do so as much.
The best part of the night of course was meeting everyone IRL! Looking forward to more dinner Tweetups in the future =D
