Città (Twitter: @CittaToronto, Facebook: Citta Toronto) is a new Italian restaurant located at CityPlace, the condos on Spadina across from the Rogers Centre. The rustic urban Italian eatery is the newest restaurant venture by Hanif Harij, the successful restaurateur behind Patria, Weslodge, Byblos and NAO Steakhouse. Harij has brought on board executive chef Ben Heaton of The Grove and David Mattachiono of Terroni to helm the kitchen at Città.
The Città space is basically an L-shape with a dining area on each side. As you can see from the above photo, the restaurant is encased in floor-to-ceiling windows that let in a lot of sunlight. When you walk in, you'll notice the dining room on your right has a bold and majestic decor with black and gold chandeliers, gold-trimmed mirrors, tiled floors and large royal green leather banquettes.
The dining room on your left has a more laid-back, less shimmery rustic decor.
A closer look at the bar.
How fancy! The wood-fired pizza is surrounded by gold / copper panels!
Executive chef Ben Heaton on the right. Look at all the deliciousness in front of him.
Sunday brunch for me is not complete without a Caesar.
Città has quite a large brunch menu consisting of pastries, brunch mains, crostini, panini, pastas, pizzas and numerous side dishes. We sampled the following:
ZUCCHINI OLIVE OIL MUFFIN
BANANA OLIVE OIL MUFFIN
FORMAGGIO SPECK SCONE
BURRATA CROSTINI
Wood roasted tomato + onion agro dolce
DUCK EGGS BENEDICT
Tomato + foccacia + peperonata + hollandaise
BAKED EGG BRACIOLE
Tomato + pancetta + gremolata + shortrib
HOUSE CURED THICK CUT PANCETTA RASHERS
PATATE ALLA CARBONARA PIZZA
Bechamel + potato + pecorino + egg + guanciale + black pepper
BUFFALO MOZZARELLA AGNOLOTTI
BOMBOLONI
Passion fruit, pistachio, nutella
CANNOLI
ASSORTED ITALIAN COOKIES
More BOMBOLONI, please! I never write about dessert first but man oh man, these filled doughnuts at Città were ridiculous. The pistachio was my favourite, followed by passion fruit and nutella. Seriously, try all the bomboloni if you have the stomach space (you should because everybody has a separate stomach for dessert, right?) The cannoli were also a delight. The fried pastry shells were filled with creamy ricotta with both ends dipped in chocolate and a pistachio crumble. So. Damn. Good. Okay, back to the top. Highlights for me were the remarkably moist olive oil muffins, the wonderfully fluffy and light scone that were golden on the outside and steaming-ly white inside, the simple yet elegant burrata crostini that I could easily have multiples of, and finally the duck eggs benedict where the glorious fried peppers and tomatoes perfectly cut the richness of the hollandaise. I didn't like the baked egg braciole since I don't like baked eggs in general (I'd rather have my eggs any other way than baked) and the dish overall was on the heavy side. And although the toppings sound extremely promising the pizza came out dry (perhaps more bechamel sauce would've did the trick?) The agnolotti was good but not outstanding.
I can't say that I'll be back to Città for brunch but I'm certainly intrigued about dinner there. I highly doubt they'll have bomboloni during dinner though, and I'm really, really bummed about that.
*This meal was complimentary. The opinions and views expressed on this post are my own*
