The CN Tower 360º Restaurant has really improved over the past decade and a half or so since I was last there. Pamela and I went there with my family recently and had a wonderful dinner with a ridiculous view. Fortunately, there was a separate vegetarian menu, though we had to ask about it to see it. We both ordered the Black Truffle Macaroni & Cheese. The macaroni was really good, though the truffles were (understandably) exiguously present, and the asparagus was perfectly cooked, with a juicy lemon on the side. It was amazing and $35 (although considering that we didn't have to pay the $30 CN Tower entrance fee [elevator fee] because we ate at the restaurant, it could be said to have costed $5).
$35 is insanity, especially for a meatless pasta dish. Think of how much reasonably priced Spaghetti Factory mizithra you could've gotten for that amount!
ReplyDeleteMeatless, but (more importantly) truffleful! Worth it.
ReplyDeleteI know that was a flippant remark, and also that is by now already firmly established, but I really find the cheapness-obsessed Middle America b.s. mentality about food value aggravating. Why is the "reasonability" of the price of food determined by the Quantity Of Shit I Get, Regardless Of How Mediocre and Unispired It Is, Per Dollar?
Plus, isn't anyone else even remotely put off by the atmosphere of that place? It's filled with the exact same people I'd encounter on my horrible childhood vacations to Florida. I know it's both elitist and unfaithful to my "roots", but I seriously feel so depressed about the world when I have to eat around so many brash, poorly-mannered, suburban, minivan-drivers and their screaming, equally poorly behaved children.
For less than $15 you could buy your own damn mizithra and cream and pasta and some fresh herbs and cook the same thing yourself except fresher, tastier, not cooked by the bucketful, and without the obligation of fraternizing with such riffraff.
Anyway, back to the CN tower dinner- the grilled lemon really was an inspired touch. I wonder if I can learn to make them?
It's not elitist to say that you dislike a kind of people. There's nothing wrong with not liking suburban restaurant clientele. I agree that the people are fairly depressing, but not all that particularly much. Like, they're normal people, and thus pretty horrible, but not the worst of the worst. I can imagine many places where the patrons are far more insufferable.
ReplyDeleteAlso, that “you could make it better at home” argument has never worked for me. I don't enjoy food at a restaurant because I can't experience that food anywhere else/in any other way. I go to a restaurant because I like the food and it's way more convenient than having to buy all the ingredients and prepare the food myself, and I like going out and being in the restaurant's environment, etc. I.e. I go to a restaurant as much because I like going out somewhere with friends and not having to prepare food, do dishes, etc., as I do because I like the food.
But yeah, of course, I agree that the approach to food and the milieus of restaurants like the 360º Restaurant and Terroni are far preferable to more suburban family-oriented restaurants like Spaghetti Factory. And yes, food (obviously) should be treated as an end in itself, rather than just a mechanical means to sustenance or whatever. The latter – the food as mere fuel, eat-and-shut-up method – is depressing as hell to me, and is implied by the quantity-over-quality approach referenced by Christopher. However, I think (hope) that Christopher was joking in that comment; I suspect he was referencing the old Spaghetti-Factory-is-expensive argument.
"Like, they're normal people, and thus pretty horrible, but not the worst of the worst."
ReplyDeleteeek!