Culture clash

Japanese and French flavours meet
with ambitious but mixed results at
Plateau restaurant Toroli

by MARK SLUTSKY

If all I had to go on was its name, I would probably guess that Toroli was an Italian restaurant. Not that I know what “Toroli” means; it just sounds Italian. I’d be wrong. According to the restaurant’s website, “The name TOROLI comes from the Japanese onomatopoeia describing the dripping of rich, thick sauce.” Well… okay! As it turns out, Toroli is a Japanese restaurant—sort of. In fact, it’s a French-Japanese mix, an uncommon attempt at culinary fusion from chef Takashi Sakurai, who’s worked in Tokyo and at Montreal establishments like Soto and Maiko Sushi.

Toroli is a far cry from those big, packed sushi joints. On a quiet stretch of Marie-Anne just east of St-Denis, the restaurant takes up a tiny footprint, with room for maybe five or six tables and a semi-open kitchen. On a recent visit, the room smelled like truffle oil, and an air conditioner struggled mightily with the stifling May heat. We were greeted warmly by the server/hostess, who seemed keen on keeping us comfortable and happy.

So what is this Japanese-French fusion, anyway? Well, as far as I could tell, it involved French preparations with Japanese-style flavours, or sometimes vice-versa. We started out by ordering the table d’hôte ($35), which included soup or salad, the entrée of the day, a main of our choice and dessert.

The entrée of the day was so intriguing, it tipped the scales from ordering à la carte. Written on the chalkboard above the wine fridge was the intriguing phrase “Appetizer: ASPIC.” Aspic, huh? As in stuff suspended in clear gelatin? Don’t see that very often these days. As it turns out, this was a Japanese-tinged, seafood-themed aspic, with shrimp, salmon and tuna, as well as some veggies, arranged mosaic-like in a square of gelatin. How was it? Well, I’m normally pretty turned off by the substance, but as promised, it was kind of refreshing, and certainly very different.

The salad that came with the prix fixe is also worth mentioning, made with slices of pineapple, young greens and fresh fennel. It was also welcome on that particularly hot night. The other appetizer we ordered, the “sirène de la mer,” ($9) consisted of a crepe rolled up with crabmeat and avocado, then sliced like sushi and skewered, and topped with a creamy sauce. It was tasty, but the crepe wasn’t really working for me—too cold and soggy. The whole dish could have used a little more texture and less mush.

Toroli only offers five main courses (which is fine), “drunken fish” ($24), sesame salmon ($22), filet mignon ($32), steak ($26) and duck ($26). We tried the first and the last on the list. The duck was the most successful—duck breast, marinated in miso, then grilled perfectly rare and served with caramelized apple slices. The meat was tender and flavourful and went really nicely with the apples. The rice side wasn’t as successful, tasting vaguely like old cooking oil, but the presentation of everything was great. The drunken fish consisted of two filets of yellowfin tuna and a handful of clams steamed in sake (hence the name). Another excellent presentation, with the food served in a white tureen-like dish and topped with bright orange roe, but the fish was a little overcooked and the flavours were subtle to the point of bland. This needed to be served rarer, and it needed… something else. Hard to say what.

I want to root for Toroli. It’s clearly a small operation, and a very warm and welcoming one. They’re ambitious, if perhaps maybe a little too ambitious, but the general idea they’re going for seems to have promise. I’d love to revisit in a few months, or even a year or two, and see where it’s gotten them. For now, it’s a friendly neighbourhood restaurant with some work to do.