Birthday Dinner at C5 Restaurant Lounge

We had the pleasure of celebrating a Birthday dinner last Saturday night at C5, the beautiful restaurant at the Royal Ontario Museum (Link here)

One enters from Bloor Street under the towering overhang of the Chin Crystal, into a mysterious passageway & up the elevators to the 5th floor.

At the reception station, one is greeted warmly & wraps are whisked away for safe storage. Proceeding past the strange Chihuly-esque blown glass "planter box" we are escorted to our table in the beautiful dining room.

To the right in the above photo is a massive wall of canted glass that looks out over the city to the west, magnificent for sunsets. Unfortunately, last Saturday was a dark grey day & the sun slipped away in a very unceremonious manner.

The menu was, of course, very seasonal. We each started with the arugula & mushroom salad, which was assembled on a base of velvety mushroom mousse. On the mousse were layered a few slices of braised, lightly pickled endive & a handful of tender & delicate baby arugula leaves, topped with thin slices of button mushrooms & lightly sautéed baby cremini (?)

Strewn about the mousse under the greens were lardons of wild boar pancetta, a few rosemary croutons & candied walnuts. Yumm!!

Jay opted for the Dorset lamb as his main, which came with two chops & a piece of melt-in-your-mouth neck meat. (We're sure there must be a more elegant name for this cut!) It was accompanied by goat cheese mash which, challenging its menu description, arrived in the form of small cylinders looking more like sections of carrot stalk! (Sorry, no picture for this dish.)

Bee had the wild boar chop, shown below, which was delicately resting upon a different mash. This time it was actually a delectable purée of celeriac lightly flavoured with maple. Once again boar pancetta lardons graced the plate, tossed together with the oriental green gai lan (often referred to as Chinese broccoli) & a dice of bartlett pear. A sprinkle of baby arugula leaves topped it all. Those, together with the pancetta, nicely tied this particular main back to the mushroom appetizer.

Given that we both opted for fairly strongly flavoured meats, a hearty Argentinian was in store.

(And who doesn't appreciate a hearty Argentinian?!)

As you can see, Bee was a happy camper after his main.

The desert menu was well considered. Jay selected the "Lemon, Olive Oil, & Honey" which the menu describes as "Lemon Olive Oil Cake, Lemon Mascarpone Cream, Honey Gelato, & Chocolate" Have a look:

Bee was just too darn full to have anything more than ice cream. He opted for sesame, honey, and chocolate marmalade. All were custardy smooth & the chocolate delivered a cocoa wallop! And somehow the kitchen found out there was a birthday involved...

All in all, a superb meal! Excellent, elegant food; knowledgeable & professional service; all in a magical environment. A perfect birthday treat!

Above is a view looking back
from the dining room to the bar area.
(It's late & the place is starting to clear out)
BTW, we've lightened the photos a bit for clarity. The spaces actually feel more intimate than they look here.

Above, in the bar.

Sated, and back out on the street under the dynamic forms of the museum building.

This month is also anniversary month, so look forward to a visit to Canoe in a few weeks!