Two excellent meals in Toronto this week, the first at a familiar neighbourhood place, the second at a new (to me) steakhouse in my old neighbourhood.

First up was Ascari. We’ve eaten there many times, but this might have been the best visit yet.

• Cocktails
  • Negroni
  • 2020 Pra Otto Soave
• Appetizers
  • insalata di burrata w/ roast carrot / chestnut / radicchio / endive / orange / roasted garlic vinaigrette
  • zucca fritti w/ lemon thyme / spiced honey / amaretti
• Mains
  • agnolotti di ricotta w/ carrot / yam / brown butter / pumpkin seed tuile
  • campanelle con salsiccia w/ pecorino and ramp sausage / broccolini / fresh chilli
  • 2020 Capezzana Barco Reale di Carmignano
• Dessert
  • Amaro Nonino
  • Villa Marone Malvasia Passito

Everything was good, but the fall-inspired agnolotti and zucca fritti were both unbelievable. The zucca might as well have been dessert.

Later in the week I had a work dinner at Blue Blood, the new-ish steak house in Casa Loma. It was fun to take an uber back there, through my old neighbourhood (it occurred to me I moved there 25 years ago because I. Am. Old.) and atop the hill I used to run up most days.

I wasn’t doing most of the ordering, but as best I can remember here’s what we ate:

• Appetizers
  • grilled octopus w/ chorizo sausage, scallion, cherry tomato, aged balsamic
  • chilled jumbo prawns w/ housemade lemon + gin cocktail sauce
  • oysters
  • table-side classic Caesar salads
  • Big Head Chenin Blanc, Niagara, Canada
• Mains
  • 12oz canadian prime centre cut filet, aged 28 days from Green Bay, PEI
  • 18oz bone-in rib eye from Wichita, Kansas
  • Wagyu filet tasting: 4oz American Mishima reserve, 4oz Australian MB9+, 4oz Japanese Kagoshima A5
  • sautéed broccolini w/ mornay
  • creamed Welsh farm corn w/ corn nuts
  • sautéed hand-foraged woodland mushrooms
  • 2018 Mullineux ‘Schist’ Syrah, Swartland, South Africa
• Dessert
  • coconut cream pie: butter graham crust, coconut bavarois, whipped cream w/ toasted coconut, pineapple coulis
  • royal cheesecake: west coast black raspberry, white chocolate
  • 2013 Château de Suduiraut Sauternes