Terra Restaurant: Fine Dining Gem in North Toronto
Terra Restaurant is a well known spot in the north Toronto area with a reputation for great Italian food and steaks! I was recently invited to dine at Terra for their 20th anniversary celebration and had a chance to taste some of the favourite menu items with my good friends Jess and Flo.
Our server, Patrick was very knowledgeable and his delectable descriptions of the food made me want to order every dish. For appetizers, we started off with the Bison Carpaccio- a delicious combination of thinly sliced raw bison meat, pesto, pine nuts, arugula, truffle oil, caper berries, lemon and slice of Grana Padano.
We also shared the Grilled Day Boat Scallops that came with crispy house smoked pork belly. The grilled scallops were paired with grilled corn, roasted sweet pepper, pea succotash, basil seedlings and covered in a pommery mustard cream sauce. I loved how they use so many ingredients for each dish, ensuring that each bite of food was filled with tons of flavour. We also devoured one of their specials, a cold foie gras dish served with ice wine jelly that added some sweetness to meal. For salad, I suggest the tasty Imported Burrata Cheese and Heirloom Tomato Salad. This was just the appetizers.
Terra has quite an extensive menu of delicious food and after getting some recommendations from our server, we decided on the Seafood Spaghettini Aglio Olio, Grilled Ostrich Fan and a 12 oz “USDA Prime” Rib Eye steak! Before our mains were brought out, we were given a scoop of Lime Sorbet to cleanse our palate- very nice touch. If you like seafood, the Seafood Spaghettini is loaded with a bit of everything- a grilled Nova Scotia lobster tail, prawns, scallops, Alaskan king crab, BC Salt Island spring mussels. The key to this dish was the simple olive oil pasta sauce, which brought together the seafood flavours very well.
The Grilled Ostrich Fan consisted of ostrich meat served medium rare and sliced. The meat was juicy, lean and had no gaminess. This was served with a red wine sauce on top of truffled honey mushroom risotto. We also feasted on a delicious 12 oz Rib Eye steak that was perfectly cooked to rare. Very quality cut of meat, and I really enjoyed the contrasting strong beef flavour from the USDA Prime Rib Eye cut compared to the ostrich meat I had eaten earlier. We also enjoyed a few different wines throughout the meal to pair with the great food.
