Holts Cafe | Winterlicious 2017

One of my favourite things about Fridays at my office is having the chance to grab lunch with my work friends. We love going to new places (though we may have a bit of a thing for chicken wings...) and trying new things. Winterlicious is one of my favourite times of the year in Toronto-- it gives me the opportunity to try new restaurants, and with the price fix menu it usually forces me to order something a bit outside of my usual comfort zone on the menu.

This week my friends and I decided to check out Holts Cafe! I was actually there recently with my friend Emily M. (not for Winterlicious) but I was excited to go back! This post will be the first of a mini series I will be doing on Winterlicious-- basically I am planing on going to three or so restaurants and sharing my thoughts on them with you here.

Holt's Cafe's Winterlicious lunch meal is $23 (plus tax, tip, and in my case, Diet Coke), and comes with an starter, main and dessert. You can view their menu here.

To Start

Vegetable pakora

Emily K. and I both ordered the vegetable pakora, while Crystal opted for the mushroom soup. Emily K. mentioned that she was a big fan of Indian food and that she loved pakora. I had never had pakora before, but a quick google search made it seem pretty good.

The soup

When the food arrived we all noticed just how small Crystal's soup was. I will note that she did quite enjoy it.

The pakora was deep fried and smelled warm and inviting and delicious. I really enjoyed it. I would best describe it as a savoury, Indian chicken nugget, but without the meat. It had a lovely texture-- I would order it again in a heart beat.

Main

Caprese Tartine

Crystal and I were both torn between the Caprese Tartine and the Wellington County Flat Iron. I asked the server to describe the "friend purple potato" that came with it, and let's just say it was the deciding factor of me not ordering it. I'm sure that many people do enjoy it, but I was not big on how the texture was explained to me. Last week I had the Caprese Tartine with Emily M. and I really enjoyed it, so I opted for the safe bet. Emily K. used process of elimination-- she hates tomatoes (so no Caprese for her!) and decided to get the duck. I don't think she loved it as she only ate about half and commented on how dark the meat was.

The duck

Dessert

Frozen chocolate soufflé

I wish I could say that we were really original, but we all opted for the frozen chocolate souffle. It was chilled to perfection, topped with champagne cream and basically tasted like a very luxe chocolate mousse. 10/10 would eat again. The cheddar cheese cake sounded interesting at first, but it was described as not a cheese cake in the traditional sense, and I lost interest. The server explained it as very strong, and more of a cream cheese texture. I had had the ricotta cake with Emily M. when we went previously and while it was nice (but rather tart) I did not really want to have it again.

Overall Experience

I loved that this meal forced me a bit outside my comfort zone with the pakora. It was so yummy! Seriously. Next time we are at an Indian restaurant I will be ordering this,and if I am ever back at Holts...mmm I wish that was my whole meal haha! I would recommend making a reservation here. We made ours two hours before we went and were only able to get a couch table-- which was fine. They were busy, but not packed. We felt that the service was rather slow. We sat down at 12:30 and did not have our main until 1:15 which made it a longer lunch than we had scheduled for. Maybe a better speed for a lazy Saturday afternoon than a work day. Overall we enjoyed our meals, and enjoyed dining at a ~fancy~ place in a ~fancy~ store. Now if only we had the money for that to be a regular occurrence!

For reference: The full menu for Winterlicious Lunch 2017 & What I ordered

$23 Lunch

Plus taxes and gratuity

To Start

Wild Mushroom Soup

Tarragon Foam

or

Cured Ontario Lake Trout

Pickled Cucumber, Garlic Chips, Preserved Lemon

or

Vegetable Pakora

Mint Gastrique

Main

King Cole Duck Bahn Mi

Pretzel Baguette, Blood Orange, Radish & Coriander

or

Wellington County Flat Iron

Onion Jam, Fried Purple Potato, Blistered Tomato

or

Caprese Tartine

Ontario Buffalo Mozzarella, Roma Tomato, Basil

Dessert

Frozen Chocolate Souffle

Champagne Cream

or

London Fog Panna Cotta

Earl Grey Brittle, Meringue

or

Black River Cheddar Cheese Cake

Niagara Honeycomb, Pickled Berries

You can read my Winterlicious 2016 post here!


What have you tried at Winterlicious 2017?

This meal was paid for with my own money. Opinions remain my own.