Buca

I was so excited after eating at new Toronto hotspot Buca I needed to put a post up right away.

Down an alley off of King Street West, near Portland, Buca is just plain cool. The space, the light fixtures, the exposed brick - it really didn't feel like Toronto - more New York or London.

Everything on the date stamped menu sounded delicious. It was divided into different sections - meats, cheeses, salads, pizzas, pastas, appetizers, fried food, ect... To start we got a bunch of things - the Arancini Con Manzo (crisp risotto balls stuffed with beef short rib with preserved tomato and grana cheese. Amazing!), Nodini (warm bread knots with olive oil, rosemary, garlic and sea salt. Amazing!), Caponata D'autunno (sweet and sour caramelized vegetables with herbs), Arrosticini (grilled lamb skewers with lemon, olive oil and cracked pepper) and the Prosciutto E Mozzarella pizza (fun because it comes with scissors so everyone at the table can share easily).

Next up the mains - delicious pasta and polenta. Tagliatelle with duck ragu, mascarpone and basil, the gnocchi with gorgonzola, grilled radicchio and walnuts, the polenta with braised lamb's neck, sausage, and beef short rib and finally the quails, rubbed in wild fennel and citrus. The one thing that was not so appealing to me on the menu was the fried lamb brian. No thanks!

Dessert was a rich and yummy tiramisu, chocolate cannoli and quince sorbet.

Good service, good food, Buca definitely lives up to the title it's been getting - best new restaurant in Toronto.