Marben

With a recently renovated patio and revamped menu, Marben is now contending for Toronto restaurant supremacy. And while it's not there just yet, the food was pretty darn good. Since the portions are for sharing, we ordered a lot including - Gillian's greens, the chicken ballotine with pickled beets, braised short rib tortellini with a hen's egg and hickory sticks, Marcus' mushroom fricassee, John's burger, Marianne's duck breast with soft polenta, the chocolate ice cream sandwich and bread pudding.

If you're wondering why the dishes have first names, it's because they are named after their local farm owner, where the star of the dish came from. Our favourite thing was by far the burger, which was stuffed with short rib, a new trend and something I tried at DB Bistro in Vancouver last month. I enjoyed Marben's much better. It was smaller, less intense, easier to eat and just plain out tastier, plus the fries were stellar. We may or may not have ordered 3...

The ice cream sandwich also got me pretty excited and even though I wolfed it down, the rest of the table didn't like how crisp the cookies were.

Also points for the new relaxed wooden 'farmhouse' patio and the drinks served in jars.

Wellington Street is heating up!