When leaving our home and friends down south to come to Toronto, we were given a recommendation for when we arrive: Embrujo Flamenco. We can see why. What they do, they do well.
We began with the Croquetas de Bacalao, codfish croquettes. Beginning with a Spanish twist on French fare is an unusual starting place, but not a bad one. They were fried exactly as they should be, which was a good sign. The cod itself was very rich and had a creamy texture, yet it still remained a mild and subtle dish, hence placing it as the opener. While everything about them was done exceedingly well, I still found the flavor to be sort of uninspired. There was nothing that made it stand out, though, as usual, it could simply have been my difficulty in detecting the more subtle aspects of a dish. Whatever it was, I found it a good, though not excellent dish.
Croquetas de Bacalao: 3.5/5
Wanting to spread out across the menu, we took in one from the vegetarian side, the Betabel Horneado, roasted beets with Cabrales cheese and toasted walnuts in olive oil. If you like a little flair in your vegetarian, this is a wonderful dish. While roasting tones down beets some, they remained sweet and flavorful and a perfect complement to the power behind the blue cheese crumbles. The blend, particularly when combined with the walnuts, was excellent. This was easily the largest dish provided, a fact that rather pleased us as we enjoyed the flavor enough to keep wanting to try different combinations: a little more beet in one bite, a little more blue cheese in the next. A very pleasing dish, indeed.
Betabel Horneado: 4.5/5
Finding the descriptions of both chorizo dishes on the menu appealing, our server, Gabriel, recommended the Chorizo con Brandy, a creation of the chef. The brandy soaked sausage was slightly spicy and full of sumptuous flavor. I especially appreciated the robust taste the alcohol lent to the meat, though I wished for a bit more to the dish than simply the chunks of sausage. The presentation was a bit underwhelming as well, but regardless, the flavor was well worth sampling.
Chorizo con Brandy: 4/5
We were very much surprised, given the richness of the meat, that the next dish to appear was the Pato con Peras, leg of duck confit with pears and a branch of roasted rosemary. As Gabriel set it down, we noticed that there were embers on the rosemary still glowing – a little extra excitement perhaps? As was expected, the sumptuousness of the meat was wonderful, but the surprise was the combination with the pear, a pairing that was wonderfully luscious and delightful. My wife found the addition of rosemary to add even more to the flavor, though I found it superfluous, almost drowned out by the duck and pear in combination or alone. The server commented that this was his favorite dish from the menu, and it’s understandable why. If I have any complaint, and I suppose I do, it is that, once again, the presentation was a little bland. The clay container, straight from the oven I imagine, seemed a bit too plain. But if the worst thing I can come up with is presentation, that’s probably high praise for the dish itself.
Pato con Peras: 4.5/5
Last on the menu was a dish I simply could not finish. The Gambas en Anis, sauteed shrimp and portobello mushrooms in anise sauce, is perhaps the richest fare I have ever had set in front of me. The sauce, a thick liquid of alcohol and more spices than I knew what to do with was so robust that would likely overpower most other flavors mixed with it. The portobellos worked well with it, but the shrimps almost felt as if they were the protein added for protein’s sake. I didn’t find their flavor to mix with the sauce at all, though I didn’t mind having them in the dish. After the mushrooms and shrimp, my wife sopped up the sauce with extra bread, courtesy of our attentive server while I let it be, a little bowled over by its power.
Gambas en Anis: 4/5
Fresas de Anis con Helado de Azafran. If you, like me, do not speak Spanish, this dessert option is likely a mystery without a translator, though the staff is, of course, willing to take on the roll. The bottom of this dish was filled with fresh strawberries marinaded in anise. This was topped with whipped cream and a scoop of saffron ice cream. The two flavors of strawberry and saffron did not mix at all, but we hardly minded. I somehow wished that I could eat the strawberries first and save the ice cream for last, though simple physics made this too awkward to perform. Instead, the ice cream proved, not surprisingly by this point, to be rich, creamy, and full of saffron essence, a taste that I would not have expected to work with ice cream, but it did regardless, and wonderfully so. The strawberries were less appealing, though that’s saying very little. The anise sauce was once again very flavorful with the strawberries giving a slightly acidic kick. If this is evidence of what the chef can do with desserts, it makes one very curious about the rest of said menu.
Fresas de Anis con Helado de Azafran: 4.5/5
I have had tapas at only three different restaurants in my life. Each seems to have its own direction and flair. Embrujo Flamenco tends towards basic food, but doing it extremely well. I much prefer this to Chef Jose Andreas’s complex and tasty yet gimmicky fare at the Bazaar in Los Angeles. Still, a little gimmick can be interesting now and then, if not the thrust of the dish, something I would liked to have seen at Embrujo Flamenco. Regardless, I’m sorry it took us so long to be able to look into our friends’ recommendation, but it was very much worth the wait.
The Normal Gourmand 