Restaurants in Toronto that serve modern Canadian cuisine seem to be multiplying. Welcome Ursa. Ursa places an importance on preserving the nutritional value of each dish. Not one menu item is deep fried. The focus on nutrition instantly attracted me to the restaurant as I am pretty health conscious and believe it’s important for food to taste amazing as much as I think it is important for food to nourish your body. Your body is a temple..and a wonderland.
Nutrition aside, Ursa has a trendy vibe that is not uptight. My favourite part of the restaurant is it’s open-concept kitchen. I felt like I was watching Top Chef throughout the meal! I also loved the ceiling covered in lights.
I started off with The Bloomsbury Chai Sour which consisted of gin, chai tea, egg whites, fresh lemon and lime.
This drink is one of the best cocktails I have ever had. I loved frothy top. I really loved how the froth lasted until the very last sip. Who doesn’t love froth?
The bread basket had a lovely pumpkin seed flat bread, baguette, and home-made butter.
I started off with the Raw Sea Urchin, Small Batch Tofu, with Watercress and Apple.
I quickly found out raw sea urchin is not for me. It’s mushy like a sauce with a pungent miso sauce flavour. I did enjoy the pieces of sushi ginger and the home-made tofu.
I also ordered Raw B.C. Spot Prawns, with Asparagus, Fresh Peas, Buttermilk and Vanilla.
This dish made up for the last one. The little green rectangle was delicious. I believe it was a mousse made out of peas. I also loved the raw shrimp with a subtle touch of vanilla.
The dish came with the option of sending the head of the shrimp back to the kitchen to be cooked in a special sauce. I do not know who wouldn’t send their raw inedible head back to the kitchen. I obviously made the request.
The head came back in a creamy asparagus sauce. There was hardly any meat in the head. Good thing the sauce was delicious enough to eat on its own.
My date and I ordered two entrees to share. We had the Seasonal Vegetables with Sprouted Grains, Foraged Leaves, Beet Gastrique, and Hazelnut.
The dish looked really beautiful on the plate. Different flavours were located on different parts of the plate which made each bite vary. It was definitely tasty but not too filling.
We also ordered the Georgian Bay White Fish with Northern White bean, Cauliflower and Almond.
This dish was really enjoyable. I loved the cauliflower. I also loved the crispy skin of the fish mixed with the white bean puree. The green sauce which is made up of leeks horseradish and garlic was not for me.
Maybe this summer I’ll go to Georgian Bay to fish and recreate this wonderful dish. Or maybe not. I do love how the fish is local though.
For dessert I had a dish called ‘Milk and Honey’, which consisted of Sweet Ricotta, Rosewood Honeycomb, Leatherwood Honey, Bee Pollen, Pear, Spelt Rye, and two shots of Whey (liquid leftover from cheese).
This dessert is not your typical sweet dessert, but it was a great end to the meal. I loved how there were so many different kind of ways to eat this dessert because there were so many different components on the plate.
My favourite part of the dessert was the honeycomb. It was my first time actually eating honeycomb. I loved the texture of it.
Don’t fear. We did ask for more bread. Two pieces did not suffice for everything this plate had to offer.
