After a focused couple of hours at the Art Gallery of Ontario, taking in the shows Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris, and Zhang Huan: Ash Paintings and Memory Doors, we thought we would treat ourselves to dinner at Frank, the restaurant at the AGO. What a superb dinner it was!
We started with two appetizers which we shared - perfectly done seared sea scallops wrapped in what looked to be Spanish prosciuto (they called it jamon serrano). But what I really loved was the shaved asparagus. I can't remember if I've had asparagus shaved lengthwise before, but this version is definitely memorable - it's crisp and soft at the same time, a great textural contrast to the scallops. I doved right into the scallop without taking a photo - borrowed the one below from the Frank website but it's really not the same dish.
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| Photo from the Frank AGO site |
The salt cod croquetas were delectable, especially with the black olive tapenade. This was followed by the seafood paella which was so flavourful I could easily have another plateful. This must be the "haute cuisine" version of the paella, I've never seen such a miniscule portion of the rice dish! The seafood were all done just right. There were lots of bay scallops and enough mussels, but they could have thrown in a few more shrimps (they called the lone ranger a prawn, but it is really a shrimp).
We wrapped up dinner with a "tarta de santiago" which is really a flourless almond torte - great texture and not overly sweet. The service was attentive and thoughtful - it was one of the better dinners we've had for a while.
