One of the most perplexing questions you\u2019re ever likely to hear is whether there is a decent Greek restaurant in Toronto. My old answer was no. My new answer is Mal\u00e9na. I first met Sam Kalogiros six years ago, when he was a server at Luce, the Rubino brothers\u2019 deliciously idiosyncratic foray into Italian cuisine. Kalogiros comes from Corfu, the Ionian island I know best, and he mentioned at the time that he had a long-term ambition to open an Ionian restaurant. He said the same thing a few years later when he and co-owner, co-manager, David Minicucci opened L\u2019Unita at Avenue Road and Davenport. L\u2019Unita\u2019s food was Italian, convincingly interpreted by young Canadian chef Doug Neigel. Now the same team has opened Mal\u00e9na, just a few doors south on Avenue Road, in the premises that used to house Pink Pearl. Already mighty popular, it has a casual, quirky charm that isn\u2019t as obviously cool as L\u2019Unita. And aside from Chiado, Starfish and the top sushi contenders, it\u2019s Toronto\u2019s most serious seafood restaurant.
\nBut is it Greek? Canadians used to the opa!-Zorban-burnt-meat-\u2018n\u2019-baklava enclaves of the Danforth might not think so. But sophisticated Athenians and Corfiots will give a shrewd smile and a nod of appreciation to Neigel. His menu (strongly favouring seafood over meat) is laden with Ionian references, not slavishly copied but judiciously appropriated and translated.
\nSea urchin crostini is one example. I always associate sea urchins with the Ionian because of a particular morning when my friend in the village where we lived, Philip Parginos, taught me how to go snorkelling for octopus. At lunchtime we pulled ourselves out of the water and onto some flat, gently sloping rocks to dry off in the scorching sun. Philip had gathered some sea urchins and now he opened them with his knife, took out the lemon he had hidden in his diver\u2019s pouch, squeezed some juice into each urchin and we ate them just like that. However many Japanese uni treats I\u2019ve had since, that remains my seminal urchin experience. At Mal\u00e9na, Neigel takes very crunchy toasts and spreads them with a little pur\u00e9ed avocado (these days, they do farm avocado in the Aegean islands). Then he lays the sea urchin on top, strews some red amaranth seedlings over them and finishes it all off with a sprinkling of black salt. The avocado is a great idea \u2013 echoing the texture of the urchin but too bland to impinge on the purity of its flavour \u2013 but it\u2019s the salt that brings the dish to life (and reminds me so forcibly of that seaside lunch, I suspect).
\nCrab is another rare pleasure in the Ionian. In the market in Corfu town we once saw a big kavouromama, a female crab with her glistening eggs. Greedy gourmets were arguing about which of them had the right to buy it. At Mal\u00e9na, they serve a single huge stone crab claw, still in its shell, and pair it with avgolemono sauce. Not your usual avgolemono \u2013 a liaison of egg yolk and lemon juice stirred into chicken broth \u2013 but a stiff version with the texture of an a\u00efoli and mixed with masses of chopped dill. Scrumptious.
\nThen there\u2019s the Ionian seafood soup. It contains cod (I\u2019ve never heard of cod in the Ionian) as well as clams, mussels and spot prawns, all nicely undercooked to preserve their freshness and delicate textures. The broth is a thin tomato consomm\u00e9 flavoured with fresh oregano and basil leaves and lots of ground pepper. Slices of grilled ciabatta lie on top, which means they\u2019re soggy by the time the dish comes to table.
\nI could go on \u2013 there are so many delicious things on the menu \u2013 especially whole fish of various kinds, simply and flawlessly grilled \u2013 and you can\u2019t get more Ionian than that. They do the same thing around the corner at Joso\u2019s, of course, though there it\u2019s seen as Dalmatian. Same wind and water.
\nAnd in lieu of a cheese course, Mal\u00e9na suggests a finger of saganaki \u2013 salty kephalograviera cheese fried and served hot with a curiously bitter orange and ouzo marmalade. It\u2019s an unusual combination and I will have to taste it a couple more times to figure out whether or not it really works.
\nOne last treasure Mal\u00e9na presents is the talent of sommelier Zinta Steprens who gets to play with a really original little wine list that features a number of unusual white wines, all available by the glass. From Greece, a crisp, aromatically floral blend of moschofilero and rhoditis is made by Skouras. From Friuli come three stunning wines from Bastianich \u2013 a malvasia, a tocai and a blend of chardonnay, sauvignon and picolit. A glass of either would be the ideal partner to a light dinner sitting at the bar, conversing with half a dozen oysters (from P.E.I. not Corfu) or a crudo of Qualicum Bay scallops: true Canadian-Hellenic d\u00e9tente.
\nMal\u00e9na is at 120 Avenue Road (one block south of Davenport). 416 964 0606.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most perplexing questions you\u2019re ever likely to hear is whether there is a decent Greek restaurant in Toronto. My old answer was no. My new answer is Mal\u00e9na. I first met Sam Kalogiros six years ago, when he was a server at Luce, the Rubino brothers\u2019 deliciously idiosyncratic foray into Italian cuisine. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,19,95],"tags":[20,965,21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2142,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/2142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}