Restaurant review: Estiatorio Malena

by: Gina Mallet from National Post Jan 9, 2012 – 11:52 AM ET

Source: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/09/restaurant-review-estiatorio-malena/

Rick O’Brien

Close enough to rub elbows at Malena? That’s a good thing.

Globe & Mail  Joanne Kates 
April 30, 2010

$180 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip

For about two days after a blue crab sheds its outgrown shell, the molting creature is a softshell crab – and delicious beyond belief. But there is only a brief window in which to indulge. In the case of blue crabs from relatively cold waters – such as the Chesapeake Bay area - the molting is seasonal and usually lasts from early May to July.

Since spring came early this year, I have been eating the best softshell crabs in years at Maléna, a new Mediterranean place in the Avenue and Davenport Roads area. Indeed, there are many “bests” to note at Maléna. Of the posse of hot new restos to open in Toronto this season (including Origin, Boehmer and Ruby Watchco), Maléna offers the best food hands down.

It's the offspring of L'Unita, also at Av and Dav. The partners shifted chef Doug Neigel from L'Unita a few doors south to Maléna, promoting his sous to helm the stoves at L'Unita. Maléna's concept is the food of the Ionian Sea – Greece and southern Italy – with an obvious focus on seafood. Anyone who has dined at Milos in Montreal will feel at home here – and equally pinched in the pocketbook. Good fresh fish doesn't come cheap, so get ready to spend almost $100 a person at Maléna.

The price tag could explain the clientele – very upscale. The jewellery on some of the blondes could buy my car … and maybe yours too. Some Toronto restos distinguish between them and us, but Maléna's people are equal-opportunity wait staff. They send over the sommelier within minutes of our arrival, they check back often to make sure we're munching happily. Despite how crazy busy they've been since opening on March 25, servers are grace and hospitality incarnate.

And knowledgeable. Our waiter says the market fish is sustainably trapped black bass from the Atlantic, harpoon-caught swordfish from the Carolinas or ling cod from a B.C. fisherman's co-op that chef consults to make sure its methods are also sustainable.

When he brings the softshell crab, we melt even more, for these are sweet, plump critters deep-fried in the most gossamer of batters. That fragile coating also covers the ungreasy fritto misto of fresh B.C. spot prawns, ultra-tender squid rings and tiny anchovies.

In southern Italy, a walk along the seaside in the afternoon after the fishing boats come home offers the sight of fishermen slapping big octopus on the concrete quays to tenderize them. Maléna's B.C. octopus probably didn't receive precisely that treatment, but it is tender and sweet, perfectly grilled and nicely partnered with minted couscous, piquant little Greek olives and rich creamy Greek yogurt.

The kitchen riffs on crab cakes by making a delicate patty of lightly smoked halibut. These delicate delights are good enough to stand alone but their salad of baby greens, lemon cream and lightly marinated shallots gild the lily quite nicely. My other favourite appetizer is simpler: thick slices of the best raw tuna with a light vinaigrette, quail's eggs, olives and the big Greek dried beans they call gigantes. The only unsuccessful app is sea urchin crostini, which wants fresher urchin than they're using – it's a tad ammoniac.

Our other small kvetch is that the perfectly grilled black bass arrives whole – head, tail and bones all in the right places – but nobody offers to filet it for us, which by me they could do for $35 (it's the most expensive main on the menu).

Obviously, chef loves sea creatures with a grand passion: His risotto, impeccable of texture, rises to great heights thanks to fresh B.C. spot prawns. His buttery fresh tomato sauce with chunks of lobster gives smoothness to squid ink pasta. For those few who are not aficionados of the aquatic world, there are grilled quails, quite like the charred pressed chicken chef did at L'Unita, all juicy flesh and almost erotically charred skin.

Certain other borrowings from L'Unita are hard to resist. How not to inhale the crisp cannoli (in spite of their being somewhat over-browned) freshly filled with chocolate espresso cream? Or crisp phyllo cups filled with delicate lemon curd, topped with meringue and a side of fab lemon ice. But Maléna's dessert menu is so much more interesting than cannoli and lemon meringue. They garnish sheep cheese with walnut bread pudding, blood orange sorbet with fennel marshmallow. Even a Greek commonplace like loukoumades (fried balls of dough soaked in honey with cinnamon cream and pistachios) is better at Maléna, thanks to fresh-fried dough and better raw ingredients.

The background to all this fun eating suits the food perfectly. The place is warm and pretty without pretension, containing solid wood tables, a shiny pressed-tin-clad black iron staircase and a hammered-tin bar; there is also kind lighting and a tolerable noise level. In recognition of the almost non-existent parking at Av and Dav, they offer valet parking. But good luck getting a table.
 

Number 2  MALÉNA    
Sam Kalogiros (a guy from Corfu) and David Minicucci helped define the new vibe at Av and Dav with L’Unita. Now they have opened Maléna a few doors south, a seafood restaurant in a cleverly reinterpreted and sophisticated Ionian idiom. What does that mean? Consider chef Doug Neigel’s sea urchin crostini – crunchy toast spread with puréed avocado, sea urchin, red amaranth seedlings a little black salt. The avocado is a great idea – echoing the texture of the urchin but too bland to impinge on the purity of its flavour. Together it tastes like the sea itself. The menu is packed with delicious things – a great seafood soup full of nicely undercooked clams, mussels, spot prawns and cod; whole fish flawlessly grilled; stone crab claw in avgolemono sauce. If the atmosphere sometimes gets too boisterous to concentrate on the nosh, why not sit at the bar with a glass of Moschofilero from sommelier Zinta Steprens’s fascinating list and converse with half a dozen oysters (from P.E.I. not Corfu) or a crudo of Qualicum Bay scallops: true Canadian-Hellenic détente. Maléna is at 120 Avenue Road (one block south of Davenport). 416 964 0606.

Gina Mallet National Post
May 8, 2010

Dinner for two: food plus tax $125
I’m embedded in a Mediterranean fish war. For more than thirty years, the Dalmatian Joso’s at Av/Dav has commanded the Avenue Road strait. But now there’s a challenger. The new Ionian Malena is just a couple of blocks South. It’s the ingredient that counts here.The battle is on for the freshest fish — weapon of choice is the grill.

Let the flames begin.

Malena is a charming clubby makeover of the old Pink Pearl, polished wood with a stunning silver wall and an inviting windowside ar. It is designed by Sam Kalogiros and David Minicucci who also own the neighbouring youthquake L’ Unita. Malena however is for adults, affluent Annex, low music, low lights, friendly service personified by Raffaele, the maitre d’. who’ s dressed down in jeans. The menu is concise if not quite Greek, but it’s the spirit which counts. Oysters from Rodney’s, Stone Crab claw from Florida – and a soft shell crab, $20, the seasonal queen of East coast crustaceans $20.There are several ways to cook these squashy leggy creatures and Chef Doug Niegel goes half-tempura, light crisp crust on wonderfully fresh crab which still has its tasty tomalley (yellow pancreas). Lucky because that’s sometimes removed for health reasons.

And now for an authentic tang of the Med: two little flat barges of marinated fresh sardines $13 carry shredded romaine topped by the crunch of pancetta with a dab of roaste d garlic cream. We are now sipping appreciatively a $45 bottle of lemony alberino (Via Latina). Malena’ s wine list starts very reasonably.

From the daily fish selection, we pick a hefty snapper $33 fragrantly grilled – a squeeze of lemon brings out every cell of taste. We’re not so lucky with Spot Prawn risotto $29, a dish from which taste actually recedes. The advertised cumin is hard to recognize and the spot prawn, demure compared to the big Gulfs with their algae driven iodine, is puzzlingly paired with another shy food, the subtle artichoke.

Dessert (all $8) is showgirl time – an astringent blood orange icecream draped in fennel marshmallow is terrific. The lemon phyllo tart is dazzling and too sweet. A sad shake of the head to walnut bread pudding, much too stodgy to accompany the truffle- infused sheep’s milk cheese.

Overall, we think, this is the kind of elegant metrosexual place that Alan Bates would have loved before he fell into the unbuttoned world of Zorba the Greek aka Anthony Quinn.
 

Globe & Mail   Joanne Kates
January 1, 2011
$180 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip

Number 5

Son of L’unita serves the impeccable seafood of the Ionian Sea. The welcome is warm, the sommelier expert, the servers knowledgeable, and the kitchen is as good as it gets for seafood in Toronto. They riff on crab cakes with lightly smoked halibut. The risotto, impeccably textured, rises to great heights thanks to fresh B.C spot prawns. Buttery fresh tomato sauce with chunks of lobster gives smoothness to squid-ink pasta. Even desserts astonish with their creativity: They garnish sheep cheese with walnut bread pudding… blood orange sorbet with fennel marshmallow. In recognition of the almost non-existent parking at Avenue Road and Davenport, they offer valet parking. Book early.

Alan A. Vernon & Sean Kelly Keenan  
June 23, 2010

EDITORIAL RATING: 4 STARS ****
Address: 120 Avenue Road
Phone: 416-964-0606
Dinner for two: $150 including taxes and tip
Reservations: Recommened
Wheelchair access: No
When restaurateurs Sam Kalogiros and David Minicucci opened L’Unita a few years ago, we were gobsmacked, flabbergasted and flummoxed: how could two guys with little to no food-biz experience do it all so well? Stunning atmo, fantastic food, exemplary service; all with the finesse of seasoned pros.

So when their second haunt, Maléna, opened a few months ago, just a couple of doors south from where it all began, expectations ran pretty darn high. And we are happy to report that the wunderkinds don’t disappoint. Maléna, inspired by the award-winning Giuseppe Tornatore film, Malèna, (even if the accent slopes the other way) shows the maturation of both Kalogiros, Minicucci and chef Doug Neigel.

Where L’Unita has an electrically charged rustic charm, Maléna is more about refined elegance laced with just the right splash of sparkle. Luxurious seating and eclectic lighting right out of a Restoration Hardware catalogue set a perfect atmosphere, one sullied only by incongruous music that might sound a tad better at Jet Fuel.

A couple of unspectacular starters give pause. A trio of stuffed BC spot prawns ($13), one of the specials, has us concerned about the price point. Served in half, with heads on, the breaded concoction totally overpowers the miniscule amounts of seafood we barely manage to slurp out of the shell. A fritto misto ($16 small/$30 large) also suffers from Microscopic Portion Syndrome). A quartet of those tiny spot prawns, whole anchovies and tender calamari rings, all in a jacket of crisp, greaseless cornflower batter is wickedly good doused in fresh lemon. But they should dispense with the pedestrian pot of hot pepper sauce and try adding a few more pieces of squid. (FYI, Café Diplomatico is still tops when it comes to value with this dish.)
Thankfully, the smoked halibut cheek cakes ($13) are filler-free and fabulous. Served with a small pile of horta (a chiffonier of bitter greens with some sea salt and olive oil), pickled shallot rings and creamy lemon dressing, the only sass this cheek dishes out, yet again, is its dollhouse size. We’re not size queens, but really, with barely two bites on the plate, you won’t be sharing this — nor will you want to share the quartet of date-infused lamb polpettes ($13), tiny perfect meatballs with lemon and pimento pesto.

With little tummy-filling satisfaction so far, we worry we might have to make a pit stop at Vesta Lunch down the block for an après-dinner dinner. But with the mains, chef flexes with heavier portions. A pair of superbly spice-rubbed quail ($26) might be mistaken for Rock hens. Each plump bite is accompanied by whole spring carrots, oozing with pancetta fat. A plate of buttery orecchiette ($26) delivers a symphony of flavours with fat-infused capretto (baby-goat meat), matched perfectly with wilted arugula and juicy golden raisins adding just the right sweet note. And while a side of young eggplant ($7), simply roasted and served with balsamic vinegar on the plate, isn’t particularly inspired, considering the price, it passes.

Maléna does dessert a bit differently — the saganaki ($8) isn’t flambéed tableside (the show is the only reason to order this artery clogger in the first place), and it falls flat with a shredded mess of ouzo-infused orange rind on top. A wedge of attiki honey–drizzled, truffle-infused Moliterno ($8) with warmed walnut bread pudding, however, is flat-out fantastic. And pastry chef Leigha Dimitroff’s lemon phyllo tart ($8) is simply extraordinary, with an ultra-crisp, impossibly thin crust, tangy yet creamy curd and a sweet and sticky meringue topper.

Probably the youngest restaurateur team in the city, Kalogiros and Minicucci have proved they have what it takes to cater to the tastes of the well-heeled. They have contributed considerably to this strip at Ave. and Dav., making it not just a destination to pick up the cheapest fresh-cut flowers in town.

James Chatto 24 May, 2010

One of the most perplexing questions you’re ever likely to hear is whether there is a decent Greek restaurant in Toronto. My old answer was no. My new answer is Maléna. I first met Sam Kalogiros six years ago, when he was a server at Luce, the Rubino brothers’ 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’Unita at Avenue Road and Davenport. L’Unita’s food was Italian, convincingly interpreted by young Canadian chef Doug Neigel. Now the same team has opened Maléna, 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’t as obviously cool as L’Unita. And aside from Chiado, Starfish and the top sushi contenders, it’s Toronto’s most serious seafood restaurant.

But is it Greek? Canadians used to the opa!-Zorban-burnt-meat-‘n’-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.

Sea 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’s pouch, squeezed some juice into each urchin and we ate them just like that. However many Japanese uni treats I’ve had since, that remains my seminal urchin experience. At Maléna, Neigel takes very crunchy toasts and spreads them with a little puréed 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 – echoing the texture of the urchin but too bland to impinge on the purity of its flavour – but it’s the salt that brings the dish to life (and reminds me so forcibly of that seaside lunch, I suspect).

Crab 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 Maléna, they serve a single huge stone crab claw, still in its shell, and pair it with avgolemono sauce. Not your usual avgolemono – a liaison of egg yolk and lemon juice stirred into chicken broth – but a stiff version with the texture of an aïoli and mixed with masses of chopped dill. Scrumptious.

Then there’s the Ionian seafood soup. It contains cod (I’ve 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 consommé flavoured with fresh oregano and basil leaves and lots of ground pepper. Slices of grilled ciabatta lie on top, which means they’re soggy by the time the dish comes to table.

I could go on – there are so many delicious things on the menu – especially whole fish of various kinds, simply and flawlessly grilled – and you can’t get more Ionian than that. They do the same thing around the corner at Joso’s, of course, though there it’s seen as Dalmatian. Same wind and water.
And in lieu of a cheese course, Maléna suggests a finger of saganaki – salty kephalograviera cheese fried and served hot with a curiously bitter orange and ouzo marmalade. It’s an unusual combination and I will have to taste it a couple more times to figure out whether or not it really works.

One last treasure Maléna 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 – 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 détente.

Maléna is at 120 Avenue Road (one block south of Davenport). 416 964 0606.