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Fusion Restaurants
About Messis
When I opened Messis twelve years ago, I wanted to create the kind of restaurant that I eat at in Europe - accessible to everybody - yet I wanted to be fine dining. I worked many years in exclusive re Go to full description...
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Messis, Toronto Reviews (2)
By Veronica on
Feb 05, 2008
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A few weeks ago we celebrated our friend sweetpea.n49.ca's birthday. Apparently her 30th birthday dinner last year at Alice Fazooli's, in Diane's words was "TOO quiet". So this year it was a two-part celebration - "part classy and part trashy". Welcome to "part classy".
Dinner was held at Messis, a wonderful little restaurant located on Harbord and Spadina, that serves up a bevy of fusion dishes. The restaurant was small and very cozy. Our group's tables probably took up a third of the restaurant. Music played in the background just at the right level that you could have conversations with the people around you. The staff were very welcoming and our server was very knowledgable, from the wine list to the last minute changes on the dessert menu.
I started off with a glass of Shiraz as I waited on appetizer and main course.
For the appetizer I went with the "Grilled soya-orange marinated calamari with shiitake mushrooms, green onions, red peppers and toasted cashews in a Chinese citrus sweet and sour broth" - seriously, that's what's on the menu and it came in a large dish! The description did not disappoint. Simply delicious - the citrus sweet and sour broth mixture played on my tongue and the calamari was cooked just at the right tenderness.
I love my pasta so for the main course I chose "Fusilli with smoked chicken, roasted sweet onions, red peppers and garlic in parsley, chipotle olive oil sauce garnished with parmesan cheese". Fusilli is probably the best pasta because it captures and holds within its folds all the flavours. The roasted sweet onions and red pepper sweeten up this dish, but be careful - the spicy sauce gives a kick to it! I wished there was more, but I had to make room for dessert, which was...
The "Nectarine strawberry, apple crumble with Tahitian vanilla ice cream". Apple crumble - nothing really special, right? I agree. It's the ice cream that gives it the umph! Put that on top of the chunks of apple, strawberry and the sweet crumble and it's almost "to die for". I would have had the ice cream alone, velvety as it melted in your mouth... yum! But the next time I would try the "Grand Marnier chocolate mousse cake with raspberry ice" - absolutely awesome. The mousse is a rich chocolate and really brings out the raspberry flavour, and there's Grand Marnier to boot!
The best part, this was well under $50 - unbelievable! Awesome choice of venue, sweetpea.n49.ca! Say thanks to Brian...
Dinner was held at Messis, a wonderful little restaurant located on Harbord and Spadina, that serves up a bevy of fusion dishes. The restaurant was small and very cozy. Our group's tables probably took up a third of the restaurant. Music played in the background just at the right level that you could have conversations with the people around you. The staff were very welcoming and our server was very knowledgable, from the wine list to the last minute changes on the dessert menu.
I started off with a glass of Shiraz as I waited on appetizer and main course.
For the appetizer I went with the "Grilled soya-orange marinated calamari with shiitake mushrooms, green onions, red peppers and toasted cashews in a Chinese citrus sweet and sour broth" - seriously, that's what's on the menu and it came in a large dish! The description did not disappoint. Simply delicious - the citrus sweet and sour broth mixture played on my tongue and the calamari was cooked just at the right tenderness.
I love my pasta so for the main course I chose "Fusilli with smoked chicken, roasted sweet onions, red peppers and garlic in parsley, chipotle olive oil sauce garnished with parmesan cheese". Fusilli is probably the best pasta because it captures and holds within its folds all the flavours. The roasted sweet onions and red pepper sweeten up this dish, but be careful - the spicy sauce gives a kick to it! I wished there was more, but I had to make room for dessert, which was...
The "Nectarine strawberry, apple crumble with Tahitian vanilla ice cream". Apple crumble - nothing really special, right? I agree. It's the ice cream that gives it the umph! Put that on top of the chunks of apple, strawberry and the sweet crumble and it's almost "to die for". I would have had the ice cream alone, velvety as it melted in your mouth... yum! But the next time I would try the "Grand Marnier chocolate mousse cake with raspberry ice" - absolutely awesome. The mousse is a rich chocolate and really brings out the raspberry flavour, and there's Grand Marnier to boot!
The best part, this was well under $50 - unbelievable! Awesome choice of venue, sweetpea.n49.ca! Say thanks to Brian...
Sounds like a great deal... and good to boot... always nice to hear something was a hit... ok now for the trashy part...lol
Wow! Fantastic review you wrote, Veronica! & the pictures are definitely worth a thousand words!
Looks like you had an absolute riot!
Looks like you had an absolute riot!
oooohh! Awesome photos!
By bert on
Oct 01, 2007
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We had dinner there last saturday. The food was very good,
service was fast and prices were moderate. We will certainly
visit there soon again. Norbert
service was fast and prices were moderate. We will certainly
visit there soon again. Norbert
I used to live in this neighborhood and passed by this place a million times but had never heard anything about it, looks like I will have to check it out!
We wanted to go there last weekend but unfortunately they only take reservations for 6:30 and 8:30 on Saturday nights. 6:30 is too early and you HAVE to be out by 8:30 and 8:30 is too late to start (especially for DEBSIL). We will have to try another night.
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Additional business details
When I opened Messis twelve years ago, I wanted to create the kind of restaurant that I eat at in Europe - accessible to everybody - yet I wanted to be fine dining. I worked many years in exclusive restaurants with dedicated cooks who could not afford to eat the food they were creating. I wanted to create that restaurant. The gamble was successful because we have a steady and growing clientele.