Five Doors North

I went here for the company Christmas dinner. I think this is one the most authentic Italian restaurant outside Italy I have ever been to. I am Italian, the real kind, born and raised in Italy until I was 30, and I can tell you the kind of food and cuisine I had was the same my mother, or me for what matter, would put on the table with guests or special occasions.
Food is simple, two or three ingredients per dish, tasty, flavorful, well prepared and presented. No extra sauce or overwhelming dressing, just a harmonious combination of simple ingredients.
In a word I think it was great. I am certainly going back.

So my friend invited me to help ring in her 30th birthday (or second 29th, if you were to ask her). But she had a hard time deciding where she wanted to go to ring in the occasion with friends and wanted me to help her in her decision.

We decided to go with Five Doors North.

From the name of the restaurant I thought it would be literally five doors north of Davisville. Well, it was more like five blocks north ... so if you're walking from the subway, it's a little ways away.

As previous reviewers can attest, the decor is indeed funky, from the curtains to the off-kilter lamps or two hanging from the ceiling.

The food was pretty decent. I started my meal with a glass of white wine and - as an appetizer - polenta with goat cheese, sundried tomato and pesto. I'd never had polenta before, so I found it very tasty.

Next I moved onto my main dish, which was a plate of grilled lamb chops, with roasted garlic caramelized onion jus. I also ordered a side of zucchini and another glass of wine. Everything was tasty; my only reservation was that the lamb chops were a tad fatty. At one point, one mouthful I chewed was nothing *but* fat.

The waitress our table had was good. She was courteous, and our orders came relatively quickly. We even managed to get separate bills, which was a plus.

I know previous reviewers have mentioned it's a decent price. I found it to be a bit pricier than I expected. My bill - including tip - hit somewhere around $51. Perhaps it's because of the restaurant's location.

The place was good, but I didn't think it was "wow!" Don't let me deter you, though. Everyone should give this place a try at least once.

There is not a better bistro in up-town!! This little place is really cute with their decor and from the ceiling hanging tablelamps are adding on its "funky-ness" along with the magazine cut-outs table cloths.

Menu is great, every item i tried is delishious .. but i usually have the beef carpacho with pickeld onion (sweet tasting)and prossuito/arugula rolls. Both antipasti very yummy and because of not ordering anything else - the staff already knows what to bring me without even asking ... they are all great, friendly and funny. I did try the chicken or the pork and some steak and all of them were really flavourful and juicy. Pastas are very good too. Honestly one can't go wrong.

In the summertime they open up the front wall of windows so one can stare at the people walking by and enjoy the breeze .. mine kind of atmosphere after a long day at work. Usually quite busy towards the end of the week for dinner, plus the dj spinning chillaxing tunes tops off the whole experience.

Only negative to some people could be the typical italian wineglasses that are not stemware. I love them, but heard some ( jennifer.n49.ca ) complain about it. WHATEVER!! wine tastes good cuz they have a great selection :-)

GO CHECK IT OUT