When you can’t get a reservation at a restaurant in the city it has to mean that it’s a hot spot right? Well so has been the case with Fat Pasha. Since opening about a year ago, not only has it been on all the “new & hot” lists but also pretty much impossible to get a reservation unless you booked at least a week in advance. I decided to just book a spot and find out who was free to join me. We headed out on a Monday night, mouths watering and fully prepared with our order in mind (seeing that we had been drooling over the menu before we left).
The place itself is smaller than I expected with a minimalist style of decor and ambience. There is hightop seating at the bar to one side and then larger table seating to the other.
Photo Credit: Toronto Life
We were promptly seated and even though we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted we ran down our order to the waitress who quickly advised us that we were ordering too much food! She mentioned this was the kind of place you should come with in a larger group versus two mainly because of the portion sizes.
Our menu for the night:
Truffle Hummus – poached duck egg, truffle
Falafel – tahini, pickles and lemon
Roast Cauliflower – tahini, pine nuts, pomegranate and halloumi
Salatim Platter – chopped eggplant & tahini, labneh, rapini tabuleh
The first thing that came out was the Salatim Platter You have the option of choosing from 7 different vegetables/dips of which you can combine 3, 5 or all 7. Since there were only two of us we went with 3. This was definitely my favourite dish. The pita was perfectly toasty and each of the dips was fresh full of flavour, spices, oils and of course copious amounts of garlic. It was actually hard to pick which one I liked best. I’d actually love to go back and try some of the other options.
Next up came the Falafel and the Truffle Hummus. The truffle hummus we were actually both really looking forward to but unfortunately the duck egg kind of ruined it. They cracked the egg and the hummus just became very yolky and I wasn’t a big fan of the mix of flavours. The hummus itself was quite delicious especially with the truffle but I had to make an effort to pick around the egg. The falafel was also unfortunately disappointing. It was dry, overcooked and bland. I tried to over-dip it in the sauce it came with it and it still didn’t help.
And finally, the dish that I was most looking forward to. I literally dreamt about it ever since I added Fat Pasha to my list of places to go. Everyone who had it said it was to die for which made me THAT much more excited. The Roasted Cauliflower. As you can tell by the picture it was quite beautifully created but to be honest, it fell flat for me. The actual cauliflower was just plain old roasted cauliflower with little flavour and the sauces and garnishes didn’t really do much to help. I feel like I pictured a combination of something garlicky, creamy, salty and sweet but unfortunately it was more nutty and bitter. Sad day.
Sadly I was overall disappointed with my visit to Fat Pasha. Maybe it was an off night, maybe it was just overhyped that they were doomed before I even stepped in the door. If I do go back I think I’ll go back with a few more people and maybe not on a Monday.
Sorry Fat Pasha, I had high hopes.
Discover Fat Pasha:
http://www.fatpasha.com
Twitter: @fatpasha
Instagram: fatpasha
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