Byblos Downtown [Toronto] - still consistently good Lebanese-ish

[DrJohn]

We have been very happy with Byblos all the times we have gone and, aside from a few favourite being dropped from the menu, it has remained very consistent over the years. Flavours are interesting and layered. Execution is usually very good. This time we braved an in-person experience before going to a show. Service was a bit erratic - first dishes came before our cocktails and then there was over half an hour before the next dishes. Food though remains delicious.

Forgoing our favourite cocktail, Rose Gulab, we had our second favourite The Geographer again - tanqueray gin, pistachio orgeat, apricot, orange blossom, lemon, egg white, sumac - pretty and fun. We followed that up with a shared glass of 2020 Domaine Ouled Thaleb & Alain Graillot “Syrocco”, a Syrah from Zenata, Morocco, having never tried a Moroccan wine before; it was fine but we didn’t notice anything that remarkable.

Lamb ribs with dukkah, yogourt, raz el hanout glaze, red chili schug, and coated in sesame seeds - lovely as always, sweet, spicy, nutty.

Pear and arugula salad with castelfranco (radicchio), sliced green grapes, candied almonds, cumin, preserved lemon vinaigrette, and also a bit of dill - this was new and pleasant, a very pretty salad, with crisp pear slices on top and also cardamom-poached chunks.

Braised lamb shoulder, raz al hanout, pomegranate molasses glaze - comes with thin pita-ish squares and a whole bunch of sauces/toppings for little lamb wraps - sumac red onion, crispy chickpeas, red (quite hot) & green schug, minted yogourt, sweet pickles, toum (garlic sauce), sabz. Lamb was fall-apart delicious and enhanced with all the fixings.

Halibut special with sabzi vichyssoise and artichoke pistachio chermoula - a beautifully done and slightly crisped chunk of halibut in green sauce, very aromatic and lovely.

Sweet jewelled rice: carrot, saffron, barberries, almonds (and pomegranate) - great as always

Black truffle rice with roasted mushrooms and cumin labneh - very nice as well, went great with the lamb, moderate truffle flavour.

For dessert we tried the new Pavlova - cardamom, orange marmalade, blood orange curd - very pretty and light.

[DrJohn]

We returned to Byblos pre-ballet with friends who hadn’t been before. So we ordered many of our favourites and a few new things also. I’ll only show photos of the non-repeats. Food remains great - layers of textures and flavours, often with some sweet and nuttiness as part of the mix.

While waiting for our friends, we sampled the Nightingale Sour (Ketel One botanical peach & orange blossom, Lillet Blanc, Licor 43,ginger, lemon, egg white, vanilla bitters) - beautiful to the eye and a bit like a creamsicle.

We then ordered a bottle of the 2016 Chateau Musar rosé, one of our favourites. It is mostly two varietals indigenous to Lebanon (Merwah and Obadieh) with a teensy bit of red Cinsault. It is less fruity and more butterscotch and vanilla.

We started with 5 dishes:

• Lamb ribs (dukkah, yoghurt, raz el hanout glaze, red chili schug) - fatty, sweet, a little kick, delectable.
• Pear and arugula salad (fresh and poached pear, arugula, castelfranco, green grapes, candied almonds, cumin, preserved lemon vinaigrette) - still a great refreshing mix.
• Turkish manti dumplings (eggplant, yogurt sauce, date molasses) - the sweetness of the date molasses was a nice twist on the usual straight savoury dish.
  
  
• Fried eggplant (honey, baharat, yogurt, cilantro, sesame) - great frying, but salting was a little uneven.
  
  
• Black truffle pide (mozzarella, feta, akawi, oregano, black truffle) - buttery and surprisingly quite truffly.
  
  

For mains, we opted again for the lamb shoulder and halibut described above. Both remain wonderful, with the lamb shoulder providing about 3-4 times the volume of food compared with the halibut.

To accompany we ordered the jewelled rice (I don’t think we have had a meal where we didn’t order it) and tried the following sides:

• Roasted cauliflower (tahini, chimichurri, hazelnut dukkah, preserved lemon, pickled red onion, sabzi, mint, dill) - multiple layers of nuttiness, tartness, and herbal.
  
  
• Roasted beets (hazelnut dukkah, winter spiced maple, orange, extra virgin olive oil, sesame) - the citrus from the orange pieces added a lovely dimension to the natural sweetness of the beets.
  
  

We were getting too full for dessert, so we skipped it this time.

[Phoenikia]

How salty was it?

I haven’t been back because o my first meal at Byblos, around winter 2019, was ridiculously salty. I drank over 2 litres of water over the 12 h following the meal.

[DrJohn]

Only the fried eggplant was salty, unevenly so. Everything else was not particularly salty.

[Phoenikia]

That’s good to know. Thank you!