Dedicated thread for French food, baked goods, drinks, groceries.
My current favourites:
Le Baratin for brunch
Le Conciliabule for pastries, quiche, croque monsieur.
Bar Pompette for croque monsieur and cocktails.
Thobors for custom cakes.
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J’s Steak Frites
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Bonjour Brioche for the raspberry brioche, blueberry brioche, quiches, savoury tarts (esp. fig and gorgonzola, goat cheese and tomato), roast beef and brie on baguette.
Batifole for the cassoulet royale and the Grand Marnier soufflé. Should he have an omelet on the menu with truffles, have that.
Cafe Boulud for the grapefruit givré.
Patisserie La Cigogne for the mirabelle plum tart, croquembouche.
Le Conciliabule for the three-cheese croissant, raspberry croissant.
Bomou for the Earl Grey canelé.
Many other places we like are French-ish, so not sure if they should be included.
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Sure, include the French-ish, bistro-ish. 
I’ll add the quiche at Emmer.
I ate at J’s for my birthday. While I enjoyed and the unlimited frites that were cooked in beef tallow were delicious, the steak was good, but not good enough to travel from Coxwell station all the way over to Dufferin station.
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Well, Toronto is a big place.
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I had an old thread on Chowhound, where I asked for recs worth a half hour TTC ride.
There are places I’ll walk 30 minutes to visit, but won’t visit if I have to take the subway or pay for parking.
There are other places I visit every time I’m in a particular neighborhood for something non-food related.
I rarely travel east of Yonge St these days. I only cross the Don River and visit establishments over there when I’m meeting someone who lives on the East Side.
This is a big change from 10 years ago, when I was travelling all over the Golden Horseshoe to try new restaurants with Toronto Chowhounds.
Le Conciliabule is east of Yonge, on the edge of Little India, on Gerrard St E, and I would travel by car or subway for their pastries, quiches. The parking is also cheap!
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I am the exact same way, but in reverse. There are certain areas in the West end that I do frequent, but very rarely.
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If you live near Coxwell and Danfoth you may have already tried Taverne Tamblyn on the corner of Danforth and Monarch Park. Its been open for about 6 months. 4 of us had dinner there tonight and everything was great - cocktails, food, wine, service, and reasonable prices. And frites cooked in beef tallow.
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I have been meaning to try Tamblyn as I have heard very good things. Thanks for the tip about the frites!
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Oh the frites are quite something. And 4 of us didn’t finish one serving! They came with an addictive aioli. Two in our party had the peppercorn steak and were practically licking the plate. So I"d say you could save yourself the trek to Dufferin and be happy. Fair warning the wine prices are highish.
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Pompette and Maison T mostly for me … but sometimes also Dreyfus and Milou.
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We tried Pompette last week, sitting on the patio. The patio is fully covered, so a good option if it is raining. The north portion of the patio is fully open to the air and the south half is partially open and gets a good bit of air.
The food is very good, full of butterfat and well-executed. The prices, even in these times, seemed a bit high, with not-too-large mains in the upper 40s. Service was warm and attentive (and all seemingly French from France).
We started with a couple of cocktails:
- Aiguenoire [left]: orange blossom, citrus, yellow chartreuse, egg white, fennel butter, Citadelle gin - citrusy and gorgeous.
- Green Punch [right]: sugar snap pea, mint, bitter melon, lime, elderflower liqueur, gin, cachaca, mezcal, honey, whey - very interesting; my wife loved it but the smokey pea aftertaste didn’t work for me.
These drinks had considerable kick, so we just went on to a glass of orange wine: Théo Bechtold “Espectacular” 2019, Alsace (pinot blanc, gewurztraminer, pinot gris) - very floral and some stone fruits.
Homemade spelt sourdough bread: Quebec organic flour, voatsiperifery (something like black pepper) butter - nice crust and spongey interior. We inhaled it and should have kept some to mop up the sauces from later dishes.
Chilled poached leeks, with cured egg yolks, mustard seed - simple, light, with a good balance between the flavours.
Zucchini flowers, smoked mussels, fennel purée, turmeric jus and flower petals - slightly warm, with a aromatic jus to bind together the other flavours.
Vol au vent: airy pastry, delicate lobster, fresh peas, tangy green peppercorn bisque, and supple mushrooms - gorgeous.
Braised short rib with beef jus and wine sauce, three sauces (shallot and parsley butter, chimichurri and carrot purée); carottes au beurre on carrot purée with dandelion and sprouts - perfectly braised with fully melted collagen, but the jus was a tad undersalted; lovely sweet carrots.
Light and flakey mille-feuille with strawberries and pistachios and creamy custard inside and a rhubarb caramel sauce - excellent.
Dark chocolate mousse (smooth and creamy but quite sweet) and cherries and cookies.
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Looks good. I hope to visit this month.
I’ve visited Bakery Pompette 5 times since May! I like their crème caramel, and I’ve been reusing the mason jars that Bakery Pompette crème caramel come in for freezer jam.
My repurposed Bakery Pompette jars.
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Very nice Croque Monsieur ($15 before tax and tip) at Bicyclette Food located at 290 Harbord, north side. This is a little wine bar with good food.
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Better add ’ LUCIE ’ ( Yonge & King ) to this thread…Arguably, one of the top 3 French fine dining establishments in town! Eighty Six (86 ) 5.0 out of 5.0 Google rating since opening a couple of months ago!!
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I wish Lucie offered take-out! Hopefully, I will try it some day!
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I’ve been enjoying the takeout quiche and crème caramel from Bakery Pompette.
Le Boulangerie on Dundas just east of Ossington sells excellent breads. They have a sesame baguette as well as a regular baguette. I haven’t tried their sandwiches yet.
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