“ The Pine, Creemore “ - Impressive Michelin 1*, falsely judged by the ‘ 2024, 100 Best Canada Restaurant list ‘! ( A longish rant and review )

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

My recently immigrated ex-chowhounder friend of 2+decades, Daniel aka ‘HKtraveler’ and I both regarded ourselves as discerning and passionate foodies. Occasionally in the past, we made plans together, sometimes with the inputs of other fellow foodie friends, to concoct culinary excursions outside the narrow confines of our home-cities. Whenever possible, we met up in destination restaurants that offer exceptional cuisine, worth a detour or special journey. I count myself blessed to have participated in such unforgettable gastronomic adventures. Many a time, these chowmeets were held in epicurean food centers like Tokyo and Hong Kong with the attendance of other fervent gourmands. Recounting some of those cherished events, which took me down memory lane, were priceless.

Realizing another chowmeet is long overdue, we decided to organize our own ‘ Mini-meet ‘ by picking a previously untried venue that we hope is deserving and laudable enough for such a gathering. Our intimate chowmeet choice?!.. An adventurous drive, after dark, out into ‘ unfamiliar hinterland territory ‘ and trying out a newly crowned Michelin star establishment - “The Pine in Creemore”! Of course, we do not expect our chosen Michelin 1* to provide us with an exemplary package and savoir-faire experience typical of a 2* or 3*, that was normally our preferred past choices. But, with fingers crossed for a positive gastronomic outcome ( which we relied mostly on feedback from trusted food bloggers and the acument of Michelin inspectors ) plus an adventuresome drive into the ‘wilderness’, we hope to transform this periodic culinary gathering from a routine dining experience into an enchanting culinary expedition!

However, before proceeding with my review of our whimsical and delightful 15 course ‘Chinese food themed‘ fusion tasting menu tonight. I would like to first get the following ‘injustice’ off my chest!

Based on tonight’s pleasurable and imaginative dining experience, there is no doubt in my mind that this exemplary hidden gem is more than worthy of its latest Michelin 1* award. As such, I was therefore puzzled by the disparity and uncharacteristically low ranking bestowed to it by our Canadian own and authoritative “ 2024, 100 Best Canada restaurant list “?! IMO, the rating by this organization was way, way off and to put it bluntly, totally out-of-whack!

It is preposterous to see this Michelin 1* recipient being placed at #40, way below some ‘non-Michelin star’ rated, over-hyped establishments, like the often exaggerated ‘Langdon Hall’ (#5 ), an upscale but unremarkable Montreal French bistro ‘Monarque’ (#11 ), an overrated Toronto institution ‘Canoe’ (#24 )…and most laughable and wacky of all, it being straddled by a couple of gimmicky, quasi-Chinese places……Mimi Chinese (#35 ) and Sunny’s Chinese(#38 )! Talk about making a mockery to our food critic community and a travesty to the nth degree!!

During the past months, I have the pleasure of eating in five other highly rated, Canadian Michelin star establishments…Edulis ( #2 ), Alo ( #3 ), Pearl Morissette (#6 ) and AnnaLena, Vancouver ( #20 ), Frilu ( sadly closed since July ). I can only say, the meal and some of the dishes I had tonight were as good and equally spectacular and stunning!

Now onto the food!

For their culinary creation, the friendly, skilled and talented chefs deployed to the fullest, their entire arsenal of experiences and knowledge they have honed and garnered during their training all over China and the Orient. The result, some amazingly clever and artful twists on certain traditional Chinese dishes. Transforming and morphing them into both visually appealing and palate pleasing bites. Some standout taste-bombs, wth intriguing sauces that bursted with exquisite and well harmonized flavor. Wonderful and sensory wowing!

With a whopping 15 courses to cover, I have decided to just highlight

a few of my favorites of the night. I’ll take the short cut by posting the menu and let photos of all the dishes and your imagination do the talking instead!

Some chosen favorites of the evening include:

• Savory Chinese Tea Leaf deviled egg topped with Caviar
• Dainty and ultra-crispy Pumpkin cake
• ‘Char-Siu‘ diver scallops….the morsel plump and sweet
• Ocean trout, perfectly ‘ barely ‘ cooked
• Roasted and charred, Oyster sauce based marinade Ontario Lamb rib eye.
  ……etc
  Enjoy the visual culinary journey and have fun!

Lastly, the extremely friendly, knowledgeable and professional service by our servers was impeccable!

Excellent food plus great company! What a delightful evening!

[Phoenikia]

I don’t pay much attention to rankings anymore.

I rather read the posts of people who write about stuff I like.

I’m glad you had a wonderful dinner.

[elvisahmed]

Looks good @THECHARLES though I won’t drink Canadian reds

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

Made by ’ Canadian winemaker and winery of the year ', the Cabernet Franc was surprisingly good.
On the other hand, the white…a Charles Baker Riesling was not up to snuff when compared to either German or Alsace ones of the same price range.

[elvisahmed]

Well I can tolerate Canadian whites as not picky about white wines and don’t enjoy them as much. Reds forget it I will not pay to drink them or have them for free in some cases (funny enough a few years ago they had free samples for comparison between Canadian reds and Italian reds and they were asking after blind tasting which one’s people preferred and most people kept picking Italian reds much to the desired outcome of the marketing dept )

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

Overall, I am no fan of Canadian ( Niagara ) wines either! Finding them overpriced and overrated.

Years ago, I attended an Ontario winemaker ‘Riesling tasting’ at ’ Treadwell ’ NOTL. I recalled the wines offered for tasting and comparison were from at least 7 top wineries totalling about 17 different ones from various vintages and degree of sweetness/dryness! My brother-in-law and I, both Riesling lovers, did not find a single one appealing!!..and Canadian wine critics were touting Niagara Riesling as world class!!

[jammy]

Thank you for the review, Charles. Definitely going to give The Pine a try.

[spectral (Iman)]

Making my first post on HO but was a lurking CHer back in the day! I was looking up The Pine and trying to decide if I should visit, then came across Charles’s review here. Then I knew I didn’t have to do any more thinking and made a reservation when it opened up for my day of choice (Aug 1, my anniversary with the husband). Since Charles’s post was a major reason I decided to go, I thought I’d come and post about my experience.

Needless to say, I was very impressed! Granted, it’s been a number of years since I’ve last done much high end dining (especially Michelin starred establishments), but it was fantastic on all levels. I will say that I wasn’t prepared for a 3h dinner experience, with over 20 dishes! I still enjoyed every minute, it just would’ve been better for me to have recalibrated my expectations and that’s all on me haha. We were in the “dining room” and not at the “chef’s counter”. Service, right from the beginning, was stellar and I felt really welcomed!

While the husband’s family actually has a cottage-type property nearby (which is why I was looking at The Pine in the first place), it’s still a ~30-45 min drive away so he opted for the non-alcoholic drink pairing, while I had the Ontario wine pairing. They also offered a complimentary glass of sparkling once we were seated, including a non-alcoholic option, which both the husband and I appreciated.

There was very little overlap in dishes that Charles had, but I think some are similar themes throughout. I don’t want to go on forever so I’ll just put the photos in and a short description (I didn’t take notes as I was eating, which I regretted! There was so much I forgot!).

Beijing Rosette - had a duck confit puree, which was really good

Tea Egg - one of their signature dishes. The white was flavoured with tsaoko, and the yolk had mustard, all topped with Altantic sturgeon caviar.

No Boil Boiled Fish - trout tartare, not spicy at all even though I think it’s supposed to be riffing on the “water boiled fish” dish

Rock Crab Rangoon - pretty self-explanatory, but the flowers were phlox I believe

Wuxi Lamb Ribs - had multiple sauces/molasses/etc. and was probably my favourite dish of the night!! Perfectly cooked and served at the perfect temperature too. The flowers are Bachelor’s Buttons.

Good Morning Shanghai - their take on a jianbing though it felt more like an egg wafer roll to me! These were filled with a lobster and crab puree (hence the presentation) and if someone mass produced these, I would be first in line to buy like a thousand of them, because I could snack on them forever.

Oyster and the Oyster Thief - a really cute dish that included no real oysters! The shell is made from oyster thief seaweed, which I discovered afterwards is actually an invasive species in Canada. Beef tartare made with the oyster blade, and I think there was an oyster mushroom puree on top but don’t quote me on that.

The French Concession - they said this is the only French dish on the menu, and one of their consistent items, and is a nod to Shanghai’s colonial past! Sourdough toast with a foie gras ice cream. I can’t remember the berry puree for the life of me, though.

Hold Your Tongue - a beef tongue croquette, with cute presentation and wordplay

Prosperity Salad - this is where I started thinking I really should’ve been taking notes throughout the meal. From the bottom going counter-clockwise, trout roe, watermelon radish, beets, ???, chrysanthemum greens, ???, maybe pickled cucumbers?, and flowering cauliflower. In the centre under the flowers was more trout.

Carrot Jiaozi, Red Oil Handcopy, Xiang Gu Soup (the dim sum course) - carrot dumpling with carrot puree is pretty straightforward. The “handcopy” we were told was a direct translation of the Chinese dish it’s riffing on. I suspect it’s 紅油抄手 which is wontons in chili oil. And the mushroom one was filled with mushrooms and had a mushroom foam, reminiscent of cream of mushroom soup but less heavy. My husband said this trio of dishes was his favourite of the night!

Refresher - we were asked to get up from the table and come to the counter for a little break. This was a white currant popsicle and was, in fact, refreshing.

Sai Kung Scallop - sorry for the bad photo! We were led into the back garden, which was very cute and lovely, but did not have lighting conducive to photos (we were the last seating of the night). This was a Digby scallop with a black garlic tamari, which was fermented in-house for 6 months. It was also smoked in the shell.

La Zi - beautifully cooked trout though, with a braised pattypan squash. There were multiple sauces in the middle, one of which was apparently pawpaw based. Once again, not spicy at all!

Char Siu - veal char siu, with nasturtiums from their back garden! To be honest, this was my least favourite of the night. While the flavours were delicious (and was enhanced by the nasturtiums!) , the round of meat on the right had a really off-putting mushy texture for me. The rectangle on the left had a better texture, but since I started with the one on the right, I already was a bit put off this course. My husband said his was fine though, so I think it was just a miss on my one piece.

Tofu Flower - a soy milk jelly on the left, and a soy milk sorbet on the right, made with local soybeans I think. There was a rhubarb ginger syrup, and both were dotted with haskap puree. No recollection of what the biscuit was, haha. I’m someone who doesn’t actually like soy milk or tofu (everyone tells me this is weird, as I am Chinese) but I did enjoy this dessert! The freshness helped, I think.

H.K.F.T. 6.0 - their 6th iteration on the classic HK French toast. This was a milk bread coated in egg and deep fried, served with caramelized condensed milk and shaved salted egg yolk. They also poured over a smoked milk, which they suggested we drink like cereal milk after eating the French toast. I thought this was a pretty fantastic rendition.

Tianshi - 3 different desserts to finish the night: a sable with a sweet pea ice cream, “timbits” (actually a corn fritter with 5 spice sugar), and tuiles.

We were given a cute card with the menu printed on the front and signed by all the staff on the back as we were wrapping up, and I thought it was a very nice way to end the evening.

I don’t think we would get the non-alcoholic drink pairings again - they were not bad, but my husband said they were nothing special. It consisted mostly of de-alcoholized wines and wine-proxies. I personally was expecting something more like creative virgin cocktails, but that’s just my own misconception. But I think it’s great that they have this option, especially because we learned that 90% of their clientele comes up from Toronto and drives home the same night!

My wine pairings were quite nice - I’ve been to most of the wineries where they served wine from, and am a fan of a couple of them, so I was predisposed to liking them anyway. I wouldn’t say I have a very refined wine palate, but I do have strong dislikes haha. I think this is a great option though, especially since The Pine is trying to highlight local (or at least Canadian) sourced food, and having local wines is a great option! Something I also really liked is that they would pour the wine, then leave a closed bottle on the table while you were drinking it (I took photos of them so I would remember what I had!).

Anyway, not to repeat myself, but it was a really great experience! I loved how the vibe was pretty casual while still being an exceptionally polished experience. The staff were all very friendly and we had fun chatting with them briefly when they’d stop by with a new dish or to clear our plates - things like a short question about the dish (or the rocks that were used for presentation, in my case). I don’t really like special attention when I’m out and I especially don’t want to get in the way of their work, so I thought this level of interaction was just right. I would love to go back, but I don’t think I’m ready for another 3h experience for another year at least!

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

Glad you had a wonderful time!!
With the closing of ’ Frilu ’ , sadly, nowadays, ALL my favourite restaurants featuring tasting menus are at least an hour drive away from home!!..Hexagon, Langdon Hall, The Pine, Pearl Morissette

[Phoenikia]

welcome! nice first post!

[spectral (Iman)]

At least there’s lots of “digestion time” on the drive home?! I like the diversity of locations, but it does feel like there’s not much in central GTA anymore.

[DrJohn]

As part of our mini road trip that took us to Naagan and other places, we also finally had dinner at The Pine. The setting is a former auto repair garage and, very cutely, all the staff wear overalls. We agree that the food was generally wonderful. We had 23 “courses”, mostly canapé-sized, with very few repeats from the menus above. Our one complaint was that the pacing was quite fast for the first half. We would be barely finishing one course and drink when they were already setting us up for the next. I gave them this feedback via email and they were a bit defensive about it. Maybe they had another seating after us (we were at 5:00 pm).

They start you off with a warm cloth scented with balsam fir. They also offer you champagne for the first 3 snacks, which we think was not part of the pairing we ordered (but not sure). We tried two:

• Collet Brut Art Deco, Premier Cru (Chardonnay 40%, Pinot noir 40%, Pinot meunier 20%) - acidic lighter, more yeasty.
• Lelarge Pugeot Tradition ((Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir & Chardonnay) - richer more appley.

For the first dish, everyone is gathered up at the chef’s station, overlooking a counter covered with many of the ingredients going into the subsequent meal. We were served ZHENG SHUI DAN: steamed egg custard, with lobster tomalley, Nova Scotia lobster, lobster oil, squash, corn vinegar, alder catkin, and annatto seed in the surround pastry crust. Light and rich with lobster flavour.

Back at our table, we next had ALL DRESSED CANTONESE SCALLOPS: brown butter maple tartlet, black garlic and fried onion emulsion, southern Chinese style scallop steamed with fried garlic and made into a mousse, smoked sturgeon from New Brunswick, chrysanthemum, all-dressed spices (like the chips) made from fermented chilli. Very playful and delicious.

Our 3rd dish was TEA EGG: hen’s egg soaked in tsaoko (black cardamom), black tea, and cassia bark, with a smoked mustard devilled egg filling, and Acadian Gold sturgeon caviar from New Brunswick. Part decadence, part church luncheon.

Our next pairing was 2023, Doniene Gorrondona, Bizkaiko Txakolina, Hondarrabi Zuri, Bakio, a Basque wine that was low acidity and very nutty.

Our 4th dish was PUMPKIN CAKE: apparently inspired by nan gua bing, a Chinese dessert, with a cracker of pumpkin juice and fennel, caramelized parsnip and aged cheddar jam, caraway seed, pickled kohlrabi and leaves made from garlic chives. Very pretty and light.

Next was BEIJING LION’S MANE: charcoal-roasted lion’s mane mushroom, done supposedly Peking duck style, with heart nut oil, fermented summer strawberry, fermented apple and black apple curd, parsnip vinegar glaze, and pickled shimeji on top. Didn’t remind us at all of Peking duck, but it was delicious with lots of sour notes.

Our 6th dish was GOOD MORNING SHANGHAI: a deep fried tube, stuffed with snow crab, lovage, Five Brothers sheep’s milk Gouda, and smoked crab brain caramel. If only bar snacks were like this.

Our next pairing was the 2024 Roselana, Pearl Morissette, a dark rose made from Pinot Noir and Gamay. We are generally fans of every Roselana that they have produced.

The 7th dish was OYSTER AND THE OYSTER THIEF: a pancake of oyster thief (a seaweed), oyster blade beef tartare (from Martin Family Farms in Elora), black oyster mushroom condiment, oyster emulsion, oyster leaf, radish, and a vinaigrette to spray on in a little bottle. Cute and tasty combo of all things oyster.

This was followed by FRENCH CONCESSION: sourdough roasted in brown butter and kabayaki, with foie gras ice cream, sour prune jam, beetroot dust, and marigold petals. Very much a French detour from the mostly Asian-inspired menu, and quite enjoyable.

Course 9 was HUSBAND AND WIFE VENISON: a birch syrup donut, topped with shaved venison that was tossed with raw coriander seed, lovage, calypso coriander, lemon verbena, and bolted coriander. We thought this was extra amazing, although the flavours reminded me more of a mash-up of steak spice and Indian curry than the dish it was supposedly inspired by.

Our next wine was a Koehler Ruprecht, Riesling, Kabinett Trocken, from Pfalz (missed noting the year). We have one of these at home. Nicely acidic, with a bit of florality.

Dish #10 was NO BOIL BOILED FISH: albacore tuna, fermented green chilli doubanjiang, sawtooth coriander, lao gan ma emulsion, seaweed vinaigrette, fish bone cracker, watermelon radish, and a chilled broth of fermented juices with kefir and fig leaf oil, and elderberry caper. Light and fresh, with the eye-catching feature of the cracker shaped into a fish skeleton.

Our pairing next shifted into sake: Niida Shizenshu Genshu, Fukushima Prefecture, Niida-Honke, Toyonishiki rice; 80% rice polish - quite savoury and a good complement to the next dishes.

Our next course was titled DIM SUM and featured 3 items:

• Siu Mai Fun Guy: Good Family Farms pork and black oyster mushroom siu mai, with a dried sheep’s polypore cracker on top, pickled trout roe, and sweet gale vinegar - delicious, with nice tang from the vinegar.
  
  
• Carrot Jiaozi: carrot and brown butter jiaozi dumplings with kabayaki and chive butter - very buttery.
  
  
• Wuxi Lamb Ribs: glazed in lamb fat molasses, with sundried cherries from Niagara and fermented huckleberry - fall-apart, sweet, fatty, and oh-so good.
  
  

They then offered a choice of palate cleanser freezies. We chose wild grape and honeysuckle and seabuckthorn and cedar, both of which were great. We missed out on honeysuckle and peach, but they wouldn’t give us any extras.

Our next wine was 2022, Rully 1er Cru Vauvry, Olivier Leflaive, Chardonnay, Bourgogne - delicate and a bit of apple.

It accompanied SOUR FISH SOUP: BC red spring salmon wrapped in sea lettuce and pickled hops shoots, poached sous vide, over fermented mustard greens, with buckwheat honey, labneh, and sea grapes, in a complex broth of roasted pheasant, halibut bones, and smoked okra - amazing, with many rich intermingling flavours.

Next up was THAT UBIQUITOUS SWEET AND SOUR DISH: black cod marinated in prickly ash, with caramelized goat’s butter, pawpaw vinegar bearnaise, lilac vinegar, and muscat grape saba (cooked grape must), with raw Inca potato (naturally sour potato). Quite a distant cousin to sweet and sour, but still lovely and the pawpaw flavour came through.

The brought the squab and veal tenderloin to show us before serving the next wine, 2022, Alain Graillot, Crozes-Hermitage - smoky, not too tanniny. This accompanied the next two dishes.

CHARSIU: Ontario squab in a marinade of red yeast, beets, and rose, slowly grilled, and served with a smoked mustard emulsion, beetroot and rose marmalade, and a jus made from cow’s feet elderberries, coffee, and black cardamom, with beetroot powder over. Gorgeous, very gently cooked, tasted like liver (a good thing in our books); tasted nothing like charsiu.

WELCOME TO XIN JIANG: prickly ash-spiced veal tenderloin, roasted slowly over charcoal, with a jus of chicken feet and pickled mustard seed, spinach emulsion, spuma of sunchoke, lovage over crunchy grilled (“burnt”) cabbage. The rub had a lovely peppery, coriander-ish flavour and the grilled cabbage had nice smokey notes.

Our final wine was a 2015 Megyer Tokaj, late harvest Muscat - stewed fruits and honey. This accompanied all the dessert courses.

FINALLY… THE RICE: wild rice and Niagara pear pudding, sourdough crumble/praline, Gewürztraminer and chrysanthemum wine gel, burnt wild rice and Jersey milk ice cream - the floral gel enhanced an otherwise fairly straightforward set of flavours.

SUGAR WATER: elderberry and soy milk budding jellos, haskap curd, calendula, honeysuckle and cranberry tea, fig leaf oil, leaf shapes made of turmeric and beetroot. The most eye-catching dessert.

HKFT 6.0: deep fried milk bread with salted duck egg yolk, caramelized milk steamed in wintergreen, Vancouver Island salt, spice bush milk. The French toast idea still came through, even with the interesting variations.

TANGUO - two pleasing last sweet bites:

• Knuckle Sandwich: dried pea and sweet fern ice cream sandwich with duck fat and red fife cookie.
  
  
• Buckwheat and sourdough miso lace cookie.
  
  

[THECHARLES (Charles Yu)]

WOW!! GREAT WRITE-UP!! I really enjoyed reading it!
For me, a lovely, after dinner treat, was the drive back home, where the pitch black, back-country plus a clear sky provides a rare chance to glimpse at the gorgeous starry sky!

[DrJohn]

That would be a beautiful sight. Unfortunately we drove back during a snowstorm. I was mainly concerned about staying on the road.

[HappyOnion (Tom)]

our experience with one star ratings has been ‘not good’ - but I must add - what passed for one star (see below) had utterly no resemblance to your pix’d place.

this is a (then) “new” one star rated place - seriously out of our way and definitely not worth the trip…

[Daniel]

Pretty sure that initial drink is complimentary! Have been to The Pine 3 times in the last 1.5 years and they are one of those rare places that continue to improve every visit

[Daniel]

Is this The Pine or somewhere else?

[HappyOnion (Tom)]

elsewhere - a cautionary note about one star ratings . . . .