Wynona [Toronto], a lovely neighbourhood restaurant.

[DrJohn]

Although I’ve posted about meals at Wynona before, I thought it would be nice for it to have its own thread. We’ve loved this place since it opened on Gerrard. It got recognized with a Michelin Bib Gourmand last fall and has been busier as a result. The food, particularly the pastas, remains great and they have a great selection of interesting and less common wines. The patio is now also open, which is where we settled in with friends recently.

We ordered a bottle of Poanta Reia, a Slovenian orange wine (macerated unfiltered), 2017, Brda, Suho Kakovostino Vino ZGP - apricoty at first, with some earthy tones coming out over time.

We started with the grilled focaccia, smoky as always, as a prelude to:

Ontario veal tartare, capers, green asparagus, smoked egg yolk - fresh, with a nice kick from some horseradish.

Kohlrabi (in a cake like a tartare, with pickled thin slices over top), coconut green curry all around, grilled lardo, crisp wakame on top - really interesting combo of flavours.

Ontario pea agnolotti, Amalfi lemon, smoked butter, mint and pistachio pesto, ricotta salata - fresh sweetness from the peas, herbal and nutty from the pesto, a bit of acid from the lemon to cut through the richness of the smoked butter.

Ramp mafaldine, leek sofrito, side stripe shrimp, sorrel butter, (crunchy) breadcrumb - almost a perfect combination, with perhaps a touch too much salt.

Malted chocolate mousse, salted caramel ganache, crème fraiche, chocolate truffles (three, embedded in the mousse/ganache) - rich chocolate and not too sweet.

Rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart, macerated strawberries, crème fraiche - also very good.

We had enough room for some digestifs:

• Marolo Milla Liqueur - redolent of camomile.
• Erbaluna Barolo Chinato - herbal, a bit like Campari and wine together

[Estufarian (Alan)]

Their food is beautiful.
Sadly, I experienced a ‘dramatic’ MSG allergy response after eating there.

If you don’t react to MSG (I’m guessing added rather than glutamates occurring naturally in the food - e.g. mushrooms are one of my favourite food categories) then I was impressed with their food. But if you’re “sensitive” then be aware.

Or perhaps ask for ‘no added MSG’.

[DrJohn]

Sorry to hear that. I am aware that adding MSG (and various MSG-laden products) is no longer as taboo to add as it once was and I am pretty MSG-insensitive, so may not have noticed.

[DrJohn]

Hadn’t been back for a bit. Food and wine selection remain great.

We were recommended and very much enjoyed a bottle of Furmint Lenkey Bomboly Tokay 2015 - bruised apple, gentle lemon, subtle nuttiness, mineral, beeswax and an edge of butterscotch .

Of the many great-sounding small plates, we sampled two:
Steelhead trout tartare, cucumber (pickle), pumpernickel crouton (very crisp and not soggy), horseradish crème fraîche, red watercress on top, and some tarragon - bright fresh flavours.

Squash croquette, massaman curry, frisée, pickled grapes - coconut-rich sauce underpinning the sweet and crispy croquette, accented by the pickled grapes.

The pastas here have always been a strength, and the two we picked were no exception.
Saffron tonnarelli (perfectly al dente) came with tender Humboldt squid, aji amarillo (yellow Peruvian pepper), leek sofrito, squid ink breadcrumb - buttery, crunchy, and garlicky, with a mild kick.

Campanelle with tender braised rabbit, crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, Swiss chard (fresh and pickled) - the acid from the pickled chard helped balance another buttery dish.

Ambitiously and perhaps unwisely, we decided to forgo dessert and ordered the delicious and very rich pastrami beef tongue with honey mustard, collard greens, dill pickle, on top of their great foccacia - a decadent riff on a reuben (just needed some cheese).

[DrJohn]

After a friend suggested we go to Wynona together and then changed plans, we decided to go explore the current menu. Alas there were too many things we wanted to try, so we ended up going twice in quick succession. So the following report is on 2 meals-worth.

We started each night with a glass of something that interested us, followed by a bottle of something that interested us (we didn’t finish either bottle and took the rest home).

• Glass of Mezes Feher Oszkar Maurer, Subotica, Serbia 2021 - tart apricot, honey flavours with a little bitterness, pineapple over time.
• Glass of Lambrusco, Denny Blini, Willa, Emilia-Romagna, NV - ripe strawberries.
• Dead Flowers, The Hermit Ram, New Zealand, 2022, pinot noir and gewürztraminer blend(!) - dried roses, Concord grapes, cranberry, strawberry, hint of iron, lots of wet earth/forest floor, and lychee.
• Aci Urbajs, Organic Anarchy, chardonnay/riesling/kerner, Styria. Slovenia 2020 - initially pine, some grapefruit, then mushroom and stonefruit.

We almost never try their housemade charcuterie, so we went with their Linton Pasture pork fennel salami - very fennel-y and big chunks of creamy fat; on the salty side.

Their crudos are usually great and the Kanpachi was no exception: kanpachi with aji verde, dandelion salsa verde, pickled chilies, cilantro - complex herbal notes with a little bitterness and some sour tang.

A few years ago they served veal carpaccio with a tonnato sauce. This time the vitello tonnato featured thin slices of delicately cooked veal with caper berries, cornichon, bone marrow crouton, and a lovely tuna cream sauce with some tarragon explosions.

Although they still had a great squash croquette with Massaman curry, we instead tried the new Boston squid stuffed with soppressata, in acqua pazza and lemon - the soppressata made it a bit salty, but it was otherwise lovely.

We managed to try all three regular menu pastas plus the special one:

• Spaghettini, bottarga, lemon, parsley, butter - delicious fermented ocean flavour, although a touch less al dente than usual.
  

  

• Lasagne, milk-braised pork shoulder, potato, rabbit & veal ragu, scamorza, bechamel - rich, smokey, and tender meat.
  

  

• Jerusalem artichoke cappellacci, sunflower seed praline, taleggio fonduta, black truffle, and burnt apple purée, with chips on top - a special pasta, with sweet notes.
  

  

• Gemelli alla Carbonara - meaty chunks of guanciale, tons of black pepper and cheese; not quite a classic carbonara and more like a fun collision between carbonara and cacio e pepe.
  

  

• Tonnarelli special with sous vide octopus, harissa, and lots of lemon - perhaps the best of the bunch, with plenty of citrus tang, hefty kick, perfectly done noodles, and tender octopus.
  

  

Skipping the ever-present (and excellent) sea bass, we tried the pheasant (breast in truggle butter, thigh KFC style) with truffle butter, quince mostarda, and red endive - breast skin was lovely and crisped but a touch too salty, everything else very fun and delicious.

We also had the duck cotechino (rich and hefty slices) with creamed cabbage (with sliced cornichons), bitter mustard greens, and lemony kale salad. Tasty and almost too filling.

We only had room for dessert on one night and went with the passionfruit and coconut tart, with lime meringue and toasted coconut - kind of a riff on lemon meringue with a thin meringue layer and a coconut base - although not overly sweet, it would have been nice to have even more zing from the passionfruit.

[DrJohn]

Returned to have some of the new items on the menu:

Ontario burrata, forced rhubarb, wild fennel, brown butter & pistachio vinaigrette - the tang of the rhubarb was a great contrast to the creamy cheese. We had this with the smoky grilled foccacia.

Ramp tonnarelli, Manila clams, Calabrian chili - perfectly chewy noodles with generous and garlicky clams.

Pork collar (juicy and just done) on a parsnip puree, covered with fresh baby kale, turnips, and bacon.

Blood orange posset (no photo), white chocolate & thyme ganache, salted honey crumb, meringue - very nice, although the meringue was a bit too sweet.

To drink we had a bottle of Trebbiano/Malvasia/Verdicchio | Monastero Suore Cistercensi, Coenobium, Lazio, Italy | 2021 - aged in amphora, oxidative, bright, mineral, fresh and lots of aromatics.