Bohmers

The trendy Ossington strip is home to many of my favourite restaurants including Foxley, Delux, Pizza Libretto and now Bohmers.  This 5000 sq feet old open gallery-esque space is the newest project for chef Paul Bohmer formerly of the Rosewater Supper club.  It has taken the chef/owner over a year for this project to become a reality as he was the last to put in his application for a liquor licence application to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario before the Ossington bylaw to ban the development of new bars/restos was put in place.

The restaurant's modern decor from it's gorgeous antler inspired chandeliers with sparking Swarovski crystals dripping from them and a large communal table in the central area to smaller nooks where original paintings from Bohmer's late father hang as a tribute and a private dining area off to the back are things of pure beauty.

The menu is focused on local fare and our waitress told us that our seasonal vegetable of the evening would be fiddleheads as they are in season.  What funny veggies they are!

Our group of 5 decided on different appetizers from oyster plate from Oyster boy, to a beet salad with 3 types of rainbow beets and goat cheese, to the venison tarta which was my appetizer served with a quail egg and crostinis .  The tartare was not gamey at all and very fresh, and came with with a wal-nut apple salad.

We ordered all different mains - I had the braised veal cheeks - this dish was phenomenal.  The cheeks were so tender and melt in your mouth good to the velvety potatoes mixed with the wild mushrooms in a red wine jus.  I am a person who loves to share my food so that everybody can share in the experience and despite having to share little morsels, I have to say - I was very happy to finish every last bite of this dish - it was insanely good!

My friend ordered a very intense roasted rabbit saddle stuffed with local blood sausage wrapped in smoked bacon where i found the bacon overpowered the entire dish and it was a bit tough but it  was served with fiddleheads.    We also tried the scallop dish and they were fresh and perfectly cooked.  However the greens they were served on- they were 'flash fried' and thus very tough and underdone.  The pickeral was roasted to a good degree of tenderness and the steak frites was cooked to order.  

We also had room to try some desserts.  The stand out was the spicy chocolate pot au creme.  It had some punch as there were chilis in the chocolate.  We also had a great tarte au citron which looked like a medium sized lemon meringue pie. 

The cons- the music is way too loud and you felt like you were shouting at your friends from across the table.  Directions and recommendations from the servers got lost as we couldn't hear them.   You end up smiling and laughing at things that you don't catch as jokes.  Also the appetizers are 10% overpriced but aside from that - love is in the air for me again.
**** stars

Bohmers- 93 Ossington  - North of Humber Street

Hours:

Mon-Thu 5 p.m. - 12 a.m.

Fri-Sat 5 p.m. - 1 a.m.

416-531-3800