The Bowery NOW CLOSED

The Bowery, which means 'farm' in Dutch, is a the latest addition to the burgeoning King East restos joining it's neighbours like Origin and Colborne Lane to bring a NY style urban farmhouse to the strip.



The Design Agency formerly the "Designer guys" are behind the modern New Yorky space.   You walk in and it feels trendy but not obnoxiously trendy, it really has good ambience and definitely the potential to make this a good lounge spot as well.  As a side note, the "Designer Guys" also did my condo years ago with a New York Asian feel and were the first in their days to do a floor to ceiling wall tattoo (representing subtle asian symbolism of longevity and beauty) and it was my piece de resistance.  So they know what mood they were trying to set with this space!  Inside you will see an open kitchen with a hugh charcoal grill which I immediately note to myself to dry something grilled on the menu.

The menu is a punk meet farm inspired menu with local classics  which featured seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, urbanified!

So the evening was meant to be a catch up with a long time friend from high school and when we walked in, we did have the restaurant to ourselves so it was perfect for a private catch up session but  we were seated by the only other couple dining in the resto at the time.  At first I was puzzled about that as the entire restaurant was empty but it turned out to be a huge reunion as they ended up being my fellow blogging and foodie friends.   They had just started their dinners and we ended up sharing all our meals!

We started off with the scotch bonnet egg - this is a must have here!  It comes presented on a wood board with the deep fried battered egg cut in half with the yolk oozing on deep fried polenta sticks that were very hard but mixed with the yolk - the texture was perfect!

We also tried the grilled octopus which was incredibly tender served over a bed of soft polenta - it was also delicious.

We had a third starter which was our tuna crude - served sashimi'd with a hint of chilli/lime.  I really think we should've ended our meal here but of course my eyes are always bigger than my appetite and we needed to get something from the grill:
We decided on the 24 oz rib eye cooked perfectly medium rare thinly sliced with shaved parmesan flakes over it.  The portions were perfect to share and it was juicy and the parmesan added a nice saltiness to the flavour.
Our neighbours ordered the grilled whole branzino which is a fish - very flakey and good char grilled flavour on it.
At this point - we were unbuttoning our pants because we were in a food coma.

Danny, my dinner date insisted that we order the brownie dessert though, and glad we did as it was to die for.    It came with popcorn drizzled in caramel and who can turn that down really?!
All in all, with our stomachs exploding, it was a lovely night of catch ups and food porn!
*** 1/2 stars
The Bowery Restaurant
http://thebowery.ca
5 Colborne St
Toronto, ON M5E 1C6
Neighbourhoods: Downtown Core, St. Lawrence