Winterlicious #2 @ Trevor Kitchen & Bar

My second Winterlicious destination for 2012 was Trevor Kitchen & Bar, a place that I've been dying to try for a long while. The restaurant occupies a small basement space, tucked in Wellington Street (right beside Swish by Han, another restaurant on my radar). Note that it was extremely hard to make a reservation. My boyfriend called on the first day of Winterlicious reservations for AMEX early birds, the only time available was 9 pm on a Thursday. I was quite surprised that the restaurant was so booked up 3 weeks in advance on a weekday! Next time if I want to come on weekends, I'll probably have to book more than a month in advance.

The restaurant is divided into two sides- a dining room and a bar area. Unfortunately, we were seated at one of the high tables near the bar area, and as a result it was very loud. Throughout dinner, our conversation was carried out in shouts in order to be heard.

Here is a shot of another dining room that's connected to the bar. I would've much preferred to have sat in this room instead. Another thing is that the candlelit space was very, very dark. Half the time, I couldn't even really see what I was eating because it was so dark.

The dinner didn't start out that great. They forgot to serve us bread so I had to inquire about it. For some reason, I always feel deprived when restaurants forget to serve me bread. I guess I just love bread too much. Anyhow, the bread basket actually arrived after our appetizer, but I did enjoy the warm baguette with butter.

My boyfriend ordered a macaroni and asiago cheese to start. This was yummy and comforting, and I loved the abundance of breadcrumbs. There were breadcrumbs in every mouthful that I took, even when I got to the bottom. For such a heavy starter, I was glad that the portion was small.

My shrimp & bacon ravioli with coconut lobster sauce didn't fare as well. The coconut lobster sauce was more like a delicate broth, and although it was tasty, it didn't really stand up to the thick ravioli. The Chinese often refers to ravioli as "Italian wonton", and in this case, it really reminded me of a wonton, especially with the chives on top. On top of that, the filling was unremarkable. Even though the ravioli was disappointing, I enjoyed soaking up the delicious lobster sauce with the bread.

For his entrée, my boyfriend chose crispy roast chicken with sour cream and bacon gravy, buttermilk biscuit and collard greens. Perhaps I haven't had roast chicken for too long, but I honestly thought that this plate of food was divine! Even though I couldn't really see what I was eating (lighting was just abysmally bad), everything was scrumptious. The sour cream gravy was just to die for, and the chicken was marvelously juicy and flavourful. I didn't really get much of the skin, but my boyfriend assured me that it was very crispy, as it should be. Towards the end, I completely abandoned my manners and was ripping every last morsel of meat off of the chicken bone. I guess I was glad that it was dark after all.

The roast chicken was actually my first choice for entrée as well, but since I wanted some variety, I opted for the port braised beef cheeks with turnip risotto and horseradish crème fraiche instead. Luckily, this was also a very delectable plate of food. The risotto was very creamy and rich, and it was cooked to my preferred degree of doneness- with a slight bite and not too mushy. The beef cheeks were incredibly tender and just melted in my mouth. The horseradish flavour really came through and paired well with the rich meat. But my favourite component was the turnip chips scattered on top of the risotto. They provided a delightful, crunchy contrast to the risotto. My only complaint about this dish was that everything was amazingly rich: the meat, the cream, and the risotto. I had to pack my leftovers home because wasting something so delicious would be an atrocious crime in my books.

For desserts, we both ordered the cookies & cream tiramisu because there was no way that either of us could pass up on this! No regrets at all because this was fabulous! It was exactly like a tiramisu, minus the coffee and add the cookies and cream! The ratio of cream to cake was good, but I would've liked more cookie crumbs for more textural contrast. Nevertheless, we both loved this dessert and it was a great end to the meal!

At the end of our meal, we were also served some complimentary cotton candy. Even though I'm not a big fan of cotton candy myself (it's just sugar and air to me), I loved that it's so whimsical and fun! We were both pretty full, so we only took nibbles of it. All in all, this was undoubtedly one of my best Winterlicious experiences so far (next to my lunch at Canoe). Even though service wasn't perfect, I was blown away by the food (except for the ravioli), and I would seriously consider coming back for the next 'licious event!