Stelvio - EAST TORONTO

We had a great dinner at Stelvio in Toronto. The deep fried meatball was delicious, and we also tried their specialties- the meat and cheese platter and the elephant ear pork cutlet, along with some other entrees. Both specialties were excellent and perfect for sharing with a group. The elephant ear pork cutlet was particularly impressive, as it was incredibly large. The only let down was the passatelli ascuitti, which was overly dry and had too much grated parmesan. It would have been better with a creamier sauce.

I would have liked to give this restaurant a 4.5 rating. The pasta was delicious, especially the gnocchi. The squash ravioli was also unique and flavorful. However, the salad was supposed to have pork in it, but there were only two small shavings in the entire bowl. Additionally, they were out of limoncello, which was disappointing, so we didn't try any drinks. Would I return? Yes. Are there better restaurants in Toronto? Definitely.

To begin with, you should know the difference between Northern and Southern Italian cooking before you go here. If you go to Stelvio simply because its an Italian restaurant, you might be disappointed. You won 't find a tomato anywhere near this place. My expectations were high, due to social media, but one has to wonder where these 5 star reviews come from. More importantly. always read how many reviews were written by the review you are reading. Also, I read several reviews about the pizza but they do not have that anymore and I find that that is a common direction for many fine Italian restaurants. My quick summary is that the ambiance and the staff are wonderful. The food, not so much. We had the meatball appetizer or I should say the Mondeghili, which are flattened, deep fried meatballs but it 's difficult to taste any meat since the centre of this deep fried patty was more like a pate. It comes with an onion relish of sorts with a balsamic reduction. Overall it did nothing for our palettes. For the main we had the Spezzatino Con Polenta and the Risotto alla Milanese con Ossobucco (as opposed to Osso Buco with Risotto), neither of which were up to the expectation built up for this restaurant. The risotto was incredibly salty and somewhat crusted (maybe being exposed to air for too long) and not very creamy , and the Osso Bucco, as I mentioned to our waiter was just sad . A smallish portion with the bottom being tough like jerky. Now having had a similar meal a few months ago in Milan, I am not comapring this to that. But even for Toronto, it was just sad . The reason I gave this 3 stars is because of the staff. Dorian, a waiter from Belgium did his best to explain how the Osso Bucco was prepared and why the risotto was as salty as it was, and offered to get us something else. But we did not want to cause a fuss . And if the replacement dish would not have been as good, then it would create an even sader evening. The only thing that may have caused this experience is that we went on Valentine 's Day. Maybe due to the 3 4 seatings on a busy evening, they had required meals to be prepared in advance or maybe the head chef was out for dinner himself. Either way, the food was no where near our expectation, even for a Northern Italian restaurant. On the plus side, the wine (while very much over priced 3x the LCBO) was good. However I was very much surprised they didn 't have a Lambrusco which is very common in Northern Italy. Desserts were ok.

Was there last June for probably the fifth time (was there both at their current location and their previous location at Queen St W). Great food, great atmosphere, first class service. Can highly recommend the Risotto alla Milanese with the Ossobuco.

Second time dining here for a special occasion and was not disappointed. This time we got to try more of their unique to northern Italy dishes. Both time I agreed with the others that the markup on their wine is ridiculously high. We travel frequently to Europe, so I just won 't pay those prices and opted for a cocktail or two instead. If you want to try a different take on Italian food that isn 't the same old pasta and red sauce type fare, then this place is for you!