A Classy Dinner Date

So my bestie and I decided to give Annona (in Park Hyatt Hotel) a try because I pass by this restaurant all the time and it always looked so fancy when I was staring in from the outside!

Bestie: pose with the bread! pose with the breadd!

This actually tasted pretty good. The homemade cracker/biscuit type thing at the back with sesame, poppy seeds and a light scent of olive oil/garnish. It tastes just like how it sounds; kinda salty, crispy and very grainy lol.

The cool bred with cheese bits and other unidentified garnish inside. The bread is very soft and fluffy (always a good sign) and the crust is crispy. The cheese and bread worked really well with the olive oil. One of the better bread I've had. And I just really like restaurants that cut up the bread for you since I always find it so clumsy to do it myself.

 Coq au vin - chicken drumstick braised in red wine. The chicken is cooked perfectly; tender and juicy fused with the perfect amount red wine (seasoned really well). The chicken taste is in perfect harmony with the acidity and sweetness of the wine.

Halibut barley risotto. If you're a big fan of creamy food, this is the dish for you! I like how they replaced rice with barley to make this risotto since it adds more dimensions to the dish. With rice, a risotto is often has this soft, gooey texture, but with barley, it retained the silky texture without the gooeyness. Since barley is quite chewy, it makes it a fun dish to eat. I really liked this since it has chunks of melted cheese mixed into the barley. Though I must say, I'm not a big fan of the halibut nor the olive oil they drizzled on the side. It upsets the balance of the dish and makes it way too heavy and filling to finish.

This is my entrée, ribeye with mushroom gratin (the grey thing in the middle) and onion rings. Okay, so starting with the ribeye. You can really tell how skilled the chef is by ordering a piece of steak. I asked for medium-rare, but the steak was totally rare (I see strands of white tendons when I cut through it). I feel that I'm starting to lose hope in restaurants in the GTA since I haven't had a satisfying/cooked well steak for a long time. Sigh. The red wine jus was so nicely flavoured, but it was not enough to rescue a ruined piece of steak. R.I.P. steak...

Moving on to the mushroom gratin (originated from France) is kind of like the French sister of lasagna. The gratin is made of many thin layers of potatoes with mushroom, cream and cheese fillings separate the potato layers. It's the first time I've had a mushroom gratin and I really liked it! Similar to eating lasagna, but it feels more hearty and satisfying. The red wine jus worked super well with the gratin also! Again, the red wine's acidity and sweetness brought a balance to what would've been a very creamy/heavy dish.

I didn't eat the onion rings so I cannot tell you how it tastes. Overall, I feel that the chef put a lot of effort in this dish, since you have to use such different techniques to cook the three components of the dish. I also liked the idea of using the same sauce for all three seemingly unrelated items to tie to dish together. Too bad the idea wasn't executed well. Sigh.

Our mini desserts.

Just mango gelato, granulated sugar and fruits. Nothing too special, though I do feel that the mango is a tad too sour.

S'more tart. Again, the idea sounds appealing but sadly the taste wasn't. You can tell if a tart is well made but cutting into it. A good tart crust is very easy to cut through (even with just a fork), but a store-bought/grocery store tart, it'll take a hammer and a very sharp knife. And this tart is definitely the most grocery-like dessert I've eaten. Ever.

Pear bread pudding. This is the least store-bought dessert on the plate. This actually tastes decent, but I don't know what else to say.

Chocolate lava cake and caramel ice cream.

It did what it was supposed to I guess. But it tastes like those lava cake mix you can buy from any grocery store.

Overall Review:
Food: 6.75/10
My friend and I got more and more disappointed with every course. The appetizers started out great, but the desserts (the part we were looking forward to the most) was a huge flop. I was expecting more for the price I'm paying and from a restaurant in the hotel.

Ambiance: 5.5/10
It definitely looked better on the outside. The dim light and the tainted glass windows definitely beautified the restaurant. Usually hotel restaurants have such nice décor and definitely very fancy schmancy. This one doesn't look like that and is definitely not going for the minimalist look. Not impressed at all.

Price: 4/10
Store bought desserts for $35/person? Not worth it at all, since the ambiance wasn't there, the skill of the chef wasn't there, the food is not great quality. So what exactly are we paying for? We're paying for the fact that it's a Park Hyatt restaurant.

Service: 9/10
The service was the only thing up to par I feel. There was a coat room, and the servers actually help us take our coats off. Before dinner started, they would place the cloth napkin on our laps, and after eating our bread, they would use that silver scraper thing to scrape the bread crumbs from the table. (If anyone knows the name of that silver thing, please tell me!)

Final Verdict: 6/10
I don't think I'm going to visit this restaurant ever again. I don't understand why they have such high reviews on yelp.ca

Address:
Park Hyatt Hotel
4 Avenue Rd
Toronto, ON M5R 2E8
(416) 324-1567




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