Le Pain Quotidien

Since I started working downtown, I'm finding myself eating out pretty often. It's just such a nice treat to be able to go out to a restaurant after a long day of work. Since I'm located in the heart of the city with a metropass in hand, it's pretty convenient too. I've already checked out a few gems that are on my favourites list, including Earth (best wood-oven flatbreads), Black Camel (best pulled-pork), and Toni Bulloni (best crostini), and my list of place to try seem to be ever-growing.




Yesterday, I visited Le Pain Quotidien, located just north of Yonge and Bloor across from the Toronto Reference Library. It's a franchise, but there's a lovely cozy charm about it. I've walked by this beautiful little place several times and have always been itching to go in. You can see the gorgeous wooden interior of the building through its tall glass windows. The ceilings are high and it has some great track lighting. It's actually quite a deep space - there's a take-out counter by the front with the walls piled with loaves of rustic, homemade bread, and a sit-in area that extends to the back towards where the kitchen is.

The bakery/cafe specializes in French style brunch and tartines a.k.a. open-faced sandwiches, which costs around $10-13. I didn't take a very good look at the brunch side of the menu it was six o'clock, so I settled for the chicken curry salad tartine while James got the rustic tuna melt.



Our tartines came out quite fast, but then again, there weren't that many people in the place. The presentation was interesting and pretty, and was served on ceramic white plates that reminded me of an artist's palette.





The rustic tuna melt was surprisingly good. Moist, huge chunks of tuna with a nice kick of horseradish and crispy real bacon bits. It wasn't gooped in mayo as most sad tuna sandwiches are. I'm pretty sure it was fresh tuna, judging by the huge chunks, but since I rarely eat tuna and thus have a unrefined tuna palate, I'm not 100% certain. Regardless, a definite win.

Not so with the chicken curry salad, however. It was disappointingly bland and dry, although it was served with a pot of cranberry chutney on the side, they didn't give enough of it and I had to ask for more. The chutney itself was awesome and I could tell it was homemade, but without it, the tartine was pretty tasteless. I ended up sprinkling my tartine with sea salt and loading it up with chutney. It was also supposed to come with "sliced mangos" - unfortunately I counted only one, paper thin, sad piece of a mango (see pic above).



Both tartines were served on slices of their multigrain bread. The bread was delicious but I would've preferred it to be slightly toasted - which I might ask for next time. Although the multigrain suited the tuna melt perfectly, it too heavy for the chicken curry.

Intrigued by the fact that the chocolate chip cookie cost a whopping $3.75, we decided to split one. It was pretty huge, bigger than the size of my hand. The chocolate chunks tasted rich and I could tell they were of good quality, but the cookie itself was nothing mind-blowing and not worth the price. I wouldn't get it again, although the other desserts that were on display do look more promising.



Overall, Le Pain Quotidien is a win. I'd definitely go back to try some of the other interesting tartines they offer. I left the lovely building just satisfied and feeling a little bit more French.