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Da Gianni & Maria Trattoria
- Globe & Mail - Corriere Canadese - Tandem - Toronto Life -TorontoNight -FPmoney - Metro - Civiltà Della Tavola
Da Gianni & Maria Trattoria
by: Marty GalinWhat inspires people to go to a restaurant? For us, it was a celebration of my friend's mother's birthday. May is a woman with so much joy in her heart and so much spirit: she raised two children on her own and now, mid-life, has returned to school to get her chef papers. This is a woman who is a fighter and a great testament to the power of those who never give up.
We decided to celebrate at Da Gianni & Maria Trattoria. Gianni and Maria met a few years ago, fell in love, and decided to open a restaurant.
The gnocchi they serve are royalty among gnocchi: in fact, these are some of the most tantalizing morsels you will ever taste. They're made with the finest potatoes, eggs and butter, and are available with a choice of four sauces -
none of which are for dieters. We had the Italian Gorgonzola Cheese sauce and the Funghi Porcini Mushrooms sauce.Caprino alla Gianni & Maria is a definite palate teaser. Imagine the ripest, sweetest oranges served with seasoned goat cheese and served on a bed of arugula with the finest olive oil. The Frittura di Calamari and Gamberri, or deep-fried
calamari and shrimp, is a dish to treasure. Each piece of this dish explodes with taste, and is fried to perfection, exactly the way calamari should be.The restaurant believes in slow cooking, so you'll find many dishes take a little longer than in most restaurants, but it's worth the wait. Moreover, their pastas are all made right on the premises.
This restaurant can cook fish like nobody else. The grilled Sea Bream is seasoned with olive oil, lemon, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and delivered to the table whole. You can really taste the flavour of the fish because it's cooked right up until the minute it is served. Nothing in this fish is overpowering and the added flavours are there to enhance the fish.
An original dish served at Da Gianni & Maria is the Brasato alla Piemontese. Roast beef slices are slow cooked with minced celery, carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic in a red wine sauce with aromatic spices. For a more traditional
dish, the Veal Ossobuco is slowly cooked with the finest fresh mushrooms, carrots and celery and served with polenta or rice.Finally, we tried the crepes with a mixture of fresh berries for dessert. Like many of the desserts served here, ours was flambéd at the table.
As a bonus, once you're seated at a table, it's OK to spend the night - and you will. For May it was a great evening. Maria makes sure everything goes perfectly for customers, and as for me, just seeing the way May smiled made me happy.
Da Gianni & Maria Trattoria
796 St. Clair Ave. W.
Phone: 416-652-3982
Open: Tuesday to Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.