Consort Bar
King Edward Hotel
37 King Street East
Toronto, Ontario Canada
A chef who can make me fall in love with shaved fennel will earn my abiding culinary respect.
There is no dining room as such at the Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto, so don’t be put off by the small room seemingly tucked like an afterthought off the lobby. Deep woods and tall windows and muted tones – hidden as they are from the hubbub beyond – are ripe with subdued promise here at the Consort. Indeed, they deliver all that the King Edward’s storied history suggests: elegance, discretion, eminent satisfaction.
The King Edward, built early in the last century, has hosted the world’s upper crust (and in those decades when it struggled to survive the wrecking ball, perhaps a bit of scrum) for more than a hundred years. Among the first hotels in the world to offer hot water and electricity, the hotel’s mezzanine once served as a Lady’s Parlor for wives and women traveling alone in a day when respectable women were not seen entering a hotel’s front door – alone or otherwise.
Queen Alexandra, King Edward VII’s self-possessed and forbearing spouse, gazes demurely across the Consort while its modest menu hints (if the attentive service is not hint enough) that details and taste take priority herein. Muted tones and formal elegance, of a sort Alexandra might approve, greet sippers and suppers alike.
It is in this room that, among the best small plates anywhere in the world, comes one birthed daily within the King Edward’s 
kitchen. If a small symphony can be served upon a plate, then the Grilled Octopus Salad is culinary music.
A lightly spiced orange Romanesco bed embraces plentiful, thin rounds of chorizo, baby endive, watercress and, yes, shaved fennel. Young, sweet, delightfully crunching shaved … fennel. A very few paper-thin grapefruit slices, deftly placed, lie in wait for subtle discovery. And naturally, tendrils of tender, grilled cephalopod laze amid the silver platter’s spring-like abundance. One-half of a grilled lemon beckons like a small, squat watchman, inviting spritzes of fresh-squeezed lemon to arc your plate. Plump heirloom cherry tomatoes – yellow, deep berry red and plum purple – add flavor and color and depth and a farm-to-table je ne sais quoi. Sometimes, a salad is more than just a salad.
A nod of perfection goes to the Grilled Octopus Salad served at The King Edward. The best small plate in the world? You decide. You won’t be disappointed in any case.
