Bestellen Restaurant, Toronto

What a wonderful experience, walking into a resto that dry ages their own beef and offers other unusual good things seen in the windows of their fridge (below). This kind of presentation, to me, bodes well for things to come.

A very good, tender octopus with fried, smoked potatoes and garlic sauce.

A good, traditional steak tartar topped with olives, a deep fried crispy quail's egg accompanied by espalette ( a variety of chilli pepper) sauce which enhanced the beef experience.

Pasta with wild ramp puree, pecorino cheese and black pepper. Well made pasta, perfectly cooked, possessing a characteristic that for me, is my pasta ideal, a springy texture. Unfortunately, the well flavoured sauce was a bit too salty. 

White bean ragu with roasted garlic and basil sauce, all sprinkled with a bit of pecorino. I really enjoyed the flavours of this dish.

Sauteed dandelion with sausage and fennel all topped with pecorino. A pleasant, rustic combination of flavours.

The Bestellen burger, for me, one of the 3 best burgers (medium rare to rare, of course) in the city, the others being Bymark (a very good but expensive burger) and County General. The burger was topped with arugula and caramelized onions, but, no cheese (at my request), all on house made brioche, the perfect bun.

The steak, 32oz "cotes de boeuf", "prime", dry aged, Wellington County beef, aged and cut in-house, accompanied by roasted marrow bones. A great presentation of bones and beef for any beef lover. I rated this steak 8/4/6 (all out of 10: taste/texture/juiciness). The dry aging greatly enhanced the flavour of the beef, creating layers of flavour. Unfortunately, this side of beef was rather tough and quite chewy. A table near us had a steak cut from the same side and experienced the same texture. This tough texture occasionally happens with even the best beef. I will have to return another time to re-experience the beef texture.

Good fries (or I would not have taken the photo).