Bent Restaurant, Toronto

Chef Susur Lee developed the restaurant Bent with his sons, Levi and Kai, for them to operate. Susur commands the kitchen, so the eating here is an adventure in flavours, textures and presentation.

Pickled vegetables, fennel radish and carrot, an appetite stimulating start. 

Caviar and lobster vodka shooter with lime, perilla leaves and lemon grass infused vodka. A very refreshing and appetizing drink. You may want 2 of these.

Spicy Peruvian style white snapper, clams, mussels calamari, aji amarillo chili and fresh lime juice.

Spicy tuna and watermelon with shaved red onion, cilantro, fresh citrus juice, rocoto chile sided with Chinese donut fritter.

Pressed octopus with lentils, tomato, black garlic, herbed olive oil and pomegranate vinaigrette. Loved this dish.

Beef tongue, pine nuts lotus root and crab salad.

Asian duck salad wrap: five spice marinated duck breast, duck confit, foie gras and chicken liver pate all wrapped in a Chinese pancake. This was an Asian tour de force taco!

Roasted scallops with a sun dried tomato crust, with capers, raisins, olive, sweet pea and carrot puree and a tarragon flavoured butter sauce.

Stuffed chicken breasts with ricotta cheese, spinach and prociutto with a lemon parsley beurre blanc, pine nuts, roasted olive and topped with stewed tomato jam.

Braised spiced short ribs, truffled parsnip puree, fava beans, sour cream, chives and black garlic with roasted rosemary duck fat potatoes (far left). A terrific dish.

A close up of the main section above.

Crispy chicken dumplings filled with chicken, shiitake mushrooms and leeks. They were accompanied by the sauces below. These fabulous mouthfuls were gone in a moment. We ordered more!

One dipping sauce that accompanied the chicken dumplings was a maple, chili, lime glaze

The second dipping sauce was a parmesan emulsion.

Desserts, from bottom right then clockwise, hot banana and wild blueberry chocolate cake, coriander infused chocolate mousse, lemon curd with blueberry preserves and mango panna cotta. OMG.....overkill!