Sel Z.
Yelp
The experience at Enigma is exactly what you'd expect at a high-end fine-dining restaurant in Yorkville, especially at a restaurant that has coveted 1 Michelin star. Top-notch and very attentive service, super high attention to every single detail (placement of napkins and utensils on the table, etc.), and high-quality food with fresh local ingredients. Here is the breakdown of my review:
// THE SERVICE
It meets expectation for a high-end fine-dining tasting restaurant, and a Michelin restaurant. The ratio of staff-to-tables was high, and all the staff worked together to serve all tables (instead of each server being assigned to certain tables). All the servers were knowledgeable in explaining each dish and the long list of ingredients. Great friendly and helpful service with personalized attention.
// INTERIOR
The interior décor is beautiful, classy, and modern with a lot of attention to detail (just like their service and everything else). Blue and gold seem to be their theme of colours.
// THE RESTAURANT & BLIND TASTING EXPERIENCE
The restaurant is fairly new and has only been opened for about one year, yet it has coveted 1 Michelin star (one of the first in all of Canada)! They only offer blind tasting experience, meaning there is no a la carte menu and the chefs decide on what to cook and serve you. They rotate their tasting menu / dishes every season, and they use local ingredients that are in season (big salute to this).
The pacing of when each course comes to the table and empty plates get taken away is very on point. There is no long wait in between courses at all. As soon as you're seated at your table, you're presented with a welcome warm towels (with pinewood essence that smelled like the forest), cold sweet tea (elderflower, chamomile, lemon verbena), and water to start. Then two small amuse-bouche dishes came (crispy tarts with corn mousse, and thin crispy mushroom slices with mushroom mousse in between the crispy layers), which were both really good (especially the corn tarts).
// THE FOOD
We had the no-meat, pescetarian option. Every dish was presented very nicely and like a work of art, and the server explained each dish in great detail, including a long list of ingredients. The first few dishes (the appetizers) were quite sweet and incorporated a lot of fruits, caramel, and jellies (which tasted more like desserts). Even the scallops dish was quite sweet as it was covered in some fruity jelly, and the fresh cheese (that had the texture and taste of a soft silky tofu) dish had some caramel drizzle on top, which was not to my liking. But then the good savoury dishes came (grilled or poached salmon with salmon roe, lobster, and sablefish with eggplant that was out of this world). Those 3 pescetarian dishes were my favourites. The sauces that came with the fish and lobster dishes were really good. The lobster came with a side of garlic bread (which was more like a sticky spiral brioche bun) and green herbs butter.
The vegetarian dish consisted of a cauliflower steak (which had a smoky flavour), some Asian pear bits, a square made of pear, and other items on the plate with ingredients that I could not remember. It was a mix of different textures and flavours (soft, crunchy, salty, sweet, a bit of umami).
There were 2 desserts. The first dessert was crispy funnel cakes (which were lighter than the regular funnel cakes you'd get anywhere else) with fresh and dehydrated strawberries & creme fraiche. For us, the dish with the most artistic presentation was the last dish / course which was the "Peach & Tarragon" - a giant custom-made tree with 2 frozen peach "balls" made of frozen outer peach layer, with soft white chocolate & actual peach chunks inside. Then there were shorter "tree stumps" as small plates for the other mini desserts (meringue with a citrus layer in the middle, matcha layer cake, dark chocolate truffle ball).
Overall, all the dishes were very creative, inventive, and artistic in plating and presentation. It was amazing how the chefs were able to come up with such unique combinations of flavours and textures in every dish, using seemingly simple local ingredients.
// RESERVATIONS & PRICE POINTS
You need to make a reservation online (good luck getting one... you might need to keep checking as reservations fill up VERY quickly, especially since the word got out that they're one of the very few restaurants in the city that got Michelin star award). There is a strict no-cancellation policy (cancellation fee is $100 per person). Price for an 8-course tasting menu (as of Summer / Fall 2022) is $230 person, before tax, drinks (you can choose a juice or wine pairing menu, or order wine from an a la carte drinks menu), and add-ons (you can opt to add add-ons such as Sturgeon caviar and white or black truffle shavings on some of your dishes). If you have any dietary restrictions or food preferences (such as vegetarian, vegan, or pescetarian), you should let them know ahead of time.