Gilt Restaurant, Bar and Lounge

Gilt catered for our at home wedding for 100 people and it proved to be everything we hoped for, and more! Both Trella and Chef Steph were very easy to work with from day one. Both of them worked to create a menu that was fun, different, casual and most importantly - delicious! The menu was incredible; chipotle braised beef/smoky barbeque pulled pork BYO tacos with cheddar cheese, feta cheese, bruschetta, guacamole, spicy sour cream, bib lettuce and cabbage slaw with flour tortillas and cilantro and scallions. There was a corn on the cob bar- skewered half corn on the cob with butter and chilli lime seasoning, manchego cheese and cilantro with a creole aioli. The 2 salads were great, sweet potato and apple salad with kettle sunflower seeds (sweet – salty), scallions with cumin and Dijon emulsion. Brussel sprout Caesar salad with caper popcorn, manchego cheese, orange segments and Gilt's roasted garlic dressing ( my personal favourite and a dream come true). To top it off, Chef Steph's famous Mac and cheese was requested as we'd had that before, amazing!

Minimalist decor. It came highly recommended by friends. Happy we tried it, yet, won't be rushing back. Food disappointed. Tapas was not hot. The salad was swimming in dressing. Appeared to be cooked in a rush, yet, not overly busy. Our server was very pleasant, yet, not true of all servers. Nice wine, beer selection and cocktail was good. Credit card machine defaulted to 20% tip, which I didn't appreciate, yet, awkward to change.

The lounge and patio were great for late afternoon cocktails. It's a little expensive but we had a good experience overall. Service was friendly and welcoming.

Overall our dinner on a busy Saturday night was enjoyable. We really liked the brussels sprout salad (blue cheese dressing did not overwhelm the dish), deep fried cauliflower (yum), lamb neck with fries (like poutine) and korean chicken (spicy but not overly spicy). But the special of the night - beef shoulder with smashed potato was cold by the time we waved (3 of us were clearly looking around and finally wildly waving) down a server to bring us serving utensils. We appreciated being able to sample the craft beer selections before making our choices. We were welcomed immediately on arrival and the first server was very helpful while we selected our dishes, But the second server who delivered the dishes, while smiling and happy was hard to understand. That server very rapidly explained each dish (huh, what's in that dish?) and disappeared twice without making sure we had clean (any) serving utensils. It seems like a small thing but you share tapas, that's the point, so clean serving utentsils are critical for each dish. We'll be back to see if the service rises equal to the quality of the food. Not much of a change is needed to do that. 5 dishes with 3 craft beer ($7 each for 20 oz.) = $123 before tip. We wished we had room for dessert but we were too full. Good value.

Gilt has been around now for a little while, but their food just gets more inspired and more creative. The wine list is quite comprehensive and if you visit on Wednesday evenings, it's half price.Service is good.Foodies, go here. There is plenty of choice in a tapas type of arrangement where you can really sample what the chef is able to create in the kitchen. The Food Is Excellent.