You can dine out, in style, and on quality, professionally prepared foods at an incredibly inexpensive tab.
Centennial College can host you for an amazingly good lunch, dinner or Sunday brunch.
Dine at The Local Cafe and Restaurant with your eyes closed. You will think you are in a top notch restaurant. In fact, after trying just one or two appetizers, you will swear you are in one.
We recently had Sunday brunch at The Local Cafe and Restaurant, Centennial College, 937 Progress Ave, east side of Markham Rd, just south of the 401.
Brunch was an absolutely delicious delight. Professional chefs Nick and Matt, guide the students in the preparation of all the foods guests will be eating and every dish was on the high end of success.
The appetizers were salads. Fennel, cauliflower, coleslaw, each one worthy of being the star of the salad line.
Next, ‘the benny station’ where a trainee/student prepared individual Eggs Benedict, comparable to almost any I have had in ‘regular restaurants.’ The hollandaise sauce, creamy, smooth, prepared properly. The egg poached perfectly. The ham, excellent. The English muffin bun, a superb foundation for the entire concoction. Wow, what a starter!
Then the mains: brisket of beef, rashers of bacon, pork sausages with sides of crispy homefries sans greasiness or excessive oil, roasted veggies, pancakes, thick and fluffy.
The brisket of beef was the show stopper, errr, show topper in our books. Tender, juicy, oozing with real beef flavor. Restricting oneself to just one helping of this magnificently prepare roast, impossible!
The fried foods, bacon, pork sausages, homefries….each carefully cooked and drained of all oil or fat. The student cooks have learned their lessons well as nothing tasted oily or fatty, ladened heavy oils. Everything was delicious.
Desserts, as good as any offered by any burg restaurant. Tiramisu that would make any nonna proud, assorted pastries including lovely carrot cakes, all items were so good they could be sold in a professional bakery, and fresh fruit, strawberries, berries, melons and more…sweet, ripe and worthy of any restaurant presentation.
The wine choice is limited but a very passable Hockley valley product, “Adamo,” is a passable white wine which served as an acceptable accompaniment to the food.
Service was attentive. Move your empty plate aside and within seconds it was cleared. Look for more water, and again, within seconds your glass will be replenished.
Sticker shock
You will be in sticker shock when you receive the bill. Not only does it cost at least 25% less than any restaurant’s fare, but there is no tipping at the school. So you pay the base price and it is low.
In short, the price may be low, but the quality of the food is very high. This is a school of good food which everyone should try. At this moment, it looks like a well-kept secret as Sunday brunch has clientele, but it is far from being a maddening crowd. More like a fattening crowd!
The Local Cafe and Restuarant, a secret that’s yours to discover!
