Crystal Five
100 Queen's Park, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C6
416-586-7928 | Website
The Renaissance has come to the ROM, with c5 as its tour de force.
Category:
Restaurants
What:
| Cuisine Type | | Fusion |
| Ambiance | | Fine Dining |
| Amenities | | Wheelchair Accessible, Catering |
| Pricing | | $41 and more |
| Payment | | MasterCard, American Express, Visa |
Where:
| Neighbourhood | | Downtown |
| Getting There | | Museum station |
| Cross Street | | Bloor and Queen’s Park |
When:
| Lunch: Tues-Sun 11:30AM-2:30PM Dinner: Thu-Sat 5PM-10PM |
Profile Last Updated: December 11, 2008
Talk of the Town
As highly anticipated an advent in Toronto as it gets, the Royal Ontario Museum’s “Renaissance” project officially kicked off in 2001, with the objective of restoring the old and constructing the new. Renown architect Daniel Libeskind took to the task of designing the new structure, dubbed the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, which is considered both avant garde and controversial. Augmenting the existing tanned brick building of the early 20th century, the new adjunct adds 175,000 square feet to the ROM space in the form of five interlocking prismatic shapes that are self-supporting, attached to the original only by way of the bridges between them. Located atop the fifth crystal, c5 restaurant continues the innovative and ambitious trend of its exterior, via the culinary arts.
Über-Gourmet Fusion
In the summer of 2007, Crystal Five made its debut with visionary “chef de cuisine” Ted Corrado (of George, Luce, and Rain fame), whose craft could be described as über-gourmet fusion. Even the well-versed foodie may have some difficulty with the menu’s vernacular, composed of many sophisticated terms in French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese, even though it is peppered with the English language. Yet, this cross-section of tongues does well to represent the comingling of international fare that vows to be a dynamic and exceptional experience.
“Edible Exhibits”
Offering brunch and lunch (where one can have an upscale morning to midday meal of coddled eggs and foie gras or a duck confit sandwich), the fine dining commences on evenings later in the week to the tune of a three-course meal (four, including dessert). Choices like dungeness crab (with crisped sushi rice, edamame puree, and shiro miso sauce) to start, olive oil poached lobster tail (includes caviar on brioche with avocado puree) as the mid, and finished with vindaloo-scented dorset lamb loin (in a yuzu cauliflower puree) is just a mere example of the possibilities. Whether it’s the cuisine, the spectacular southern and western views of the cityscape, the art installations within, or the jutting planes of the space, c5 is indeed a stunning achievement.
As highly anticipated an advent in Toronto as it gets, the Royal Ontario Museum’s “Renaissance” project officially kicked off in 2001, with the objective of restoring the old and constructing the new. Renown architect Daniel Libeskind took to the task of designing the new structure, dubbed the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, which is considered both avant garde and controversial. Augmenting the existing tanned brick building of the early 20th century, the new adjunct adds 175,000 square feet to the ROM space in the form of five interlocking prismatic shapes that are self-supporting, attached to the original only by way of the bridges between them. Located atop the fifth crystal, c5 restaurant continues the innovative and ambitious trend of its exterior, via the culinary arts.
Über-Gourmet Fusion
In the summer of 2007, Crystal Five made its debut with visionary “chef de cuisine” Ted Corrado (of George, Luce, and Rain fame), whose craft could be described as über-gourmet fusion. Even the well-versed foodie may have some difficulty with the menu’s vernacular, composed of many sophisticated terms in French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese, even though it is peppered with the English language. Yet, this cross-section of tongues does well to represent the comingling of international fare that vows to be a dynamic and exceptional experience.
“Edible Exhibits”
Offering brunch and lunch (where one can have an upscale morning to midday meal of coddled eggs and foie gras or a duck confit sandwich), the fine dining commences on evenings later in the week to the tune of a three-course meal (four, including dessert). Choices like dungeness crab (with crisped sushi rice, edamame puree, and shiro miso sauce) to start, olive oil poached lobster tail (includes caviar on brioche with avocado puree) as the mid, and finished with vindaloo-scented dorset lamb loin (in a yuzu cauliflower puree) is just a mere example of the possibilities. Whether it’s the cuisine, the spectacular southern and western views of the cityscape, the art installations within, or the jutting planes of the space, c5 is indeed a stunning achievement.
