Ossington has a new restaurant to ring in the new year. La Banane is now open at 227 Ossington in the large space previously occupied by The Saint, also owned and managed by the King Street Food Group. The French restaurant serves dinner daily from 6PM.
Chef Brandon Olsen
Chef Brandon Olsen, an up and coming culinary star in Toronto, runs the kitchen for Ossington’s new French restaurant. Chef Olsen has a good resume: he ran the cuisine at The Black Hoof and Bar Isabel, plus he’s a chocolatier with his own shop on College Street.
This restaurant was one of the most anticipated openings of 2016/17 and we had dinner there last night.
The Food at La Banane
Compared to The Saint, this is more upscale and more French. There’s no burger and fries at La Banane, and we will always miss The Saint’s brunch offerings like bacon and donuts. However, La Banane continues the raw bar selection, of which we had the special offering of the evening, King crab legs.
La Banane offers classic cocktails and French cuisine. There’s meat and a choice of fish appetizers, foie gras, patés, flatiron steak and much more.
Along with the king crab, we had a few other dishes, and enjoyed them all. We are not restaurant reviewers, but we definitely appreciated the selection at La Banane. There were a lot more dishes we could have tried – and we didn’t even get to dessert!
What we did enjoy:
- King Crab legs
- Mackerel Escabeche
- Liver and onions: which was a creamy liver paté
- Calves Brain Ravioli
La Banane Now Open: Information
La Banane is open 7 nights a week at 227 Ossington, just south of Dundas. The restaurant does accept reservations, and allows for walk-ins. Seating is varied: there are seats at the long bar (almost the same from The Saint, only now there are 2 separate sections), leather banquettes along the side wall, and tables in the front and the back.
