Balzac Coffee Roastery - Daniel et Daniel

Balzac Coffee Roastery, as by its name, is well known for its beautiful coffee, but did you know they also served food at this restaurant? Well they don't however for our event we asked Daniel et Daniel to bring in some wonderful food to keep out stomachs happy for the evening. Balzac is located in the eastern part of downtown Toronto in the heart of the Distillery. This restaurant and coffee shop has been down there for quite some time and was also featured on the Canadian hit show, Dragon’s Den about 4 years ago.  Their coffee is very good and lineups have been known to go right outside the door.  Daniel et Daniel is located on Carlton Street which is a private catering company that caters food for all of your special events. We recently had a corporate event at this establishment in which a three-course menu was designed for our special event.  On this wonderful evening, I had the opportunity to choose their Mixed Summer Garden Salad and the Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho for starters, Striploin of Beef Cooked Sous Vide for their entree and Lemon Mascarpone Raspberry Tart for dessert. 

Mixed Summer Garden Salad and the Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho

The chilled watermelon and the garden salad both arrived at the same time.  The bowl of watermelon soup was actually placed on the plate of the salad.  In addition to some of the more common salad vegetables, there were also these long stems of “edible flowers” that were also added into the salad.  With a touch of champagne vinaigrette and some goat cheese mixed in with the salad, the salad actually tasted remarkably good.  The leaves were very fresh as the entire salad itself was quite refreshing.  The champagne vinaigrette gave it that enriching flavor which made the salad really stand out compared to any other ordinary salad. With respect to the the watermelon soup, that too was quite tasty.  It was spiked with some vodka that I thought was a daring choice.  It made the soup a tad bit bitter and overwhelmed some of the sweetness in it.  I’ve had “virgin” watermelon soups before which I personally thought were better than this kind.  As well, the soup was not as chilled as much as one would like which I think aided in the deflating of the true value of a good chilled watermelon soup. 

Striploin of Beef Cooked Sous Vide

The entrees arrived soon afterwards and I could tell that the beef was nicely done.  It was flawlessly seared on the exterior and the interior was nice and pink.  It was medium rare and made to perfection. There were some fresh vegetables on the side and with the addition of a sweet Truffle Madeira Jus poured on top of the meat, it made this piece a beef a thing of beauty.  The meat sliced easily and the beef was quite tender from start to finish.  I was very satisfied with the overall quality of the entire entrée. 

Lemon Mascarpone Raspberry Tart

Last to arrive was the raspberry tart dessert.  Presentation alone looked like it was worth 5 stars once again.  Each tart had some raspberry jam on the bottom and there were nine pieces of raspberries located on top of the tart.  The raspberries were fresh however I would personally suggest maybe having strawberries or blueberries as a choice of berries instead of the raspberries as there would be less seeds stuck in one's teeth after eating this dessert and less chance of sourness in the berries.  There were a couple of raspberries that were a little bit on the sour side which might not have happened if it was a different type of berries.  

In the end still, it was still a very delightful night to have.  There were some parking spaces within the Distillery compounds and if you are not able to get a spot, there is another parking lot just around the corner.  I didn't drink any of Balzac's coffee however their decor and restaurant was tidy and neat.  The food I must say from Daniel et Daniel was exceptionally good.  There were waiters swarming all around us that evening and they made sure all our plates were cleared and our drinks full at all times.  We sat upstairs in the loft where it was a little roomier than our downstairs counterparts.  All in all it was pretty decent food all night and a great night out.  Overall I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Balzac Coffee Roastery

1 Trinity Street

Toronto Ontario
416-207-1709

Daniel et Daniel 
www.danieletdaniel.ca
248 Carlton Street
Toronto Ontario
416-968-9275