Oliver and Bonacini

The same crew that does Jump, Canoe, Biff’s Bistro and Auberge du Pommier also have a restaurant near Bayview Station - Oliver and Bonacini. A decidedly different crowd from the downtown haunts Ian and I usually go to. In O&B there were families and the occasional bunch of 60+!

The non-downtown location is reflected in the pricing - a mere $15 for a winterlicious three course lunch!

Juice specials seemed especially fresh - ginger/pear, mango something and apple-cran cider.


Shortly after ordering, a round of appetizers came out:

Greens with apple and tarragon for the healthy among us.


Shrimp pate with flaxseed lavish for the adventurous:

And...most of the crew ordered (and enjoyed) butternut squash soup with madras cream and toasted almonds. The almonds made the soup and gave it a bit of crunch.

Main courses were equally tasty and well done:

I had a smallish, but good, portion of penne pasta with olive oil, basil and wild and tame mushrooms. The fresh parmesan on top added to the dish. Others at our table were more troubled by the portion size, but am happy with almost anything at these prices!

Other enjoyed dory on couscous (huge piece of fish!) and beef goulash.


Desserts were my personal favorite - I got together with two others for a swap and sampled all three. My favorite of the lot was the apple buckle (fancy way of saying cake) with lemon sour cream ice cream. The lemon ice cream on top was fantastic!

Sticky toffee (my usual dessert favorite) was well done but could have used some ice cream to cut through the sweetness.

And bread pudding with creme anglaise and berries was great too.